Montana
After leaving Yellowstone and visiting Cody for a few days, I made my way to the “Big Sky” state of Montana where I would remain for most of the month of August 2024. I started off staying at the world’s first KOA in Billings where I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield and Pompey’s Pillar. My next stop was to the Bozeman area where I stayed at two Montana state parks: Missouri Headwaters and Lewis & Clark Caverns. I then made my way to Butte to learn about the mining history, pay my respects to Evel, and visit one of the best preserved ghost towns in the country. Finally, I made two quick stops in the Missoula area at Beavertail Hill and Flathead Lake state parks before going on to Glacier National Park which will be the subject of its own post. I hope you enjoy all the photos and reading about the beautiful state of Montana.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
In the spring of 1876, the United States government was having serious Indian problems. Recently, gold had been discovered in the Black Hills which was traditional Lakota territory and the government wanted them out. Many tribes, including the Lakota and Cheyenne, refused to report to their designated reservations which prompted the government to issue a proclamation that any Indian not reporting to their reservation by January 31, 1876 would be considered hostile. As the winter snow melted on the plains, many tribes remained at large which prompted the US Army to launch a summer campaign to forcibly return them to their reservations.
The army’s 1876 campaign against the Lakota and Cheyenne called for three separate expeditions: one under Gen. George Crook from Fort Fetterman in Wyoming Territory, another under Col. John Gibbon from Fort Ellis in Montana Territory, and the third under Gen. Alfred Terry from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory (see my blog post on this fort). These three columns would converge on the Indian encampments located in southeastern Montana under the leadership of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and other war chiefs. Crook’s forces were knocked out of the campaign in mid-June when they clashed with a large Lakota-Cheyenne force along the Rosebud River. After their victory, the Indian forces moved their camps to the Little Bighorn Valley.
General Terry ordered one of his commanders, Col. George Armstrong Custer, to take the 7th Cavalry up the Rosebud River and approach the Indian encampment at Little Bighorn from the south. Terry would accompany Gibbon’s forces back up the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers and approach from the north. At dawn on June 25, Custer’s 7th Cavalry of about 600 men located the Indian camp where some 2,000 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors awaited. Custer divided his forces into three battalions with Maj. Marcus Reno and Capt. Frederick Benteen taking command of the other two forces. While Benteen’s forces scouted the bluffs to the south, Custer and Reno moved up the Little Bighorn valley towards the Indian camp.
The battle began with Reno’s forces clashing with Indian warriors on the southern end of the Indian camp. Reno attempted to make a stand, but he soon realized his forces were way outnumbered and he ordered a retreat to the bluffs where his forces joined with Benteen. From their positions on the bluffs, Reno and Benteen could see that Custer was under heavy attack from a vastly superior Indian force. On the hill which is now known as Custer’s Last Stand, with no defensive ground available Custer ordered his remaining force of 41 men to shoot their horses and use them as breastworks to make a final stand. Here is where Custer, his brother Tom, his brother-in-law Lt. Cooke, and all his men were killed by superior forces of the Lakota and Cheyenne. All five companies under Custer’s command were killed, about 210 men, while Reno and Benteen’s forces had 53 men killed and 52 wounded. The Battle of Little Bighorn remains one of the most lopsided loses in US Army history.
Today, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument lies on the Crow Reservation. At Last Stand Hill lies the 7th Cavalry Memorial where the remains of Custer’s men are buried in a mass grave: Custer was reinterned at West Point. The headstone markers below the memorial mark the locations where Custer and his men fell in that final stand. Throughout the national monument there are white headstones that mark the location where soldiers fell and in 1999 the National Park Service began placing red grave markers to indicate where Lakota and Cheyenne warriors fell. Native Americans have erected a beautiful Indian Monument that tells of their role in the battle and their struggles to preserve their way of life. A five-mile battlefield road connects the Custer and Reno-Benteen battlefields with interpretive markers along the route. The site is also the location of the Custer National Cemetery which is the final resting place for United States servicemen who served in all major conflicts: only one grave is from a Little Bighorn casualty.
