Hello Everyone!
Of all the places I was hoping to be writing this post from this week, Missoula was not one of them. I had a pleasant if rainy week out exploring some nice spots in southwest Montana and heading towards Yellowstone, but by the time I got to Bozeman I had come to the conclusion that the repairs done on my van weren’t quite right. My stupid air shock continues to leak – these really are the worst designed parts I’ve ever encountered. And while sometimes I felt like we were cruising along smoothly, other times the whole van would vibrate beyond anything which was “normal”. I really didn’t want to turn back to Missoula, but on the other hand I paid a small fortune to get this work done and I expect it to be done right. Three hours back versus the whole country between me and home became an easy decision. Kerry at the shop was perfectly calm when I called him and told me to go ahead and bring it back in and they would take care of it. So here we are, back in Missoula. I’m really hoping that whatever it is, it’s reasonably easy to fix and that we’ll be back on the road by this time tomorrow, almost exactly a month after I first pulled into town.
After I finished this post last week, I was in a similar position to where I am today. I headed over to the mechanic shop with the hopes that my van would be ready. They were still working on it, and would finally hand over the keys around 8pm. I felt bad that they had stayed so late to get it done, and told them that one more day wasn’t going to kill me at that point, but they were ready to get it done and out of the shop. It sure was nice to be back behind the wheel, to start to put my things back where they belong and to sleep in my own bed. I went out and had a few beers to celebrate at the Draught Works brewery which is brewing up some great beers including one called Shadow Caster which made me smile. I had one last burger at the Missoula Club and then crawled into my van and slept and slept and slept.
I ran around Missoula a little bit on Thursday morning and then finally got back on the road. I headed down the highway to the town of Deer Lodge and went straight to Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. I’ve been there a couple of times before, but I’ve never had the time to visit the main ranch house on the property which was definitely worth seeing. The ranch was founded by Canadian Johnny Francis Grant back in 1859. Grant built his cattle heard by walking a healthy cow from the ranch down to the Oregon Trail and trading it for two sickly cows. Then he’d walk those cows back to his property and nurse them back to health again. It was a simple scheme but a brilliant one as well. Grant sold the ranch in 1866 to German-born Conrad Kohrs. Kohrs built his fortune selling beef to the Montana mining districts and would eventually own 50,000 head of cattle which he grazed on ten million acres of land. Kohrs became known as Montana’s Cattle King and was one of the richest men in the territory. The ranch house, built by Grant but greatly expanded by Kohrs, is a lovely old place which must have seemed like a castle way out there in the country. It’s remarkably intact with over 98% of the furnishings being original to the house. The tour showed us all of the fine furnishings and gadgets that they had to make their remote outpost more civilized, but sadly no photos were allowed.
After the tour, I had a nice stroll around the property and then walked around Deer Lodge for a bit. The old Montana Territorial Prison is in Deer Lodge and I got out there to take a few photos but decided against going in. I saw a sign on one of the businesses in town supporting their local high school sports teams, the Wardens, which I found amusing. From there, I headed down the road to Anaconda for the night. I had just been to Anaconda last week, but I didn’t get enough time to explore it properly so I wanted to return on my way back to Butte. I had a nice long walk around town, checking out more of the historic buildings including an old brewery-turned-antique store which I thought was pretty cool. There are definitely two sides of the tracks in Anaconda with some lovely historic Victorian homes on one side of town and a lot of run down homes that have seen better days on the other. I popped in for a couple of slices of pizza at Gallicano’s, a beloved local spot for good reason and definitely worth a stop if you’re in town. By then it was time for the U.S. World Cup soccer game against Turkey which I chose to watch at the BW Blacksmith Bar. The Blacksmith is a really cool place and just beautiful inside plus they had the game on the main screen behind the bar. It’s fun to pretend like I know and care about soccer when the World Cup is on, but to be fair I probably knew more than anyone else in that particular bar did that evening. I enjoyed watching the game, even though we ended up losing at the very last second which was disappointing. I had a nice chat with the only person who stayed to watch the end of the game with me. His grandparents had worked at the smelter in Anaconda until it closed and still lived in town so he was there visiting them from Seattle. It was a nice afternoon and evening in Anaconda and I’m glad I had the chance to get back there and explore a bit more. Incidentally, their high school mascot is the Copperheads and being an Anaconda Copperhead must be pretty cool.
