Parmly Billings, Here's to you

How many legs on a Santa Fe chicken? Of course it’s a trick question. I’m in the Denver Stapleton airport typing away at my computer using the free WiFi and electrical plug-in. I picked up a snack called Santa Fe chicken for my dinner. It was boxed like a pizza and alongside the pizzas so I thought was it was a pizza but it turned out to be fried chicken wings. The answer to the question: 3 wings, no legs; told you there was a trick.


I flew from Billings to Denver with a 3 hour layover before the final flight to San Jose. This airport is immense--airplane shown at right is landing in middle of concourse B where there are 87 or so gates strung out over the Colorado prairie. There are other similarly endowed concourses.

Hard for me to imagine the time when I worked at the old Denver International Airport, which didn’t have any gates at all. That was in 1957 when I was a recently hired electronics technician for RCA. A small crew of us were re-wiring the airport control towers for a new communications system. After Denver we moved to Great Falls, Montana. Spending several summer weeks in Great Falls convinced me that I should go to college and get a job somewhere with better climate. The old Denver International was decommissioned and is now a residential neighborhood; It was replaced by Stapleton the Giant. The airport in Great Falls is still going in the same location--hope they have updated their communications system.

This morning we were up and about early. Breakfast was a Montana classic with scrambled eggs and hash browns. We checked out of the Dude Wrangler Lodge and headed off for another museum.

The old Parmly Library is now the Montana Historical Museum—it is nicely done. Outside the library sits another of those log houses that Montanans seem to drag about the countryside. It looks out of place next to the stone formality of the library/museum. The name of the library comes from Parmly Billings son of the Billings that was president of the Great Northern and founder of Billings, Montana. Parmly died young, 25 years old, and the library was built in his honor. Nice thought as many young Montanans learned to read here could testify. The city build a new library on 27th and named it after the old library, neat.


Did you know that Frederick and Julia Billings were from Vermont? Yes, they were, and they returned to Woodstock after their Western adventure to become very active in the social life of Vermont. They had money and wanted to spend it. The National Park Service recently created the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Vermont's first national park, to commemorate the conservation work of George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings, and Laurence Rockefeller. Now the blog is doing historical notes, good thing the trip is almost over. No telling what could be coming next.

We stopped at Lou Taubert Ranch Outfitters where we bought Western duds. The picture at the right shows a stylish lady outfitted by Lou. I settled for a canvas vest. Yee Haw! We also stopped at a pawnshop and then an Army-Navy store. Guy type shopping. Enough said about that. It was time to eat lunch and find Budget to return the Subaru. Good car, Subaru. Had to use the cell phone to find the car return—called and the attendant said to get on the street go 100 feet down Grand Avenue and turn into the driveway. We were next door and didn’t see their sign.

At the airport there were no crowds and check in was easy, giving us time to see the Yellowstone County Museum which is a short walk across the parking lot from the terminal. Of course it is housed in a log building that was hauled from downtown Billings. It houses a very nice collection of memorabilia from cowboys, ranchers, soldiers, and Indians. It is worthy of a stop; especially if you have a little time before your flight. The current exhibit is Wildlife on the Yellowstone--we cut that short because we had just been to the Yellowstone--we looked at the historical stuff. These deer are looking at you from the exhibit. Give the museum web page a look.

www.yellowstonecountymuseum.org/

Time to say goodbye Montana—it was really nice visiting.

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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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Cody Museums

The day opened sunny at Pahaska Tepee but cool, 35 degrees. A Red-napped Sapsucker, woodpecker to non-birders, was gleaning small insects from the pine trees outside our door. The wranglers were at the corral with their string of horses. The wranglers were from Colorado and Kentucky, got to Pahaska in May to work with the horses, which winter in Powell near Cody. They found plenty of snow and cold weather in May, but June has been nice. We can still see snow in the mountains around Pahaska.


Seems like most of the help are from the somewhere else—wanting to find out something of the history of the place, we asked the waitress if she had been here long and the answer was “since April”. Not much use asking the staff about the history of the lodge. By the end of summer they will be experts, but not yet.

The front door of the gift shop opens and a guy comes out with a life-size wooden carved Indian in his arms. He sets it beside the door and Pahaska is open for breakfast. Breakfast was the Western: eggs, hash browns and toast plus juice, good. Ready for the trip to Cody.

Telephone still out? I asked the cashier about the phone as she manually filled out a credit card form: “as long as the box is under water things don’t look to good.” The worst flooding is closer to Cody, but the river behind our cabin is running to its banks and the water is brown from the run off-- no fishing here.


Cody is preparing for the Cody Stampede Rodeo, which is held the same days as the Red Lodge Rodeo. This is a little competition between Cody and Red Lodge that has been going on for some time. Some of the cowboys fly between cities and compete in both rodeos the same weekend. On this Wednesday, however, there were more bikers than cowboys, but both breeds were visible. The Irma Hotel founded by Wild Bill Cody was taken over by bikers. The other side of Main Street was a little more typical of what I remember.


The Cody museum is worth a trip in itself—five museums connected to a center court. We saw first the Buffalo Bill museum which has momentos and pictures from his life, the West and the Wild West Show. The photo at the right is a stage coach blanket made of skins. Our visit was interrupted by a power outage—the building literally went dark after a pause that seemed long two backup lights came on but they were far apart. Later a guard came and let us to the lobby where there was light from the street.

