Hog Heaven

Oil on Canvas
30″ x 24″
$1200
Contact to Purchase

O’Connell Ranch
Here, on land near Lake Mary Ronan and the town of Niarada, was a ranch called Hog Heaven, where Larry O’Connell; his parents, Charles and Jean; and grandparents lived. A beautiful, picturesque area, Lake Mary Ronan and Flathead Lake were just over the farthest hill.

The ranch had a rather exciting history, for it was the hideout of a band of horse thieves! They stole horses in Wyoming, wintered them on this ranch, then drove them to Idaho or Oregon to sell. Needless to say the owners of the horses were unhappy with the arrangement. A posse chased the bad guys to the ranch where a terrible shoot-out occurred. As a child Larry and his cousins dug bullets, rather nice souvenirs of the famous battle, out of the log walls of the buildings.

Thanks to his two trusty dogs, the area’s many rattlesnakes were no problem. The dogs worked as a team, one distracting the snake while the other went in for the kill.

Grandma’s first husband was Joe Weigle, and his father was from Bavaria. He had a few enemies and once failed to return from a hunting trip. They found his dead body shot in the back of the head, which death was somehow ruled a suicide by the powers to be. Her second husband, Louie O’Connell, who bought the place in the early 1930’s, also had a sad ending; he liked his whiskey, and one night fell down a flight of steps, broke his neck, and died around 1945. Grandma sold the ranch in 1947 to Miles City folks, and later on it wound up being purchased by the Flathead Indians. They returned the land to its original state by burning down all the buildings, which broke Larry’s heart, and he has requested that when he dies his ashes be dropped on this place he loved so much.

The building in the center of the painting, along with the tent, were the living quarters of the sheepherders. The ranch had a wartime contract to supply cattle and sheep to the military, and to fulfill the contract, they raised twenty bands of 2,000 sheep each. Perhaps it is some of their wash hanging in the sagebrush and on the car.

Poley Opalka, an 80-85 year old cowboy who helped on cattle roundups when he either could or felt liked it, came from Texas with the cattle drives and settled near O’Connell’s ranch. He was pretty much a loner who claimed the reason he stayed in Montana was he was tired of the dust, the heat. and being shot at by the Indians.

Larry’s mom was a city girl from Kalispell who became a first grade teacher in Hot Springs. On one of her first dates with Chuck he took her to a gathering at the Niarada dance hall where they danced the night away, love blossomed, and marriage followed. Along came Larry, who unfortunately for him, had his own mother as his first grade teacher. She did not take kindly to his behaving in class and promptly flunked him. Yet, if she had been graded by Grandma, she too might have flunked. She knew little of ranching life, but thanks to grandma’s kind coaching, she learned quickly.