10,000 years ago the last glacier ended it's southward march about three miles north of the present location of the Missouri River. In the time since then, the river has slowly straightened and worked it's way southward. In it's former path it left a wide, flat, & fertile strip of land. The land slowly grew to cotton-wood, choke-cherry, bull-berry, and several varieties of trees between which lush stands of grasses took root. The land supported bison, deer, elk, pronghorn, grizzly bears, big cats, and many smaller species of animals.
Tribes of American Indians followed the animals, in search of food & clothing. For centuries, the Indians hunted the animals as they traversed the lands in what is now Eastern Montana. The next visitors to the land were French fur trappers followed soon after by the expeditionary party of Lewis & Clark.
Jim Hill's Great Northern Railroad pushed through in 1911, followed in 1914, by government surveyors who staked out land boundaries on what would soon become the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in preparation for the settlement of Assiniboine & Sioux Indians.
My father, Mike E. Boysun was born in 1910 near Sheho, Sask. Canada to Ukrainian Immigrants; John & Mary Boysun. Two years after he was born they immigrated to Montana and settled twenty-five miles South of the River. The family was large and dad was forced to find outside work at the early age of 14. At that time, a large portion of the Missouri river-bottom land between Wolf Point and Poplar, Montana was leased from the Ft. Peck Tribes and operated by the Frye Cattle Company. Dad found work for them, tending irrigated potatoes, mowing, raking, and stacking hay with teams of horses. He told me that at the time he was working here (1924) that he had set a goal of someday owning part of the land he was working. As time passed he worked the family farm, worked as a farm hand and tenant farmer, worked on building the Fort Peck Dam during the 30's, served in the Army during WW II, married, and farmed near Vida as a share-cropper where he and Emma began raising their family. In 1956 his dream was realized as part of the old Frye Cattle Land came up for sale. He bought approximately 640 acres for $75 per acre. During 1956 he farmed south of the river near Vida and also his new land on his beloved "river bottom". In 1957 he quit farming south of the river and moved his family to his new farm. For the next ten years he and my cousin William Boysun worked at clearing trees & brush, removing stumps, building a new farmstead, establishing a shelterbelt, and tending the land. Dad retired in 1982 but still continued to help as much or as little as he desired until his death in 1989.
Libby and I started farming parts of the farm after I returned from my service in the Army in 1969. We added acreage and leased parts of the farm from my parents until we were able to purchase it from my mother.
In 2013, we decided to let the young folks have a shot at farming so we retired and stepped away from managing and operating the farm. Our youngest son Wane, his wife Kit and our grandsons; Aaron and Cole are currently farming and making their home in the "New House" that was constructed after my parents moved to their new farm in 1957. Libby and I split our time between our home in Lake Havasu City, AZ during the fall and winter and we return to the farm to help out a little and escape the brutal Arizona heat during the summer.