Trifecta!

 It’s exactly 300 miles from our rv park just west of Butte, MT, to the KOA park in Spokane Valley, Washington. It was a smooth ride, for the most part, on Interstate 90, through a variety of mountain scenery.

I 90 follows the Clark Fork river for miles, and we crossed and recrossed it a dozen times.

I tried to get a pic of Missoula, Montana, as we passed through. What I got was a photo with a pole in the center…

But that became a road sign!

 

Leaving us with a view of a nice looking city.

Near Alberton, MT, the terrain changed dramatically from farmland to mountains.

Lookout Pass on the Idaho-Montana border at 4,710 feet is also the Pacific Time Zone eastern border.

Just west of Couer d’Alene, ID, we slide into our third state of the day, Washington, and the KOA.

The temp was a toasty 95, with a light breeze. It’s going to get into record setting heat temperatures over the few days. Wonderful!

What an Interesting City!

Butte has only some 35,000 residents, so we had a preconceived notion that there wasn’t much to see and do here, so we slept in this morning and didn’t head into town until about 11. Turns out that Butte is and always will be a mining town. Butte was established in 1864 as a mining town and soon grew in the late 19th century and early 20th century on the strength of copper, silver and gold. Millions of ounces of valuable metal have been extracted from the surrounding hills, leading Butte to become the largest city between San Francisco and Chicago in the 1880’s. “Copper Kings” built mansions on Summit street so that they could keep an eye on their mines. The huge mines and the wealth that was accumulated led Summit Hill to be called “The Richest Hill on Earth”

Many mining headframes still stand on the hills north of town.

Anacondas most famous operation in Butte was The Con, so named because it was a consolidation of several mines. It was located at an elevation of more than a mile, and has shafts that burrow more than a mile deep!

From the Con Site, the view of Butte is amazing. Butte lies in a bowl valley that straddles the Continental Divide. Leaving the valley east, north, or south, a traveler must cross the Divide.

Mining is inherently dangerous, and one of the worst disasters in mining history took place in the Speculator Mine on June 8, 1917, when a carbide lamp ignited an oiled rope, which in turn, ignited flammable gases and cost 168 men their lives. A memorial overlooks the site of the mine.

The Anaconda, along with other mines, eventually switched from headframe mining to open pit mining, and opened up the Berkeley Pit northeast of town. This pit eventually ate the nearby towns of Meaderville, McQueen, and the amusement park built by the Copper Kings

There are numerous mine sites and headframes in the area surrounding Butte, but this site of The Lex caught out attention. It’s now used as a flagpole and cell tower.

Back in town, we drove along Excelsior St, Iron St, Silver St, Platinum St….you get the idea. There are some wonderful examples of turn of the century homes.

On the lower slopes of town, the homes aren’t quite as majestic, but are still so very interesting.

From the top of Iron Street, we got a different view of Butte.

East of town, on the Continental Divide, is a statue of The Virgin Mary, called Our Lady of the Rockies. 

At 90 feet tall, and 8,510 feet above sea level, the statue is on private land accessible only by bus and is lit at night. We didn’t know access was limited, so we found a likely dirt road. Unfortunately, Google had sent us to a road with a sign saying “Google is wrong, go away”. We did.

Seemingly unnoticed near Interstate 90, the Butte Batholith sits in an industrial park.

A batholith is a mass of magma that cools beneath the earths surface and is eventually exposed by erosion. We couldn’t understand why something so awesome didn’t have a sign or viewing area. We parked in the backlot of CED electrical and took a look.

In the eastern part of Butte, a warehouse has been converted to a restaurant called Casagranda’s Steakhouse. 

Owned and operated by the Casagranda family, it’s Butte’s premiere steakhouse. We stopped by at opening time, 5 pm, to find that no tables were available. Sitting at the bar turned out famously since the young lady taking our orders was a civil engineering student. She was extremely efficient and a great conversationalist.

Donna and I both ordered 8 oz Petite Filets, she with mushrooms and mine with sautéed onions. A salad, soup of the day (chili), bread, and potato (twice baked and “once” baked.) Ice cream completed the meal, and the cost? $37 each! The steaks were absolutely perfect. We would return in a heartbeat!

As usual, we discover more things to see and do than we have time to do. The World Mining Mueseum is located in Butte, as well as a coffee shop called “Shebrews Coffee.” Gotta come back!

This was to have been posted yesterday, but the internet connection failed. I hope this works tonight!

She’s a Beaut!