We ate lunch on left-over sandwiches from yesterday that happened to be in our cooler. Since the blackout was city-wide it didn’t make much since to look for anything better. When the light came on we went back and saw 1500 rifles and pistols on display in the Winchester museum. There were many exhibits and old photographs so it wasn’t as boring as it may sound. There were an additional 1200 weapons in the study area, which we encouraged to visit—we skipped that part. Opting instead to quickly visit the gift shop. Where you could buy this Indian loom project. Maybe a photo will do for now.

Finally we visit downtown Cody, where we found used cowboy ropes for $15 and strawberry sherbet and oatmeal cookies for $6.00.

The trip back to Pahaska was scenic but uneventful. It’s time for dinner.

Tomorrow we return to Yellowstone Park.

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The First Day of Summer

Driving to Yellowstone park on the first day of summer was a joy. We found spring flowers just beginning to bloom, frozen lakes with just a trace of thaw and we drove through sun, rain, snow, hail and more sun; the temperatures ranged from 85 to near freezing. The mountain views were astounding—who could fail to be impressed by the by the ride over the Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone Park.

We left Red Lodge in warm sun and headed up the Beartooth Highway, past the Greenough Ranch to the famous switchbacks overlooking Rock Creek . At Lookout Point, which is at the last switchback, we walked to the overlook and there was Rock Creek valley many thousand feet below. Chrome Mountain and the winding mining road to the summit mesa were across from us; we were higher than the summit of Chrome Mountain. The weather was windy, but warm and sunny. We saw a Clark’s Nutcracker and a fledgling—a sure sign of summer.

Continuing up the road we crossed the Montana summit and found some tall snow banks. Then we continued to the Wyoming or West Summit and found enormous piles of snow along the road. Then a squall struck and we had first rain then hail and finally snow flurries. The squall passed quickly so we stopped at West Summit in Wyoming to take pictures. We met a motorcyclist on his way to Idaho who was optimistic about a turn for better weather, but sounded doubtful. Sure enough as we descended the weather returned to stormy so we pulled over to stop for lunch. By the time we finished eating the weather was fine and it continued that way.

The first wild flowers appeared before we entered the park—the bright yellow flowers turned out to be dandelions or a look alike. There were also some small blue and red blooms as well as some larger yellow blooms. Not knowing anything about flowers is a disadvantage in describing what we saw. Animals were also out enjoying the sun, I hope, and near the road—many buffalo and elk, a deer and a coyote.

We drove along Yellowstone Lake and exited towards Cody, WY. Our destination Pahaska Tepee was close to the park exit: Gas Station, Gift Shop and combination register checkout and hotel registration desk. The attendant registered us and took our credit card manually because a flood had knocked out the telephone earlier that day. There is also a dinning room and a bar; everything shuts down from 9:30PM to 7:00AM. Pahaska Tepee manages to be pretty minimal stopover even if Buffalo Bill Cody did stay here once.

Dinner in the Dinning Room: steak, BBQ, farm raised Rainbow Trout from Idaho and the Western specialty Liver and Onions. We stuck to beef. An ice cream bar from the gas station was available for desert.

It was an incredible ride from Red Lodge to Pahaska Tepee the first day of Summer 2008.

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Home of Champions

Red Lodge in mid July has the Beartooth Rally and Iron Horse Rodeo which includes a day-long motorcycle tour to Cooke City over the Beartooth highway. The tour then winds its way back to Red Lodge over the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. Our route today will be that of the tour up to Cooke City, then we continue into the park and traverse to the East/Cody Exit and go down Wyoming route 14/16 to Pahaska Tepee.

For some the motorcycle tour is a big deal, but for others the 3 day Home of Champions Rodeo is the most looked for event of the year. This traditional rodeo features real cowboys, horses and riding bulls and has been held regularly as long as I can remember. We drove by the rodeo grounds yesterday. There are new boxes for the officials, judges and celebrities but not much else has changed in 50 some years. Yee Haw!

The photo at the left is my great aunt Dora, all duded up, on horse-- ready for the Rodeo Parade which goes up Main from Carnegie library through town to the Rodeo grounds on the West bench. The kids, me included, followed the parade to the grounds where we could sneak in on the contestants side and watch the doings from around the stock pens. When I was more grown I would sit in the stands like normal folk. It was an enjoyable way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Dode and my mother were friendly with Alice Greenough one of the champions that the rodeo is named for. Alice grew up on her dad's ranch outside Red Lodge and became a rodeo queen and worldwide celebrity-- she even did trick riding and roping in cowboy movies. Alice's sister Marge was a champion also. I've been to the Greenough ranch, and as a 1st grader went there for an Easter Egg hunt. Think it was my first.

There were other rodeo champions from Red Lodge, 7 in all when I stopped counting-- the most famous was Bill Linderman, 7 time world champ. I spent the summer with his son Chuck Linderman working at the Kenevan ranch outside Red Lodge. Chuck and I were more nuisance than help, but we tried a little of everything. Haying was the worst and hardest work--we hated it. Chuck's mother, Lorine, sang at the Swinging Doors, a brawling cowboy bar on Main Street that eventually burned under suspicious circumstances. The city was probably relieved to see the bar go. The vacant lot is now a park on Main street and looks real nice.

The American breakfast at the Pollard is eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and toast plus coffee, of course. This breakfast has been served in cafes in the West since I remember eating out. The Pollard version is great; skip the bacon, add a mixed fruit dish.

Time to leave Red Lodge and head on toward Yellowstone park. It being Monday, most of the motorcycles are gone so the driving should be easy.

Happy Trails to you, Red Lodge.

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