The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Tony Collins will be displaying his Western Arts of Montana at "The Mountaineer" during this Saturday's Christmas Stroll.

What that means to the farm and ranch community is that in our midst for that day will be an expert on all things branding. From making branding irons (did you know that most all branding irons are made of stainless steel now?} to branding irons for the range and for the kitchen to brand steaks, Tony Collins lives it all every day.

He is a wood working expert as well, making many kinds of frames out of barn wood and the like. One of his most popular pictures is a deep barn wood frame with a back made of a beautiful piece of cowhide and the family brand in the middle of the cowhide. Now that is western art!

Several years ago Tony Collins' daughter Courtney moved from the family home in Hamlin, Texas to marry Scott Skoyen of Chinook. Well, it was just too quiet in Hamlin for Tony and his wife so nine years ago they moved to Chinook where Tony went to work for the Milk River Coop. All the children joined them and these days there are five grandchildren, four in Chinook and one in Havre.

When the Collins family got to Chinook the Skoyen family just sort of took them in.

In the meantime Tony kept building branding irons and doing work on frames in his spare time. Working full time Tony found there was no spare time so it was a relief when he retired from the Coop just a short time ago and went full time into his hobbies which by this time are a very going business.

Tony says that these days nearly all his work is custom work. If he has a show, he typically gets lots of orders.

He also says that coming to Montana with his wife and kids is the story of his life. Although like most Texans, you can't ever take all of Texas out of the family. All are avid Dallas Cowboy fans and none of them would miss a game no matter how many orders there are to get out.

The first year Tony was in Chinook he wanted to make Barb Skoyen a beautiful Christmas present which consisted of her brands going around a lovely mirror. The only trouble was that there were only nine Skoyen brands and he needed ten. So, he went to family members and they said they had the tenth brand. It would be Barb's family brand, the Miller brand. It worked and the mirror and brands turned out beautifully.

Tony says, "Here I am today, in Montana with my family, retired and building branding irons."

For Tony Collins it could not get any better than that!