Steve's Travel Blog: Butte to Missoula

We did a bit of sightseeing in Butte, formerly a bustling copper mining town 80-100 years ago. Its population was double what it is now.

We went to what turned out to be a cheesy re-creation of a mining town. All we could do was peek into various buildings that were locked up tight.

A grade school from East Helena (Helena is the state capitol, about an hour away) was having a field trip... blue shirted kids everywhere.

Susanne was peering into the Chinese laundry which brings me to a bit of history.

It's hard to go to any town in the northern Rockies and not find a history of the Chinese immigrants, brought here to work in the mines & on the railroads. Of course, the mines eventually played out & the railroads were completed, but the Chinese were still here. They found work starting laundries & restaurants and were very resented by the locals. Last year we did a walking tour of Bozeman & saw this history all over again.

What we have now with the Syrians is just a replay of the Chinese in the 19th century. It seems worse now only because of the 24/7 news cycle.

Moving along...I love old cities and in the west there are plenty of them. Butte has many with wonderful old buildings. Back when Butte was at its peak, there were lots of banks. Those buildings still stand, but are re-purposed. Here's just one.

Susanne found this window display; very appropriate.

Buttte was home to a fabulously wealthy copper baron, William A. Clark. No relationship to Clark the explorer. We took a tour of his mansion, built between 1884 & 1888.

The hour tour was crowded & didn't lend itself to taking pics without people in them. Mr. Clark got into many businesses, successful at all of them. And his name stuck in unexpected places. Clark County, Nevada (of Las Vegas fame) was named after him as well as a town in the mining region of Central Arizona...Clarkdale.

==========

On to Missoula! From Butte to Missoula is a straight shot on I-90. But there's a side road, Highway 1 that runs from Anaconda to Dillon, thru Philipsburg. Well worth the detour. On one side trip there are mountains, forests, meadows & lakes. It gave me the opportunity to take a shot I call "Cloud Shadows" that play on the mountains. And those clouds are typical in Blue Sky...puffy, cottony things.

Here are the melting snow capped peaks we see all over MT as we drive through.

Right outside Anaconda is the world's tallest smokestack. Anyone who's been around Arizona for awhile knows two things:

1. Anaconda is a copper mining company that's all over & has been around a long time.
2. These abandoned smoke stacks are everywhere that copper was mined, then smelted. The attached smelter is long gone but the stack lives on. There's also one on the road to Prescott.

Note the snow peaks peeking out beyond the near hills.

Susanne & I just love these old Montana towns with the 19th century buildings lining Main Street. Here's Anaconda's main drag. That's our black 300C on the right. Way up at the head of the street looks like a church.

We checked it out. Nope, it's the county court house.

We press on.

I've said before, there's nothing prettier than a high mountain lake. Here are two shots.

On to Philipsburg, named after a German immigrant mining engineer, Philip Deidesheimer. Founded in 1867, the town celebrates its 150th anniversary this week. The founding fathers wisely took Herr Deidesheimer's first name for the town, population now less than 1,000.

Stopped by the local coffee house, had to take a pic of the tip jar.

Here's a corner at the primary intersection. Primary cuz it's the only one with a flashing red light. This is a no-traffic-light-town.

Here's the county jail built in 1896, still in use as the jail & the sheriff's office.

In our chat with the locals, several suggested we look for the noose in the tower. There it is, by golly!!!

The local museum, closed when we were there, of course.

Susanne chatting with one of the folks getting ready for the big celebration tomorrow.

They insisted we pose with their crazy cut-out prop. Whaddaya gonnado???

OK, off to Missoula but as we were approaching the interstate a large herd of Model A's was just getting off. I had to get a shot; this is only about a third of what was there & still coming.