BILLINGS – The group working to transform Yellowstone Kelly’s final resting place into an interpretive site has an enthusiastic ally in Bill Hartley of Paradise, California – the town where Kelly spent the final 13 years of his life.
“I was surprised to find that a great American had lived in our community, and the more I’ve read, the more fascinating he’s become. I don’t want his legend to fall by the wayside,” said Hartley, a former Paradise police officer who together with his wife, Pam, owns Joy Lyn’s Candies in the town where Kelly and his wife, May, lived until Yellowstone Kelly died in 1928.
Paradise, a city of about 26,000 people, is in the California foothills about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
At his request late in life, Kelly’s body was shipped to Billings and then laid to rest in 1929 with full military honors atop the Rims on what was renamed Kelly Mountain at a place now known officially as Swords Rimrock Park and commonly called Swords Park.
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The gravesite of Luther Sage (Yellowstone) Kelly – author, scholar, veteran of three wars, hunter, trader and confidant of at least one president – has over the years fallen into disrepair and has been vandalized in recent years.
Boosted by a $50,000 donation from the city of Billings, a Billings Chamber of Commerce committee is working to raise $450,000 to interpret Kelly’s life and attract people to not only learn more about him but to take in one of the best views the city has to offer. To date, nearly $200,000 has been raised, according to John Brewer, president and CEO of the Billings Chamber of Commerce.
During the 1920s, the Billings chamber promised “to make sure that (Kelly) had a respectful resting place, and we feel a strong sense of responsibility” to follow through on that promise, Brewer said.
Years after her husband had been buried, May Kelly reminded the Billings chamber that “it has been a while now, and you said there’d be a monument,” Brewer said.
In the late 1920s, “the chamber made a big deal of (Kelly’s wish to be buried in Montana), and promised a lot,” Brewer said. “Those who have been up there in the past 20 years would be disappointed. We are long overdue, and so we are glad to see there is a fast-paced timeline” under which construction could begin as soon as next summer, if fundraising efforts are successful.
The group also is in the early stages of seeking listing of Kelly’s gravesite on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Sanderson Stewart, a community development services firm, has designed a preliminary plan that includes a station for each of the three major stages of Kelly’s life – warrior, veteran and scout. To announce the entrance to the site, metal wind pipes will musically define the space surrounding Kelly’s burial site. According to a promotional brochure, that music will constantly change based on wind speed and direction, encouraging visitors to return to the site “to experience a unique and ever-changing soundscape.”
“It is going to be a great combination of history and natural beauty,” said Bill Cole, a Billings attorney who chairs the chamber’s Trails Committee as well as the group developing the interpretive site. “There is no better place to see Billings and the Beartooths than Kelly Mountain.”
Cole sees Billings and Paradise “walking parallel paths with similar goals. Yellowstone Kelly was not well known in either place until recently, and now we are rediscovering him. People yearn for a real sense of their community, but it’s hard to feel part of it if you don’t know its history.”
Visitation at Swords Rimrock Park is on the rise, Cole said. The park hosted 170,000 visitors in 2013.
For his part, Hartley said he is working with Paradise business and government leaders to rename the nine-mile Paradise Memorial Trailway to honor Kelly.
“You never know what might happen when one person is interested in another person’s life,” he said. “If I can bring a little of his history to the forefront, it will bring great satisfaction to me.”
With its hills and pine trees, Paradise reminded Kelly of Montana, Hartley said. When Luther and May arrived in Paradise, they purchased 60 acres. Yellowstone Kelly spent his last years growing apples, plums and peaches.
Today there’s a historical marker where the Kelly home once stood in the southeastern section of Paradise, Hartley said.
“He was a farmer and an orchardist, and he loved that,” Hartley said. “He was a scholar who loved to read poetry, and he quoted Shakespeare. He came from good stock.”
Or, as Cole put it: “Yellowstone Kelly left Paradise to spend eternity in Billings. That’s the greatest endorsement we can have. He left Paradise 86 years ago based on a promise, and it’s about time we made good on that promise.”
