Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 3 - Billings to Bozeman

 

 After our brief visit to Hysham we drove another 75 miles into Billings where we stayed downtown at the Doubletree, a first class hotel.  I mention that because on a previous trip we had stayed on the other side of the tracks on the outskirts of Billings at a unique facility called the Vegas Motel (and casino!)  We were not going to stay there again.

Although it was only the 19th of September, we awoke to a view of snow on the roofs of nearby buildings.   That's the small Phillips 66 refinery in the background. (The Vegas Motel is just beyond.)

Our next stop was Livingston, once a prominent stop on the Northern Pacific railroad line between Minneapolis and the Pacific Northwest.  The depot there has been turned into a railroad museum with a good deal of both Northern Pacific and Great Northern memorabilia.  This stop is well worth your time if you have any interest in railroad history.

 

 

 

The museum features a diorama of the railroad facilities at Livingston.  Behind the diorama, there is a large mural that once hung as backdrop on a Great Northern club car.  Painted by Nick Eggenhoffer, an author and illustrator of pulp fiction, it makes a good companion to Louis L'Amour's work that we saw earlier on this trip.  

 

Another work that I found interesting was this illustration of the inner workings of a railroad postal car.  This is from the New York Central and must have run as a magazine ad in about 1943 or '44.  Note the worker using a magnifier to make out the address on a piece of V-Mail.  V-Mail was a World War II product that reduced overseas armed forces' letters to film and then reprinted them upon arrival in the U.S.

The dining car exhibit from the Northern Pacific will bring back memories to anyone who traveled these lines before they were "Amtracked" out of existence.  A slightly older friend of mine at Pioneer Power worked his way through college as a summertime cook on the NP between St. Paul and Yellowstone.

 

 

The train routes through the Rocky Mountains called for heavy equipment and the locomotive companies responded with some massive engines like this 122 foot long NP "Challenger" with twelve driving wheels.   A history of the Challenger reports that all of the Northern Pacific engines were scrapped and none remain.  There is a surviving Union Pacific Challenger reported to be on display in North Platte, Nebraska.

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 2 - Hysham, Montana

 Hysham, Montana is a town of 276 - but is the county seat of Treasure County.  It is unlikely that you would turn off the freeway and head into town unless you know there is something special there. The reason we headed into Hysham was a sign that said "Statues" and an arrow pointing toward the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yucca Theater is an appealing southwest mission-stye building that has served as a community theater and movie house since its construction in 1931.

Alongside the theater is a group of statues that commemorate the exploration party of Captain William Clark, Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste, and an unidentified hunter of the Lewis and Clark exploration party.  They were carved from wood by a local sculptor.   Look closely at the photo below and you might spot a sabre-tooth tiger and the tusks of a woolly mammoth in the background. No explanation was given for their presence. We can speculate that perhaps the artist wanted to show his talent.

 

Unfortunately, we had arrived late in the evening and the historical Treasure County '89er museum across the street was closed and we could only peer through the windows.

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 2 - Terry, Montana and the Evelyn Cameron Gallery

We can never pass through eastern Montana without a stop in Terry, Montana.  Besides having a great name, it has a large county museum and is home to the Evelyn Cameron photography gallery.

In this small town, the Cameron gallery was our first stop but the door was locked.  A sign said that the key was next door at the Prairie County Museum, so we made that our first stop.  With two floors, an annex and a railroad building, a visitor could spend quite a bit of time here.

The two main floors of the building were once the local bank.

 

The top floor features a room with early 20th century medical technology, including a dentist's office.

 

 

Much of the banking setup, including teller cages, is well preserved.

 

 

Both a Burroughs adding machine and a National cash register are on display.  These two items are always favorites of mine.

 

 

 

Out back in the annex, is an ancient office switchboard (PBX) from a small business.  These are hard to find anywhere. And an assortment of telephone gear just waiting for some ambitious curator's touch.

 

 

After a quick tour through the museum, we headed back over to the Cameron Gallery.

Evelyn Cameron was a pioneer of glass-plate photography at the beginning of the 20th century.  She documented farm and small town life in eastern Montana and her work was relatively unknown until recent years. 

