Montana

Flathead Lake

NASA's Apollo Astronauts learned basic volcanic geology here in 1969 as they prepared for their moon missions

 Montana has trees, cattle, mountains, lakes .... and a lot more casinos than I would have expected.  Also, badly maintained roads - about what I expected to find in Alaska, so it must be a combination of weather and budget for infrastructure like more states.

The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet. It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet with water that is heavily acidic, about the acidity of cola or lemon juice.

While the Granite Mountain / Speculator Mine Fire was the worst disaster in metal mining history, the rescue mission was a remarkable accomplishment. Rescue crews succeeded in searching over 30 miles of drifts and crosscuts, and at least 15 miles of stopes, raises, and manways. Townspeople turned out in droves to help in whatever way possible. This was done in just over 7 days, in an environment saturated with carbon monoxide and dense, tar-laden smoke. 155 bodies were recovered and removed, all without the loss of a single rescue worker.

Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University is a Smithsonian Affiliate, recognized as one of the world's finest research and history museums. It is renowned for displaying an extensive collection of dinosaur fossils, including a T. rex skeleton!

The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman gained fame through the work of its chief paleontologist, Jack Horner. Horner was the prototype for the character Dr. Alan Grant in the best selling novel/movie, "Jurassic Park."

Malad Gorge

Balanced Rock

Great Northern Carousel

The Great Northern Carousel is a modern hand built menagerie carousel reminiscent of the splendid, turn-of-the-century carousels.  Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs and there was only one window that was uncovered.

Most of the 37 animals and one chariot were hand-carved by Ed Roth of Long Beach, California, and hand painted by Bette Largent of Spokane, Washington.  And, local artist Mary Harris created the original glass artwork depicting Helena area landmarks and scenery on the Carousel rounding boards.

Besides the traditional horses, frogs, and rabbits, there is native Montana wildlife such as an antelope, a grizzly bear, a bobcat, and even a cutthroat trout!

An estimated 50 million bison roamed the American prairies, but hunters reduced their numbers so drastically that by 1900 fewer than 100 were known to exist in the wild.

With a population maintained at around 370 head, bison roam the 18,541 acres of this national wildlife refuge in a landscape of steeply rolling hills and riparian areas along the Jocko River and Mission Creek, an area reminiscent of their habitat more than a hundred years ago.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch

In the 1850s a Canadian fur trapper named Johnny Grant abandoned his trap lines and started raising cattle in Montana.  By 1866, when he sold his ranch to Conrad Kohrs, he had 2,000 cattle and the finest house in the state.  Kohrs became one of the great cattle barons of the American West.

Big Hole National Battlefield

The Cathedral of Helena is in the same block as two other denomination churches.  I image that causes quite the traffic jam on Sundays and Holy days.

The town of Libby has a "thing" for eagles; there are murals, carvings, statues, etc. everywhere you look.

Travelers' Rest

This campsite, used by Native Americans over thousands of years, was also the campsite of Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806.  They called a nearby creek Travelers' Rest.  It is the only site on the Lewis & Clark Trail with enough physical evidence to prove the location of the explorers' encampments.