Places Visited:

Wyoming: West Yellowstone
Montana: Butte, Virginia City, Nevada City and Ennis

Sunday, August 5, 2001
Grizzly RV-Park West Yellowstone Montana.

We attended church services at The First Baptist Church of West
Yellowstone, Montana. It reminded us of our Sunday school class back
at First Baptist in Pensacola, Florida. Some of these churches are
actually smaller than our Sunday school class. They do not have
sophisticated music programs, they share praise items and prayer
requests just like our Sunday school class and most have some kind of
distractions. Today it was warm so the church had doors and windows
open. A raven stationed himself outside and started squawking. Ravens
do not sing. It reminded me of the "old folks" singing in the Sunday
school class down the hall.

National News is reporting on a Tropical Storm / Hurricane in the Gulf
south of Pensacola, Florida. It is hard for us to not pay attention
to these reports. Our son is taking care of our home so we really do
not have much to concern ourselves with, except for the large yellow
popular tree that is leaning toward the house. One of the hurricanes
several years ago forever changed this tree from a perfectly vertical
position to a tree with a 10-degree list toward our home. Hurricanes
are something that Gulf Coast residents pay attention to. Once you
ride out a good one you will understand what the big deal is. From
time to time we tune into the weather station. As we go to bed it
appears that the area will get plenty of rain but the wind should not
do much damage.

Since we have been touring Yellowstone NP the last few days it is time
to share some facts about Yellowstone with you. Yellowstone comprises
3,472 square miles in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It is the site of
the world's greatest concentration of thermal features--approximately
10,000, including more than 300 geysers. It is one of the few places
in the world with active travertine terraces (look this up in the
encyclopedia in your spare time). Yellowstone is home to the largest
concentration of elk in the world and is the location of the world's
largest petrified forest. One of the petrified trees we saw the other
day was standing up. It must have been covered by volcanic ash to
preserve it in that position. All of the other petrified trees we
have seen have been laying down where they were covered by mudflows
that cut off oxygen and prevented their decay. The only petrified
tree we saw was the one standing up. It has been identified as a
coastal redwood tree just like the ones on the Pacific coast. It
stands today as mute testimony to what this area was like millions of
years ago. Where the "world's largest petrified forest" is located is
beyond me. The parks literature provides that information but
absolutely nothing we can locate says anything more about a "petrified
forest".

A lake located atop the continental divide, between the south entrance
and Old Faithful, has the distinction of draining to both sides of the
continent. The east side of this small pond flows down to the Snake
River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean. The west side flows around
the mountain then north into a river that eventually empties into the
Missouri then the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. The location of
such a pond/lake that empties into both the Atlantic and Pacific would
make a good game show question don't you think? I have no idea but
this is probably the only place where this occurs. The lake is only
an acre or so in size. I wanted to see where the water from this lake
started flowing down both sides of the continental divide. The pond
itself is very shallow, less than three or four feet deep. At the
east end is a small (10-inches wide) "drainage channel" that leads
down the side of the mountain. On the west side there was a natural
outlet through a narrow grassy area. No water was flowing through the
"drainage channels" when we were there, however, there was water in
the lake. The level of the lake was a few inches below the "drainage
channels". It was easy to see that any snowfall or rain would fill
the small lake to the point that it would flow out into the "drainage
channels". It appeared to me that the slightly man-made/enhanced
drainage channel on the east side had been constructed at exactly the
same altitude as the natural path on the west side so that an equal
amount of water would drain out both sides. Does anyone know any
more details concerning this phenomenon?

Yellowstone has wolves and both black and grizzly bears. We have not
seen any of these although we are looking very hard. We have seen a
number of coyotes. One coyote put on a show for the other day. We
had the privilege of watching him as he was hunting for small mammals
for around 5-minutes. Buffalo and elk are readily visible. Frequently
traffic is stopped while buffalo or elk stand in the road. There is
nothing for the traffic to do but to stop and wait for the animal to
move. Everyone seems to love to see these big ungulates near the road
even if they do cause "animal jams". Yellowstone has moose but we
have not seen one. We are hearing that the ones we saw in the Tetons
were probably going to be the only ones we will see.

The grizzly bears in Yellowstone are much smaller than the grizzly
bears of Alaska and especially Kodiak Island, Alaska. The difference
in size is attributed to the amount of protein in the diet. Kodiak
and other Alaska bears eat tremendous amounts of migrating salmon
while the Yellowstone bears diet consists more of berries and other
plant matter.

Monday, August 6, 2001
Grizzly RV-Park West Yellowstone Montana.

We spent the day in Yellowstone going from one geothermal feature to
the other. The only animals we saw were elk.

Since we were in the area we decided to do lunch at the Old Faithful
Inn. Reservations are a must if you do dinner, but lunch is generally
available on a walk up basis, at Old Faithful Inn. Virtually
everything that could go wrong went wrong during our dining
experience. We both laughed at each of the multiple small annoyances
and tried to find the silver lining. The silver lining, we both
agreed on, was how happy we were that we were not paying dinner prices
"FOR THIS".