Pompey’s Pillar National Monument
After successfully reaching the Pacific in 1805, Lewis and Clark made the risky move of splitting their party into smaller groups on the return trip so that multiple routes could be explored. On July 25, 1806, Captain William Clark, Sacagawea, her 18-month-old son Jean Baptiste (nicknamed “Pompey”), and six men from the Corps of Discovery stopped near a sandstone outcrop along the Yellowstone River on their return trip from the Pacific Coast. Clark carved his signature and date into the rock which he named “Pompey’s Pillar” after Jean Baptiste. In his journal, Clark noted “The natives have engraved on the face of this rock. The figures of animals are near where I marked my name and the date of the month and year.”
Today, Pompey’s Pillar National Monument in eastern Montana preserves one of the only pieces of physical evidence of the historic Lewis and Clark Expedition. The massive sandstone outcrop covers about 2 acres at its base and rises to a height of 120 feet. Early visitors to the site defaced the historical inscription by adding their own names and today Clark’s signature is protected behind glass and under video surveillance. The modern Interpretive Center does an excellent job representing the journey of Captain William Clark and his detachment down the Yellowstone River Valley in 1806. Now I am a big fan of the Lewis and Clark Expedition so being able to see this physical evidence was a huge thrill.
Missouri Headwaters State Park
During their discussions in July 1803, President Thomas Jefferson instructed Meriwether Lewis to explore the Missouri River to its source and find a water passage to the Pacific Ocean across the continent. On July 27, 1805, Captains Lewis and Clark along with their Corps of Discovery fulfilled that mission by reaching the headwaters of the Missouri River which is located near present day Three Forks, Montana. Upon reaching the source of the Missouri, Lewis and Clark named the three tributary rivers: Jefferson for their boss President Thomas Jefferson, Madison for the Secretary of State James Madison, and Gallatin for Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin. They camped here for three nights making observations and surveying the land. Lewis even climbed a large rock outcrop, now called Lewis Rock, to get a better view of the area.
From these headwaters, the Missouri River flows 2,341 miles until it meets the Mississippi River in St. Louis and is the nation’s longest river. The name dates back to the 17th century and the maps of French trapper Jacques Marquette. His Algonquian-speaking guides referred to the people living at the mouth of the river as “emessourit” which meant “people with canoes”. The name was later shortened to Missouri and was a busy waterway in the 19th century. As a young girl, Sacagawea was taken captive by a Hidatsa raiding party against her native Shoshone tribe at these headwaters. She was later sold to Toussaint Charbonneau who took her as his wife before being hired as a guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark. Upon returning in the summer of 1805, Sacagawea recognized the landscape and was able to alert the explorers that the Shoshone and their much-needed horses were not far away.
One of the great legends of the West involving former members of the Corps of Discovery occurred in the area of the Missouri Headwaters. In 1809, John Colter and John Pitts were trapping beaver along the Jefferson River when they were captured by a band of Blackfeet Indians. They killed Potts but decided to give Colter a chance to survive and provide themselves with some entertainment! The Blackfeet made Colter strip and then gave him a head start running across a prickly pear cactus-covered flat. The Indians miscalculated Colter’s resolve because he outran them and eventually found cover under a beaver lodge near the Madison River where the Blackfeet lost him under the cover of darkness. A week later, an emaciated and naked John Colter reappeared some 200 miles away at a Missouri Fur Company trading post.
Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park
After departing the Missouri Headwaters, Lewis and Clark headed through the Jefferson River valley in search of the Shoshone people to purchase horses. They passed within a mile of the caverns which now bear their name, but they had no knowledge of the extensive limestone caverns. It wasn’t until 1882 that two hunters discovered the entrance of the cave by accident. A businessman from Whitehall, Montana named D.A. Morrison began taking tourists into the cave around 1885 which led to concerns about the cavern’s preservation. On May 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the cave a national monument and named it Lewis and Clark Caverns National Monument after the famed explorers of the region.
