PONY, Montana — The old joke goes something like this: “Bozeman is great, it’s only an hour from Montana.”

Cringey to some, all-too-true to others, this hackneyed one-liner springs from an understanding among Bozeman locals that life an hour outside the city is totally different, and in some ways, more authentically “Montanan.” 

Exhibit A: Pony, Montana, the postcard-perfect collection of architectural relics an hour west of Bozeman. The snowcapped Tobacco Root Mountains rise in the near distance above the ambitiously named Broadway Avenue in the heart of downtown Pony, population 137. 

In 1922, mining operations ceased around Pony and for the last several decades Broadway has been home to the Pony Bar, the local senior center and not much else.

But then this past summer, locals started to notice a slightly quickened pulse on Broadway. 

A craft lighting and light fixtures outlet opened, and the brown paper covering the storefront windows at the old Isdell Mercantile and kept curious onlookers wondering what was afoot inside at 209 Broadway Ave.

“We were keeping it kind of top secret in here, because I wanted to surprise, and it got really fun to do,” said the building’s owner, Dan DeFrance.

The mercantile was the heart Pony when it boomed. Now the Isdell Merc aims to be the heart of its soul as a gathering spot, open for business as an event space. 

Over the holidays, The Doors cover band Mojo Risin — its members met in Pony — played to a crowd not used to having more than one music venue on Broadway. The Pony Bar remains a treasured musical outpost, where patrons are known to pull the vent cover off the heating system and play it like a washboard. 

Looking ahead, said DeFrance, there’s a wedding planned for the space, which is a bit warmer than before thanks to new insulation in the ceiling. Anyone who wants to rent the space can contact DeFrance through the new website he built using the same web software DeFrance teaches as a computer science professor at Montana State University. 

DeFrance said that as long as he has 48 hours notice, heating the space with the wood stove that doubles as a pizza oven shouldn’t be a problem. But it does take a full day of well-stoked fires to heat up the place. 

How It Came Together

“It started gaining momentum, I’d say in the last four or five years, people started getting interested in it when we started putting in glass windows. Then we repainted the sign out front,” said DeFrance. “My brother-in-law is a stonemason, so he was able to repair the damage. Stonework and brickwork on top. Then it just started getting noticed and people started getting excited about it. They get excited, and I get more excited. It starts this cycle of excitement.” 

What is the Isdell Merc, exactly? Does it have a mission statement? 

“The mission statement is to write a mission statement,” DeFrance told Cowboy State Daily back on Sept. 7, the Merc’s official grand opening. “For today, it was kind of just to open up the place. Get people interested.”

Since September, DeFrance’s family and friends continue to look for ways to use all the antiques stored in the Merc’s basement, including a cheese cutter from the 1800s. 

Carl Pearson, who runs IronGlass Lighting across Broadway Avenue from the Merc, crafts glass and iron light fixtures that look like they were made in the 1800s.

“We call this Old World glass. We do it in the kiln,” said Pearson.

Turns out, Pearson is an early urban pioneer in downtown Pony. 

“I bought the old Chrysler Dealership (in Pony) about 10 years ago,” he said. 

Like DeFrance, Pearson has seen enthusiasm for renovating Pony’s historic buildings slowly grow. 

“All of us are trying to revive it,” said Pearson. 

Pearson is consulting old photos and plans to adorn his newly renovated IronGlass Lighting building with a stylish western facade. He also expects to team up with the owner of the Morris State Bank building, where he said a significant renovation is well underway. 

Boom Times Of Old

There was a time when the Morris State Bank and the Isdell Mercantile were big businesses in Madison County. 

According to Archives West, the Isdell Mercantile Co. was created in 1869 by N. J. Isdell, and its success along with Morris State Bank led the local Madisonian newspaper to call Pony the “metropolis of the Madison Valley.”

The Isdell Mercantile provided hardware, mining supplies, and various dry goods to the community, which once had a population over 1,000 in 1900. The business remained in family hands for decades, with Eli S. Adkins (Isdell’s son-in-law) serving as president when the company finally closed its doors in the early 1940s, according to a local website that documents the region’s historic sites. 

DeFrance said Adkins sold the building to DeFrance’s grandmother sometime in the 1960s. 

“And then, it just got filled with junk for several decades,” said DeFrance. “My dad was a builder, he was a contractor. So if he had leftover lumber or materials, it would go in here. Motorbikes, broken dishwashers, all goes in here, for decades.” 

“It was kind of creepy to me,” said DeFrance, remembering time spent as a kid in the abandoned space. “There were no lights. This was boarded up.”

Part Of A Trend?

Today, the Isdell Merc joins other restored mercantile buildings across Montana from the Polebridge Merc outside Glacier National Park to the Virgelle Merc in the heart of Missouri River country near Fort Benton.  

During one recent event, DeFrance said he met someone who owns an old building in the mostly abandoned town of Maudlow, Montana, who was inspired by the renovation work done in Pony. 

By restoring Pony’s Merc, DeFrance put the Isdell back on the map, while finding a place for himself in his family’s history. 

“My dad grew up here,” said DeFrance of Pony. “His dad grew up here. His dad grew up here. A lot of DeFrance guys grew up here, but I did not. But I grew up nearby and I traveled here often. And I’m traveling here more than ever now.”

In an interview with Cowboy State Daily on Thursday, DeFrance reflected on Pony’s contribution to the cultural landscape of Southwest Montana. He described it as a throwback location that provides something that’s harder to find in nearby Bozeman. 

“The people came to Montana and then once they’re in Bozeman, they’re like, ‘Wait, where did Montana go?’” said DeFrance. “But you hit the road for a little bit and it’s definitely still Montana in these little towns. I think Pony is definitely, to me anyway, it’s the quintessential little Montana town.” 

Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.

MISSOULA, Mont. — Kai Johnson’s 25 points helped Montana defeat Montana State 77-70 on Saturday night.

Johnson shot 11 for 18 (0 for 3 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Grizzlies (13-8, 6-2 Big Sky Conference). Joe Pridgen scored 14 points and added six rebounds. Malik Moore went 4 of 9 from the field (3 for 6 from 3-point range) to finish with 13 points.

The Bobcats (8-13, 3-5) were led by Patrick McMahon, who posted 18 points. Brandon Walker added 11 points for Montana State. Bryce Zephir also put up 10 points.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

For the fifth time in three years, Montana State Senator John Fuller has introduced legislation targeting transgender youth. The State Supreme Court overturned a similar law sponsored by Fuller in 2023; its renewed form may indicate the GOP’s plans for reconstructing Montana’s judiciary branch in favor of conservatism.Other prior iterations of the bill simply failed to pass. Now, he’s got his eyes set on a new target: parents of transgender kids.

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Introduced on Wednesday, January 22, Senate Bill 164 would criminalize gender-affirming care—such as surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone replacement therapy—for trans patients younger than 16 years old under child abuse statutes.

“Every major medical association in America endorses the provision of this type of care,” the ACLU of Montana’s executive director Akilah Deernose said. “This bill would mandate government overreach into private decisions that should remain between families and their treating care physician.”

Fuller, the bill’s sponsor, has a lengthy track record of trying—and failing—to enact anti-trans laws. In 2021, as a member of the Montana House, he introduced two separate bills targeting medical practitioners providing gender-affirming care for trans people, neither of which ever made it out of the legislature. He was also the architect of a ban on trans women in sports (trans men were not mentioned) that the Montana Supreme Court in part overturned in 2022.

Fuller’s 2023 version of the youth health care bill passed in the state’s House and Senate. Republican Governor Greg Gianforte signed it into law, only for state courts to deem this, too, “unconstitutional”—citing Montanans’ right to privacy.

This time, instead of a flat-out ban, Fuller’s bill reclassifies medical treatments for trans young people under Montana child abuse statutes. It specifically targets treatments “altering the appearance” of a child that seek to “affirm[. . .] the child’s perception of the child’s sex when the appearance or perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.” It would fall under Montana child abuse statutes.

If the bill becomes law, Montana would be the first state in the country to explicitly criminalize parents simply for allowing a child access to gender-affirming procedures and hormone therapy.

Half of all states have already passed legal restrictions on health care for trans youth. The Oklahoma state legislature considered, but ultimately did not pass, a similar bill criminalizing parents of trans kids in 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also issued a directive requiring state social services to investigate parents who let their trans children access gender-affirming treatments — however, like that of many states targeting this kind of care, the policy was blocked by the courts for violating the constitutional rights of trans people and their families.

Unlike Montana Senate Bill 164, Texas’s directive did not outright criminalize parents who support trans kids; it required an investigation, but not necessarily punishment. The only policies that have withstood the test of the judiciary thus far have targeted health care providers and state funds rather than parents, and they hang in the balance of an ongoing SCOTUS case. If Montana’s bill is passed, it could lay the groundwork for a dangerous legal precedent.

Studies have also shown that anti-trans health laws can create a medical chilling effect, impeding health care for people of all gender identities, as doctors could restrict or deny care if they even suspect a young person is or could eventually identify as trans.

Including Fuller’s proposals, Montana faced at least 10 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2023 alone. Hundreds of anti-trans bills at the state and national levels have been introduced or gained headway since then.

Fuller’s latest attempt to implement this policy in spite of the Supreme Court’s decision is more than just political theater. In addition to attacking trans kids’ access to health care, a Fuller-led coalition of Montana Republicans has set its sights on the judiciary branch. Legislators have proposed an onslaught of bills to constrict, discredit, and declaw the courts, limiting its scope and capacity for judicial review—including several bills introduced on the same day as Senate Bill 164. One such policy would remove the court’s power to accept lawyers into the bar association and instead give the ability to the governor.

The Supreme Court of Montana is selected through nonpartisan elections, where candidates cannot run under a party banner. Fuller and his allies want to change that. Only six states currently utilize partisan judge elections. And the Center for American Progress found that “partisan elections lead to more campaign contributions and increased partisanship among judges.”

According to ACLU of Montana lobbyist Henry Seaton, the efforts could amount to a power grab by the state GOP.

“One working theory is that if they are able to pass partisan judicial races, they feel that the court system will rule these unconstitutional bills more in favor of them,” Seaton said.

These efforts may be uniquely potent in Montana, but the strategy is on par with a playbook politicians are using across the country. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice found that, in 2023, there were 124 bills in 29 states “attacking the independence of courts.” The bills covered a spectrum of legal avenues that would “inject more politics into how judges are selected,” such as by allowing “judge-shopping,” enabling legislatures to cherry-pick judges for certain cases.

A December 2024 document by Fuller addressed a myriad of partisan complaints that Republicans in the Montana legislature levied against the judiciary branch. Co-signed by over a dozen Republican state legislators, the letter alleges that “the Montana Supreme Court has a long history of hostility toward the Republican Party and conservatives.” They also allege that the bar association endorsed “implicit attacks” on Republicans when a member of a private legal practice, speaking at a bar association panel, criticized the GOP and referred to Governor Gianforte as “Governor Gianforeskin.” Neither the state bar association nor Fuller’s office provided comment in time for publishing.

Laws disempowering state judiciaries could jeopardize the supposed neutrality of the courts. Mississippi, for example, enacted a law that would have “singled out” voters in a majority-Black district by creating new, state-appointed judgeships, while voters in the rest of the state would elect their judges.

The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned that law.

This article originally appeared on Erin in the Morning.