ON THE TRAIL with Mark - 2012

I started my morning by having coffee and conversation with Helmuth and Lucylle, a fine couple in their eighties who have lived here all their lives and who support the YT. They have been married 65 years, and when I asked their secret to a long marriage, Helmuth said “I think I’ll keep her” and Lucylle jokingly replied “I can’t get rid of him”. A fun and lively couple who shared a lot of their history with me. Helmuth showed me a photo of the Model T Ford he had for 42 years and he “never missed a parade”, where he loved driving it and waving to the crowds.

I then visited the Klein Museum, on the West side of town, a well laid out and friendly place with a wonderful display of local life. Included are a large display of Milwaukee Road memorabilia, as the railroad built the town and the bridge. There is also a one-room schoolhouse, a pioneer log cabin and an early Post Office.

On to the Sitting Bull Monument and re-burial site. Sitting Bull was killed in his old age by U. S. Soldiers in the late 1800s because of some misunderstanding and was buried first in North Dakota. Over fifty years later his descendants and others of the Lakota Sioux Nation at Standing Rock nearby felt that the famous medicine man and leader was not duly honored and succeeded in having his remains moved here. A rather small and plain sculpture by Korzak Ziolkowski, of the famous Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills, adorns the sadly neglected site that is scattered with trash and overgrown with weeds. Nearby is a monument erected to honor Sacagawea, of Lewis & Clark fame, and it is also neglected. The irony of this locale is that those run down monuments are just down the road from the large and fancy Grand River Casino and Resort, operated by the Standing Rock Sioux and thriving today with many senior citizens and tourists pumping in their money.

As for the Yellowstone Trail in this area, it is alive and well. The local Chamber of Commerce, Historical Society, and local businesses support YT activities, and plans are being discussed for next year’s 100th Anniversary of the founding of the YT. They also provide a 32 page Yellowstone Trail Guide book that is published locally every year, free to anyone, and available at most places throughout the area. Their 2011 edition is outstanding and it contains maps and information about all the towns from Baker, MT, across the Dakotas, and all the way to Olivia, MN!

Happy 4th of July from Mobridge, SD.

Last night the fireworks were great in Hettinger and went on for over an hour, from a couple of locations in town. I suppose one site was an official one and the others were folks that stocked up at the fireworks stands along the road. I had a great view with my motel window open.

I covered a fair piece of South Dakota today. Just seven miles East of Hettinger is Haynes, a small town located off of the current US 12 routing. On 12 there is a wayside commerating the Last Great Buffalo Hunt and I am including a few photos.

On to Lemmon and The Grand River Museum, home to an amazing collection of dinosour bones found on the Schmidt Ranch just North of town. Phyllis Schmidt, along with her family and a few volunteers have built an impressive display that also includes many local artifacts of life including cowboys, indians, and homesteaders. Phyllis is an avid supporter of the Yellowstone Trail and I will write some more about her and the museum in a future Arrow newsletter. If you do not receive the Arrow, please send us your name and e-mail address so we can add you to our list.

Also in Lemmon is the Petrified Wood Park, which astounded me with it’s volume and creative use of the many shapes and forms of petrified wood found locally.

Then an easy drive through Thunder Hawk, Morristown, Watauga, and McIntosh, where I clicked over to a total of 5,000 miles for the trip. There are a number variations to the YT route through here and I followed those I could. From Walker and over through McLaughlin, “Home of the Midgets” and on to Mobridge, the path of the YT varied a lot over the years. The maps on our website will show you the more common ones, so I had a pleasant ride near and across the “Wide Missouri” into “Mo-Town”.

My nickname since I was a kid has been Mo (short for Mowbray) but this place is not named for me, but for the Bridge over the Missouri River (Big Mo)…Mo (river) + bridge. Creative, huh?

When I arrived in Mobridge at 4 o’clock, the second motel I saw is the one pictured…this had to be my home for the night.

I will explore Mobridge more Tuesday. There is a large museum, Lewis & Clark sites, and a cool octogenarian couple who I will visit. And Walleye fishing on Lake Oahe!

I sort of crash landed in Hettinger last night, tired and hungry and badly wanting a motel room. The first motel I see is the Mirror Lake Lodge, an attractive, modern place that also had a room just for me at an (also) attractive price.

Hettinger won me over immediately, a prosperous and friendly farming community in Western North Dakota. A big weekend of activities is planned for the town including a steak fry, fireworks, and, as I found out later…today was the Anniversary of the Dakota Buttes Museum and they were having CUPCAKE DAY! 

