Along the Yellowstone River

The day dawned sunny as we prepared to leave Ennis Montana. Nice place to spend a few days—some here think it’s a nice place period. This year fishing is bad because the Madison River is high and muddy. The motel owner thinks that this is the natural cycle for those who depend on the weather for their livelihood. Who am I to argue? We followed the river past Ennis Lake and on until we turned toward Bozeman while the river continued toward Three Forks to meet up with Jefferson and Gallatin—hello Missouri.

First stop in Bozeman is the Pioneer Museum located in the old county jail—it features a gallows where a felon was hanged on day. There the gallows sits, the trap down, hanging noose at the ready—all they need to do is cock the trap door and find an unfortunate felon. Pretty grim, fortunately for me the museum also features many other unique displays. There is a room for Montana State where the freshman beanie has a prominent display. I remember wearing that as a frosh. Imagine me who was a veteran and world traveler being hazed by 18 year old sophomores. Ugh. I had to live in the frosh dorm also—that lasted only the first quarter. I claimed that I was getting married and moved out to an apartment on Babcock—we drove by today and it’s still there, 5 mailboxes now, used to be four.

Enough. The Museum of the Rockies on the campus of Montana State University. Is next on our tour. The feature here is the dinosaur –the staff have practically invented the word, they caused a major rethinking of dinosaurs by the scientific community. It was due to their work that most of us now believe that diny was really a prototypical bird and some flavors of dinosaurs had feathers—brightly colored ones too. Don’t take my word for it—look on Wikipedia or the museum’s web site. Here are Steffen and Ethan with Big Bob. Fortunately it is not a working model or they would be toast.


Montanans seem bent on moving old houses around—they have a turn-of-the-century log house on display outside the museum. Tinsley House is a fully functional 2-story farmhouse that was moved to the campus from 40 miles away. Montana Power had to raise 30 sets of power lines so the house could travel under on it way to MSU and Museum of the Rockies. They were baking cookies in the kitchen while we were here and a woman was spinning hand dyed wool into yarn upstairs. She used madder for her red, just like the dyer that created the red coats for the British in revolutionary times.



There was a traveling exhibition of costumes used in movies like Star Wars and other action epics: Darth Vader, Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Batman and many others. There is also an extensive exhibit of Montana History. The museum has something for everybody. We could spend a long time here, but it is time to head out for Billings, the final stop on this tour.

On the way to Billings while riding along the Yellowstone River I saw an American eagle perched high on a snag. Traveling along the river I recalled that only a few days ago we were at the headwaters of the Yellowstone. And I rememberd the Upper and Lower Falls that get the river started downhill towards the Missouri.


We checked in at the Dude Rancher Motel and walked to dinner past the former Fox theater which is now an upscale traveling show venue—Lily Tomlin in playing tomorrow night. This beautiful, if somewhat fanciful, horse stands at the theater entrance.

The Fox Theater opened in 1931, built in glamorous Art Deco style by architect R. C. Reamer with the Janet Gaynor film, "Merely Mary Ann". There was also a parade down Third Avenue and live entertainment opening night. The theater was built on the site of the homestead of the Bair family. Eventually, the theater closed, was nearly raised and finally it was resurrected when the city bought the Fox, which it leased to the newly-formed Alberta Bair Theater Corporation. Alberta Bair, a daughter of the man who formerly owned the property the Fox was built on, gave a generous gift towards the theater's restoration, and the theater was afterwards renamed in her honor. The Alberta Bair Theater for the Performing Arts reopened in 1987, returned to its original 1930s beauty, with a concert by Burt Bacharach.

Seems appropriate to finish a tour of Montana with some history and a photo of a horse.

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Virginia City—3-7-77

The Madison River, which we first saw at its headwaters in Yellowstone Park, goes right through the town of Ennis-- a wide spot in the road with four banks and as many boutique stores.. Ennis isn’t large but it is proud and patriotic too—there at also four parks in town. Peter T’s Park honors the founder of one of the banks. In the park in front of Peter T’s bank there is a very nice metal sculpture of an elk hunter and horses being menaced by bears—hungry bears after the elk meat on the pack animal.



Veteran’s Park near The Reel Decoy Restaurant where we ate last night flies a huge American flag that can be seen from all over town. The towns website declares: “In the heart of the Madison Valley, this country is truly the best of the west. The Indians called this valley, "the Land of the Shining Mountains," the locals call it Heaven.”The site continues: “An authentic western town, Ennis is surrounded by three ranges of the Rocky Mountains and three million acres of the Beaverhead National Forest. This is Lewis and Clark country. It is also a true part of the Treasure State. Gold was discovered here in the 1860's and rubies can still be found in the Ruby Valley only 20 miles from Ennis.”



William Ennis, a freight hauler serving the gold fields founded the city named after him in this scenic location along the Madison. The fabled rubies, however, are really garnet a pretty semi-precious stone.



The town’s web site also has a great history section with pictures: 

    http://www.ennismontana.org/historic_points.htm



Next stop Virginia City just a short 20 mile ride west over Virginia City Pass to where gold was discovered in Alder Creek by William Fairweather who also founded the Fairweather hotel. The hotel is still open, and is being painted, somewhat haphazardly, by a crew from Ameri-Corps today. The dry climate has preserved the wooden structures in this town for more than 100 years, but they still need maintenance.



The grave of Fairweather is in the Virginia City cemetery on a bluff above town near Boothill cemetery where those hanged by the Vigilantes rest. There lilacs are in bloom. We left Virginia City to tour the gold dredging sites and visit Nevada City a few miles away.



