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BOZEMAN - - During a medical emergency, minutes can be the difference between life and death.
In the vast reaches of rural Montana, sometimes those precious minutes can lapse while emergency crews hunt for the scene of the trouble. Too often, isolated ranches and hidden residences go without addresses and emergency personnel have to deal with directions like "right over the big hill" and "just beyond the double set of green gates."
Now, for the first time, people who live in the Big Hole Valley won't have that worry. After nearly three years, the Valley Victors 4-H Club has completed an Emergency Service Rural Address Book. And county emergency crews soon will have their own copies to help them find locations.
Club officers presented copies of the book, which is filled with detailed maps, to the Beaverhead County Commission in March.
The club painstakingly went from ranch to ranch, residence to residence, and asked each person to put an address number at the entrance of their lane. Borrowing names from nearby creeks, the club named or renamed all of the gravel roads that criss-cross the large valley.
Sara Stevenson, a 4-H member, said with the number of new families moving into the valley, club members felt it was important that emergency vehicles could find residences in a hurry. She said members studied maps and walked out distances to help develop addresses for all the home sites in the valley.
The club also gave addresses to homes in Jackson and Wisdom. In appreciation, the county commission decided to name a small road in Wisdom "Victor" after the club.
"I think this group needs to be commended," commission Chairman Garth Haugland said. "This was a big project and a lot of work. This is really good citizenship, guys."
Jan Potter, a club leader, said she "dreamed of doing this three years ago." Since then, club members have contacted every resident in the valley and asked them to put a sign that costs $10 in front of their places.
"Only two residents said they didnít want signs in the whole valley," she said. "There's already people using their addresses."
This is something the entire county needs badly, Beaverhead County
Sheriff Harold Forsman said.
From the 4-H Clover Project Selection Guide