I hung around Anaconda for a bit in the morning and then cruised on up the road and back into Butte. I hit the gym and then made a beeline for the World Mining Museum located around and above the old Orphan Girl Mine. This is a really fascinating museum and I spent most of the afternoon there. They had constructed an old mining town on the property and the artifacts in each of the “businesses” were remarkable and very well curated. I spent a lot of time with my nose pressed to the glass, trying to take it all in. Then I went and wandered around the old headframe which was used to pull the copper ore up an elevator shaft where it was loaded onto rail cars and sent to the smelter in Anaconda for processing. This particular mine was about a half a mile deep, but some of the mines in Butte reached a mile deep into the earth. Butte sits on the richest and most concentrated copper deposit ever found, earning it the nickname “The Richest Hill on Earth”. The industrial revolution, and especially the spread of electricity around the country and the world, made copper an incredibly valuable asset at the turn of the last century, and the “Copper Kings” were there to capitalize on it. Of course, in so doing, they poisoned the water, polluted the air and worked plenty of their miners literally into their graves. The miner’s memorial wall at the museum had a lot of names on it and so many of them were recent immigrants trying to get a new start in the new world. It seems there are always two sides to every coin. I thought this museum was really well done and I was glad to have spent the afternoon there.
Leaving the museum, I was pretty hungry so I headed out to the Freeway Tavern to try their version of the Butte pork chop sandwich called, in very unpolitically correct language, the Wop Chop. It was pretty good, but I definitely thought the one I had at John’s last week was better. After stuffing my face, I headed back to Uptown Butte and spent some time wandering around and enjoying this great old city. I stopped into the old Silver Dollar Saloon for a beer which I was really happy to find open. Originally opened as the Push Saloon back in 1894, it ran successfully right up until prohibition and then reopened in 1934 as the Silver Dollar. Kelly, the old guy running the place, has been there for many years now and was really an interesting guy to chat with. From there I went to see some great live music at the 51 Underground speakeasy in the basement of the historic Miners’ Hotel. The band was great and was really rocking the place. At some point some sort of fancy function must have let out because a lot of very well dressed people poured into the bar all at once. The women were dressed to the nines with most of the men looking significantly less impressive but judging from the rocks on these ladies’ fingers there was no shortage of money in the room. It was all a bit much for me, so I wandered over to Maloney’s for a beer before calling it a night.
I slept in a bit on Saturday but started my day with a visit to the Mai Wah Museum in the city’s old Chinatown. Located in what was once a Chinese mercantile with a noodle parlor on the top floor and an herbalist in the back room, this was a really fascinating museum. It told the story of Butte’s historic Chinese population which used to occupy six city blocks surrounding the museum. Just around the corner was the old Pekin Noodle Shop which, until a month ago when it closed for good, was the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country. There were a lot of fascinating stories to read and I was really happy that this museum was there and sharing this particular story. When Montana became a state, roughly 10% of the population was ethnically Chinese. Today there may be no people of Chinese descent left in Butte at all.
From there I went out to the gym and the grocery store and then came back into town to tour the old Clark Chateau, a spectacular old home on Broadway. Built in 1898 by Copper King William Clark as a wedding present to his son and daughter-in-law, the chateau has 26 rooms and approximately 13,000 square feet of living space. The Clarks only lived in the chateau for a few years, and the house would be sold several times over the next hundred years. Interestingly, Montana’s state song “Montana” was composed in the chateau in1910. The county purchased the home in 1976 and began restoring the building. It’s cool to go inside and poke around, but it’s sparsely furnished and there are plenty of rooms full of boxes and junk.
From there, I walked down the street to the library to try and get some work done. In the evening, I went to see the San Francisco based band Dirty Cello at The Covellite Theatre, which is located in the old 1896 First Presbyterian Church. The lead singer played a mean cello and also pulled out her violin for a couple of songs which made me smile. They played an awesome mix of rock and blues music and told some great stories along the way. My favorite story they shared was that when they were in Iceland, someone started the rumor that they were once John Denver’s band, so the venue was completely packed. They said they stumbled through a poor rendition of Take Me Home Country Roads, but that was the extent of their John Denver repertoire. They said they’ve been back to Iceland several times and can’t seem to shake the story, but they’ve definitely improved their version of that particular song. I thought it was a fabulous show and if you ever get the chance they’re definitely worth checking out.
