Historic club still brings neighbors together

Tonight the local Masumola Club will hold its monthly meeting, where community members gather and catch up and share a meal.

It’s a tradition that was established years ago, and has kept connections between neighbors alive since the 1950s.

The Masumola Club has been around for more than 50 years. It began as the Sunnyslope Club in 1951 as a social and service club. A history of the club, compiled by E. Margaret Eldridge in 1991, notes the purpose of the club as “catering to all of the West Shore residents and property owners, as well as farmers and ranchers in the area,” with the objective of “(improving) road facilities to serve the West Shore, lake residents and 4-H Club Camp.”

Today, the club has no particular cause it serves, instead noting the current needs of the community and helping out with specific causes. Dinners are set up as potlucks, and include a program. The current clubhouse on Masumola was built in 1953-54, after the original Sunnyslope Club and former schoolhouse burned down.

The brown building was set up as a meeting hall, with a large open room, kitchen and bathrooms. Now historical notes hang on its walls, noting the hard work and partnerships of community members who helped built the clubhouse. The photos of smiling residents working on the building are just a few of the testaments to what the club has meant to members.

Helen Bucher, a long time member, has a framed letter of remembrance for her friend and co-Masumola member Selma Upham.

“Sam was a natural leader and organizer in community project,” Bucher wrote. “I recall when the community decided to convert the old Sunnyslope schoolhouse into a clubhouse, Sam was the one who got us organized … We are left with richer and fuller lives because of her.”

“It is kind of a rarity in our society. People to get together and discuss things. It is a good time,” club president Mark Nunlist said.

Several members have also been some of the most interesting. Marie Johnson, who immigrated from communist eastern Europe and married famous Alaskan sled dog racer Carl Johnson, came to Polson in 1924. Her story is told in the book, “Cup of Tears.”

Johnson was an active community member and donated the half acre of land the Masumola Clubhouse sits on today. The M and A of the Masumola are taken from her name.

Her son, Gene Johnson, said another well-loved community member, Inez Siegrist, helped come up with the Masumola name. MA for Marie. SU and MO for Sunnyslope Mountains and LA for lake. Siegrist donated her time and “unique personality” to dozens of causes through the years, Johnson said.

“She was kind of a bit of everything,” Johnson said. “She was a mother to all the kids in town.”

Marie’s daughter, Lillian Stephenson, has been the club’s secretary for five years.

Stephenson joined the club after retiring to Polson and said it’s a fun thing to do.

Stories like Johnson’s, and many more included in Eldridge’s history of the club, are kept alive by the continuation of the club. Nunlist, who’s presidential term goes through June, hopes the club’s meeting can continue through the summer this year and continuing to expand the club’s ability to help people meet and make connections like in the past. In previous years, meetings haven’t been held in July and August.

“We have an obligation to preserve something like this,” he said. “If it goes away, it’s gone.”

Membership is open to any community members who are interested. Nunlist is in charge of finding the program for each meeting. He said lately he’s been bringing in entertainers. He’s had Fiddlestick’s School of Music last month, and said the acoustic folk funk group he had in drew a particularly big crowd. Tonight’s meeting will feature Tom Hayes, who will be telling funny stories about running in the mountains. The clubhouse can be rented and Nunlist is hoping to make several improvements to make it more desirable.

Nunlist said there were 83 people at the club’s last meeting, and dinners draw at least 55.

In her history, Eldridge noted that around 45 people attended a club meeting.

Jim Eichhorn joined the club in 1990, and at 96, guesses he’s Masumola’s oldest member.

Eichhorn has nursed the clubhouse through several near disasters, including a flood that covered the basement with six inches of water. Eichhorn installed a pump that would prevent further flooding, and no floods have occurred since.

The clubhouse floors were installed about 15 years ago, and came from Linderman Elementary School.

“I worked 21 days straight, getting that glue off. Then I helped another couple days, I helped the guys lay it. That was quite a job,” Eichhorn said. “The plywood is on rubber, under each plywood piece. It makes it a perfect dance floor. A little bit of a spring to it, you don’t feel it unless you’re dancing.”

Eichhorn still attends dinners with his wife.

“It’s just nice to get together with people that you know. Some of those people have been together for quite awhile and there’s new people joining all the time. It’s just a social club, that’s all,” Eichhorn said.