The Old Willett Place stood along the Little Missouri River between Camp Crook and Buffalo, South Dakota. It was the ranch house where the Melby family ranched during the latter half of the Second World War, and where Patrick Melby spent the first three years of his life before the family left in 1947 and moved to Missoula, Montana. 
In about 1985, on a trip back to the Dakotas with his father and his brother Bill, Pat found a corner post from the little front porch lying on the ground where it had fallen. It had been out in the weather for thirty-eight years. He carried it home to Montana and kept it on his deck for the next four decades, with its written history and a few photographs tucked into a plastic sleeve alongside it.
Facing a move to Arizona and unsure what to do with it, Pat sealed the wood with epoxy, set it on a concrete base, and fixed a ceramic woodpecker made by Beda to the top. 
He gave it to his son, Andrew Campbell Melby, on his forty-seventh birthday. This article gathers Pat’s own account, the typewritten history he kept with the post, and four photographs of the house — including two wartime views in which the little porch and its turned balusters are plainly visible, and a 1991 photograph of the house standing empty in tall grass with the porch long gone. The connection to the Cranston line runs through Pat’s father, Sidney “Tip” Melby, born a Cranston and raised by his mother’s second husband, Ole Melby, a Norwegian immigrant.
You can read more about this by clicking the link below.
The_Old_Willett_Place_Porch_Post
Diane Hamilton
As I go through my mom’s (Karen Melby LaVelle) photos I have seen many that mention the Old Willett Place and the people who once lived there. So many dots to connect and place as each black and white photo is pulled out of the pile, I appreciate seeing posts like this help me find my way. Thank you, Diane Hamilton (LaVelle)
Charles C. Jett
Diane – It’s such a pleasure to put these posts on the site. If you have photos, letters, or anything you want to share, please send them to me. charlescjett@gmail.com
Diane Hamilton
I have a lot of letters along with the photos that I hope to put into some kind of order, my thought was to send them on to you so that they can be shared. Mom was so eager to have her family history preserved for generations. Thank you for the invitation to send on for sharing, gives me a place to share what Mom has entrusted to me. diane
Charles C. Jett
Diane – Can you SCAN them? Scan and keep them in some sort of order. I can have AI read and transcribe written letters – even though the writing is poor.
Let’s give it a shot. Scan a letter that is a few pages long and is hand-written and I’ll show you what it does.
My email is: charlescjett@gmail.com
Send to that address. And give me YOUR email, OK?
~ Charlie
Charles C. Jett
Diane – Your mom and I got into a lot of trouble at the Willett place when we were kids – she was my “buddy” – and we threw some plums at the wall in the kitchen. That was one of her memories – she was my “fun cuz.” ~ CC
Diane Hamilton
She was fun =)
Charles C. Jett
Send things you want to remember.
Charlie