George Buckhouse – Buffalo Barbecue Man – 1946
George Buckhouse Barbecue Man – 1946
Buckhouse Tells of Barbecues
“Barbecues in western Montana were out during the war – and have not been resumed since because of the high costs of meat.”
That is the statement of George Buckhouse, St. Ignatius, who for many years barbecued beef and buffalo for various occasions. And he could not predict when there might be a resumption.
“The first barbecue in the Flathead where I prepared the meat was at the dedication of the Masonic temple at St. Ignatius, and there were many occasions since then in which the programs called for a barbecue,” Mr. Buckhouse said.
“Probably the largest was for the dedication of Kerr dam near Polson when seven buffalo and six steers went into the pits. The crowd at Polson on that occasion was a big one, and estimated at 8,000, but there was no definite checkup made on the crowd. It took four hours to feed the people.
“Another big barbecue was near Stevensville at an auction sale when the late Fred Watson and I handled the barbecue for an auction sale, which attracted 5,000 people. There was another big one at St. Ignatius when a train load of settlers arrived in the Flathead valley, and the barbecue was held at St. Ignatius after the caravan came over the hill from Ravalli. Those were probably the major ones, but various occasions called for barbecues.”
Mr. Buckhouse said the first thing necessary was the excavation of a pit at least six feet deep and long enough to receive the carcasses of the steers or buffalo to be barbecued. He said much wood is consumed in the pit to make the proper bed of coals to barbecue the meat. He said the right kind of wood to make lasting coals is necessary, and all smoke is passed off before the actual barbecue process starts and that requires hours, he said.
Mr. Buckhouse was in the city to attend the funeral of Fred Watson, Missoula county commissioner and he served as one of the pallbearers.
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on April 21, 1946.
George was a member of Missoula’s pioneering Buckhouse family. His father, Henry, came to Missoula in the mid-1860’s and Buckhouse Bridge is named for him. George ran a meat market in St. Ignatius for over 40 years and died there in 1949. His sister, Gertrude became an important member of the Staff at the University of Montana library and was partly responsible for creating Montana’s County Library Law and the Montana Library Extension commission.
For more on the Missoula Buckhouse family see the link below: