Storms, Early Pioneers and Helena, The Montana Capitol

On our last post we left you with a splendid sunset...


We woke up to rain in the night and throughout the day the landscape changed on an hourly basis giving us a wide assortment of grays that followed with many sieges of rain and wind, thunder and lightening.  As much as I hate to see the weather change the varying shades of gray were a sight to see and I welcomed the coolness.
 

 
Some pictures are so dark that it appears that we took the pictures with black and white settings.  I assure you, we did not.  At times thunder and lightening shook our home and I can tell you I was truly uneasy  as our home sat along the water waiting out the storm. 

 

But finally the storm the worst of the storm ended ....the fisherman returned and fish were caught making very happy fisherman and seagulls.

We spent the days reading, watching movies, cleaning house and  walks when the weather would allow and of course lots of cooking and eating....






We waited out the storm for two days and finally the weather began to improve though still overcast and a bit threatening.




When the bunnies came out to play taking time for a little snack, we took it as a good sign and we left our beach front property for a trip into Helena for a bit of local sightseeing.

 

 Helena - The Montana State Capitol

Helena was not the first choice for the State Capitol.  The first choice for Territorial Capitol was Bannack then there a fight among the mining barons to select their town as the Territorial Capitol.  Eventually, Helena wrestled the title was of Territorial Capitol from Virginia City to become the new state capitol in 1889.

 The grand staircase leads up to a gigantic, colorful stained glass window.

Art throughout the Capitol reflect the history  of early Montana and the artists and early settlers who thrived there.   On the top of the rotunda, are the paintings of the Indian Chief, The Cowboy, The Trapper and The Prospector that reflect the history of the Montana Territory. 

I loved the view out the arched window over the vast expanse of foothills and plains.  

It exposes truly epic big skies of Montana.

Montana State Senate Room

Near the center of the Capitol, up the Grand Stairway and on the second floor, is a statue of Jeannette Rankin. She was the first woman in America to be elected (1916) to the U.S. House of Representatives before women had the right to vote in the United States.  Rankin who was a pacifist, voted against the entry to WW2 ending her political career in Montana. 

Montana House of Representatives

One of the Capitol's main attractions is a giant painting by Montana's famous Western artist Charles M. Russell. The painting, called "Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole", is 25 feet long (like three cars end-to-end) and twelve feet high. It depicts the scene where the explorers Lewis and Clark asked Montana's Salish Indians for the safest route to cross the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The canvas on which it's painted was so big that the artist had to have the roof raised on his studio to paint it. It's displayed above the Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives' chamber.

Original Governor's Residence

Helena has a wonderful historic district where walking will reward the willing participant with many historic mansions homes and buildings complete with plaques giving accurate history of many locations that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cathedral of St Helena

 

Now if you are in the market for a bed and breakfast, there happens to be one for sale in the historic district.

Of course I had to find a quaint little cottage and this little painted lady fits the bill for my favorite that I shared here.  What was your favorite..... Do you favor little or do you wish to go grand and big?  Once again I found myself pressing on and did not do my customary neighborhood drive around Helena.  I found myself anxious to return to nature and discover the wilds of Glacier Park. With a few more planned stops before Glacier, we hit the road once again.

Gates to the Mountains   

 In the interest of varying our experiences we elected to go on a boat ride during our trip.  Across the many miles we would be traveling in Montana there were many scenic boat trips to choose from. We heard of a unique boat trip up the Missouri River called Gates to the Mountains and decided after some research that it would be the one.  I hope you will agree.

The opening you see here is not the Gates to the Rockies that Lewis wrote of but merely the southern entrance to the River. 

The upheaval of land mass is clearly visible making this wilderness a wonder at every turn.

  

     During the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the explorers searched for a water passage way through the looming and rugged Rocky Mountains.   Traveling the Missouri River they hoped they had found the way through the mountains. 

 Early settlers marveled at the formations and picked out familiar looking formations among the rocks.  Do you see the face looking back at you?

Captain Lewis wrote on July 19, 1805,

“

this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these cliffs rise from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet. ... the river appears to have forced its way through this immense body of solid rock for the distance of 5-3/4 Miles ... I called it the gates of the rocky mountains.

”

A recent addition to our wilderness areas, The Gates of the Mountains Wilderness was created by an act of Congress in 1964, the wilderness is managed by Helena National Forest.

Visited by Native American for thousands of years, left pictographs that are still visible today.  Thought to be left by shamans who may have used the area for vision quests. 

Gates of the Mountains Wilderness (then known as the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area) was the site of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire, which claimed the lives of 13 firefighters and which was the subject of  Norman Maclen's  book "Young Men and Fire".  The studies of the Mann Gulch Fire have led to a greater understanding of fire dynamics and lead to improved fire fighting management that are still used today.

 In 1918, when Holter Dam was built forming Holter Lake, the water level of the Missouri River in the Gates was raised approximately 14 feet (4.3 m).

Teaming with wildlife we were treated not only with an adult eagle guarding their terrain but with this years babies soaring above our tour.

 "Opening" of the Gates of the Mountains coming upstream as they would have been viewed by Lewis and Clark

As the gates open more...

Definitely worth a stop for the Lewis and Clark or Montana history buffs.

Early pioneers Henry Sieben (raising sheep) and Nicholas Hilger (raising cattle) ranched the area since the mid 1800's.  Where others had not been successful, the two neighbors built empires that continue in the families today.

