Jeff's Memorial in Montana



Jeff Watson died suddenly at thirty last year in New York.  This fall, the family traveled to Anaconda, Montana to scatter his ashes at one of his favorite places.  Vickie, Don and Corey drove up from Utah, and Mom, Bob, Deb, Andrea and Ed drove from the Northwest.  We all stayed at a B&B in Anaconda, an old copper mining town in the mountians.

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The Drive We left Vancouver, WA at 4:00 in the morning and drove along the Columbia river in Oregon, up through western Washington, and then across Idaho into Montana. It was a long day, but Bob, Deb, and Ed shared the driving, and it was a good day.

The Memorial Not a funeral, but it was a perfect place to say goodbye to Jeff, listening to his favorite music, talking about who he was, telling stories we remembered, and then leaving a little bit of him in the mountian stream.

Anaconda, Montana Anaconda, county seat of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, is located in mountainous southwestern Montana. The Continental Divide passes within 8 miles (13 km) of the community with the local Pintler Mountain range reaching 10,379 feet (3,164 m). The town of Anaconda is the originating location of the Anaconda Company which began its mining venture in 1884, and the supporting community was named after the company. After a century of copper smelting from the Anaconda Company, the "big stack" closed its operations in 1980. http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/mercier/ch1.html

The Memorial Scrapbook Vickie and Don made a scrapbook to memorialize Jeff. They made it several times over so that there would be one for each family that attended. Bob scanned the pages, and though the original lovingly handmade book has more impact, here are copies of the pages.