It has been just over a week ago that we last met with you all and it has been an exciting week. Sharon and I left Minot last Saturday morning en route to Rathdrum, Idaho, with a few stops in between. We visited some historical sites, parks, a dam, and many beautiful mountains. Let me show you a few of those places as we travelled.
As many of you know there has been a boom in the oil fields of North Dakota. West of Minot on US Hwy 2 you go through Williston, North Dakota prior to entering Montana. Williston is one of the fastest growing areas with the population growth due to the need for oil field workers. Housing is very hard to come by. Many workers are unable to find housing for their families, so they leave their families behind and live in barracks type housing. These barracks contain about eight to ten small rooms for a worker to live in. Bathroom facilities are shared. The rules for those living in the barracks are strict. No visitors, no alcohol, no noise, no fun (that's my take on the living conditions), and no cooking in the rooms. Sounds like living in a military barracks. The workers rent these for about a $1000.00 a month. Below is a picture of one of the many compounds that contain these barracks buildings. This is a small compound.
Not too far west of Williston on the North Dakota, Montana, state line we came upon the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center. The center is located where the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers converge. The water was very high due to the heavy rains that had been in the area for the last couple of weeks.
There are displays depicting different times in the history of the area. The skull and horns below are from a prehistoric Bison. It is more that double the size of a modern day Bison.
About a half mile from the Center is Fort Buford. The most important thing that happened at Fort Buford was first time that Sitting Bull was heard of as a warrior chief. He led several attacks on the soldiers at Fort Buford.
The building below was the fort headquarters. It is the original building built in 1852.
Our guide led us through a tour of the enlisted men's barracks. This is not the original building, but is built from original plans and on the original site. The bunks beds on the left are built of wood and are not cannot be taken apart. The beds on the right are metal frames that can be staked to make bunk beds, or left as a single bed. The stove in the middle is an original stove from the old fort. Note the small brown square on the floor leaning up on the middle of the back wall. That is a piece of steel one inch thick. It was hung on the wall and used for target practice. The soldier would stand at the opposite end of the barracks and fire at the target. There is a hole is the middle of the target with another small piece of metal behind it. It made a different sound if the shooter got a bulls-eye.
About 15 miles from Fort Buford is Fort Union Trading Post. You can see the fort in the background behind the sign.
The area inside Fort Union was very large. the building housed the Indian Agent and other government offices. The fort is a reconstructed site, built from original plans.
We were fortunate to be there on a hunter, trappers, frontiersman, mountain men, and Indian rendezvous. Below are some of the reenactors trading with a peddler.
The gentleman below is dressed in part of a soldiers uniform. He is demonstrating the firing of a percussion and ball, black powder rifle. No bullet, but a lot of noise.
Hope the video below runs for you. Old Glory flapping in the wind.
We spent the night in Glasgow, Montana. We parked next to a gentleman from Seattle, Washington, who is doing some work at the Fort Peck Dam. We had not planned on visiting the dam, but he talked me into it. When built it was the largest earthen dam in the world. It is about 21,000 feet long from one end to the other. We were able to drive over from one end to the other on the top of the dam.
It's hard to tell in this picture, but we are parked on one end of the dam, and the other end is just past the front of the RV. The markers tell the story of the construction of the dam. The banners on the rocks list the names of workers that were killed in accidents during the construction.
There is a very nice interpretive center behind the dam. Montana is know for it's prehistoric history. The dinosaur below was found just north of the dam area.
Leaving Glasgow we saw a display of metal animal sculptures for sale. The one below is a bald eagle. The picture is taken from the road.
We spent the next night in Havre, Montana. We decided to spend a couple of days in Havre and see the sights. We found a tour of underground Havre. In 1902 the main part of Havre was destroyed by fire. The merchants that were burnt out decided to go underground. There was already access to the area under the streets due to underground water and steam heat pipes running through tunnels. Business ranged from a post office, butcher shop, bank, Chinese laundry, bar, and even a bordello. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the underground city. Here he is standing in a store with the post office attached.
Sharon just one a hand in poker, so she is celebrating.
Fort Assiniboine is just outside of Havre. Not much is left of the old fort, but we got a great tour given by a young college student who is working there during the summer. It is hard to read the following, but the fort was part of a chain of forts that were established to protect the settlers from the Indians.
This building is one of the original one's still standing. It was the junior officer quarters. It was pretty nice for the day since each young officer usually had a private room, sometimes two rooms. One of the notable young officers that was stationed there over the years was John (Black Jack)Pershing.
This is a view of one of the many camping/picnic areas in the county park just south of Havre. It is the largest county park in the country. What a beautiful place to camp.
We stopped in another little town, Chinook, and visited a wildlife museum. The museum is supposed to have the best display of wild animals native to the state of Montana. I took so many pictures of birds, bears, deer, elk, moose, small animals, wild cats, wild dogs, and many more, I probably could not post them all. So here are a few. Below are two pictures of a buffalo jump. The Indians would drive herds of buffalo over cliff where, if not killed from the fall, they were easily killed. We discovered that this was done all over the west.
We named these two little stinkers Bryan and Russell.
We hope to see some live mountain goats and rams during our travels. If we don't at least we saw these.
We finally made it to Glacier National Park on Tuesday. What a beautiful place.
A view of the Rockies behind the park welcome center. Notice the Canadian flag, the US and Canada share the Rocky Mountains and have adjoining parks on the border.
This was one of the views from the front window of our RV where we were parked in a RV park. Nice to see every morning.
We went to Canada to see the Canadian side of the park.
The park in Canada is call the Waterton National Park. The lodge below is in Waterton, it is the Prince of Wales Inn. We took a little stroll through the lobby. NICE. $$$$$.
Downtown Waterton. We took a little walk through town and visited a couple of gift shops. The Canadians are real proud of their goods for sale. Even more proud of their restaurants. $$$$.
We took a lot of pictures of the wildflowers in Waterton National Park. I don't think I have been anywhere where I have seen so many different wildflowers. We were able to identify over twenty different ones.
There are many small waterfalls on the mountains. With the snow melting it creates a stream and waterfall in any crevice that water could find to flow in.
If you look hard you can see a black bear in the middle of this picture. The only one we have seen on our trip.
This is Susie our cat looking at the mountains out the front of the RV.
We took a drive on the Road to the Sun up to Logan Pass. The road was closed all the way over the mountain. Must have something to do with the snow. That's Sharon standing in front of snow at the visitor's center at the Pass.
We left Glacier on Friday morning headed for Rathdrum, Idaho. Not far west of Glacier we crossed the Continental Divide. This monument is located just past the Divide.
This is picture of the RV park we stayed in in Saint Regis, Montana. Really nice.
Again, welcome to Idaho. We will be here for about three weeks.
This is the view we have from the RV where we will be parked for the next few weeks. There is a lake and the mountains in the background. Love these great views we are getting to see everyday.
We got started on our projects here at Twinlow Camp this morning. We will be doing a lot of repairs and upgrades to building while we are here. Today we made preparations to replace windows in the camp directors house. We will be replacing old aluminum windows with newer, more energy efficient vinyl windows.
I hope that the length of this post has not bored you too much. I could have really overloaded you with pictures. I love these digital cameras. You can take over a thousand pictures and not even reload with film.
Well, until the next time, later this week, you all enjoy and remember,
God Loves You
Gary
