Missoula to Bozeman

Today we are traveling through the remainder of mountainous western Montana, crossing over the Continental Divide and then easing down the eastern slopes testing our newly installed breaks.  We pass even larger areas of forest fire damage and the Clark Fork River continues to keep us company on either side of the Interstate.

About noon we pause at a rest stop only a mile and a half from where the first gold discovery in Montana was made by Francois Finlay in 1852 at a site where a creek flowing from the southwest joins the Clark Fork River.  While Finlay was no expert in prospecting possessing only a small amount of knowledge he gained in California and working with only a few inferior tools for the task at hand, he nevertheless found evidence that gold was present in the creek.  Others verifying his find by 1858 started the Montana gold rush in the general area and Findlay’s creek was renamed Gold Creek.

On July 2, 1864, President Lincoln signed a charter granting funds for the construction of the Northern Transcontinental Railroad.  Work began from both ends of the proposed rail line in Minnesota (by 1870) and in Washington (by 1871.)  Approximately 25,000 Chinese were employed on the western division alone!  The slow and tedious work in areas of isolation made the task of maintaining labor crews difficult, especially in the east but year after year both divisions continued working toward each other.  In spite of a delay also caused by a financial panic in 1873, the rail line was finally completed on August 22, 1883.  The last spike in the rails was driven at the site of where Gold Creek joins the Clark Fork River.  Interestingly, they brought the first spike driven in Minnesota out to Gold Creek to serve again as the last spike driven.  A huge celebration ensued at a cost of $250,000 for the workers and five trainloads of invited guests from the U.S. and abroad who traveled to Gold Creek to mark man’s triumph over nature and financial adversity.  In just thirteen years a connection between both sides of the country was completed and the dream of serving military and commercial needs of the settlers in these isolated and rugged lands could now be met.

Passing through Butte we see a statue from the highway high atop the mountains to our north.  From the highway we could not tell exactly what we were viewing.  Wondering what it represented provides another interesting story from along our route.  Called “Our Lady of the Rockies”-the statute is a 90-foot tall rendition of the Virgin Mary placed upon the peak above I-90 in a location situated on the Continental Divide.  In 1979, Bob O’Bill, a resident of Butte, was struggling with his wife’s struggle with cancer.  He made a promise that if she recovered he would put a five-foot statue of the Virgin Mary in his yard in gratitude.  When folks in Butte learned of his promise, the project grew into a 90-foot mountain statue collaborative effort with Butte’s townspeople donating materials and funds for the project.  By September 1985, a 400-ton concrete base was constructed on the mountaintop.  Then in December the four parts of the statue were airlifted by helicopter by the Air National Guard of Nevada and put into place to complete a statue that would have to endure the powerful wind sheers that buffet the ridge top where the statue would stand.  The statue is dedicated to women, regardless of their religion.  A memorial wall for women at the base lists 13,000 women from around the world.  Tourists can access the site only by bus on a two-hour tour from Butte between June and September.

The valley we follow between the mountain ranges widens into golden meadows even as we see more mountains in the distance with snow gracing their summits.  We are aware that in just a few weeks this area will start to feel the breath of winter bearing down upon it.  The firs have given way to the beginnings of vast ranches across the valley dotted with grazing cattle and horses.  Harvested hay in huge rolls is being gathered while corn in adjacent fields awaits its harvest in a sequence that seems to follow after the hay.  The mystery of ranching is intriguing to me and I yearn to read more about the hard lives and harsh environment the people of Montana have endured here, both native and immigrating settlers alike.