Powered by melons: Dixon thrives during harvest season

The storied Dixon Bar is under new but familiar management and the changes – along with the harvest of the fabled Dixon melons and a coffee shop in the mercantile – are drawing a crowd to the small town. 

Theodora Steinke, who was born and raised in Missoula, has moved to Dixon to take over the family bar and is remodeling her grandmother’s apartment in the back in preparation to settle down. Steinke has stepped into the role quickly by already cleaning up the bar space, but she has big dreams for the space and town.   

“I love small town community,” Steinke said. “I'm trying to turn this not just into a bar, but a community place too.”  

Steinke has plans to advance the outside of the bar by adding a fire pit and redoing the horseshoe pits and hopes to fulfill some basic needs too, like updating the plumbing. She anticipates these upgrades will help attract more people to the bar.  

But her dreams are bigger than some facelift upgrades.  

Steinke has a six-month goal to bring back the fried egg, ham and homemade patty burger. This burger – known to Steinke as “Grandma Joanne’s Burger” and to locals as the “Dixon Special” – has been requested by locals since she took over behind the bar. 

Steinke’s grandma and a number of other family members have run the Dixon Bar for the last 74 years. As the bar was filling up around closing the other night, Steinke said she got to hear vibrant stories about the times when grandma was behind the same counter as her. 

While Steinke said she’s “not as cool as grandma,” she does hope to rekindle something like Melon Days—an event the town used to have with a rodeo, parade, relay races and, of course, melons.  

Melon Days used to drive loads of people to Dixon. The harvest still draws a consistent tourism crowd, but Steinke has witnessed its decline over the years.  

“Back in the day, this bar was full all the time,” Steinke said. “Some days it goes from being completely dead to having a full bar and then back to dead. It's just crazy and some of them are just locals or tourists that come once a year and they always stop by.”  

    Theodora Steinke sits at the bar with a melon flavored drink on Aug. 16. A melon drink like this could be on the menu in the future. (Emily Messer/Leader)

A revamp of Melon Days would be held around August when the melons are ripe, and Steinke hopes she can pull it off next year for the bar’s 75th anniversary.  

“I’d like to put a mechanical bull back there and have that be a competition and that'd be our rodeo,” Steinke said as she pointed outside of the bar. “We could do cornhole tournaments. I don't know. I've been brainstorming.”  

While Steinke’s favorite way to eat a melon is with some salt and vanilla-bean ice cream, she's pondering some signature melon drinks that could appear on the menu soon.  

    The two year old farm stand sits across from the Dixon Bar. This stand holds merch and melons for people to purchase on their way through Dixon. (Emily Messer/Leader)

“The word of the melon spreads really far”  

But there’s more than just new management inhabiting the historical environs of downtown Dixon. In the 1912 green building known as the Dixon Mercantile, that once housed a mercantile, cafe and the post office at various times, is the Hand Me Down Coffee Shop, started by Bre Ward a year ago. 

“The coffee shop was started because I love coffee. I always said having an espresso machine would get me to stay in Dixon for another 10 years,” Ward said. “And I love donuts. I don't think there's enough donuts in Montana.”  

Ward’s shop includes espresso and local artist goods and a community store which recycles local donations. This free store offers clothes and household goods and Ward gets a kick out of watching people find the item they are meant to find.  

Before Ward took over with her business in this brick-and-mortar storefront, she worked at a brunch restaurant in the same location and realized this was an important space to the community. From day one, Ward has prioritized making this a place for locals but has also built her business model off the summer buzz in Dixon.  

“It's equally important to me to be an accessible place and an affordable place for locals to come,” Ward said. “We're such a small town, there's not a lot of communal meeting spaces. And so, it's cool to get to be that (and) it's how I get all my good gossip.”  

    Bre Ward chats with her friend Rebcca Santana in the Hand Me Down Coffee Shop on Aug. 16. (Emily Messer/Leader)

For the busy summer season, Ward extends her hours and only has weekend hours throughout the entire year except for when she closes during the entire month of January. Ward gains one-third of her income from tourist season but two-thirds comes from the locals.  

One of the more recent positive impacts to the businesses in Dixon is the melon stand across the street, which was started two summers ago.  

“It's truly changed the game. And it feels so important because it's what Dixon is known for,” Ward said. “But until last year, you couldn't buy melons in Dixon. So, now people really get a kick out of coming up and getting their melons.”  

The influx of tourism is simply the name, “Dixon Melons,” Ward said. She explained that they have been here the longest and it’s a testament to “find your niche, do your thing and keep doing it.” Ward said the same is true for the classic Dixon Bar.  

“The melons certainly help reach people from further out in Montana and from out of state because the word of the melon spreads really far,” Ward said. “But I like bringing different groups together, where there's different draws for different kinds of people.”  

There’s something for everyone, from coffee and breakfast in the morning, to the bar for history and drinks and Big River Cantina for dinner, Ward said.  

"People are just nuts about them” 

Faus and Cassie Silvernail have been running the Dixon Melons farming operation for the last 20 years. Faus’s stepdad, Harley Hettick, started the business by growing melons in his garden east of town. It became a family endeavor. 

The Silvernails used to travel all over the state distributing melons and they still do to some extent, but they started the farm stand in town as an experiment. Due to the cost of trucks and insurance Faus said this stand, located in a semi shipping container, has been more economical for them.  

“It turned out good for us because we made a pretty good name for ourselves over the years,” Faus said. “As long as I keep growing good fruit, people will keep showing up. It's kind of crazy how many people are just nuts about them.”

    Faus Silvernail is out in the fields everyday working and caring for the melon crop. Silvernail has been running Dixon Melons Inc. for the last 20 years and upped the farm's production by five times. (Emily Messer/Leader)

Faus said the melon crop is down 40% because he didn’t have a good fruit crop this year. This has resulted in fewer melons being shipped around Western Montana, but the Silvernails are working to keep the stand stocked.  

Since the stand was started, Faus said it’s tripled in the number of sales and it draws people to Dixon, ultimately helping the mercantile and bar keep their doors open. The consistency of good melons keeps people heading to Dixon for the weekend, even from across the state. 

Mike McMichael and Kathy Alger drove from Livingston to grab some melons and said it’s worth the beautiful drive once a year for this treat.  

“They’re so sweet and juicy and delicious,” Alger said.