It was 36° F (2°C) and raining when I woke up on Sunday morning, which didn’t inspire me to get out of bed in a hurry. I snuggled under my blanket for a while before finally forcing myself up and at ‘em. I wandered down the street to the Copper Plate for breakfast. Based on their menu, they must have an Indian cook, and I had to try the masala spice omelet which was pretty tasty. After 4-5 cups of coffee, I was ready to face the day. There was a little break in the weather so I decided to make tracks towards Bozeman. Driving out of Butte, I saw that the rain turned to snow just a couple of hundred feet up the mountains – hard to believe at the end of June. I made one quick stop at the Missouri Headwater State Park to see where the Mighty Missouri begins. It was rainy and gloomy so I just got out for a quick peak and then continued on to Bozeman. I got a good workout in and then tucked into Starbucks to get some work done as the weather wasn’t inspiring me to go out and explore. In the evening, I went out and had a wander and a cold beer or two along Main Street and then headed out to Belgrade for the night. Bozeman has passed strict laws against “camping” including sleeping in your vehicle within the city limits, punishable by a $500 fine and/or 10 days in jail. This certainly didn’t inspire me to spend much of my hard-earned money in their town and I think plenty of other places have handled this better. While I understand why a town doesn’t want people permanently parked on their streets, I also know there are plenty of people out here doing what I do and spending plenty of money in the local economy. Pre-pandemic, Walmart was where all of us used to stay in a town like Bozeman, which worked out fine for everyone involved and kept people off of city streets. With the ordinance in place, even that is off limits. I think 24 or 48 hour limits are a reasonable compromise, but I can also just spend my time and money elsewhere. I paid close attention and there were no signs stating anything about their law whatsoever, so I hope they are at least handing out warnings first. Regardless, I cruised 15 minutes up the road and had a decent sleep despite the constant train whistles blasting through the night.
I cruised back into Bozeman in the morning and made my way out to the Museum of the Rockies, the city’s biggest attraction and a popular one on a cold and rainy morning. The main draw in this museum is its extensive and awesome dinosaur collection which rivals those of much bigger museums around the world. They have a magnificent t-rex and quite a few triceratops, as well as many smaller dinosaur skeletons and fossils from a whole variety of species. In addition, they had a decent history section with a nod towards nearby Yellowstone and a temporary exhibit of living frogs which was fun. I particularly liked the poison dart frogs which were so colorful and bright – warning potential predators as opposed to hiding from them. When I finished with the museum, I went to the massive Bozeman public library to edit some photos and that’s where I decided it would be best to turn back to Missoula before I got any farther away. I stopped into the regional fast food restaurant, Frugals, for a very decent burger before heading back out of town for the night.
Yesterday morning was reasonably clear, so I decided to just make a beeline back to Missoula. I made good time and was happy that my van did well on the highway. I spent some time at the library and then wandered down the river to the baseball stadium to watch the local Missoula Paddleheads take on the Redpocket Mobiles in a Pioneer League showdown. The Mobiles are a barnstorming team, meaning they have no home stadium and play all of their games on the road. It was a fun game despite the Paddleheads losing in the late innings and it was great to see some baseball. After the game I took a stroll around what’s now quite a familiar downtown, but I was pretty tired so I called it an early night.
And that’s about it for this week, y’all. My van is in the shop and I’m just up the road at Starbucks trying to finish up this post while I wait for word on what’s happening. I trust these guys and I know they want to get it right and get me safely back across the country, so I’m hoping this is the last time I’m here for a while. I’m changing course when I leave here though, as I want to stay somewhat closer for a few days as I make sure that we are truly good to go. My plan is to head east to Helena and spend a couple of days exploring Montana’s capital city. From there, I’ll meander up to Great Falls and make a decision on whether to go to Glacier National Park or not. I’ve been to Glacier dozens of times and it’s my absolute favorite place on the planet, but the only reason to go there on this pass-through was to do some multi-day hikes in the backcountry and there may still be too much snow to make that happen, which is okay. Either way, my plan from there is to loop out through some of northern Montana before starting south to Wyoming. Of course all of that is very much up in the air right now, so you’ll just have to heck back next week and see how it all comes out. I’m not going to lie, my motivation and spirits have been on quite a rollercoaster ride these last few weeks. My Shadow Catcher has been so dependable for so long and I depend on her to keep me safe and keep me going. It’s not as if there’s been a steady stream of things going wrong, though, it’s just been revisiting the same repairs over and over again which is insanely frustrating. But that is life on the road and there are always ups and downs. It’s just so rare that I get a summer off and I was really hoping to make the most of it and now it’s July and I’m exactly where I was a month ago. Not that I haven’t been out and exploring which I’m definitely grateful for, but it’s still been a tough month. Anyways, thanks for listening, thanks for reading and have a wonderful week out there. For all of you in the States, have a happy Independence Day. Enjoy your barbecues and fireworks and try and keep all of your fingers attached to your hands this weekend. I will do the same. See you next week.
-Mike