Woke up this morning to a very good “continental breakfast”: boiled eggs, waffles, biscuits with white gravy - good white gravy.
Off to the Great Falls Interpretive Center, which has a well-deserved reputation as the best Lewis and Clark center of all. It has fascinating talks every half-hour (we could only hear two because of our time constraints) and the exhibits follow the routes to the Pacific and back for the Lewis and Clark expedition. The floor carpet is blue and brown with the brown area largest when the expedition is on land, giving way to the strip of blue that enlarges when the expedition is on one of the rivers or the ocean. When the expedition splits up, so does the exhibit, so you can follow Lewis' return trip or Clark's. and the exhibits themselves were wonderful - particularly those showing the portage over the Great Falls (WOW!) and those talking about the different tribes of Indians and their culture and trade routes.
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: a photo of the Great Falls before they were tamed
Dear Journal,
Today we woke up and went to an awesome I.C. (interpretive center) where you “where” different people. I got a junior ranger badge. Then we had lunch and saw the Roe River, the world's shortest river. After that, we went to Helena, where we took a “road train” ride and learned about the gold rush. Then we had dinner and fell asleep.
Aron
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: diorama of life in a Mandan village
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: diorama of York, Seaman, Lewis and Clark, _
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: diorama of what it was like getting the pirogues and dugouts over the Great Falls
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: Indians fishing at The Dalles
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Great Falls, MT, Interpretive Center: Aron Cowen checking out replica of Clark signature
We drove a short drive after to have lunch in a lovely park at Giant Springs, and were accompanied by a completely black squirrel who enjoyed a bunch of our trail mix nuts. Right next to the park we went to see the Roe River - the shortest (about 200 feet) river in the world. It bubbles up from a great spring and flows over gorgeous golden square rocks and sills to the Missouri. It had an underwater garden of what looked like regular ground plants and flowers, but growing quite happily under super clear water.
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Roe River, Great Falls, MT: Aron Cowen
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Roe River, Great Falls, MT:
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Roe River, Great Falls, MT: Arthur Luehrmann and Aron Cowen
We drove on to Helena, the capitol of Montana, and visited the capitol building, where they have a statue to Jeanette Rankin, suffragette, first woman governor, senator, and advocate of peace. She was the only person in the US Senate who voted against going into WW I, and then she was also, many years later, the only person in the US Senate who voted against going in to WW II. There is also a painting showing the ceremony to drive the golden stake commemorating the joining of the transcontinental railway.
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on the road to Helena, MT:
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on the road to Helena, MT:
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Helena, MT Capitol:
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Helena, MT Capitol: completing the transcontinental railroad
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Helena, MT Capitol: Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea
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Helena, MT, Capitol:
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Helena, MT, Capitol:
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Helena, MT, "train" ride: miner cabin in Last Chance Gulch
Still in Helena, Montana, we took a “train” ride: the Last Chance Train (really a set of tour cars pulled by a motorized thing built to look like a train engine) to tour Helena. He took us around the government buildings, museums, the old grand houses of the rich early citizens, and the Last Chance Gulch: where gold had been panned and mined.
The gulch got its name, allegedly, from 3 miners who were partners, and completely down on their luck. They had tried to find gold in three different areas, had run out of money completely, and were stopping in Helena on their way home, dejected and broke. Since they had to stay in Helena that night anyway, they figured they might as well do a bit of panning that night. Lo and behold, they found lots of gold dust! They staked a claim the next morning and the town attracted lots of other miners who mined the gulch and surrounding hills until the gold was all gone. The town leaders, knowing that soon the gold would be gone and their town could turn into a ghost town like all the other mining towns had, petitioned to be named the state capitol. There were a few other towns who also asked to be the state capitol, so the state decided to hold an election to decide the matter. Helena won, but years later an investigation showed that twice as many votes were cast from Helena than there were registered voters - but by then the matter was decided, so Helena remained as the state capitol. Besides, no city wanted to contest the vote because they had all cheated too!
Went to dinner at Jergensen's, a family restaurant that was very nice.
All of the restaurants in the Midwest and West have enormous portions! We have found that we do best if Arthur and I share a meal and Aron orders an appetizer! Even so it is frequently more than we can eat. Home to bed.