 

 

While her photographs are a marvelous gift to following generations, she also was a detailed diarist.

 

 

The gallery contains transcribed copies of her daily entries over a long period.  She documented life on the Montana prairie in full detail. It was not an easy life.  Here is a sample day's entry:

An additional brief bio of Evelyn Cameron can be found here.

A few additional photos from the museum and Terry are available here.

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 2 - Jamestown to the Montana Border

 After an overnight stop in Jamestown, we headed out early to the west.  Our first stop was at New Salem, home of the statue of Salem Sue, the world's largest Holstein cow, high on a hill above the freeway.  It's always worth a stop and drive up to see this milk cow because of the nice view in all directions.

 

 

 

The next stop on our route was at Richardton, North Dakota.  This small town is home of the beautiful Assumption Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery and historic church.  This was another landmark we wouldn't have noticed without the brochure from the Welcome Center in Fargo.

On the way through town, we passed this building - obviously an old bank building, but which and when?  

Later research turned up a 1958 booklet celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Richardton and we discovered that this had been the Farmers and Mechanics bank of Richardton.  The building dates from 1919. 

Our final stop in North Dakota was at the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  There is a rest stop here with a beautiful overview of the Painted Canyon of North Dakota,

In spite of the beautiful appearance, it was very windy.  This was not a good day for hiking, tempting as the canyon trailhead might appear.

I have a few more pictures from the signs at the rest stop here.

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 1 - Jamestown, North Dakota

 We had been through Jamestown before but somehow missed the fact that this was the boyhood home of famed fiction author, Louis L'Amour.  This is another reason to stop at those welcome centers!

Of course, we stopped at the Jamestown buffalo first. We've visited this buffalo so many times now that we recognize every new chip in his exterior.

 

 

Right next to the buffalo parking lot we found the Louis L'Amour museum.

   

 

Inside, there are reminders of L'Amour and family:

   

 

There is also an extensive collection of L'Amour books contributed by local resident, Virginia Lillico.

 

 

My dad had a collection of similar size and in his later years always traveled with one or more of them in his bag.  Perhaps that collection should have been shipped out to Jamestown. 

 Downtown, the Jamestown library offers another reminder of L'Amours presence.  Largely self-educated, L'Amour began his exploration of the world at this library.  One of his best known works is "Education of a Wandering Man" an autobiographical account that begins in Jamestown.

In "Education of a Wandering Man," famed writer of the American West, Louis L'Amour, provides a detailed account of his unique education. Reading was the foundation of L'Amour's education and his later phenomenal success as a writer. He had been exposed to reading from the time that he was born. Not only were the L'Amours a family of readers, they would discuss what they read and learned each day at the dinner table. From these discussions, L'Amour learned to analyze and question what he learned which served to fuel a growing hunger to read more and learn more.

 

 

Airplane On A Stick, Valley City, North Dakota

The road into Valley City offered us another photo opportunity for the "airplane on a stick" series of blog posts.

An F-104 Starfighter is displayed prominently in the memorial park along the loop from I-94 into the Rosebud Visitor Center.  This stubby-winged fighter, capable of Mach 2 speed, is instantly recognizable to any aircraft enthusiast.

 

Catching Up On The Travel Blog - Minnesota to Boise, Day 1 - Valley City, North Dakota

Our stop at the welcome center in Fargo presented us with a brochure listing the highlights of a trip across the North Dakota on I-94.  We had stopped at most of them on previous trips but had somehow missed the "City of Bridges," otherwise know as Valley City. 

Of course, we pulled off the freeway when we arrived there and drove into town.

   

 

The Northern Pacific High Line bridge is a national historic civil engineering landmark.  You can find lists of those landmarks here and here.  

 

If you are looking for more bridges, there are nine in Valley City.  Plus, a completed segment of the North Country Scenic Trail runs north-south right through town, crossing a couple of those bridges.

 

 We had previously hiked segments of the NCT in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.  We added a hundred yards of so of North Dakota while here by crossing one of the pedestrian bridges near the Rosebud Visitor Center.

More pictures from Valley City here.