Book: From the Marias River to the North Pole

Bonnie Buckley Maldonado, a fourth-generation rancher from Sweet Grass, wrote From the Marias River to the North Pole: A Montana History in Story Poems to recall and celebrate her family’s history in the harsh, magnificent environment of northern Montana. The book includes photographs of her parents, grandparents, relatives, and family friends throughout the years, which bring her honest, poignant poems to life.

Maldonado traces her family’s history over one hundred years from its origins in Ireland, then to Canada, and finally to the Blarney Castle Ranch in Sweet Grass. The series of chronological poems convey the struggles, happiness, and plain hard work of the author’s grandparents, Patrick and Annie Buckley, and her parents, Patrick and Dorothy Buckley. Maldonado’s lyrical portrayal of the tough, vibrant people of Montana’s past, people who withstood weather, the Great Depression, and the challenges of frontier living is both enchanting and haunting.