Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
The Copper Letter Home by Samantha Springer

I have been doing inventories of the archives at the Beaverhead County Museum. One day I was going through a particularly large file that spread out over two boxes and several bags of newspaper clippings. Feeling quite overwhelmed, I decided it was time for a break when something shiny caught my eye. I reached into the next folder and pulled out a thin piece of copper. I couldn't comprehend quite what I was looking at; there was writing across the copper. As I sat there staring at this little piece of history, I realized that it was a letter.

The letter was from Fred Eudaily (a local in the community). It was dated September 20, 1933, and was addressed to his mother. As I read his faded inked words I came to understand that I was holding a piece of his life in my hands. He had been in the army at the time, and this was his letter home telling his mother that he was still alive and planning on coming home soon.

This letter could so easily have been overlooked and thrown out as it became tattered and old, but it was kept and loved. It was all Fred's mother had to prove that her little boy was coming home to her. I realized from this letter that everything we have now will someday define how we lived. It made me realize just how much of an impact we all have on the future; and the past.

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