SiG
MT
74
DISCREET
PAL ATE
Text by Heather Bode
Photography by Sara Young
Reclaiming
History
Stockett's American Bar:
uch of Montana history contains
the stories of visionaries- people who
dared to dream with the lile money
they had. When Shannon Wya Blocher
purchased and reopened the American
Bar in 2017, even her own family
thought she was crazy. While in its
heyday, Stocke was a thriving mining
town with plenty of clientele to support
a bar, today it is a blip on the highway.
But Blocher and her American Bar are
hellbent on bringing back those glory
days. How is she succeeding? With a
love of history, her family, and good
food on her side.
With relatives living in Sand Coulee,
this Great Falls native spent a great
deal of time hanging out in the Gulch
communities. "I just love the area and
love the people. We used to come out
here to play shuffleboard, which is gone
now. As I got older, there were the
Coulee Runs. ere were three bars in
Sand Coulee, one in Centerville, and
the American Bar in Stocke.
We would go around from bar to bar.
It was a lot of fun," says Blocher.
M
Shannon Blocher (right) stands in front of the
American Bar with her husband Lance Blocher
and daughter Chelsea Wyatt.