{"id":1759,"date":"2014-04-28T11:30:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T17:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=1759"},"modified":"2014-06-02T08:48:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T14:48:06","slug":"they-come-to-dance-at-the-ingomar-jamboree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/04\/they-come-to-dance-at-the-ingomar-jamboree\/","title":{"rendered":"They come to dance at the Ingomar jamboree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-1759\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"1759-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Main-Jersey1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Main-Jersey1.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Dancers crowd the well-worn floor of the dance hall connected to the Jersey Lilly in Ingomar on Sunday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ingomar.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ingomar.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Cars and trucks crowd around the Jersey Lilly in Ingomar on Sunday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/jersey-2.jpg*771*389\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/jersey-2.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Blue jeans and cowboy boots, as you might imagine, were pretty common on the dance floor.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dancers.-duo.jpg*771*492\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dancers.-duo.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>We should all be so lucky as to dance as well as 80-year-old Carol MacDonald. We wish we knew the name of her partner, also a tireless dancer.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/watchers.jpg*771*513\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/watchers.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Between dances, people just sit and watch the other dancers.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/tired-dancer.jpg*771*513\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/tired-dancer.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Stan Taylor, who also got up and played some fiddle, cools off after a dance with his wife, Carolyn.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/morris-sits.jpg*771*586\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/morris-sits.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Morris Ware, left, and Harold Matovich, watch the dancing.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Two-gals.jpg*771*572\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Two-gals.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>More fancy dancing.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide9\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/more-dance.jpg*771*513\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/more-dance.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>All kinds of dance steps were seen at the Jersey Lilly.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide10\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jersey-cafe.jpg*771*422\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jersey-cafe.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Boots Kope, left, co-owner of the Jersey Lilly, works behind the bar Sunday afternoon.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide11\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance-couple1.jpg*771*513\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance-couple1.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>George and Mary Kroll of Billings, married 51 years, had dancing at the Ingomar jamboree on their bucket list for years. They crossed it off the list Sunday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide12\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/bandstand1.jpg*771*375\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/bandstand1.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Musicians are silhouetted against the front windows of the dance hall connected to the Jersey Lilly.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide13\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/heifers.jpg*771*455\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/heifers.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>There are still no indoor toilets at the Jersey Lilly.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide14\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/badgett1.jpg*771*498\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/badgett1.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Owen Badgett, a cowboy poet and short-story writer, lives in Ingomar.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide15\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/guitar-hand.jpg*771*513\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/guitar-hand.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Dance to the music.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide16\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/front-table.jpg*771*515\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/front-table.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Dorothy Clifton was working the sign-in table at the Jersey Lilly jamboree.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide17\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/fiddle-man.jpg*771*537\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/fiddle-man.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Fiddle player Mike Schenk dances with Carol MacDonald.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide18\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dorthy.jpg*771*570\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/dorthy.jpg\" \/><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Besides organizing the Ingomar jamboree, Dorthy Ley of Miles City played keyboards throughout the day.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"1759-slide19\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/fiddle-guitar.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/fiddle-guitar.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6> <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Harold and Margie Matovich play guitar and bass behind fiddle player Benny Milks.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 1759, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/04\/they-come-to-dance-at-the-ingomar-jamboree\/', 19 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>INGOMAR \u2014 In the long dance hall attached to the Jersey Lilly bar and cafe, people who weren\u2019t dancing Sunday afternoon were generally watching the musicians \u2014 or the feet of people who were dancing.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There was plenty to see in either case. A steady stream of musicians \u2014 on the guitar, fiddle, bass, piano, and dobro \u2014 squeezed into the performance space on one end of the hall. As for dancers, most of them were in their 60s, 70s or 80s, but they waltzed, two-stepped and polka-danced across the well-worn wooden floors like people half their age.<\/p>\n<p>Morris Ware, a 68-year-old cowboy who was born in Jordan and has lived in or near Ingomar since 1974, said he and his wife dance almost every weekend. They dance in places like Winnett and Cheadle, and they used to dance in Grass Range until the Wrangler Bar changed hands.<\/p>\n<p>He said most everybody who attends these Sunday country dances are like him and his wife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t go to parties,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t drink \u2014 well, they might have a drink or two \u2014 but they like to dance.