Finding the Way Back Home
to do the work that needs
to be done, learning much
about themselves in the
process.
If there are places that will break one's spirit -- and mend it again stronger than ever -- the Absaroka Range of southern Montana's Rocky Mountains is one of those places. Here, where cottonwoods and aspens rustle beside crystalline creeks and raw fists of granite thrust 11,000 feet into a flawless blue sky, the original American Dream -- that mythic confluence of hope, hard work, and self-determination -- seems close at hand. It was here that three families recently slipped back in time, surviving for five months as 1880s pioneers. Challenged by hardships, they would come to discover the dream rooted deep in their own families.
Welcome to Frontier House. It's more a place in the heart than a location on a map -- a test of survival and courage featuring ordinary American families. Set in the rugged landscape of southern Montana, Frontier House is a bold experiment in reality television conducted by New York public broadcasting station WNET. Three families -- the Brooks of Massachusetts, the Glenns of Tennessee, and the Clunes of California -- were brought to an isolated mountain area for almost five months, with nothing more than rudimentary tools and a hoped-for reservoir of American ingenuity and resourcefulness. Unlike more infamous reality television programming, there are no contests to play, no prizes to be won.
"We were thrilled to be chosen," says Gordon Clune, whose family was selected from more than 5,000 applicants, "but we had no idea what we were getting in to."
