“Stories of the Rails”
Dedication of the “Stories of the Rails” in the Boundary County Museum Courtyard took place on Saturday, May 7th.
The museum held an open house, plus a program dedicating all the features of the Railroad Courtyard. The ceremony started at 10 a.m., lunch was served at Noon, followed by more activities until closing.
The exhibit was made possible through grants from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Idaho Humanities Council, and the BFHS classes of 1960 and 1963.
Presentation by Howard Kent
The first organized May opening for the summer season was conducted in the Railroad Courtyard in 2016. Besides fine food and beverages, some historic BS was also on the agenda.
The origin of the word is unknown. It may have come from hoe-boy meaning farmland or a railroad greeting “Ho-beau” Homeward bound – homeless boy. In any event he was a migratory laborer in between jobs. He should not be confused with tramps; they traveled, but avoided work, if at all possible. Nor was he a bum who did not work or travel. Hoboes sometimes carried their few possessions tied up in a bag attached to the end of stick that he supported on his shoulder. It was called a bindle stick and the bag was his bindle. They had their own vernacular and a system of symbols that represented different things that he needed to know in his travels.
Hobos came about as a result of the railroads. After the Civil War some soldiers returned home by hopping freight trains. Also, in the late 19th Century men looking for work in the American frontier hopped westward bound freights. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, with no work and no prospects at home, saw many men riding the rails. It was a dangerous life. Railroad enforcers known as “bulls” would beat hobos severely. Jumping on and off a train was always dangerous. Weather conditions were often brutal.
Hobos had camps along the railroads in many towns and cities were they would sleep and cook. They were known as hobo jungles and Bonners had its jungle across the tracks at the base of a gulch that came down the South Hill. Helen Rowe who lived near the top of the South Hill from 1913 – 1921, tells of a steady trek of hoboes who came up the gulch from their jungle. “Could you give a poor guy a bit of eat for a bit of work” became a sing song for us kids. Those who didn’t want to work didn’t get much. Her mother was sure homes were marked as to which were easy marks.
When hobo stew or mulligan was to be prepared it was a group effort in accomplishing the task. First someone had to build the fire – some had to find a suitable can for the stew – someone had find some meat – next potatoes, onions, carrots – some bread was needed – salt and pepper – and lastly someone needs to contribute a “snipe” for proper color and aroma. A “snipe” is a cigar butt that had been picked up. How all the ingredients were acquired would be stories in themselves. After dinner it would be story time or if they were so fortunate, a hijacked bottle of booze was passed around.
Back in the 1950’s, a friend and I, being stupidly bold, crept down a gulch from the South Hill one night until we were just above the jungle camp fire. We chucked rocks down into the fire causing uproar of blasphemous curses. We scampered back up the hill as if the hounds of hell were on our heels. We bragged about the gutsy deed and were later told that hoboes highly prized tender young boys as an additive to their mulligan stews.
