Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Montana.

Churches of the West: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Mon...: 

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Montana

This is St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Baker, Montana.  The church is a very striking Romanesque style church, but otherwise I don't know anything about it.

Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: Fallon County Courthouse, Baker Montana

Courthouses of the West: Fallon County Courthouse, Baker Montana:

Fallon County Courthouse, Baker Montana

This is the Fallon County Courthouse, which also houses the county and city offices and the county library, in Fallon County Montana. The building is located in the county seat of Baker.

I was obviously there in the middle of winter, and on a cold day at that.

An American Legion dedicated flag pole is in front of the courthouse, dedicated to the veterans of all wars.

Painted Bricks: The Bars of Baker Montana

Painted Bricks: The Bars of Baker Montana:

The Bars of Baker Montana

The Corner Bar in Baker Montana.

This is a little off topic for here, as these aren't really examples of painted signs on buildings, but they are interesting in context.  These are bars on the main street of Baker Montana.

 Heiser's Bar in Baker Montana.

Baker is a town in far eastern Montana, nearly in North Dakota.  It's a long ways to Baker from everywhere and as a result its managed to retain the classic bar/grill/restaurant in strength that so many places have lost.  It's likely too far away for chains to locate in and therefore the old establishments keep on keeping on.

Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Product Ever? It would appear so.

I posed that question here:

Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Product Ever?: Eh? Okay, let's start off with a definition refresher, as for many folks the term "Distributist" is a mystery. ...

And apparently the answer is yes.

 6-5-4 Recreational Ale by Old Skool Brewery in Baker Montana.

I was in Baker Montana earlier this week.  First time I've been there.

Baker is a tiny town even though its the county seat of Fallon County.  I'll post more about my observations regarding it here, but one thing that seemed to be the case (and which I'll mention in more detail later) is that the highly isolated very small farming town seems to be doing pretty well.  It lacks some of those things like access to big box stores and the like that small towns nearer larger ones have, and at least by observation, it's doing well without them . . . maybe because of not having access to them.

Anyhow, one thing about Baker is that, at least in my short tour de Baker, is that it lacks restaurants that are open at night (again, more in a moment), but its bars all serve food and at least the one I ate in the one night I ate there had a decent menu.

And it also had what turned out to be local brews.

I drove post the brewery, located in an old grade school, the next day and was stunned to see a town of this tiny size with a brewery/brew pub.  It turned out that the ale that I and everyone else in the bar had poured the prior evening (and there were a lot of people in the bar) was one of their brews.

I've noted this a lot in Wyoming.  In bars and restaurants its really common to find the local brews featured and people will order them over the big brewery beverages.  That's small "d" distributism in action. . . subsidiarity in suds.  People were doing that in Baker as well.

But that Baker, a highly isolated town a long. long ways from any even small sized city, would have a brewery. . . that's amazing.