Tennessee man rewinds to 'Frontier' life
Associated Press
Eight months after leaving Montana, the Tennessee college administrator who experienced life as a 19th-century homesteader on the PBS television series "Frontier House" has returned to the mountains to work as a ranch hand.
Mark Glenn, 45, is again living in the cabin he and his family called home for five months as temporary pioneers and is working on the spread where "Frontier House" was filmed — mending fences, irrigating and clearing land.
"I didn't accept going back to a 200-mile-an-hour lifestyle," he told the Great Falls, Mont., Tribune. "I simply didn't want the pace amid the noise."
Last year Glenn, his wife Karen and their three children traveled back to 1883, the time frame for "Frontier House," and lived the primitive frontier life for five months. When filming ended on Oct. 5, the family left in tears.
"It was this relationship that you didn't want to end, and someone else made you end it," Glenn said.
The strain destroyed what was left of the Glenns' troubled marriage, however. The couple separated soon after they returned to Tennessee.
When cabin owner Ken Davenport learned that Glenn missed the frontier life, he offered him a monthlong job on his spread in the mountains 25 miles south of Big Timber, Mont. Glenn quickly accepted. He sold his TV, gave his car to his daughter and headed West.
Davenport offered to house him in nicer digs, but Glenn asked for the cabin. The Montana Heritage Commission had purchased most of its contents for a display, but a wood stove remained.
Davenport did haul up a pair of twin beds with box springs — a luxury that didn't exist in 1883. Glenn brought along a lamp for nighttime reading and a telescope, but there's still no running water or electricity.
Davenport had been impressed with Glenn's willingness to work hard during the filming. Among other things, he dug a root cellar in the rocks and put up seven tons of hay in brutal August heat.
"He really put his shoulder to it," Davenport said. "I think he lost 35 pounds."
The job ends Friday, but Glenn has leads on jobs at other ranches. He relishes the hard work.
"You're tired at the end of the day, and it's a good kind of tired," Glenn said.
Glenn was chairman of the medical and pharmacy technology departments at Draughon's Junior College in Nashville.
Next winter, he began making promotional stops on behalf of "Frontier House" and giving speeches about his experience. He'll be lecturing on the college circuit this fall.
Audiences like hearing how "Frontier House" triggered a disenchantment with modern-day values, he said.
"This keeping up with the Joneses — not only that, but keeping up with the people who live next door to the Joneses — I don't accept it anymore," Glenn said.
While it may be impractical if not impossible for most people to give up modern conveniences, "we can take some of the lessons (from 'Frontier House') and utilize them," he said.
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