Movin' Right Along: No Longer According to Plan

Joe and Cassie at the Headwaters of the Missouri River

2019-09-08 Sunday

Today was one of those days when everything seemed a little bit “off.” I woke up at 8:00 and never really seemed to wake up. We took our time having breakfast, getting ready to leave, etc., and pulled out around 11:00. I have had a general itinerary made up for this trip, and according to that, we were supposed to drive about 45 minutes to a place (Norris Hot Springs) which had a small (10 slot) campground and a hot springs pool, and stay there overnight. But I wasn’t really in the mood to soak again in a hot spring. We also decided not to go back to the Museum of the Rockies for more dinosaurs and Ghengis Khan. So instead we jumped ahead a day in the itinerary, and headed for Butte, Montana. I had two potential places for us to visit-- the World Mining Museum, which was highly rated but did not excite either of us that much, and the Mai Wah Museum, a very small place which was in the Mai Wah Historical Society building. The latter preserves the history of the Chinese immigrants who were very involved in the mining industry (as well as the town itself). This was what most interested Joey and me, so that was our destination.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the only way to travel this direction was I-90, although we really hate the interstate. The more I looked at the map, the more I wondered why I’d ever planned to go to Norris and Butte at all, since my main destination was north, and these places were west! But since it didn’t occur to me to correct my original itinerary for a new idea completely, we followed along on the interstate.

On the drive, I saw that we were passing a state park on the site of the headwaters of the Missouri River. This was the convergence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, which flowed together and became the Missouri. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of Discovery arrived at this point and rested for three days. L&C decided that none of these three rivers was the Missouri (which they were following), recognizing that the three together formed a new river. So they named the three rivers as they are called today, after President Jefferson, James Madison, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time of the Expedition. Then they continued exploring up each branch until deciding to continue their journey following the Jefferson River.

For about 30 minutes or so, Joey, Cassie and I were the only people visiting the river convergence. It was really beautiful, and we were feeling a bit awed by the hisorical siginficance of the site, and the realization that the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers together are truly responsible for the “bread basket” of the interior of America, which exports so much grain to the rest of the world as well.

Explanation of the photo at the top of the blog: Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the headwaters of the Missouri River. The river on the left is the Madison River (the same Madison River I was ooh-ing over in Yellowstone.) The river directly behind them is the Jefferson River. And the newly-formed Missouri River is flowing off to the right of the photo. The Gallatin River (which Joey and I drove along last Thursday on our way up US 191) joins the other rivers about a mile away from this point.

Joe and Cassie next to the newly-formed Missouri River

Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the rivers

In addition to the rivers, we looked at the remains of the original settlement at the site. In the mid-19th century, some entrepreneurs hoped that the site of these rivers would be a good place for boat traffic, as well as passenger travels. But the river rapids did not prove to be very navigable, and the town moved to where the town of Three Forks is now (we did not stop there, despite the many advertisements and inducements of the “historic town”.) The buildings we saw at the park were in extremely decrepit condition, and it’s surprising they are still standing at all!

Joe and Cassie in front of 150 year old hotel--or what is left of it!

After eating lunch just where Lewis & Clark camped, we continued on toward Butte. This is where our day really started going askew. Butte is a small city, but other than some kind of large gathering of “trekkers” (people walking in a long line as if they were on a group hike) that we saw along the highway just as we exited the interstate, we saw almost no one. The exit said we were going to “Historic Butte”, and indeed, we could tell the buildings were all quite old, but the main street was virtually deserted. This is what we’ve learned about cities in other parts of the US-- unlike on the east coast (or the north-east, anyway), where no matter when you drive through a city, you are bound to encounter crowds, if not traffic jams, in the mid-west, the cities do not have people in them downtown during the weekends! We drove through these streets with an RV and Jeep in tow, with absolutely no worries about other traffic.

Montana Roadside Scenery

Roadside Scenery--the colors of the mountains were softly washed--like a water color painting!

We noticed that all the streets we passed were named after metals-- gold, silver, aluminum, copper, etc. We turned on Mercury Street, went two blocks, and found our destination. But despite a large “Open” sign on the door, it was most definitely closed. The streets all around it were most definitely deserted. There was not a SOUL. It looked like the most run-down corner of a city you’d ever find yourself in. With trepidation, we crossed the street (we parked along the curb--the only vehicles in sight!) and knocked, but no one answered. The inside was dark, although I could see Chinese artifacts, a sign-in book, brochures for the museum, and the entry fees posted on the counter. We were REALLY disappointed, because this was just the kind of place we love to discover and learn from. Upstairs we could see paper dragon fans hanging in the window, and in the window at street level, there were some history books, and signs telling us about the town when it was still a small place, and a little bit about the Chinese activity there, but it was scanty info. (I should add that in reading about it later on Wikipedia, I learned that Mercury Street was the center of the red-light district in old mining-town Butte!)

We finally gave up hope, but before we left, I walked around the corner to a post office (thanks, Google Maps!) to mail a card. I noticed there WAS one place open-- a bar/casino on the next block. We drove into the heart of downtown from there, and still saw very few cars or anything else, although the banners on the street lights proclaimed this the “Heart of Historic Butte.” The buildings were definitely interesting, and I was just sorry that apparently everything is closed on Sunday.

Building in Downtown Butte

We decided to continue driving a couple of blocks further up the hill. I forgot to mention, all of Butte is literally built on the side of a mountain, which is known as the “richest city in the world.” Apparently it was all copper, as well as other metals, and the history of Butte is the history of mining. There are still huge towers related to mining, and lots of buildings that were part of the mining industry and supporting businesses. The Museum of Mining is a “gem attraction”, according to AAA’s guidebook! But even though it was only 3:30 and the museum closed at 6pm, Joey wasn’t that interested, and I was feeling depressed by not planning better. We sat in the RV in the middle of downtown Butte, discussing what to do next, when all I really wanted was a nap! (Main Street, so named, did NOT seem the ideal place for that!) In the end, we decided to continue toward Great Falls, our next real destination. Sadly, this meant getting onto the interstate again. So we decided to go as far as Helena, an hour away, and continue tomorrow.

Leftover mining equipment

And that’s what we did. We followed I-15 up to Helena, got off at exit 126, I think, and pulled right into the Walmart (where else?) We were actually laughing--the parking lot looked like an RV park, there were about a dozen RVs there already. We had just enough time to walk the dog and set up before the rain started. And I threw myself into bed, while Joe made us some Chinese food for dinner (hanging around the Mai Wah building, with its historic marquee proclaiming “Noodles”, had made me hungry for Chinese food!) I napped soundly while he cooked, and now he’s asleep while I type.