Welcome to fall 2020 in the time of the corona virus. It’s been nearly a year since the Lunch Box has hit the road and in the meantime she has been entirely rejuvenated! During last fall’s trip she finally turned over 100,000 miles so during the winter I had all of the mechanics thoroughly checked out and replaced where necessary. With continued good maintenance the Lunch Box should be able to go another hundred thousand miles! Just as all of that was being completed the corona virus hit and a spring trip was cancelled. Even now in early October 2020 travel needs to be done in a deliberate and thoughtful manner. However, traveling in a motorhome is about as safe as it gets and Montana has so far escaped the worst of the pandemic. After much deliberation I have decided to venture out while stay reasonably close to home and explore the wilds of Big Sky Country, eastern Montana.
Montana, also known as the “Big Sky Country”, “Treasure State”, “Land of the Shining Mountains” and “The Last Best Place”, is the fourth largest state in the United States but home to only about one million people. Only Alaska, Texas and California are larger in land area as Montana is approximately 655 miles east/west and 260 miles north/south. The state is a tale of two tales essentially separated by the Continental Divide. The western third is comprised of a tangled braid of mountain ranges and narrow valleys threaded by numerous streams and rivers that eventually flow into the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean to the west. Over 77 named mountain ranges make up the Rocky Mountains within the state, most in the western third with a few interrupting the plains and badlands in the east. The arid prairie and badlands in Eastern Montana unfold in stark contrast to the wooded peaks in the west. The two major rivers that slice their way through eastern Montana both rise in the mountains of Yellowstone National Park, flow north for a ways and then turn east to run the length of the state. The Missouri River is the largest and runs north to Great Falls before turning east and the Yellowstone River emerges from the mountains south of Livingston where it turns east. The two rivers join near the eastern border of Montana and North Dakota before continuing through the plains on its way of merging into the Mississippi River in Missouri. My plan is to cover the eastern two thirds of the state by visiting every one of the county seats. The map below shows in blue my proposed path, the red line essentially divides the western third from the east.
My journey starts where I live, Billings, the largest city in Montana with a population of nearly 162,000 in the immediate area. While the total population of Montana is only around one million people, most of those live in the western third of the state. As we will see , eastern Montana is a land of wide open spaces and few people. Most visitors traveling to Montana from the east and south enter through Billings, located in south-central Montana at a point where the valley of the Yellowstone River narrows to a mile-wide gap between yellow sandstone cliffs. Because it is the historical “entrance” to the region, Billings bills itself as “Montana’s Trailhead.”
Montana’s Trailhead
Eastern Montana is the eroded remains of an ancient ocean floor, deeply etched by torrential rains characteristic of the severe thunderstorms that sweep through the area in the late spring. Long, soaking rains are rare as more typically the weather is constantly changing. This year (2020) is no exception. As I write this in early September the Billings area has seen a total of around 9 inches of rain, roughly normal. Also normal is that 1.2 inches of that total came in a storm that lasted about one hour in early August. Blue skies are the norm, even in winter though they may be accompanied by temperatures below zero. Early inhabitants of the area sought shelter from the extreme weather and evidence of their occupation from pre-historic times remains a couple of miles south of Billings at Pictograph State Park.
Pictograph Cave State Park
Fresh water, reliable shelter, and edible plants were all found in the small valley formed by a seasonable creek christened Bitter Creek by early explorers. The land south of the Yellowstone River is very rugged and the path created by Bitter Creek as it flows north from the Pryor Mountains to the Yellowstone River gave the early hunters and gatherers, along with bears and other game, a relatively easy way through the hills to access the river. Bitter Creek is not a year-round creek, only flowing during snow-melt and thunderstorms. Two caves formed by erosion gave shelter from the extreme weather and are now protected as a Montana State Park. The view from the small parking lot looks east to Pictograph Cave and north to Ghost Cave.
The short hike up to Pictograph Cave is marked by repeated reminders that this is Montana and the dangers from wild animals is real!
The caves were the site of the first archeological excavation on the Northern Plains in the four years from 1937-1941 as part of a local WPA project (Works Progress Administration), one of the federal programs created in the 1930’s to give people jobs during the Great Depression. Thousands of artifacts, some dating back over 9,000 years, were found in the caves. A faded picture of the time shows workers actually living in shelter from the elements in Ghost Cave.
Pictograph Cave got its’ name from the prehistoric pictographs painted on the walls of the cave. Most have vanished over time due to weather and vandalism, but faint traces can still be seen.
A guide illustrates drawings that were more discernible to early explorers. At one point 106 separate images were documented on the walls of Pictograph Cave.
Leaving Pictograph Cave the view is of the gully leading down to Bitter Creek. The path to Ghost Cave, a short distance to the west, can be seen on the right.
Ghost Cave does not have any pictographs but does contain strange “bulbs” of rock protruding from the ceiling.
