PONY, Montana — The old joke goes something like this: “Bozeman is great, it’s only an hour from Montana.”
Cringey to some, all-too-true to others, this hackneyed one-liner springs from an understanding among Bozeman locals that life an hour outside the city is totally different, and in some ways, more authentically “Montanan.”
Exhibit A: Pony, Montana, the postcard-perfect collection of architectural relics an hour west of Bozeman. The snowcapped Tobacco Root Mountains rise in the near distance above the ambitiously named Broadway Avenue in the heart of downtown Pony, population 137.
In 1922, mining operations ceased around Pony and for the last several decades Broadway has been home to the Pony Bar, the local senior center and not much else.
But then this past summer, locals started to notice a slightly quickened pulse on Broadway.
A craft lighting and light fixtures outlet opened, and the brown paper covering the storefront windows at the old Isdell Mercantile and kept curious onlookers wondering what was afoot inside at 209 Broadway Ave.
“We were keeping it kind of top secret in here, because I wanted to surprise, and it got really fun to do,” said the building’s owner, Dan DeFrance.
The mercantile was the heart Pony when it boomed. Now the Isdell Merc aims to be the heart of its soul as a gathering spot, open for business as an event space.
Over the holidays, The Doors cover band Mojo Risin — its members met in Pony — played to a crowd not used to having more than one music venue on Broadway. The Pony Bar remains a treasured musical outpost, where patrons are known to pull the vent cover off the heating system and play it like a washboard.
Looking ahead, said DeFrance, there’s a wedding planned for the space, which is a bit warmer than before thanks to new insulation in the ceiling. Anyone who wants to rent the space can contact DeFrance through the new website he built using the same web software DeFrance teaches as a computer science professor at Montana State University.
DeFrance said that as long as he has 48 hours notice, heating the space with the wood stove that doubles as a pizza oven shouldn’t be a problem. But it does take a full day of well-stoked fires to heat up the place.
How It Came Together
“It started gaining momentum, I'd say in the last four or five years, people started getting interested in it when we started putting in glass windows. Then we repainted the sign out front,” said DeFrance. “My brother-in-law is a stonemason, so he was able to repair the damage. Stonework and brickwork on top. Then it just started getting noticed and people started getting excited about it. They get excited, and I get more excited. It starts this cycle of excitement.”
What is the Isdell Merc, exactly? Does it have a mission statement?
“The mission statement is to write a mission statement,” DeFrance told Cowboy State Daily back on Sept. 7, the Merc’s official grand opening. “For today, it was kind of just to open up the place. Get people interested.”
Since September, DeFrance’s family and friends continue to look for ways to use all the antiques stored in the Merc’s basement, including a cheese cutter from the 1800s.
Carl Pearson, who runs IronGlass Lighting across Broadway Avenue from the Merc, crafts glass and iron light fixtures that look like they were made in the 1800s.
“We call this Old World glass. We do it in the kiln,” said Pearson.
Turns out, Pearson is an early urban pioneer in downtown Pony.
“I bought the old Chrysler Dealership (in Pony) about 10 years ago,” he said.
Like DeFrance, Pearson has seen enthusiasm for renovating Pony’s historic buildings slowly grow.
“All of us are trying to revive it,” said Pearson.
Pearson is consulting old photos and plans to adorn his newly renovated IronGlass Lighting building with a stylish western facade. He also expects to team up with the owner of the Morris State Bank building, where he said a significant renovation is well underway.
The Isdell Mercantile in its heyday, when it looked like Pony might become a booming metropolis. (Courtesy Isdell Mercantile) 
Spotlights lit up the front of the Isdell Mercantile in Pony, Montana, for a recent event at the newly renovated event space. (Courtesy Dan DeFrance) 
The Isdell Merc, pre-renovation. (Courtesy Sherilyn Decter) 
The Isdell Mercantile in its heyday, when it looked like Pony might become a booming metropolis. (Montana Historical Society) 
The Isdell Mercantile in its heyday, when it looked like Pony might become a booming metropolis. (Montana Historical Society) 
The Merc’s stage doubled the number of live music venues in Pony. (Courtesy Dan DeFrance)
Boom Times Of Old
There was a time when the Morris State Bank and the Isdell Mercantile were big businesses in Madison County.
According to Archives West, the Isdell Mercantile Co. was created in 1869 by N. J. Isdell, and its success along with Morris State Bank led the local Madisonian newspaper to call Pony the "metropolis of the Madison Valley.”
The Isdell Mercantile provided hardware, mining supplies, and various dry goods to the community, which once had a population over 1,000 in 1900. The business remained in family hands for decades, with Eli S. Adkins (Isdell's son-in-law) serving as president when the company finally closed its doors in the early 1940s, according to a local website that documents the region’s historic sites.
DeFrance said Adkins sold the building to DeFrance’s grandmother sometime in the 1960s.
“And then, it just got filled with junk for several decades,” said DeFrance. “My dad was a builder, he was a contractor. So if he had leftover lumber or materials, it would go in here. Motorbikes, broken dishwashers, all goes in here, for decades.”
“It was kind of creepy to me,” said DeFrance, remembering time spent as a kid in the abandoned space. “There were no lights. This was boarded up.”
Part Of A Trend?
Today, the Isdell Merc joins other restored mercantile buildings across Montana from the Polebridge Merc outside Glacier National Park to the Virgelle Merc in the heart of Missouri River country near Fort Benton.
During one recent event, DeFrance said he met someone who owns an old building in the mostly abandoned town of Maudlow, Montana, who was inspired by the renovation work done in Pony.
By restoring Pony’s Merc, DeFrance put the Isdell back on the map, while finding a place for himself in his family’s history.
“My dad grew up here,” said DeFrance of Pony. “His dad grew up here. His dad grew up here. A lot of DeFrance guys grew up here, but I did not. But I grew up nearby and I traveled here often. And I'm traveling here more than ever now.”
In an interview with Cowboy State Daily on Thursday, DeFrance reflected on Pony’s contribution to the cultural landscape of Southwest Montana. He described it as a throwback location that provides something that’s harder to find in nearby Bozeman.
“The people came to Montana and then once they're in Bozeman, they're like, ‘Wait, where did Montana go?’” said DeFrance. “But you hit the road for a little bit and it's definitely still Montana in these little towns. I think Pony is definitely, to me anyway, it’s the quintessential little Montana town.”
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