So I went there after a leisurely Sunday morning drive through Scranton, Gascoyne, Reeder, and Bucyrus following the YT. The Trail mostly follows Highway 12 but had some interesting “stairsteps” along the way in the early days.

As this is quite flat, prairie land, the early roads followed section lines…the grid layed out by early surveyors - exactly mile by mile, acre by acre. Sometimes, to avoid a creek, river or other obstacle, the early roads turned sharply at a right or left 90 degrees, following section lines (a section is 640 acres, one square mile). So, you may find the YT going West, then a sharp 90 right (North) for 1 or 2 miles (always exact miles) then a sharp 90 left (West again) and so on. Interesting. And a fun drive.

Anyway, when I got back to Hettinger I cleaned up a bit, put on my Yellowstone Trail logo shirt, and went to the museum. Man, what a good time! Cupcakes and the Hettinger Cowboy Band, a tradition for 80 or more years, in a fine and spacious museum, and a surprisingly big crowd with a number of guest speakers on the program already in progress when I got there. I met Betty and Bonnie and a few other folks and was made to feel right at home. Of course, no one remains anonymous in a small town, and soon Bonnie was introducing me to the crowd as a Yellowstone Trail ”visiting dignitary” and urged me to come up and say a few words. I had to perform to get my cupcake. I did.

The YT is very well known in these parts. The museum, the town, and other area towns have displays and artifacts. Our YT Association has FOUR members in Hettinger alone…per capita, the largest membership of any town in the world! They are already planning next year’s big 100th Anniversary.

Needless to say, I had a ball. Here’s a link to the Museum’s website:

http://www.hettingernd.com/Dakota_Buttes_Museum_2011_Flyer.pdf

Oh, I had a Devil’s Food cupcake and it was “heavenly”.

I started early in Fallon, where I noticed a farm truck in front of the LAZY JD Bar and the OPEN sign lighted, so I went in to find seven folks; a teenager, two middle agers, and four senior level folks, all sipping coffee and visiting. I asked them about the empty building next door with faded lettering up top that looked like it said YELLOWSTONE GARAGE. A woman confirmed that it had been named that many years ago and said she had seen it listed as such on a plat map. They were interested in my trip and helpful in directing me to Mildred and Joe, so I headed Southwest on the YT.

Mildred was once a busy little town on the Milwaulee Road Railway, but time has left her in sad shape since the Railroad left. There is no one living there now, just the buildings, slowly sinking into the ground.

Joe, Montana is also in bad shape, but has a story to tell. According to Wikipedia, Ismay is a town in Custer County, Montana. The population was 25 at the 2010 census. The town’s name is an amalgamation of Isabella and May, the names of the daughters of Albert J Earling, division superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. As a publicity stunt coordinated by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993, the town unofficially took the name of Joe, Montana, after the NFL quarterback Joe Montana.

The Post Office is still officially Ismay, but the Fire Department is in the Joe Montana building. There is a YT sign in front of it mounted sideways, why?

The roads through here range from nice, level gravel to rutted dirt, and I saw no traffic. I thought about Jim Marx riding these roads last year on his bicycle…must have been a quiet and thoughtful ride.

I eventually wound my way into the back side of Baker, a pretty lively town compared to Mildred and Joe. Then on Highway 12 across the North Dakota line, through Marmarth, and on the 23 mile YT route through the National Grasslands on a nice gravel road where I got mixed up and took the wrong road, but eventually made it back onto Hiway 12. It was up there I saw the very neat and very old sign shown above.

Bowman, ND was next, and it was FULL! By that I mean that this is their Annual Reunion Weekend, when all school classes and many families hold reunions. It was 8:00pm by now and I tried all six motels…all full, and took a look at the skimpy city campground, where they want $15 to park in a dead grass field with not a tree nearby. Nope.

I jumped ahead to Hettinger and got one of the last two rooms available at the Mirror Lake Lodge, a very nice and inexpensive motel. Hungry, tired, and it’s now dark. A quick c-store sandwich and…nighty-night.

I reluctantly left Forsyth (I like that town) after another pleasant visit with Cal at Clark Hardware, where I shared some old YT maps with him that I had along with me. Then, an easy drive to Miles City following pieces of the original route. I found the Miles City Star and Printing Co. where a pleasant woman logged onto the YellowstoneTrail.org website and printed out the maps for ND, SD, and MN that I either had left at home or lost in the “Great Cheese Robbery”. We had a nice conversation as she quickly printed out the 13 maps and said “that will be a dollar twenty-five”. Such a deal! She was very interested in the YT and bookmarked our website for future investigation. A new YT fan!