The restored gold rush village of Nevada City sits on the site of the gold rush town by the same name. A foundation has rescued 17 of the original buildings and added another 30 from all over the West to create an authentic replica of a gold rush town. There is a music hall that came from Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone Park, a hotel (still functioning) that was once a stage station, a one-room school, post office and assorted other buildings. There is even a 2-story outhouse. Fun.



Returning to Virginia City, we purchased tickets to see the Virginia City Players production of Dracula’s Daughters: A Family Comedy. While waiting for show time we visited the local stores, went to the museum to see Club-foot Johnson’s mummified foot and the marker from his grave—history buffs will remember that Club-foot was hanged by the infamous Vigilantes. We learned a lot about this town’s history. The Vigilante calling card, 3-7-77, appears today on the Montana Highway Patrol badge. For more on that try wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-7-77



The extraordinary cast of the Players put on a great show that the audience of young campers and tourists applauded with enthusiasm. On this second night of the summer season the actors were enthusiastic if not always sure of their lines; the set manager came on stage a couple of times to correct small problems. The play was followed by intermission and a variety show featuring the cast. The rousing finale was "Montana the Beautiful" with many of the audience joining in. Great show.



This is the 60th year of the Players. When we bought our tickets Katie the stage manager asked me if I had been here before. I answered yes, but said it was long ago. She asked if I know any players—the name Ben Tone popped into my head. He was a founding actor, later taught at Montana State, and is still living in Ennis. He is 85 years old. I was active in the Montana State College theater group while a student at MSC in the 50’s. A group of us went down to see Ben and friends who had joined the Players for the summer. Break a Leg, Players.



Return to Ennis in daylight, 9:30PM, to get ready for tomorrows travel through Bozeman to Billings.

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The Reel Decoy

After Breakfast I had to do quick search for a housekeeper because I had left the room key locked in the room. The housekeeper was agreeable to opening the door for me so I could pack for the day’s trip. Nice start.

The old lodge was opening as we left Pahaska Tepee so we stopped for a quick tour. The original lodge named Pahaska Tepee was developed at the turn of the century by Bill Cody and used continuously up to the 50’s. It is now open only as a museum. There are many old artifacts collected over time, and the building itself is worthy of note. It was built of rough logs with the bark on, two stories,with the lodgings on the second floor opening onto the central hall, which has a big wood-burning fireplace. In back of the fireplace there is a large dinning hall. A kitchen on one side and a bar/lounge on the other complete the basics. Outside, the full porch overlooks the river. It must have been a special experience to stay here. The guests of long ago first arrived in Cody by stage from Billings, they stayed overnight in Cody at the Irma Hotel, then they continued to “half-way Lodge” for another overnight. Finally, after another full day on the stage, they arrived at Pahaska Tepee—where they could continue on to Yellowstone. Many stayed right here for hunting and fishing.

Next stop, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We took the road to Artist Point to get pictures of lower falls. We got there just before 3 tour buses loaded the viewing stand to overflow. We got out pictures, enjoyed watching the soaring Blue-green Swallows and returned down the road to Tom’s Lookout where we took photos of the upper falls. White Pelicans were swimming in the river between the two falls—every now and then their heads dipped into the water. Hope the fishing was good.

The road to Old Faithful Geyser Basin goes through meadows that are green with spring grass. We saw elk and deer and many buffalo. We passed through Madison Junction the headwaters of the Madison River, which will join the Jefferson and Gallatin to become the Missouri at Three Forks. It was there that we meet our first real traffic jam. About 30 minutes delay, because of drivers slowing and stopping to look at a large herd of buffalo on the route to Old Faithful. Finally, it was our turn to look, but the buffalo seemed to be sleeping.

We drove on—to arrive at Old Faithful, where we parked and joined the throng of people waiting for the 2:30 eruption. I sat on the edge near one end of the seating area, people are 6-8 deep for the 150 yards or so that are nearest to the geyser. Where I was sitting there were fewer people and the views are just as good. A Mountain Bluebird was flying back and forth in the trees near the spout of the geyser. The thousand or so people watching and waiting shushed and there was a strange silence as the geyser began to gurgle, then sighs as the eruption began in earnest. After the last gurgle everyone left just like they leave after a football game.

The real gems of Old Faithful Geyser Basis are the paint pots and sulphur pools; the colors are exquisite against the blue and yellow of the spring flowers.

We left the park, not stopping in West Yellowstone, to continue on to Ennis. On the way we stopped at the Quake Lake Visitor Center that commemorates those killed by the 1959 earthquake that was centered near West Yellowstone. We watched a video that described the geology and the effects of the quake. The video was shown in a hall with big windows that looked out on the dam caused by the debris. We could see the bare scar left on the mountain by the landslide. We could also see the large boulders now lying across the canyon from the mountainside where they originated. The slide happened quickly in the remote area and left 300 casualties and 28 dead buried under the slide debris. The visitor center is an impressive stop—makes you think about the forces of nature.

Driving towards some black clouds we soon found ourselves in a real mountain squall. It only lasted a few minutes, and it cleared the air and turned the fields brilliant green. How fortunate we have been with the weather. We arrived in Ennis about 5:30 ready to rest a bit and go out for dinner. We checked in and found ourselves in a double-wide trailer just in back of the motel. We have a big lawn, deer in the adjacent field and llamas across the street. We went to dinner at The Reel Decoy, recommended by the hotel owner, very good food—Chicken Picatta, Hamburger, Pulled Pork Sandwich were the main dishes, but we had deserts, of course.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Ennis has a 4th of July Rodeo—just like Red Lodge and Cody.

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