A Journey Through Nowhere But My Memories…
In keeping with my goal of avoiding the interstate, upon leaving Helena I headed east on US 12, which cuts across the middle of central Montana through some of the loneliest country around. You’ll recall from the Helena visit that Helena sits on the slopes of Mt. Helena looking east at the Big Belt Mountains. Well, heading out of Helena we have to cross those mountains and this picture was taken just below the pass. One of the things that you can count on when travelling through Montana from spring until fall is road construction. The season is short and so construction is everywhere. No sense in getting excited about it (though this is one way you can definitely tell the locals from the tourists!) so Augie and I had a pleasant 30 minutes waiting for our turn in a narrow canyon with barely room for the two-lane road and the creek.… Most of the pictures in this post will be large, reflecting the reason this is called the Big Sky Country!
The Missouri River runs south to north through the mountains before turning east at Great Falls and after crossing the Big Belts we head down into the last of the major south/north river valleys, the Smith River Valley. Sitting between the Big Belt Mountains on the west and the Castle/Little Belt Mountains on the east, this is a remote area that briefly had a mining boom in the late 1800’s (silver and lead) and now is a ranching center. The only town in the county of any substance is White Sulphur Springs. With a little less than 1,000 people (Meagher County in total has only about 1,900 people – less than 1 person per square mile), White Sulphur Springs is not a “cutesy” tourist destination but rather a place where outdoorsmen stock up on gas and groceries before heading out into the mountains for the hunting, fishing and hiking that Montana is famous for.
White Sulphur Springs does have two tourist attractions that get some attention. One is the mineral hot springs that the town is named for and the other is the rather out-of-place mansion that dominates the hill north of the town.
The Castle at White Sulphur Springs was built in 1892 by a very successful jack-of-all trades, Byron R. Sherman. Cousin to William Sherman of Civil War Fame, Byron had travelled the west in search of his fortune with time in the gold fields of California, Idaho and Montana before settling on a ranch just north of White Sulphur Springs and dominating local business. He owned stage lines connecting the Smith River Valley to Helena and Great Falls, developed the first electrical plant in the area, did some early silver mining, and focused on raising cattle and horses in the valley (he owned the first race track in the area). Just as what little boom there was started ending by 1890 as the mines played out, Sherman decided to build his mansion on the hill north of town. The “Castle” was constructed in 1892 out of granite blocks from the Castle Mountains, about 12 miles southeast of town. Here’s a view down to town and the Smith River Valley to the west from in front of the mansion (Helena is on the other side of those mountains).
Continuing east from White Sulphur Springs on US 12, the highway skirts between the Little Belt Mountains to the north and the Castle Mountains to the south. We are now officially entering “Bentz” territory. For reasons known only to him, my father (who was a truck driver and city boy from Billings) loved the remote, windswept region east of White Sulphur Springs and northwest of Billings. As I remember, hunting was generally more successful for us than fishing, though as he got older fishing took up more of his time. Checkerboard Reservoir was home base to many a hunting expedition and I remember the cold trips (hunting is a fall activity, and snow comes early to these mountains and drives the deer down into the somewhat easier reach of hunters). We had a little trailer and it would be parked on the shores of the reservoir very close to the point of land seen jutting out into the lake above the picnic table. Note that this is NOT resort living! Can’t say that the “blood and guts” part of hunting was my thing, but exploring the woods definitely was and fostered the wandering through the nooks and crannies of the west that I love doing today. The view in the picture is from the south side of the lake, looking north past our camping spot to the Little Belt Mountains.
Just beyond the reservoir is the little disreputable hamlet of Checkerboard, which really is just the Checkerboard Bar and a sorry collection of old derelict trailers, one of which I think was my father’s last one and is a treasured retreat for younger brother Scott to this day. This is the real ‘Merica! Not many year-round residents here, but lots of people use their trailer as a base camp for 4-wheeling/hiking/fishing in the summer (when it can get really hot!) and hunting/snowmobiling in the winter (when it can get REALLY cold!)
As we continue to travel east down US 12 the canyon widens and the road enters the Musselshell River valley. The Musselshell River can be a raging torrent during the spring and then nearly dry up in the late summer. Though small in size, the river runs due east until north of Billings where it makes a big bend to the north before spilling into the Missouri river. The valley begins to widen just east of Checkerboard and shortly we come to another of my father’s favorite places, especially later in life, Martinsdale Reservoir. This area is even less my thing as it is in the middle of nowhere, a reservoir primarily designed for flood control, with minimal trees and endless wind and blue sky. To the south, the last outpost of the Rocky Mountains, the Crazy Mountains, rise sharply to the skies. To the east, nothing but bluffs, wheat fields, cottonwood trees along the river bottom and the sandstone bluffs that line the river valley for miles; and the wind….
The picture below was taken from the side of US 12 just before the cut-off to head southeast to Billings. Long-time readers will remember that Billings sits down in the Yellowstone River Valley below a line of sandstone cliffs on the north. This is what central Montana looks like above and north of the Rims.
Highway 3 cuts southeast from Lavina to Billings, running through flat prairie. This time of year there’s a lot of marsh land due to the melting of the mountain snows, interspersed with wheat fields. It’s a raw, unforgiving land with extreme temperature swings, minimal moisture, and endless wind (sense a theme here?). I know I’m getting closer to Billings when I start to see a few pine trees in the distance. The view now includes the ever-present coal trains, heading west.
As you continue heading southeast on Highway 3 a few houses start appearing on the right, the airport tower is on the left and suddenly to your right you are looking down from the top of the cliffs at the city of Billings. The view here is from the top of the Rims looking southwest across downtown towards the Rockies and Yellowstone Park about 120 miles away.
And now I am back in town and ready to finish buying this house. You might think the journey’s over, but it’s not! Next up: don’t fool with Mother Nature!
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