Last night our daughter watched a movie for the first time. It was about her namesake, Evelyn Cameron. As she rounds the corner to becoming a 3 year old she was memorized by one of the most remarkable women ever. She was really into the popcorn as well. So was Grover. With perseverance and tenacity, Evelyn Cameron used her creativity and strength to realize a dream while swimming against mainstream. Hopefully she passes some of that on to our Evelyn.
“British-born Evelyn Cameron visited the area now known as Prairie County on her honeymoon in 1889 with her husband, Ewen. They fell in love with the openness of the area and the abundant wildlife and decided to make their home near Terry in Eastern Montana. This decision began a legacy that is a treasured part of Montana frontier history.
Evelyn enjoyed the outdoor lifestyle that Eastern Montana offered. She did most of the manual labor herself and attributed her superb health to “the open air life–riding on horseback, digging in the garden, etc. etc.” Their first business venture was to raise polo ponies to ship to England. This gamble proved to be a losing enterprise and the Cameron’s began taking in boarders to pay the bills. One boarder got Evelyn interested in photography, in which she excelled. She began creating an exceptional collection of photographs. She became known in the area as a photographer and people would seek her expertise at capturing them on film. She kept meticulous notes about life on the eastern Plains and this information provided valuable evidence of the life and times during the turn of the century. Evelyn’s photographs captured the spirit of the cowboys, sheep herders, homesteaders, river crossings, freight wagons, wildlife and natural beauty of the grasslands. Through her camera lens, Terry was recorded for posterity.”
*All information taken from the Evelyn Cameron Foundation