On to Terry (home to Yellowstone Beans) and a stop at the Prairie County Museum, located in a wonderfully maintained former bank. The woodwork, marble, and the vault are all just as they were in the bank’s heyday with many impressive displays of local history. There I met Jan, Carol, and Ruth, home town girls who were a lot of fun to visit with. They are very knowledgeable about the region and pretty up to date on the YT history.

Then a quick drive to Fallon where it looks like a long drive on the old route through Mildred, Joe (the town formerly known as Ismay - google it for the story), Baker and beyond, a drive I will continue tomorrow. The closest motel I can find is the Super 8 in Glendive, 35 miles away. It’s 4th of July weekend, and a lot of folks are on the road.

I spent some time exploring around Custer, as I had hunted Mule Deer in this area many years ago. Custer has lost most of it’s shine since the Interstate came through here. The motel / Cafe is closed and the only businesses now operating are a small c-store and the Junction City Saloon, a clean and modern place where the owner, an “Aussie” fried up a good burger for me and surprised me with “buffalo chips”, round spicy french fries. He told me that he came to Custer to “get married” twenty years ago. It’s the first bar I’ve been in that has a wedding photo prominently displayed behind the bar.

I followed “old 10” on to Forsyth, stopped at the very cool “Spring Rest Stop” that has supplied refreshing cold water to travelers since before the YT days. I could close my eyes and see my dad stopping here for a cool refreshing drink, and maybe some water for the Model A when he went through here in 1935 . Then I visited the recently expanded Rosebud County Pioneer Museum with it’s extensive, uncrowded displays of local memorabilia. The nice volunteers there sent me down the street to the hardware store, where I visited with Cal, who is the owner, only employee, and local history buff. Cal showed me an original 1915 YT Yearbook and a letter from the YT in 1915, asking for $1.00 (big bucks!) to support the efforts of the Yellowstone Trail. Forsyth is a very nice small town, with the old buildings adding character. The town is dominated by the BNSF railroad operations hauling locally dug coal to feed the power plants in the East.

Note that the old photo above shows the Yellowstone Trail Garage as it was, and the new photo as it is today, a pharmacy. Cal told me that a 4” or so bronze medalion from the old YT is embedded in the pillar to the left of the door, and now covered up by fake stone. I told him (just joking…maybe) that since he owns a hardware store, he has lots of hammers and chisels, so “lets go down there and chop it out”.

A good night at the RestWel Motel (their spelling) and it’s on to Miles City.

Up and at ‘em by 7 when the sun topped the mountains at the Parkside Camp on Beartooth Hiway. When I left the camp I had 4,105 miles showing for my trip so far. I stopped in Red Lodge for coffee and ice and drove North towards Laurel, a booming town with a big refinery and lots of railroad activity. The Chamber of Commerce was very busy getting ready for their upcoming ”BIG” 4th of July event, but I was able to talk to the woman who seemed to be in charge for a bit, gave her some YT info, and headed for Billings.

Billings is the largest city in Montana, and it’s almost grown out to Laurel to the West, and not at all as I remember it in the winter of ‘72-‘73 when, as a young guy, I had a water treatment system project there in the Continental Oil (Conoco) Refinery and “lived” in the Rimrock Lodge for about two months (they are both still there, but changed a lot). I’ve been to Billings since then and I knew it had grown since my last visit in ‘97, but Holy Cow…it’s a Boom Town!

Garmin GPS took me to the Western Heritage Center, a beautiful museum right downtown (or is it “uptown”?) where I visited with Kevin, the Director. Kevin is a great YT supporter and has some cool YT memorabilia. He has created a five minute ”silent movie” made up of photos of the YT in the 1910s…he gave me a DVD copy, so remind me sometime if you would like to see it. He also pointed me to a neat old “Gulf to Glacier Trail” sign painted on a building a block or so away. There were a lot of “Trails” in Montana in the early days of the automobile, but the Yellowstone Trail was King of them all, and the only one still kickin’ today at 99 years old.

I then headed out of town on Hy 87, but first pulled into a vacant gravel lot for a photo of the Conoco Refinery, much larger than when I worked in there…when a Security Guard zoomed up in his truck and politely told me that it was against the National Security Act to take any photos…and by the way, I was also trespassing on private property. I told him I was lost and “how about if I leave right now?”. He smiled and said “have a nice day, I never saw you here”. Would I have got away with that if I looked like a “foreigner”?