In 1886 Hilger started a river transport business that was not successful but later turned it into a river tour business that continues today.

Hull of the original tour boat

 In 1983 descendants of Nicholas Hilger were disturbed by encroachment of subdivisions near the rivers edge,   They established a trust ensuring that the land near the river would continue as conservation easement allowing the ranch to continue in production as it had while allowing future generations to enjoy the river as previous generations had.

River Overlook

Buffalo and Cattle....The Food Staples of the Wild West

When planning the activities for the next few days I was aware of the interconnection between our two activities.  Buffalo and cattle - food staples of the Wild West.    Our two contrasting visits represent a different time in history of this land and a difference of culture and heritage but sharing the commitment to the land and survival using the tools and knowledge available to utilize the animals that provide sustenance.

We started by visiting friends, Carol Jo and her husband Roy who are ranchers in Livingston, Montana a small town in central Montana.  We went on a tour of the ranch and we were totally amazed by the challenges they face ranching in a beautiful but unforgiving landscape.

Bee Balm gone wild

I had never seen ranching done on mountain tops.  Four wheel drive is a must.  Even the cattle are all terrain. Up and Up we go. 

 

When I think of ranching land, I think of the wide open range land, with rolling hills as far as the eye can see.   When you come to ranching via a family business, you learn to ranch the land you grew up on.  

You know the ins and outs of each part of land and find family history and connection in out of the way places.

  Each piece of land, each structure has a story, and a connection to your family history.

There are several thousand acres for the cows to hide.... we found a few, some where they didn't belong.  The horses stayed lost....

Hailey was determined to pet a calf, while they remained determined that she would not pet them. 

The cows prevailed.

The landscapes contain human remnants of the past dotting the views like a painting, waiting to be discovered.

There are some pastures that where hay is produced for winter, and a lot of free range area that they move the cattle from area to area.  Mind you, the county does not  maintain these roads.   Mostly the trucks keep the path worn down revealing the way to the pasture lands.

We stopped for a photo op at Carols  Jo's
       favorite tree.....

    Can you imagine how many pictures have been taken at this very spot over the years?  Scarred and broken but still standing.

We are honored to have our picture taken here.

We are here during the middle of summer.....Can you imagine this place through each of the seasons and all the weather conditions,  in the more than 100 years Roy's family's have raised cattle on this land.

Carol Jo made a wonderful dinner of hamburgers, made from the beef they raised, wrapped with bacon before frying and smothered with caramelized onions.  Oh, my, goodness.  I shall forever be spoiled to eating a hamburger by this dinner.  All other hamburgers will be measured against this hamburger.

Our next stop takes us back in time to the time that Native Americans lived in this land before they had horses.  When millions of buffalo roamed the plains in gigantic herds.  The process of gathering the products used by the Native Americans has been documented by oral histories and authenticated by archeologists.

Before horses were brought to the plains and utilized by the Native Americans to hunt buffalo, the ingenious hunters gathered near the huge cliffs to kill the buffalo that they needed to sustain their people through the long winters.

Young runners ran along the sides of the cliffs stampeding the buffalo over the cliffs where they plunged to their deaths.  Other runners hazed the buffalo by jumping up waving skins of animals and yelling as they ran along the cliffs keeping them on the path to the cliff edge. Hunters waiting for the buffalo to fall over the cliff swiftly killed the buffalo. The runners jumped to a safe ledge until the stampede was over.  Women, older tribal members and children helped to prepare the products that they used from the buffalo.

Every part of the buffalo was utilized for food,tools, weapons, clothing, and utensils.
In addition to meat being cut into strips to be dried over poles, a mixture of ground bits of meat and dried berries and made into a paste that was then dried and made into strips that were like an energy bar and it was called, pemmican. These bars became a staple through the long winters. 

At the base of the cliffs at Madison Buffalo Jump is twelve feet of dirt and artifacts which include bones and arrows from the spears that were used.  The artifacts indicate this buffalo jump was used for 2,000 years until the practice was abandoned in the 1700's when horses and rifles made the practice unnecessary.


The village would be set back from the cliff but would be assembled before the buffalo arrival to prepare for the events.   An artists rendition based on artifacts and firerings gives an indication of and location of the village where vasts amount of work was done after the hunt.

We visited another Buffalo Jump north of Helena called The First Peoples Buffalo Jump.  On some of the maps it is indicated as the Ulm Buffalo Jump.

There is a visitor center and it also had a road that drove up to the top of the buffalo jump.  In rattlesnake country that is a good thing so I wanted to check it out.

The trip up to the top was a wonderful addition to the picture I had painted in my mind of the events as they happened at a buffalo jump.  Buffalo have poor vision so it is easy to see how a buffalo might not see the cliffs as they stampede near the edge of the cliffs.

See how the edge of the embankment blends into the grasses in the across the landscape

Look for a hiding place that a runner might find safety as the gigantic buffalo tumbled off the cliff

 
It is clear that the job of runner was very  and I dangerous and one can only imagine that many lives were sacrificed to provide for the needs of the village.

Clearly, providing for food for the many requires sacrifices and hard work.... then and today.  Most of us are entirely removed from the process of obtaining food in our modern world and are clueless about what it takes to produce our food.

Buffalo were not the only wildlife who lived in the area....

With a storm brewing, we headed to a quiet spot called Canyon Ferry Lake to wait it out..... We were treated to a spectacular sunset.

And Then the Rain Began....