 I can’t take credit for the title….. I got it from the Welcome to Butte, Montana welcome sign. We left Billings this morning in a drizzling rain. 

Billings was a great stop, but duty calls, and off we drove west on Interstate 90 toward Butte, MT. The terrain began to change from the lush farmland to more cattle range land. 

The Yellowstone River snaked back and forth and along the highway.

Near Three Forks, MT, the headwaters of the Missouri, we left the green and fertile valley and began to climb into the Rockies.

As we approached Butte 236 miles later, we could see more of the Rockies in the distance.

Just a few miles west of downtown Butte, we found the 2 Bar Lazy H RV Park. This park is an example of not getting a true picture of the park when the reservation is made. We generally look at the site with Google Earth, which doesn’t provide accurate topographic info, and read reviews, which are problematic since the type of rv being used in the review may not be like the one you are using. All looked good until we arrived and noticed that the park is on the side of a hill! The manager was accommodating and gave us a choice of sites. After moving, we found a site that worked for our motorhome.

A quick run into town for some groceries and dinner at Hanging Five Family Restaurant (don’t know about that name…), and we headed back to the ranch. We hope to do some ‘splorin tomorrow. 

Buffalo Bill and Cody, Wyoming

 Oh, what to do today? Well, Cody, WY, is only 106 miles south, so why not check it out? South on Highways 212, 310, and 120 got us to Cody, and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum. 

On the way south, we were able to look to the west at the Rocky Mountains, and one of the several fires currently burning there.

This extraordinary facility is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring artifacts and art of the American West. Museums include: Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indians Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Draper Museum of Natural History, and the Cody Firearms Museum. 

We arrived about 11:30 and headed into the natural history section. Exquisite taxidermy skills present in the Eagles, White Owls, and Bison.

The Buffalo Bill museum showcases the spectacular career of this larger than life hero. It's said that at the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo Bill was the most famous person in the world! He was, at times, a rider for the Pony Express, a soldier in the Civil War, a civilian scout for the US Army, gold miner, trapper, stagecoach driver, and consummate showman when he formed Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States, and Great Britain and Europe.

We were particularly interested in one member of Buffalo Bills troupe: Annie Oakley. Donna's oral family history relates Annie as a distant cousin, unproved, but pretty cool anyway. Annie was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860, and developed skill with firearms while hunting to provide for her family. She was an ardent supporter of shooting sports for women, and offered to train companies of female sharpshooters for service in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Her gloves, traveling trunk, and firearms are on display.

Annie was befriended by Chief Sitting Bull, who was also a member of the show, on loan from military prison. The Chief nicknamed her "Little Sure Shot." In 1901, she was injured when a freight train ran into the Show train, and was forced to settle for a less taxing routine. She passed away in 1926, days after setting new sharpshooting records.

Moving on to the Firearms Museum, we were astounded to learn of over 4,500 firearms collected there. From rifles used in Olympic Biathlon events,

to the Garand M1 presented to General George Patton in 1945,

and custom firearms from "back in the day". I mean, hundreds of years ago!

The collection is overwhelming, and photographs are a dismal substitute for the real thing. But two interesting firearms are the Blunderbuss from the 1700's:

and this four barreled pistol. Looks like all four fire at the same time. Talk about scattershot!

Stopping by the Sharpshooters section, we not only got a photo of The Wild Bunch,

but also Belle Starr, the Sidesaddle Gunslinger.

The Plains Indians Museum showed us details of everyday life in the tribe. From erecting the tepee to caring for the family, women had many duties, but also were adept at making colorful garments, including this "container" for babies.

Decorations for horses was also a sign of personal wealth.

This dress is considered to be Plains Art, due to exquisite beading detail. This was a way to connect to cultural identities after being dislodged from ancestral lands.

This star quilt is made as a reference to an Eagle, using many of the same colors the magnificent bird has.

In the Museum of Western Art, hundreds of paintings were exhibited, but what interested us most was the bronze art. This piece shows a Mountain Man descending a steep slope with his sure-footed horse. This was a favorite subject of the artist, Frederic Remington, and was cast in 1903.

This larger than life size Elk is "Sniffing the Air".

Probably the most well known bronze in the collection is this one by James Earle Fraser, done in 1894, and titled "End of the Trail".

After diving into Wyoming, and then back to Montana,

We returned to Billings Village RV Park, site number 70, and rescued Sasha from prison! She'll miss this nice patch of grass!

We'll be leaving tomorrow, having found dozens of things to do in Billings that will have to wait for another trip. It's on to Butte, Montana, for a couple of days. Keep pedaling, y'all!