Sadly, it’s “mountains in my rear view mirror” from here as I head East into the Yellowstone River Valley. I followed the YT route to Huntley and stopped at the Huntley Project Museum, where I met Melissa, the Director hired last year from Portland, OR. She knew nothing of the YT, except that there is a YT logo on their sign out front. I did not mention that that logo says “1911” and that the Trail started in 1912. She was very enthusiastic about what I told her and hopes to organize a special event next year for our 100th. The Huntley Project was the first US Government sponsored irrigation project that was a success in the Great Depression years of the ’30s. The irrigation provided the homesteaders with water for their farms and ranches, and saved them from the ravages of the ‘30 dust bowl occurring elsewhere.

Then a quick visit to Pompey’s Pillar, a landmark on the Lewis and Clark journey, where Wm. Clark carved his name and the date of his visit. It was pushing 100 degrees, so I did not climb up the rock to see it.

And, I learned something else today. I knew that the black beef seen all over the West are Black Angus, originally from Scotland. I learned today that the dark solid red ones are Red Angus. I don’t know what color the steer was that donated that steak I had last week, but it was delicious. That’s a bull in the photo, in case you couldn’t tell. He did not like me driving on “his” road.

Oh, and the YT is a great drive through the Yellowstone River Valley. On to Custer and Forsyth tomorrow.

With another 90 degree day ahead, I left Big Timber early via Reed Point. The YT follows Old Hy 10 East from here and is an easy drive on good two-lane to Reed Point, where the very cool old Montana Hotel is still operating. There, the YT heads North on Trees Rd. and Reed Point Rd., both gravel. The flash floods tore out a culvert on Reed Point, but I was able to get around on Trees Rd. to Springtime Rd. and continue East.

While poking along, I came past a driveway that headed a ways up to a farm (not a ranch) where there was a small sign nailed to the mailbox post saying “(blank) Farm”. I remembered Jim Marx’s blog from last year where he told of visiting Dorothy (with the same last name), somewhere in this area, but I didn’t know where it was. I took a chance and drove up to the farm and knocked on the door of the house…and Dorothy answered my knock with a friendly smile and a “come on in”. I spent a half hour or so with this delightfuly sharp woman talking the YT and her family. She’s lived in the area for 82 years, and on the farm since her marriage. I didn’t meet her son, who I just missed. I also didn’t get to see the cool old 1940 Chevy car and 1929 Chevy truck, both owned by the family since new. They are locked in the shed, but did see a very nice painting of the truck and barn done by her friend.

I continued into Columbus and visited the very nice Museum of the Beartooths, then I started a side trip Southeast to the Beartooth Mountains, on the Northeast side of YNP. I drove over this pass 14 years ago and couldn’t wait to do it again.

I know from past trips that once I get to Laurel and Billings, the real mountains will all, sadly, be in my rearview mirrors. I am delaying that by heading up to Beartooth Pass, where there is snow all year round and even a “summer snowboarding camp”. I drove the switchbacks up to the top of the pass and felt sorry for some folks on bicycles riding up. Why? A sign told me that the last 5 1/2 miles of the road climbs 6,000 feet!!! That’s over 1,000 feet of elevation climb per mile. This is the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. Don’t miss it…put this one on your bucket list.

I drove back down to just below the snow line and camped next to the rushing river  in the pines…that is, I spent the night in the cozy Kia Chalet, and two mule deer walked up and looked in my window at dusk. Heaven? Probably as close as I’ll get.

I woke to sun and a promise of another great day, but I had a setback. The photo shows how the Kia looked when I found out that things were all not great. Someone tried to steal my hitch rack, but it’s locked to the hitch, so they only got my cooler and a small tent and some odds and ends like crackers, peanut butter, and some basic office supplies. I had taken all of my dirty clothes out last night to do laundry, so there was not much in the box. They didn’t want my $10 lawn chair. Nothing I cannot live without. No sense calling the cops, and the loss is too small for insurance.

Off to buy a cooler, food basics, and some bungee cords. Maybe there’s a better day ahead.

It really ticks me off though, because they took my WISCONSIN CHEESE!

UPDATE: I got out of that “low prices” place for a bit over $60 with a new cooler, bungee cords, and ample food to replace the stuff, except the little tent, that was taken. A bag of ice and I was on my way. Easy route through Bozeman and onto Bozeman Hill Road East. There are a few miles of the YT that have been covered by the Interstate, but all in all a good drive to Livingston. From there, I went back down to the YNP’s North entrance at Gardiner, the same general route I traveled two weeks ago through Yankee Jim Canyon, but this time I took the East River Road that was the YT route for a few years in the late 20s. My intention was to enter the Park and head East to Cooke City and up and over the Beartooth Pass to Red Lodge.

