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PAGE 12 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020
Modern Senior

TECHNOLOGY•SCIENCE•KNOWLEDGE•COMPUTERS•MOBILE

Community in a Virtual World

SOCIAL MEDIA SITES FOR SENIORS MAKE REPOSITORIES OF LOCAL HISTORY

“LA” Huffman, whose photog-
BY CARRIE SCOZZARO raphy graced Coffrin’s home as
a child in Miles City.
Winter and the holidays can “Part of the reason I like LA
be especially challenging to Huffman is he captured things
maintain social connections, in eastern Montana that were
including for those with limited never going to be seen again,”
mobility, yet virtual technology said Coffrin, who has the larg-
enables communicating regard- est private collection of copies
less of weather or circumstance. of Huffman’s extensive glass
Friends and family are just a plate negatives. “Huffman’s
phone call or email away, and, Gary Coffrin connects with history buffs by posting photographs to social media. documentation of cowboy life
He holds the largest collection of glass negatives by photographer L.A. Huffman.
while maybe not as good as the Pictured here is a Huffman photo from 1906. Photo courtesy Montana Historical on the open range—their activ-
real thing, virtual platforms Society, the Montana Memory Project. ities, their chuck wagons, how
offer new ways to engage with things were organized—was
like-minded others. out vintage photos, primarily of eastern unparalleled.”
Facebook, for example, provides endless Montana and occasionally the Dakotas. Although he doesn’t post as often as
special interest “groups,” which for history In addition to his own Facebook site, he used to, Coffrin pays attention to the
buffs facilitates sharing vital knowledge of Coffrin posts to MONTANICA!, a private number and types of comments he gets on
time and place that is especially relevant to group with 29 moderators and more than each post. When readers posted identifying
every community’s elders. 92,000 members. He has contributed to details on several images from the Northern
MONtANICA! Miles City’s Range Riders Museum and Cheyenne Reservation, for example, Coffrin
Gary Coffrin no longer lives in Miles Montana Memory Project. was able to easily update his original posts.
City, Mont., where his father ran Coffrin’s “With each post, I could do enough The only drawback to social media? “It’s a
Old West Gallery until 1980. Yet Coffrin research to add some historical context time suck, of course,” said Coffrin, laughing.
stays well-connected to the region. to each photo,” said Coffrin, who studied Old School North Idaho
From his home in northern California, philosophy at both Arizona State University Post Falls, Idaho-based Keva Wolfe fig-
where he restores photos and provides valu- and University of Montana. “I always felt ures her involvement in social media is a
ations and printing of high-quality Western that posting a photo without background full-time job, yet she eschews financial gain.
imagery, Coffrin is a frequent poster on sites information and info about the photogra- “What I get out of this is connecting
catering to local history. pher was either frustrating or a tease.” people with their community who other-
Coffrin, who considers himself tech- He limits his posts to 850 characters and wise are disconnected,” said Wolfe, who
savvy and has even taught PC application figures he spends an equal amount of time started the group, Old School North Idaho
courses, got into photo restoration after on restoration and research. on Facebook in 2015 after spending two
taking a Photoshop class four to five years Coffrin is partial to Old West photogra- years contributing to another local site and
ago at a local college. Eventually he posted phers, like Frank Jay “F. Jay” Haynes, William liking it.
those images on Facebook, then sought Henry Jackson, and especially Layton Allen “Having those deep roots and growing up
in this community—on horseback—I knew
everyone,” said Wolfe, a fourth-generation
Montana’s Future is in Your Hands. local whose father was one of 11 boys.
Wolfe and two siblings run their father’s
Post Falls bar, where Wolfe installed a
photographic display of local history. And
when one of her bartenders was accosted at
work, Wolfe witnessed the power of social
media firsthand.
After Wolfe posted about the incident
online, the alleged perpetrator was discov-
ered several states away via social media
within 30 minutes.
The rules for Old School North Idaho
are simple: Be kind and courteous. That
means no profanity—civilized discussion
is welcome—no hate speech or bullying, no
promotions or spam, no political rhetoric.
Learn how planned giving can help you, your loved ones The most popular posts tend to revolve
and the charities you care about. Also, save up to $10,000 around food, but also local landmarks,
on your taxes with the Montana Endowment Tax Credit. terminology like a pop, not a soda and a
crick, not a creek—prominent families, and
events like field grass burning, the annual
4th of July parade, and turn-of-the-century
regattas on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Wolfe taught herself how to use social
media effectively—she administers several
www.mtcf.org • 406.443.8313
www.mtcf.org • 406.443.8313 other north Idaho sites—and has along