Living richly in Richey

Liz Murdock remembers exactly what was going through her mind as she drove into Richey for the first time.

“Oh, my gosh, this is so out in the boonies,” she said to herself. “This is so rural.”

She had been driving for 10 hours from one end of Montana to the other. A rain storm, the kind that sweep in fast and furiously across the prairie, had subsided by the time she reached the tiny town of 196 people. The sun was out and a rainbow arched over the wide open spaces. This could be a sign, she thought.

Murdock, a 2002 Whitefish High School graduate who had earned a history degree from the University of Montana, was interviewing for her first full-time teaching job.

With 20 minutes to spare before her interview, she took a look around town.

“I thought the school was charming,” she said. “There was a little white church across the street, and it was the most manicured place in town.”

Murdock said yes to the job offer and started last fall as the only history teacher in the entire school district. It’s a demanding post that has her preparing daily lessons for six classes stretching from grades 5 through 12.

There are two students in the senior class.

In typical small-town style, the townspeople already knew who she was when

she rolled into Richey. Word gets around quickly in a town that small. And the school superintendent himself helped her unload her belongings and haul them into a school-provided apartment.

Located 50 miles west of Sidney off Montana 200, Richey is a close-knit ranching community where high-school sports and home-decorating parties dominate the social scene.

Murdock has worked both into her schedule. She also has made sauerkraut with the FFA students and has a standing offer to help check fences, run cows and go trap-shooting at a nearby ranch.

There’s a gas station in town, a grocery store that also sells hardware, two bars, a lone cafe and four churches — that’s it.

“I’ve come to appreciate trips to Wal-Mart,” she guiltily confided. The nearest Wal-Mart is in Williston, N.D., two hours away.

Teaching in this rural environment has exceeded her expectations.

“All the other teachers tell me the first year is the hardest because you’re still learning what works best for you,” Murdock said.

Because the rural students are so well-behaved, Murdock decided quickly that “I can do more than just survive here.

“The hardest thing is planning for six different classes a day, but if teaching so many [classes] is the trade-off for such well-behaved kids, I’ll take it,” she said.

The Richey townsfolk also opened their arms to Murdock’s boyfriend, James Harding, a handsome Australian who got a visa to spend three months in Richey.

“He was quite a novelty because he’s from such an exotic place,” Murdock said. “Everybody seemed to enjoy him.”

World War II veterans regaled the Aussie with war stories at the local VFW bar, and women swooned over his million-dollar smile. Kids followed him around town like mice lured by the Pied Piper.

A local rancher took Harding flying one day to hunt coyotes from the air. As Murdock was with her students outside the school, “there was Nels and James swooping down in the plane.

“He (Harding) was really impressed with people here,” she added.

Murdock has added her own flair to the town, teaching an adult-education class in circuit training. She persuaded the school district to buy enough equipment to set up numerous exercise stations. Twice a week, a group of 16 or 17 Richey residents gather to get in shape.

When school is out this spring, Murdock will head to Sydney, Australia, for most of the summer. But come fall, she plans to be back in Richey for a second year of teaching and small-town life on the prairie.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com