Notable Characters of J Town

The 2000 census states the town of Jordan (settled in 1896) has a population of 364. Not a huge town and definitely not one you’d think could hold so many characters in its history. I am not an expert in any of what I’m about to share with you. Throughout the years, however, I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the stories and being involved in some way with each one.

Gregory Hancock Hemingway

Gregory was born on 11/12/31 to Ernest and Pauline Hemingway in Kansas City, MO. (Yes, the famous author) He led an interesting life – one that took him to different parts of the world. He suffered from mental illness, drug abuse and had sex reassignment surgery. In 1964, he received a medical degree from the University of Miami Medical School. Greg (also known as Gigi or Gig) practiced medicine in the 1970s and 1980s, first in New York and then in Ft. Benton and Jordan, Montana. He came to Montana after a friend of his told him the state was in dire need of rural family doctors and was in Jordan for nearly 10 years. “When I smell the sagebrush or see the mountains, or a vast clean stream, I love those things,” said Hemingway. “Some of my happiest memories of childhood were associated with the West.”

While in Jordan, he was often seen on Main Street or in the cowboy bar in drag. The locals pretended not to notice but “the rough cowboys of Montana did not take kindly to such behavior, and satisfied Gregory’s need for punishment by beating him up.” Jeffrey Meyers (The Hemingway’s: An American Tragedy)

The State of Montana revoked Hemingway’s license in 1988 due to his alcoholism and drug abuse.

Hemingway was arrested in Key Biscayne after responding to a call about a person walking naked at the island’s Bil Baggs State Park. The arresting police officer found him sitting and putting on his underwear. He was carrying a dress and high heel shoes. He appeared intoxicated or mentally impaired. “He looked like a man, but his nails were painted and he was wearing jewelry and makeup”, said the arresting officer. Gloria/Gregory was sent to Miami—Dade Women’s Detention Center where he later died of heart failure only six weeks shy of his 70^th birthday.

How do I fit into this story? I personally know someone who had been a patient of Hemingway. Unfortunately, both of the medical incidents that involved her and Dr. Hemingway were not positive experiences. The stories she has to tell are something you would have heard about in the early 1900’s not mid 1970’s and 80’s.

Benny Binion

It wasn’t just the Cadillac with a set of long horns as a hood ornament or that he was the only person in Jordan, Mont., who had a bodyguard that made Benny Binion stand out. He was straight out of Las Vegas, a fact that he neither flaunted nor hid as he slipped into ranch life in Montana.

But such was the dual life of Benny Binion—one of Las Vegas’ founding fathers (owner of Binion’s Casino in Las Vegas and founder of the World Series of Poker) and also one of Jordan, Montana’s most colorful characters. But just about the time Binion got started in Vegas he also staked his claim in Jordan.

So why would a man accustomed to Cadillacs and card games seek out a small Eastern Montana town?

Jordan has always been a small town, peaking at a population of just over 500. It’s hard but beautiful country. Winter means an average of 179 days of freeze and summertime heat can evaporate green in a matter of hours. Despite that, ranchers and dry land farmers scraped out an existence as early as 1910. When Binion came to Jordan in the 50s, sod houses dotted the landscape and large families were raised where indoor plumbing was scarce.

“The people who stayed in Jordan were either tough enough to survive or had no other choice,” long time resident and county commissioner Jack Murnion explained with a chuckle.

If the ability to survive was the key to existence in eastern Montana, then Benny Binion found kindred spirits in Jordan. Because before he made it big in Vegas, survival was Binion’s first order of business. And in those days, there weren’t better places than Texas to teach the art of survival.
Born north of Dallas in 1904, family circumstance forced Binion’s hand—his father was prone to drinking and lost the family farm when he was a teen. So Binion swapped school for street smarts, and went to work with horse traders to provide for his family.

To finish the “rest of the story”, click here.

In 1981, when we arrived in Jordan for the first time, I remember seeing the ranch hands from Binion’s in town. What set them apart from the rest of the locals were their tall cowboy boots which they wore with their jeans tucked inside. Their guns and holsters were visible for all to see. I remember being intrigued by them, the ranch and the whole Wild West aura they presented. The picture of the fence is important because the sticks used for this fence were brought from Texas. The Binion ranch was the largest in this area at the time – 85,000 acres.

This is the fence that borders the 85,000 acres of what used to be the Binion ranch.

Dr. Barnum Brown

The greatest dinosaur hunter of the twentieth century was Barnum Brown, who began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in 1897 as an assistant to Henry Fairfield Osborn. Brown traveled all over the world collecting dinosaurs and fossil mammals. Some consider him to be the last of the great dinosaur hunters.

Barnum found the very first Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Hell Creek area north of Jordan in 1902.

Tom “Thumb” owns a ranch north of Jordan which includes the place where the very first T Rex was found. I’ve been there. Tom gave us a tour of the T Rex dig area and where Brown’s camp may have been. We’ve also been involved with assisting a paleontologist remove dinosaur bones from the same area in the last ten years. The Jordan area is rich in dinosaur artifacts.

The Freemen

In March 1996, an 81-day-long-standoff at a ranch north of Jordan involving FBI and ten anti-government militants came to an end.

We were friends with the sheriff of Jordan at that time. The summer of 1995 was the first time we heard anything about the “Freemen”. They had placed a $1,000,000,000 bounty on the sheriff’s head and several other governmental figures of Garfield Co. I remember asking Charles if he was scared of the group and what they might do. He didn’t appear to be affected by them but I never saw Charles worked up about anything. I think his wife was more concerned than he was. I’m pretty sure she slept with a gun very close at hand. While we were there the summer of 1996, Charles took us out to the ranch where the standoff occurred. Going into the compound that had been a cause of concern just months earlier certainly left me with an unsettled feeling! The FBI and media probably doubled the size of Jordan while in town. I remember people were renting rooms of their homes to help with the shortages. The Hell Creek bar used to boast FBI caps from all over the country. This is also what brought the cell towers to this area for the first time.

This town definitely has character and history! If it weren’t for our gypsy lifestyle I probably would not have known anything about the town or it’s notable characters! Or…the great people who call it home.