Owners Of Montana’s Tongue River Marina 'Defeated' By Wildfire Damage

DECKER, Mont. — Wyoming’s Bison flag flies in front of the Tongue River Marina campground store that sells everything from fishing lures to water toys along the shoreline of a summertime playground reservoir north of the border in Montana.

There are lots of Wyomingites in this part of southern Montana.

Some work at the Wolf Mountain Coal Inc.’s surface mining operation along the roller coaster rural road between Sheridan and Decker. Another Wyoming flag flies above one of its storage silos as heavy trucks dump rock from a mining pit nearby.

Down the road a few miles are Decker Coal Co.’s shuttered mining operations along the northern fringe of the energy-rich Power River Basin.

For the people of Wyoming, the 12-mile-long finger-shaped reservoir at the center of Tongue River Reservoir State Park has been the biggest draw.

Not these days.

From Sheridan, Wyoming, the 30-mile drive to this southeastern Montana playground for camping, Jet Skiing and fishing, has been closed down.

The economic ripple effects are being felt.

The look of worry is on the faces of Laurie and Ryan Bogers, owners of the Tongue River Marina. The signs of economic stress are visible.

The marina, which the Bogers bought three years ago, has been closed to recreational activities since Wednesday when Montana’s Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office ordered the reservoir off limits because of wind-driven wildfires that surround the secluded state park. The reservoir is needed to scoop up water into the tanks of planes and helicopters.

The largest of those is the Remington Fire, which exploded overnight Friday from about 18,000 acres to 130,000, then to and estimated nearly 185,000 acres by Sunday morning with 0% containment. About 30,000 of those acres are in northern Wyoming where the fire started, then ran north across the Montana border.

“The store is open for business, but water access is closed,” said Ryan Bogers. “We usually have pickups and boat trailers everywhere. Hundreds.”

This is the third time that the Marina has been closed this summer because of wildfires. Two small fires in the southern Montana area shuttered the marina in July for more than a week while the latest fires raging in Montana and Wyoming have tacked on another four days.

Also devastated are ranchers across the region who don’t yet know the extent of the damage to their operations, from livestock killed to loss of critical feed and forage.

‘Feeling Defeated'

Bogers said sales at the marina and store are down more than 85% this week over the last one.

“We’re feeling defeated. It’s just frustrating,” Laurie Bogers said.

Her husband said several people have canceled reservations to use the marina, with refunds made.

“We are at the point right now arguing about whose savings we’re going to dip into: hers or mine,” Ryan Bogers said.

The park service and fire emergency officials at the park are empathetic.

“They’ve been closed due to aerial support,” said Spencer Morris, park ranger with the Tongue River Reservoir State Park in Decker.

Morris, who began working as a park ranger 19 years ago at the reservoir, said this summer is the first time he recalls the park being evacuated, with the exception in 2008 when two bodies were recovered from the water.

They drowned in accidents when 100 mph, gale-force winds brought golf ball-sized hail, catching the boaters by surprise, Morris said.

Near the marina, about 100 firefighters have set up their fire camp where they eat and sleep.

Their tents are visible everywhere in the camp area, where they’ve reserved spots for the firefighters who’ve been working the front lines in Wyoming and Montana. Food trucks, water tankers and other heavy equipment are parked everywhere.

The reservoir is situated among scenic red shale, juniper canyons and open prairies where planes and helicopters have taken over to scoop up water to help extinguish the Remington Fire that began near Sheridan, and the Barber Draw Fire north of Tongue River Reservoir, but which moved southwesterly back to the reservoir where the Bogers work the Marina.

‘Holding The Line'

On Wednesday, Ryan Bogers helped hold the fire lines on the Barber Draw Fire about 6 miles north of the marina store.

When he received a call from his wife that the same fire had reversed direction and was heading toward her and their three kids, he rushed to arrive home by 8:30 p.m.

In this part of Montana, when a fire breaks out, ranchers and others jump in with 1,000-gallon tanks thrown into the beds of their pickups and they rush out to fight it.

They don’t think twice.

There are no volunteer fire departments to fill the gap, said Bogers.

“If the boat ramp doesn’t open by Labor Day, it’ll be a tight budget for the next year,” he said.

The first thing that the Bogers will trim are the expenses to keep shelves stocked in the marina store.

“It means less water toys and other things,” he said. “We pride ourselves in fully stocked shelves.”

Bogers is part of a loose-knit firefighting workforce that spray water from their pickups until other fire departments and the big guns arrive with planes and helicopters.

This contingent of early-stage firefighters is what Bogers was doing when he received the call from his wife.

Blackened Land

On Saturday, Bogers took Cowboy State Daily to the north of the reservoir along Tongue River Road to point out the blackened prairie grass caused by the Barber Draw Fire that threatened the marina store and other buildings surrounding the reservoir. By Sunday morning, the fire had burned about 6,700 acres and was 39% contained. It’s only a few miles west of the imposing and terrifying Remington Fire.

Dust devils whipped up the dirt and blackened grass, sending it into the air as Bogers drove the road.

A handful of volunteer firefighters sat in their heavy equipment trucks keeping their eyes peeled for flare-ups in the 100-degree heat.

While the Barber Draw Fire has died down, the Remington Fire has moved in a northeasterly direction into Montana, consuming grass and sagebrush in the rolling hills and pastures that surround the reservoir just a few miles away.

After 2 p.m. on Saturday, the Remington Fire, which has consumed more than 130,000 acres in a few days, stirred up again as the winds picked up, sending dark, smokey plumes over the horizon to the east and west of the Tongue River Reservoir. It’s continued to grow at an accelerated rate.

Late in the day, the Remington Fire plumes dissipated with the sky returning to its blue hue that was clear enough to distinguish white puffy clouds from dark smoke.

Firefighting planes and helicopters in the previous few days had dipped down to the reservoir to scoop up water into their tanks and then throttle out to the countryside to extinguish the Remington Fire.

The fire first crossed over into Montana on Thursday evening.

On Saturday, the Bogers said they only counted one helicopter coming to draw water to help with the firefight.

There’s one more week of summer left, and the Bogers are frightened by their financial prospects.

They count on the summer months and ice-fishing season in the winter months to put enough cash in their savings accounts to get through the rest of the year.

“We’ve got to keep the utilities on and lights on,” Bogers said. “It’s very stressful.”

Contact Pat Maio at pat@cowboystatedaily.com

Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.