It was not going to happen! When I stopped at the US Forest Service office in Gardiner, I was told that the road over Beartooth was washed out and not even the Forest Service crews can get through. Time for “plan B”.

Back to Livingston, where I stopped at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, which is closed for renovations, but has our YT logo on all the signs and even the 4-wheel truck the museum folks drive. It looks like home to a YT fan! There was a door open, so I yelled in “HELLO?” and met Paul Shea, the Museum Director, a knowledgeable and friendly guy who was able to spend a half hour with me talking YT and the Livingston area. He also looked at my YT map and gave me a couple of specific pointers and I was on my way to Big Timber via Old Clyde Park and Convict Grade Roads.

The Convict Grade road was built by bad guys before 1900 so folks could get to the opulent and very large Hunters Hot Springs Hotel. Paul showed me some great photos from it’s heyday in the ’20s with fancy cars, golf and tennis courts, and very formal clothing on the guests, and he said that the only thing left after a big fire in the 1920s was a stone wall that formed the front porch. I drove out of town and found the road…it is gravel and dirt still today, pretty much like it was then, and a delight to follow as the snow covered Crazy Mountains are to the North, Yellowstone’s mountains to the South, and the Yellowstone River is right along the road.  (Just about everything around here is named Yellowstone.) And, there are lots of antelope that just stand there and look at you as you drive by at 20 miles per. As John and Alice Ridge wrote so well on our website: ”Some sections of the Trail, especially  in the West, have remained little changed and are a delight to visit.”  Then on N. River Rd. and onto our old friend, “Frontage Road”, that was named after an early explorer named Horatio Frontage. (:>).  It’s maybe a thirty mile drive over to Big Timber, where I spent the night in an older, but good motel. I feasted on my “new” cheese with a few slices of ham with wheat crackers. I’m in a better mood now.

Today, on through Stillwater County and maybe a side trip through Red Lodge and up the Northeast side of Beartooth to the summit, where the road is supposed to be open.

This beautiful Sunday morning found me in Whitehall, Montana. Coffee and some cruising the net prepared me for another great drive. I cruised over to Cardwell on the old YT (now Frontage Road…how original!) From Cardwell, it was Southeasterly on MT 359 to it’s intersection with US 287. After taking the wrong dirt road for about 5 miles, I saw a white pickup coming towards me, so I waved him down. It was a young guy and his lady friend who had no clue and had never heard of the YT. The next truck coming my way was waved down as well, and he was an old timer who who knew the roads, as he has lived here all his life. “Go back to the Hiway intersection, go North about a mile and a half on 287, and turn right. That’s the Yellowstone Trail and it will take you all the way over to Willow Creek”. So I did, and he was correct, it was exactly 1.5 miles to the YT from 359. To call it a road is a stretch, it’s a dirt trail that until recently, had been very muddy and had been rutted badly by whoever was driving whatever over that trail, probably some yahoo in a jacked up 4-wheel truck, and he really tore it up in places. It was dried out today, so I kind of weaved around on the less rutted sections as I drove along at about 10 miles per.

There was not a house, building, or other sign of civilization…not even an old fallen down barn, cow, or sign of anything. Amazing. This was the main road between Butte and Billings and the “GOOD ROAD FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK TO PUGET SOUND” for many years. There must have been nothing then either, or there would be some sign of former life there. After 10.1 miles of nothing but beautiful rolling scrub rangeland, I came aroung a curve and saw a house that may have been older than the YT, and it was obviously abandoned 50 or more years ago.

At 10.6 miles along the way, there is a modern sign stating INITIAL POINT explaining that just West of this sign on top of a very recognizable rounded hill is the bronze disc marking the baseline for all surveying done in the entire State of Montana. All land in the state had been measured and laid out from that exact spot. Wow!

Just down the road was civilization, as we know it, I guess. Scattered ranches and cows, a few planted grassy fields, giving way to small homes and then the Village of Willow Creek, just where the old timer said, 13.6 miles from where I turned. What a great ride, just like it must have been in 1915 in your Oakland Phaeton.

From there it was an easy ride into Three Forks, the place where Lewis and Clark decided to follow the Jefferson River Southwest to reach the Northwest passage, rather than the Madison or Gallatin rivers on their Journey of Discovery. Did I mention that this was also where Sacajawea was kidnapped as a young girl? Or that she helped L & C find their way here?

Work in progress, and I’ll add more later tonight or in the morning.