Nelson, Montana, is supposedly "The Cribbage Capital Of The World." Such a bogus claim apparently came simply because some one (or some people) posted a sign making the specious declaration.
Nelson, Montana is no more "The Cribbage Capital of The World" than I am The Pope. Here's how we think this hoax came down.
Nelson, Montana, isn't even a real town. It would only qualify as a "community" if you had a VERY liberal definition of the word "community". As far as anyone can discern, Nelson, Montana, consists of three (count 'em: THREE) houses located in the middle of nowhere northeast of Helena, Montana.
There isn't a store. There isn't a Post Office. Heck, there isn't even a bar or saloon. NO self-respecting Montana "community" is without a bar or saloon. If you have a saloon, you can immediately pick a name and declare yourself a Montana town. Saloons and Montana go together like ducks and water.
So we figure the residents of those three houses are all cribbage lovin' players. Clearly, there would be NOTHING to do there in the wintertime. The three houses comprising metro Nelson are so far from anywhere, we can't imagine the road would get snowplowed very often...if at all. So...what would there be to do? NOTHING...unless you play cribbage. And then suddenly there would be a lot to do. In fact, cribbage would be something to leap out of bed to play each day.
We betcha the residents of those three houses have a righteous Cribbage Klatch. We can see them deep into 121 point games on a bitter cold Montana night. Suddenly, out of the blue, one of the players exclaims, "By jove, what we've got here is The Cribbage Capital Of The World!" The other players catch on and quickly join in.
Chances are they elected a Prime Minister of Cribbage and maybe even appointed a Cabinet, too. Someone undoubtedly stepped forward to be The Minister of Information. And THAT's when the idea for the sign was hatched. The Minister of Information looked at his two neighbors and said, "A sign would make it official."
So up went the sign and the rest is history...at least until some other cribbage players somewhere else make a similar declaration and dare to contest Nelson's dubious declaration.
We've heard lot of Montana towns and cities have winter time cribbage leagues. Heck, just about ANY of those leagues could stand up and pound the saloon bar and say, "It's time to take Nelson's title away" Oh, the roar of the cribbage crowd would be deafening. They would be pounding their pegs in agreement. Some players would begin clapping cribbage board together and cheers of enthusiasm would rattle the rafters. We can see and hear it now.
At some point, Nelson residents would then have to change their sign to say "FORMER Cribbage Capital of The World." Meanwhile, the new Montana Cribbage Capital of The World would go ALL OUT to make a righteous sign while preparing to defend their title to the last FIFTEEN-TWO.
And so it goes in Big Sky Country...
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