The federal government now managed the most highly decorated limestone caverns in North America, but they had other caves open to visitors so they locked the entrance up to the cave. That didn’t stop Morrison who would just cut off the locks when the federal authorities were absent and conduct his tours. During the 1930s, the federal government asked the state of Montana if they’d like to take over custodianship of the caverns, to which they agreed under the condition that the federal authorities help with infrastructure improvements at the site. The CCC was sent in to build a road up the mountain, build a visitor center, and improvements within the cave for visitors. Lewis and Clark Caverns became the first state park in Montana and this 3,000-acre state park remains the most popular.
The 3-million-year-old limestone cavern is the largest in the Northwest and is open to visitors most of the year. I took the two-hour classic tour and it was spectacular! After a three-quarters of a mile hike up to the entrance, our tour group descended into the first room which had magnificent examples of stalagmites (from ground) and stalactites (from ceiling) where some connected to form impressive columns. The classic tour that I took is a little more challenging with some areas that you had to slide and squat to make it through a passage. I found it to be the perfect blend of accessibility and adventure for a novice caver like myself. The stairs and walkways were smooth and well lite. Each room we entered was more spectacular than the last and my guide, Lilly, was awesome. In the final room we entered, she turned out the lights and then demonstrated how the calcite rich rocks on one wall glow in the dark after exposure to UV light. I wasn’t too sure what to expect of Lewis and Clark Caverns, but it turned out to be a real gem!
Butte, Montana
Located in southwestern Montana, Butte was the state’s first major city and, at one time, was the largest city west of the Mississippi River between Chicago and San Francisco. Butte began in the late 1880s as a silver and gold mining camp. At the turn of the century, the electrification and industrialization of America lead to a huge demand for copper. Sitting on top of one of the world’s great copper reserves, this is where Butte flourished and launched a period of rapid growth and wealth. Immigrants flocked to Butte from around the world to work in the mines leading to one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the United States. In fact, the Pekin Noodle Parlor (circa 1909) on Main Street is the oldest Chinese restaurant in America. Throughout its history, Butte has had a reputation of being a wild and rugged mining community with numerous saloons and red-light districts: the last brothel, Dumas Brothel, closed in 1982!
The increasing demand for copper caused the copper mining industry in Butte to become one of the first centralized and industrialized businesses in the world. By the first decade of the 1900s, the Butte mines and associated smelting and processing operations, along with associated businesses like railroads and timber, were consolidated among the three Copper Kings: William A. Clark, Marcus Daly, and F. Augustus Heinze. Further consolidation over the years lead to the formation of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company which dominated Butte and Montana for the remainder of the 20th century. The heavy demands on the immigrant workers under harsh and dangerous conditions pushed Butte into the forefront of the labor organization and union movement. There were numerous bloody clashes between workers and management which lead to the declaration of martial law in Butte from 1914 until 1921, the longest period of military occupation in the U.S. since the reconstruction era.
The population in Butte peaked at about 60,000 in 1920 and declined with the further mechanization of the mining process. In 1955, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company opened the Berkeley Pit which marked a transition from labor intense underground mining to cheaper, less labor open pit mining. As labor prices soared and global copper prices dropped, the Berkeley Pit closed in 1982 (ironically the last brothel closed same year) and Butte found itself a mining town without a mine. Over the years since the Berkeley Pit closing, the population in Butte declined and numerous efforts have been made to resume mining. Today, the Continental Pit mines copper just east of town at a much smaller scale.
Born October 17, 1938, Robert Craig Knievel, aka Evel Knievel, is arguably Butte’s most famous son. As a youngster, he raced around the dirt streets of Butte on his motorcycle often with the police in hot pursuit. It was actually the Butte police who gave him his iconic name, Evel (he changed the “i” to “e” because he didn’t want to be too evil), when they had him locked up in the city jail. Evel Knievel left Butte to become an American icon as a showman and daredevil. From his famed failed attempt to jump the fountains at Caesar’s Palace to his rocket cycle jump of the Snake River, no one captivated the minds and hearts of young American boys in the 1970s like Evel Knievel: myself included. I recall sitting on the floor watching his jumps on ABC’s Wild World of Sports in complete awe. He was an indestructible superhero and, despite his flaws in personal character, he was my hero. So, it has long been on my bucket list to visit the grave of my childhood hero. Evel Knievel is buried in Butte at the Mountain View Cemetery next to his son, Robbie Knievel, who was also an accomplished daredevil. RIP Evel!
