Don Firehammer Obituary

Don Bernard Firehammer

June 21, 1925 - October 5, 2024

Don Bernard Firehammer, 99, died Oct. 5, 2024, at Wheatland Memorial Hospital in Harlowton.

He was born June 21, 1925, to Fred and Clara Firehammer and spent his nearly 100 years on the family ranch in Franklin, Montana.

He was the youngest of three sons and a survivor. As a little boy he survived a ruptured appendix before the advent of antibiotics. As an adult, he survived a house explosion, a triple heart bypass, jaw cancer and protective mama cows.

He was bright and determined from an early age, he and refused to stay at home when his older brothers Burton and Robert started first and second grade at the one-room schoolhouse in Franklin. Tagging along, he became Bob's classmate throughout their school years. They graduated together from Ryegate High School in 1942.

He played tenor saxophone in high school and developed a lifelong love of big band music and Nat King Cole. He also was active in 4-H and enjoyed attending dances in Lavina and Rothiemay.

Don had a genius for understanding the way things worked and for coming up with new solutions to challenges. He studied engineering at Montana State College, but soon returned to the ranch to put his skills to use. A neighbor, who was handy himself, once commented that Don could fix anything with a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench.

He designed and constructed a V hay rake before they were commercially available, and it's still in use today. He also engineered and completed more than 18 miles of irrigation canals on the ranch using a 34-horsepower crawler, a small machine by today's standards.

Don's most lasting accomplishment, and the love of his life, however, was the Firehammer Ranch itself. After his dad died in 1977, he took over sole responsibility of the operation. Don worked "like the dickens" and it showed.

Up through his final months, he enjoyed guiding visitors over the ranch's many acres, showing off its cattle, its windmills and sandstone formations and, of course, his irrigation system, which is still in use.

Don liked spending time with his family, friends and community. He made a tradition of visiting Bozeman every year for MSU Homecoming, Thanksgiving and Christmas before driving became difficult in his later years. He regularly attended community and school functions in Ryegate, too, celebrating birthdays, marking the passing of friends and attending family weddings.

While the ranch was his primary focus and his favorite place, Don took a great interest in the wider world. Along with taking an Alaskan cruise in the late 1990s, he made trips to Wisconsin and Minnesota for visits and for a Firehammer family reunion attended by more than 150 relatives.

He enjoyed antique cars, too. He was a member of the Crazy Mountain Car Club and drove his 1940 Dodge, which he'd purchased and hauled back from Wisconsin, in the Harlowton Independence Day Parade.

Don was always up on current events. He read the news and did crosswords into his 90s. He was also an elections volunteer and often spoke about the importance of voting.

Don was proud of his roots as the son of homesteaders and loved sharing stories about the resilience of the people who settled in Golden Valley County. He enjoyed telling stories about the Great Depression and how "money was as scarce as hen's teeth." He was a treasure trove of local history and contributed to his friend Leland Cade's books about homesteaders and one-room schoolhouses in the area.

He was forever the optimist. During a dry spell he'd say, "It'll rain, it's early yet." If grasshoppers were bad, he would say, "I've seen worse. We'll be okay."

Don will be remembered for his hard work, his impressive accomplishments and for his sometimes-mischievous sense of humor, and he will be missed.

Don was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Burton and Robert, and his nephew Mark Firehammer. He is survived by his nieces Keri Dunn, Karla (Barry) Taylor and Judith (Ed Duran) Firehammer; his nephew John (Lisa) Firehammer; his sister-in-law Margrit Firehammer; several grand-nieces and nephews; and his ranch partner and friend John (Audrey) Stoican.

A memorial will be announced at a later date.