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1764\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1764\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Morris.jpg\" alt=\"Morris Ware\" width=\"336\" height=\"520\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morris Ware hits the floor with one of his many dance partners Sunday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The music jamboree at the Jersey Lilly is a twice-annual affair, held on the last Sunday of April and the last Sunday of August. The dancing starts at noon and ends about 5. Musicians and dancers come from all over Eastern Montana and the nearer parts of North Dakota, driving on asphalt, gravel and dirt.<\/p>\n<p>When the Jersey Lilly gatherings began, they were mostly accordion jams, with a few fiddles, guitars and pianos providing backup. In recent years the accordions have gotten rarer and rarer. The only one present Sunday was in the hands of Ann Schenk, and she mostly played second fiddle to her husband, Mike, a fiddler.<\/p>\n<p>They live in Roundup now, but the Schenks grew up in Forsyth. Ann\u2019s mother started teaching her how to play accordion and piano when she was 9. Mike always played harmonica, but he didn\u2019t take up the fiddle until 20 years ago \u2014 when he was 60.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t play much anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cHer hand\u2019s all twisted up and my hearing\u2019s goin\u2019 to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody seemed too sure about when the Jersey Lilly started its jamborees.<\/p>\n<p>Dorthy (yep, just the one \u201co\u201d) Ley said the late Gil Carrington and Bonnie Stark started organizing the Ingomar jams \u201coh, gosh, years ago. I don\u2019t even remember.\u201d She thought maybe 12 or 15 years ago, and she&#8217;s been organizing them for years. But Walt Tadsen, a fiddle player from west of Forsyth, said he thought he\u2019d been coming to the Ingomar jams for 25 or 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, Ley said, there is something special about the Jersey Lilly jams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is about Ingomar, but we bring out the best of the best,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1765\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1765\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/musicians.jpg\" alt=\"Musicians\" width=\"771\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/musicians.jpg 771w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/musicians-336x200.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guitarist Bert Boughton, dobro player Alvin Raschow, fiddler Walt Tadsen and piano player Delores Scott were among the many musicians at the Jersey Lilly on Sunday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>They would include Ley herself, an accomplished piano player, and Benny Milks, a one-time professional fiddler from Malta now living in Billings. Also on hand Sunday were Harold (guitar) and Margie (bass) Matovich of Grass Range.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Halvorson, a top-notch guitar player and singer, left Williston at 7 a.m. for the 270-mile drive to Ingomar, and he was driving back to Williston on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have to work until 6 in the morning,\u201d he said cheerfully.<\/p>\n<p>The Jersey Lilly was built as a bank in 1914, back when Ingomar, 110 miles northeast of Billings, was the capital of sheep country. It became the Oasis Bar in 1933, then was renamed the Jersey Lilly in 1948 by Bob Seward.<div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Seward, a Texan, named it after a bar of the same name in Langtry, Texas, that was owned by Judge Roy Bean. Bob Seward\u2019s son, Bill, took over the operation in 1958 and ran it until 1995, when he sold it to Jerry Brown. Four years ago this month, it was sold to Boots Kope and June Nygren.<\/p>\n<p>The brick bank building is now fronted with a porch and boardwalk made of faded barn wood, and the Jersey Lilly still has no indoor toilets, just a \u201cbull pen\u201d and \u201cheifer pen\u201d out back.<\/p>\n<p>The dance hall used to be a mercantile store. It has a pressed-tin ceiling and walls adorned with deer, elk and antelope mounts, as well as framed photographs, newspaper clippings and old advertising signs. The room is heated by a 6-foot-tall Waterbury Special furnace that stands at the back of the hall.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1768\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1768\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jersey-John-Wayne.jpg\" alt=\"John Wayne\" width=\"336\" height=\"453\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Accordionist Ann Schenk poses with a life-size cutout of John Wayne at the Jersey Lilly.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Kope, who owns the Jersey Lilly with his wife, grew up on a horse ranch west of Cohagen and has been coming to the bar and cafe since he was a toddler.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe took it upon ourselves to take it over and keep the legacy going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Jersey Lilly remains popular among tourists, who take Highway 12 between Roundup and Forsyth just to stop in at the landmark. Last year Kope and his wife saw people from Bangladesh, China, Hungary and Yugoslavia, among other countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think last year there were only four states that weren\u2019t represented, and not everybody signs the guestbook,\u201d Kope said.<\/p>\n<p>Owen Badgett, another of Ingomar\u2019s dozen full-time residents, wasn\u2019t dancing or playing music Sunday. The cowboy poet and short-story writer \u2014he\u2019s working on his fourth book \u2014 was just hanging out.<\/p>\n<p>His father was a \u201cgypsy cowman,\u201d meaning he ran his cattle on whatever ranch he was working on at the time, so Owen grew up all over the Powder River and Tongue River country. Badgett\u2019s 67 now, and when he first came up to the area around Ingomar, there was still a lot of sheep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd there were some characters here,\u201d he said, \u201csome real characters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He rattled off a few names \u2014 Hoot Hedges, Johnny Dinsmore and Puppy Nygard. Asked to look at a reporter\u2019s approximation of the spelling of the names, Badgett just shrugged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can spell better than I can,\u201d he said. \u201cI ain\u2019t gonna argue with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ley, the jamboree organizer and a resident of Miles City, said she\u2019s put together jams all over the country, mostly in Eastern Montana and western North Dakota. She\u2019s not sure how long the Ingomar jamborees will continue, acknowledging that \u201csome of our people are getting older and can\u2019t come anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also acknowledged that it\u2019s tough to interest young people in the jamborees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey think our music is oom-pah-pah music,\u201d she said. \u201cBut our music is really good dancing music.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INGOMAR \u2014 In the long dance hall attached to the Jersey Lilly bar and cafe, people who weren\u2019t dancing Sunday afternoon were generally watching the musicians \u2014 or the feet of people who were dancing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,747],"tags":[564,563,561,562,560,565],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-photo-galleries","tag-boots-kope","tag-dorthy-ley","tag-ingomar","tag-jamboree","tag-jersey-lilly","tag-june-nygren","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}