Meyers Celebrate 60 Years of Marriage

SWAN VALLEY – Neil and Dixie Meyer of Salmon Prairie celebrated 60 years in marriage Dec. 14. They continue to live on their 160-acre property that they purchased when they were engaged, raising cattle and horses. Similar interests, a love for the outdoors and willingness to live a simplistic lifestyle are the reasons they credit for a successful marriage.

While attending high school, Neil helped his father E.I. log. They supplied logs to several small sawmills in the area. Neil also drove logging trucks to local mills and took logs from Crane Mountain near Bigfork, Mont. to the mill in Columbia Falls, Mont.

Dixie Clothier was born and raised in the Swan Valley, less than a mile from where the Meyers live now.

In the spring of 1955, Neil went to work for Carl Tykson who had a small mill in the Ferndale area. He piled brush with a D7 in the Swan Valley at Cold Creek for Tykson who had a contract with the U.S. Forest Service.

That fall he went to work for Bob Thomas who logged for the Wineglass Mill located on the Gordon Ranch in the Swan. Through the winter he stayed at the camp for employees on the Wineglass Mill grounds.

"In those days it was before T.V. and every Saturday night there was a dance somewhere, either at the [Swan Valley] Community Hall, Swan Lake or [in Salmon Prairie]. I just ran into [Dixie] that way," said Neil.

They started dating in February 1956. Neil would visit Dixie on weekends. She said he would take her to a show in Kalispell, bring her home and then drive back to Ferndale.

"He must have liked me pretty good," said Dixie. "He didn't get home until five in the morning."

Neil proposed to Dixie who was working at the café in Bigfork in the early summer of 1956. Dixie said he bought a ring and brought it over.

"He wondered if that was appropriate. I guess I accepted the ring," said Dixie and laughed.

Neil purchased 160 acres of land on Salmon Prairie Road from Dixie's cousin. It had a house that Dixie's uncle built. They spent the summer before they were married fixing up the house.

"Dixie's mother said she had to wait [to get married] until she was 18. So she turned 18 on the 12th and we got married on the 14th of December," said Neil.

They were married at the Methodist Church in Bigfork, Mont. They spent one night at a motel in Kalispell and returned to the Swan.

"That was our honeymoon," said Dixie.

When they got married their parents gave them a cow. They brought some of E.I.'s cows to the property during the summer. They have raised beef cattle for the past 60 years.

"We always had a milk cow," said Neil. "Dixie likes homemade butter."

The Meyers also had horses, chickens and a garden. Neil and Dixie would often compete in the area O-mok-sees and won several trophies.

One of the biggest challenges initially was making their annual $1,000 payment on the property and two percent interest.

"We managed but that was a challenge," said Dixie. "When you get up here [versus living in the city], there is nothing to spend money on."

Another challenge was not having a road into their property nearly two miles from Montana Highway 83 and not having electricity when they were first married.

"Finally the electricity came in and we had one wire in the old house and a plug in," said Neil. "We had electricity for two days and the power went off. You'd have thought the world had come to an end because we didn't have the one lamp plugged in."

Their first daughter Pam was born in 1957. They had their second daughter Gerri in 1961 and their son Les in 1970.

"I stayed home and watched the cows and the horses and raised the kids," said Dixie. "I was fortunate I didn't have to go to work."

E.I. always had a stallion so they bred their mares and raised colts until a few years ago. The children would show the horses for 4H and played with the colts just like dogs. Dixie said they had an old mare that raised their children and many of the neighbors' children as well.

Until they cleared their own land and were able to raise their own hay, Dixie would take the children and make hay in Ferndale.

"She and Pam ran the equipment and I kept the old junk running," said Neil.

In the 1970s, Dixie helped E.I. run an Arctic Cat snowmobile shop on Highway 83. Dixie and Neil raced snowmobiles around western Montana for seven or eight years. Dixie competed in the oval course and Neil would do the cross country races. They won several races.

Neil continued working as a logger until 1985 when he retired. He worked for several local loggers in the area supplying local mills. He and his brother Jim operated a portable scragg mill and produced lodgepole 2X4s for several years.

When lodgepole became too hard to get, Neil went to work as a contract logger for Pyramid Mountain Lumber in 1971. He worked with Pyramid for 24 years running crews all over the area. In the 1980s, Gerri drove the skidder on the crew and Les also worked during the summer when he was out of school.

Neil said one year he was running crews west of Kalispell, up Lolo Creek into Idaho, Philipsburg and in Wolf Creek.

"I took the checks around one pay day and drove 400 miles to hit all the crews," said Neil.

Dixie helped with part of Neil's book work, kept the farm going, ran to town for parts a couple times per week and hauled their children and the neighbors' children to sporting events. Since they lived at the end of Salmon Prairie Road, Dixie said everyone caught a ride with them.

Dixie and a neighbor built their current log home on the hill in the 1980s. Most of the logs were from the property and the children helped peel the logs. They moved to their new home in 1988.

Since Neil's retirement, they have been active members in the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society. Neil served on the Swan Ecosystem Center board since it was founded in the late 1990s. Neil is also an active member of the Model A Club in Kalispell, Mont.

The Meyers enjoy riding their horses and taking trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Dixie, her daughter Pam and four grandchildren would take the horses into the Bob Marshall and spend a week after they finished haying in the fall.

Before working for Pyramid, Neil, E.I. and Jim would go hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. While Dixie continued hunting with E.I. after Neil started logging for Pyramid, Neil quit because fall was always the busiest time at work. They also enjoy going to the family cabin on Flathead Lake.

When asked why their marriage has lasted Neil said, "Well, she's the boss and I just say yes," to which they both laughed.

Dixie added, "Most of the time you can't get in an argument with him. Sometimes I would like to argue but he just won't."

Neil thinks having the same interests, enjoying where they live and spending most of their time outside.

"You have to work together," said Dixie.

Neil said keeping the credit card in the pocket is helpful. Dixie said they never lived extravagantly.

"We didn't want for much other than a dependable rig or two," said Dixie. "We've just been plugging along."