When a tiny mountain town loses its longest living resident, the town has lost a close family member. John Bonan was such a loss. Elkhorn, Montana said goodbye to a brother. The Elkhorn family he headed includes its children and grandchildren. Each one has been influenced by his love for animals and nature. They miss him immeasurably.
John was a fixture of the town. Always alert to visitors across the street at the historic buildings, he greeted them, “You can go in! The doors are unlocked.” Families were welcomed with a hearty, “All children get a free rock!”
Those resounding welcomes and free rocks opened the door to conversations. He became the unofficial Elkhorn Tour Guide, verbally taking their vision of the town back to its heyday years and his family’s history there. He listened to their stories of travel and life. In return he received mail from all over the nation and the world, letters and gifts in return for his gifts of rocks and listening.
John shared small insights into his life before Elkhorn. Visitors learned that he had moved from California, where he had been a surfer who loved gardening. He spoke of moving to his family’s cabin in Elkhorn. John portrayed his life as being straightforward and simple; he wanted people to see it that way. The losses he bore were his own, not to be carried on his sleeve for others to see. Instead, he expressed his love for all the animals he fed each day, especially his ravens.
In encouraging others to look at the rocks on his table and surrounding his cabin, he would help them look closer. Taking a jeweler’s loop, he would show how, hidden within the crevasses, there was a world of wonder. You only had to look deeper. He hoped it would inspire them to look deeper into the wonders of the world all around them, even into their own lives.
John had expressed a fear that he would not be remembered after he passed. His fear was unfounded. Those shiny rocks given to children, and often adults, allowed them to take home memories of a man and his town. Some of those rocks will be handed down to the children’s children, as will the stories they will tell about the town and John Bonan — the man called Elkhorn John.
