Day Two

As we left Dillon Montana this morning we stopped to climb a small rocky outcrop at the north end of town. William Clark (Of Lewis and Clark) climbed this hill (he said so in his journal). There is a little marker there that says he stood at that spot to survey the valley and look for a good place to climb the continental divide.

After that quick stop we drove up to Butte Montana. We met an Episcopalian priest who took us on a tour of the city. His church was very pretty with $2 million worth of stained glass windows. This priest/hippy was also a Free Mason, and he took us on a tour of the Masonic Lodge in Butte. This place had a real wierd feel to it like no one had entered the place in years.

We toured around the city and visited a home that was owned by another man named William Clark. This guy was a "copper king" he ran a copper mine in the city and at the height of his career he was making $17 million a month. And that is in 1884 dollars. He built a mansion in the city that we toured I even stood in his shower.

The guy had a daughter who died just a few months ago she was 104 years old and hated her family. She refused to live in any of her family's mansions and lived close to 40 years in an old folks home in New York.

The drive from Butte to Great Falls was beautiful. Lots of mountains and high forests, but Great Falls itself is the far western edge of the great plains. If not for the Missouri River carving a river channel in the area the land would be very flat.

We took a short tour of the portage route that the Lewis and Clark expedition took. They had to carry all of their stuff 18.5 miles overland around a series of waterfalls in the Great Falls area. It was a nightmare. They had 4 one-thousand pound canoes, rifles, extra ammo, food, supplies, surveying equipment, and lots more. They made the round trip 4 times to get it all. The climb away from the river was very difficult (we hiked it too, without any stuff). The ground back then was covered in prickly pear cactus (there isn't nearly as much now, but still plenty).

Meriwether Lesis had a great idea for an iron frame boat. He had the men carry all of the pieces up the Missouri River. His hope was that theyh could cover it with animal skins and use it on the higher part of the river. Unfortunately they could never get the animal skins to stop leaking, and the boat was too flimsy. It would flex when it began being loaded. This is a replica of the iron frame.