Note: The back of Evel Knievel’s grave marker is interesting because it appears to be a granite marker for the site of his famed 1974 Snake River Canyon jump. I have read, although not confirmed, that he had it made prior to his rocket cycle jump in case he was killed in the stunt.
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company began digging the Berkeley Pit in 1955 and had to remove 4.4 million tons of waste rock to reach the copper veins. By the early 1980s, the Berkeley Pit was the largest pit copper mine in the United States (7,000 feet long, 5,600 feet wide, and 1,800 feet deep), but it was becoming significantly less profitable and so operation ceased in 1982. As mining came to a close in Butte, the pumps which had kept the 10,000 miles of underground works free of ground water were shut off. Over the years, the abandoned Berkeley Pit filled with water that contained concentrations of metals like copper, iron, and zinc as well as dangerous arsenic. It soon threatened the entire water supply of Butte and the EPA stepped in making the pit a Super Fund site. Today, the water in Berkeley Pit is kept at a level below the ground water and treated at a processing plant to protect Butte’s water supply.
Bannack State Park
Located about 20 miles west of Dillion, Bannack State Park is one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the United States. Gold was first discovered in Grasshopper Creek in the summer of 1862 and by fall some 400 men had rushed to the area and the population swelled to 3,000 by the following spring. The name actually comes from the local band of Shoshone who lived in the area and were fond of making little cakes from roots they harvested. They were known as Bannock Indians by the local white settlers. The Scotch word “bannock” means “a cake cooked over an open fire”. When a post office was established in 1863, the application submitted to Washington misspelled the town’s name by changing the “o” to “a” and thus the town of Bannack was born.
The ghost town today is managed by the Montana State Park system and is open year-round. Bannack’s boardwalk-lined street has over 50 historic buildings, many open to explore, like an assay office, general stores, saloons, and numerous homes. One of the more impressive buildings is the Beaverhead County Courthouse built in 1876 for a cost of $14,000. This building served as the county seat until 1881 when the county government moved to Dillion. The brick structure was then purchased for a mere $1,250 by a Dr. John Singleton Meade who turned it into a hotel. Another impressive structure in town is the two-story Masonic Lodge and School House. Realizing the need for a school in their town, the Bannack Masonic Lodge No. 16 built a combination lodge and school. On the ground floor is a one-room schoolhouse that taught the town’s children for 70 years and upstairs was the Masonic lodge which is still active to this day.
In addition to its mining history, Bannack has a dark past as well. Cyrus Skinner and Henry Plummer had both been prisoners at San Quentin Penitentiary in California where they became friends. Skinner built Skinner’s Saloon in Bannack which was a very dangerous place with numerous murders and was known to be a hangout of a criminal gang called “The Road Agents”. Plummer arrived in Bannack shortly after his friend, Skinner, and was soon charged with murder, but was acquittal and then he was elected sheriff. Legend is that Plummer soon renewed his old acquaintances and organized “The Road Agents” criminal gang. In late 1863, a group of concerned citizens formed the Vigilance Committee to address the countless robberies and murders being committed by the suspected gang. They scoured the region for suspected gang members and upon their capture and interrogation, several of them fingered Sheriff Plummer as their ring leader. Within a month, twenty members of the gang, including Plummer, had hung from Bannack’s gallows.
By the mid-1930s, the easily extracted placer gold deposits in Bannack had been exhausted and continued mining required more expensive underground mining. With the start of World War II all non-essential mining, including gold, was prohibited to aid the war effort and this represented the beginning of the end for Bannack. Mining resumed following the war, but the low price of gold prevented a comeback in Bannack and the population dwindled. The 1950s saw the closure of the school as well as the loss of a doctor and grocery stores. Bannack, the once proud capital of the Montana Territory, was essential abandoned. Groups of concerned citizens wanting to see the preservation of Bannack worked to acquire properties and then finally donate them back to the state of Montana for the creation of the state park.
