Cougar finds a home

In a little over a month, students from past and present will come together for the Cardwell School 100th Anniversary Celebration.

Among the former students is Buzz Cowdrey of Bozeman who started school in late 1940's. Cowdrey fondly remembers around 1952 when he and some classmates decided to come up with the idea of having a "Cougar" as the school's mascot. Years later a statue at Montana State University would give Cowdrey the idea of putting a permanent "Cougar" in Cardwell.

Buzz said when he saw the Sonny Holland Statue on Campus at MSU he decided he wanted to do something similar in Cardwell. During a recent trip in Arizona, Buzz and his wife Judy were driving through Overgaard when they noticed a business on the roadside that sold a variety of statues. The couple, who own the Rodeway Inn in Whitehall, said they stopped and found an aluminum statue they eventually purchased and donated to the school.

The statue was officially placed at the school last Tuesday. Along with Buzz and Judy, school employee Jim Buterbaugh, Chris Wagner of Wagner Nursery and Landscape Co., and Debby Wagner all helped to place the statue on two rocks.

Buzz said the 100th year anniversary August 4 is a perfect time to put in the new statue.