By Stan Maddux
Les Craft, La Porte, Ind., has never felt like a real cowboy, but he will soon. Most of his cattle from northwest Indiana are already waiting for him in Montana.
The 66-year-old says leaving it all behind isn’t easy. But he figures he better act on his longtime dream in Big Sky Country while he’s still in good health. He is selling his 235 acres near the La Porte County fairgrounds to move West.
Craft will really start dusting off his cowboy hat and sharpening his spurs now that he is retired from his 36 years at Farm Bureau Insurance.
“I decided it was time,” Craft says. “If I’m going to do this, I better be doing it.”
He moved about 80 of his 100 head of Angus cattle to his 2,000-acre Montana ranch before he retired. Craft says he took about half of his herd there himself on several trips with his cattle trailer. He had the rest delivered all at once in a semitrailer.
Longtime dream
Craft’s desire to be a rancher in Montana stems from trips he started taking there after graduating from Purdue University. Raised on a cattle farm just a few miles south of the farm he’s owned for 32 years, Craft brought cattle back from Montana because of that state’s reputation for having prime beef.
Craft says he enjoyed his life as a Hoosier farmer, but since agriculture here is more about corn and soybeans, it didn’t totally satisfy the “medium-rare spirit” in his veins. He also craves the more wide open terrain.
“It’s just a lot different way of life,’’ he says.
Ten years ago, Craft and his wife, Dawn, put themselves in a position to move West. They bought an old ranch in Columbus, Mont., a community of fewer than 2,000 residents 40 miles west of Billings and 75 miles north of the Wyoming state line.
Craft learned the property was available from a friend living just down the road from the spread. Ever since, Craft has been fixing up and tending to the property whenever he was able to break away from his busy schedule in Indiana.
Life out West
Despite having a lot more land, Craft has no plans to add to his herd. He says it takes more land in Montana to have enough grass for cattle due to the difference in climate. He also wants to work at his own pace, for a change, at what he enjoys most — without being tied down to a “day job.”
“It’s always been in my blood,” he says. “It’s what I love doing. My health is still good, and I want to do it for as long as I’m able.’’
He hopes the friendships and business relationships he’s built in Montana over the years will make for an easier transition to a major life change.
“It’s not like I’m just dropping in there without knowing anybody or anything, but still, it’s going to be a big adjustment,” he says.
Maddux writes from South Bend, Ind.