HUSON — Dale Lackner and Laura Roxbury spent years building their home by hand in the Ninemile Valley, only to lose it in a few of hours.
A December house fire burned their dream house to the ground. The couple is determined to rebuild, with help from their community and the friends who helped them build it in the first place.
“It’s funny, you spend 25 years building,” Roxbury said. “A couple hours, gone.”
The couple recently retired after long teaching careers. They just celebrated their 37th anniversary.
“I met Dale in Alaska. We were both teachers. We taught up there better part of 25 years. He would teach up there, teach here, smokejump in the summer,” Roxbury said. “We met up there and started building our home.”
They started building in the early 90’s, on a property Lackner used to hunt when he was growing up in the Evaro area.
“We called some contractors out to dig our basement, and they said ‘Oh, that'd be $7,000 to $10,000’ and that was in 1992,” Lackner said. “So I said I’m not gonna pay that."
The couple came down from Alaska to Montana every summer to build the house piece by piece, as they could afford, with help from family and friends.
“We're only here five weeks every summer,” Lackner said. “Then over the years, 18 of them, we kept involving other people with knowledge and, finally, ended up with a home.”
After they retired, the couple moved in to enjoy their hard work.
“It was so pretty. We're both teachers and we love books, so we had a beautiful library that had all his memorabilia in it, his collections from all his years in Montana and Alaska,” Roxbury said. “It was a reflection of our life. We don't have children together, so the house was sort of like a child.”
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On the night of Dec. 9, Roxbury’s birthday, the house burned down. She was in Germany, but Lackner was home with a friend.
“It was dark and I saw something fall on the deck. I thought, ‘God, that's strange,’ so I went out to see and I looked at it. It was a piece of blackened wood. Looked up and there was flames coming out,” Lackner said.
He ran to grab his friend and neighbors called for emergency services. They tried to save the couple’s pets and personal items, but it was too late.
“I begged them to do everything they could. I said ‘Don't worry about the rest of the house, save the library,’ but they couldn't do it,” Lackner said. “I keep a daily journal and I had 50 years of my journal burn up. 50 years.”
Lackner and his friend were not hurt. The house was lost, along with the pets and everything else inside.
“He's still here, OK? That's the most important thing,” Roxbury said. “We've had good support from friends and neighbors, even people that we don't know as well have been so great. Even just calling us and telling us they're thinking about us is so helpful because the whole thing is overwhelming, because we lost everything.”
Ninemile neighbors, friends and family have rallied around the couple. Some gave clothes to Lackner, who made it out with only the clothes on his back. Others took him to the store. Many are calling, offering support and comfort.
“We don't have any desire to move from here,” Roxbury said. “Not just because it's so pretty, but because all the people around us are great people. It’s a good community.”
While their house is gone, the couple is determined to rebuild.
“We never had a contractor work. It was all just friends. Myself and my friends that did all that. That was really neat and they're all willing to help again,” Lackner said. “Hopefully, maybe, by next year at this time we'll be sitting in the house looking out.”
“Well, that's our goal. It’s our new years resolution,” Roxbury added. “Because time is what we have now and, luckily, we both have health. That's pretty much what you need.”