These formations, called “concretions”, are the result of rock forming around an object, such as a bone or shell. This row of concretions is the result of a prehistoric clam bed, with each “bulb” forming around a clam shell.
The view looking west from Ghost Cave looks back towards Pictograph Cave (on the left in the picture) while the view looking south passes over the parking lot to the Bitter Creek valley beyond.
Leaving Pictograph Cave State Park the road heads north along Bitter Creek towards its confluence with the Yellowstone River. Billings sits on the far bank of the river beneath the towering cliffs of its signature geological feature, the Rimrocks, a line of sandstone cliffs that border the north side of the Yellowstone River Valley.
Billings
Billings is like that great-aunt that everyone has, the one who has the perfect silver perm, a print dress covered with little flowers with a white lace collar, and, of course, fake pearls and sturdy pumps. But then, after a cocktail, she sits down, and you can see the sailor tattoo winking from her thigh. That’s Billings! Billings is not a tourist destination; it is and has always been a rather conservative working town. However, it is the gateway to the incredible outdoor experience that is Montana. Established in 1888 by the Northern Pacific Railroad, there is no storied history of the Wild, Wild West. Instead Billings has remained true to the original purpose, of providing a center of commerce and industry for a very large geographic area. Billings (area pop. 162,000) is the largest city in the triangle between Spokane, WA, Denver, CO, and Fargo, ND. It’s all about business. In the beginning the focus was farming and ranching, now those, while still important, are probably out-weighed by manufacturing, financial, and energy. Billings is the closest large city to the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota, and word is spreading of even larger new finds (via new technology) in the breaks starting about 150 miles north of Billings and stretching to the Canadian border.
The geography of the area shapes the city. Think of an hourglass that has tipped slightly to the right. The Yellowstone River rises in Yellowstone Park to the southeast by Idaho and heads to its’ confluence with the Missouri River in the far northwest by the North Dakota state line. The Yellowstone River valley is generally flat agricultural land, border on the south by the river and the north by the “Rimrocks”. This is a line of sandstone cliffs that runs along the north side of the valley. Billings sits at the center of the hourglass where the two sides of the valley are pinched together before widening again as it heads north. An aerial picture of Billings found on the internet illustrates the “hour glass” analogy. In the center the train tracks divide the town with the Yellowstone River on the upper right and the thin yellow line of sandstone cliffs (the “Rims”) are on the left.
Here are two pictures that tell the story. I took the first picture at the narrowest part of the hourglass, atop the eastern cliffs looking due west. The buildings on the extreme left and right that bracket the downtown area are the two tallest buildings (20 + stories) in Montana (Crowne Plaza Hotel on the left, First Interstate Bank Tower on the right). The second picture is from south of town, looking north across the city to the Rims beyond.
The railroad tracks are the defining feature of the city center, dividing the town north and south. Montana Avenue parallels the railroad tracks on the north and today is experiencing a renaissance as the historic structures are being restored and are now home to restaurants, boutiques, and brew pubs. At one time the the long, narrow yellow brick buildings of the railroad complex (each ending with a false wall of a vaguely Dutch inspired architecture – I’m sure there’s a story behind that but I couldn’t tell you!) stretched for blocks on the south side of Montana, those that remain are now pubs, entertainment venues, and restaurants.
Across the street on the north side of Montana are the red brick businesses, most built in the early 1900’s.
The western edge of historic Montana Avenue is anchored by one of the signature historic buildings of Billings, the Parmly Billings Public Library. The library was named after the son of Frederick Billings, the railroad mogul whose company founded the town (though he never lived here). The son did, and on his death his parents funded the building of the library. Up until I was in high school, this was the town’s library, and for those of you not yet in puberty, that meant that I spent hours in the right basement of the building, using the card catalogs for research for speeches and papers, etc. I can still visualize the rows of yellow pine card catalogs (again for the youngsters, the paper equivalent of Google). A new library was built elsewhere and the building now houses the Western Historical Museum.
Broadway (also known as North 28th Street) runs perpendicular to the railroad tracks and is the commercial center of the downtown area. As with most cities these days, the major retail establishments have fled to the outer edges of Billings (in this case the booming westend). Downtown is now dominated by banks, government and other commercial businesses. Broadway now stretches north towards the rims lined with restaurants, bars and boutiques. A rather controversial structure, Skypoint, provides a canopy over an intersection that occasionally is the location of community events.
Just beyond Skypoint on Broadway the Alberta Bair Theater is in the process of being renovated. Billings is in the rather fortunate position of being between Spokane, WA, and Minneapolis-St Paul, MN, on the touring performance circuit and so touring Broadway shows, etc., often stop in Billings for a performance.
