There has been a lot of controversy about the bike camp and what kind of people it will bring to our town. Cross country bikers are upstanding citizens. Our code is to be polite at all costs and leave things nicer and cleaner than we found them. We go to bed early and get up early to get on the road while it’s still cool. We do not have loud parties.
A few years ago a bike group came to town and had no place to stay. The Methodist church was kind enough to let them stay in their yard and use the facilities. Ben Longbottom told me the next day that they had left the church cleaner then any other group. How can I be so sure about bikers? Because, I’m one of them.
In 1976, my brother and I rode our bicycles across the USA. We were participating in Bikecentennial, inaugurating the first trans-continental bicycle path, the 100th year of the invention of the bicycle and the 200th year of the United States. Since the national headquarters of Bikecentennial is in Missoula, the original trail ran and still runs down the main street of Stevensville, with the option of the highway 93 bike path. During the summer of 1976, Charlene Siphers decided to feed lunch to all the bikers that came through town. We ate on the front steps of the Methodist church and Charlene got Howard Longbottom to fix my brother’s bike while Ruby Longbottom fed him freshly baked pie.
The main reason my family and I moved to Stevensville was the kindness shown to my brother and I by folks in this town. Had this kindness not been shown to us, Stevensville would, most likely, not have a theatre or art gallery or many other businesses that my father helped along the way.
You never know who might ride through our town, and because of our great hospitality, decide to move here and create some great business.
Gretchen Spiess
Stevensville