Saturday, August 26, 2017

More Montana

We drove through some more of Montana.  This is what is left of Fort Benton.  It was right on the Missouri River. ( After L&C.)

This is your dad at the helm of a river boat that use to run the Missouri before all the dams were put up.
We drove up the road that day and went to The First Peoples Buffalo Jump.  It has a really neat Museum.

A couple of miles from the museum we got to the site of the jump.  The tribes had a buffalo runner wearing a calf skin, he could get the herd to go toward the cliff.  Then there would be men there to scare the herd into running over the cliff.  People would be at the bottom to make sure the animals were dead.  This could keep the tribe going fo a long time.
Now we are at a museum in Helena.


A diorama of the buffalo jump.

The state capital

We took a tram tour of Helena.



Fancy house

Also while we were there we went to The Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri.

L&C were here in this spot.



Hard to see but these are pictographs that are over 1000 years old.

L&C named this the Gates of  the Mountains  As you travel up the river it looks like a sliding door opening.  It's cool.


Now we are in Dillon.  This rock is called Beaver's Head. These is where  Sacagawea said her native tribe's summer camp near.  They needed horses to continue on because the river ran out near here.

L&C camped here.



Here is the headwaters of the Missouri.  It has three rivers coming together to make the Missouri.
They are the Jefferson, the Madison and the Gallatin.  We saw all three.  In fact we ate lunch beside the Gallatin.  I'm not sure how this happened, but some how I've made this photo bounce to the bottom.  It is suppose to be above the ghost town picture.

The weather here has been pretty good, not to hot.  But the fires in the area has made the air awful.  We got to Dillon Wednesday and the air was thick with smoke.  You couldn'tsee the hills next to the RV park.  Thursday morning we got up to almost clear skies so our 250 mile round trip the the Headwaters was lovely.  Then the wind brought the smoke back the day (Fri.) we left.  It's not as bad here in Missoula but it is still here.  We leave tomorrow for Spokane for the night and then on Clarkston, WA.  That's all 

Love, Mom and Dad




4 comments:

Christy said...

Hope the smoke ends soon and the weather holds.

Mike Miljour said...

Lewis and Clark camped under a street light?

Mark said...

It's because they were afraid of the dark.

Mark said...

Seeing the pictographs in the cliff face, I'm always amazed the places where the early American managed to get to without the use of modern climbing equipment.