Because of the same geographic situation, Billings is also host to concerts by top music performers on tour, though most of those are held at 12,000 seat First Interstate Arena, a multipurpose arena carved out of the sandstone cliffs on the banks of the Yellowstone River at the east end of the city center. (Garth Brooks always stops on tour, last summer sold out four nights in a row!) Beyond the Alberta Bair, North 28th continues up towards the Rims, ending at the campus of MSUB-Billings. Note the buildings on top the Rims, they are hangars at the east end of Billings Logan international Airport, which runs along the top of the Rims.
One block east of Broadway is North 27th, the main arterial that runs from the airport down through the city center and out to the interstate by the river. Government buildings, city, county and federal, cluster around the intersection of Third Avenue North and North 27th. Two architectural jewels grace this corner. On the south side of the street is the Old Chamber Building, built in 1909 as the headquarters for the Billings Elk Lodge. In 1918 the building was acquired by the Billings Midland Club, which later became the Billings Chamber of Commerce (an organization representing local businesses.) The chamber moved to new quarters in the 1960s and the building languished until the late 1990s when a local group purchased and restored the building. Much of the interior had been altered over the years but the stunning woodwork survived mostly intact. The building now houses the West Law Firm and other organizations.
Across the street sits the Yellowstone County Courthouse. The corner of 3rd Avenue North and North 27th has been the site of the county courthouse since 1905. The original county courthouse, built in 1905, sat amidst a broad lawn.
A much larger courthouse of mid-century design was built next to the original courthouse in 1958. The two courthouses co-existed for a couple of months until the original building was demolished and replaced with an oasis of lawn and trees. The small square is now boarded by the county courthouse on the north, the federal courthouse on the east, the Wells Fargo tower to the south, and Billings City Hall to the west.
As primarily a modestly prosperous town through most of the early years, Billings does not sport many mansions. The wealth of early Montana was concentrated in the mountains of the west where fortunes were made in the mines. The exception to that was a developer named Preston Moss who arrived in Billings in 1891, just three years after the town was founded. He bought into the First National Bank of Billings and quickly built a business empire that included sheep and cattle ranching, built the first Northern Hotel (1904), helped develop the BL&I Canal that irrigated to Billings Bench area northeast of the city, incorporated the Billings Sugar Factory (a business that continues to this day processing sugar from local sugar beets), founded the Billings Evening Journal and merged it with the Billings Gazette in 1908 to create a newspaper that continues to this day, built Billings’ first meat packing plant and helped start Rocky Mountain College. As befitted a man of his importance, he decided early on to build what became Billings first and only true historical “mansion”. Completed in 1903 at what was then far west from the downtown area on Division Street, the 28-room mansion was home to Mr. Moss and his family. The home was designed by famed New York architect R.J. Hardenbergh, who also designed the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. A photograph from 1904 shows the mansion rising from the flat valley floor.
Melville Moss, Preston’s daughter, lived in the mansion until her death in 1984. Complete with most of the original furnishings the mansion was purchased by the Billings Preservation Society and today is a museum of a way of life that did not change much over the years. The mansion is closed to visitors due to the corona virus but I did manage to find a picture of the entrance hall so that you can get a taste of the lavish interior.
Today the red sandstone mansion rises above tall hedges on Wyoming and Clark with the entrance on Division Street open to view.
The mansion is set back from the bordering streets surrounded by lush landscaping.
The Moss Mansion occupies the block on Division Street bracketed by Wyoming Avenue to the south and Clark Avenue to the south. The elite of Billings quickly began to build homes along these two avenues, some large, some small and today an address on those two streets behind the Moss Mansion is still a coveted item. Many of the homes have been restored to their former glory and present some of the most expensive real estate in the city.
Across the train tracks to the south of the city center is another tale, one not so pretty, on the Billings’ South Side.
Minnesota Avenue is the southern counterpart to Montana Avenue along the train tracks but it is not lined with trendy restaurants and bars. Traditionally the center of the “bad” side of town, Minnesota Avenue was home to notorious bars and brothels, even into the early 1970’s. The “Western” and “Yukon” are two bars infamous for rough living, drugs, and even when I was in high school in the early 1970’s, home to bikers. South of Minnesota is the “South Side”, a demeaning phrase denoting poverty and racism. Hispanics, Native Americans and poor white immigrants lived in the south side of the tracks. If you lived on the South Side, a stigma was attached, one that still lasts to this day, though not as extreme as in the past. Minnesota Avenue is now an abandoned stretch of historic buildings, ghosts of the past still live on. The white building was the home of the Western Bar while the red brick building with the red wood first floor was the Yukon.
Across the street from the row of derelict buildings are warehouse and parking lots. The view is of the back of the restored buildings along Montana Avenue with the DoubleTree Hotel tower rising above.
As our tour of Montana begins we are going to head west. It’s early September and winter will soon be visiting the mountains of western Montana so it makes sense to go there first and wander around the plains of eastern Montana in early October. Our first stop is going to be Red Lodge, county seat of Carbon County, sitting at the base of the Beartooth Mountains a mere 47 miles from Billings.
Next up: Dancing Across the Top of the World
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