What) Ft. Benton is best known for -- and most proud of -- Old Shep, its "forever faithful" sheep dog. In the summer of 1936, a sheep herder fell ill and headed to Ft. Benton for treatment. His dog, Shep, came along. When the herder died a few days later, his body was crated up and sent back east to relatives. Shep followed the box to the Ft. Benton train depot, and watched nervously as his master was put on board and taken away. No one remembers the name of the herder. But everyone remembers Shep. Because for the next five and a half years, Shep maintained a vigil at the station, greeting the four trains that arrived each day, waiting for his master to return. Two and a half years into the watch, Old Shep was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not, and became a Depression-era sensation. Fan mail poured in. School children sent Christmas gifts. Rail travellers took long detours off the mainline, just to stop in Ft. Benton and see this devoted dog meet their train.

    Eventually, tragedy struck. On January 12, 1942, little more than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an old and deaf Shep failed to hear the 10:17, then slipped on an icy rail trying to get away. Shep's obituary was carried on both wire services, and his funeral two days later was attended by hundreds, with an honor guard and pall bearers. "Eulogy on the Dog," originally written for fellow brave dog, Old Drum, was read by the town's minister. Shep was buried on a lonely bluff looking down on the train depot. The Great Northern Railroad put up a simple obelisk, with a painted wooden cutout of Shep next to it. Just beneath, white stones spelled out SHEP. Lights illuminated the display at night, and conductors pointed it out to their passengers. Eventually, though, the passenger line stopped coming through Ft. Benton, the lights went out, and the grave fell into disrepair. The grave is on the north edge of town, on a hill overlooking the train depot, up by the grain elevators and the Signal Point Golf Club. The statue is downtown on Front St., just north of Hwy 80, in the park across from the Grand Union Hotel. (1)

    Why) I think it would be fair to say that Pam likes animals (and especially dogs) more than she likes people.  In that light, this Buckys is an obvious one.  However, as I was aware that the California Buckys list contained many more Jason Buckys than Pam Buckys I thought it certainly couldn't hurt to have the very first Buckys be one I knew that Pam would really like. 











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Statue of Old Shep (see below to read Shep's Eulogy)


Eulogy on the Dog by George Graham Vest (part of a closing argument given in 1870 in a Missouri court case)

    The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

    If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies; and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there, by his graveside, will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death. (2)
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A sign near the statue of Shep.
The Grand Union Hotel today.