After lunch we ambled over and visited with our friends Buddy and
Suzie Kisner.

Around 7:00pm we went to the Grizzly Discovery Center in West
Yellowstone, Wyoming. They have live grizzly bears and wolves on
display in a natural setting. All of their bears and wolves had
become "problem" animals in the wild. They were mostly destroying
livestock. In several instances a mother bear was killed while
feeding on livestock. The cubs could not make it on their own so they
were shipped to the Grizzly Discovery Center where they are on display
in a very large open area. The pack of wolves had similar
backgrounds.

Later a ranger from the National Park Service conducted an hour-long
discussion of the earth science aspects of Yellowstone. No matter how
much I read on the geological makeup of Yellowstone it helps immensely
to have a knowledgeable individual explain it. There is so much to
learn that it helps to have the information repeated over and over in
a variety of ways for it to sink in.

Tuesday, August 7, 2001
Grizzly RV-Park West Yellowstone Montana.

We spent the day doing everything imaginable on the north loop of
Yellowstone. We got to see MANY buffalo and a grizzly eating a dead
buffalo cow. There is NO WAY to write down all that we saw and
experienced. Some facts to ponder: 80% of Yellowstone is forested.
80% of the forest is lodge pole pine. Yellowstone has around 160
adult wolves. At least 67 pups (21-22 litters) were born in
Yellowstone this spring. There are currently 21 active packs in the
park. Over 90% of the wolves diet is elk. Wolves were in introduced
into Yellowstone as a natural control for the burgeoning elk herd in
the park.

Wednesday, August 8, 2001
Grizzly RV-Park West Yellowstone Montana.

We spent the day doing the south loop of Yellowstone. The best part
of this loop was the herds of buffalo in the Hayden Valley. Explaining
all of the geothermal and geologic things we see is not an option.
There is just too much. We had a 10-hour day of touring, ate lunch at
the Lodge in Lake Village, met an extremely nice couple from Texas
that was touring the country in their RV just like we are. We sat in
the lobby of the Lake Village Inn, in front of the fireplace, and
talked with them for over an hour. Our lunch at the Cafeteria in
Lake Village was priced right and the food was excellent. If you want
ambience and a bill to match you will probably want to do a dinner
meal at Old Faithful Inn. I suspect you will be both mad and
disappointed. If you want a good meal, with a good view (buffalo were
grazing out the picture window) try the Cafeteria at Lake Village.

Thursday, August 9, 2001
Wal-Mart Super Store: Butte, Montana. Elevation 5,484 feet.

Around noon we said good by to West Yellowstone and started our
journey toward Glacier NP in the northwest corner of Montana on the
Canadian border. An RV'er working in the pharmacy in West Yellowstone
told us about Lyons Head RV-Park located 7-miles west of West
Yellowstone on highway 20. I think he said rates were around $18
per-night. Grizzly RV-Park, where we stayed, is a first class
campground but it is fairly expensive. For those so inclined Lyons
Head cost about ½ as much.

Out of West Yellowstone we took US-287 to Montana-2 to I-90 into
Butte. What a wonderful and scenic route. There was little traffic
and the scenery around Lake Hebgen, along the Madison River and
Earthquake Lake, then along the Madison River again and through the
Madison Valley were right out of a picture book. Campgrounds were
scattered all along this route. An earthquake in August of 1959
registering 7.3 on the Richter scale caused a large portion of a
mountain to slide into the valley, instantly damming the Madison
River. The "scar" where the mountain fell into the valley is still
visible 43-years later. A section of Lake Hebgen along the fault line
dropped 20 feet in less than a second. When the bottom of this large
lake dropped it drained other portions of the lake as the surrounding
water rushed in to fill the hole, this created enormous waves in the
lake resulting in tremendous damage. Over 20 individuals perished as
a result of the earthquake, one of the largest to occur in North
America. There is an "earthquake" Visitors Center operated by the
Forestry Service, on US 287, that explains in detail what happened.
The drive from West Yellowstone, Montana through here is as scenic as
any in Yellowstone.

A few miles down the road in the small town of Ennis we parked the
motorhome and took the Saturn to Virginia City, Nevada City and Adobe
a town that is nothing more than a memory. These were gold mining
towns back in the 1860's. They were the center of Montana activity
until the gold ran out. The gold mines in this neck of the woods were
placer mines. Huge dredges would scoop rock out of the river bottom
dumping the rocks into a sluice where the gold would settle out. The
rubble would be deposited behind the barge. Gold dredges float on
ponds of their own making as they navigate through the floodplain by
digging the gravel ahead and dumping it in their wake, moving the pond
with them as they go. Huge piles of rocks and gravel still scar the
landscape for miles and miles. Big steam and electric dredges worked
these gravel deposits in Alder Gulch from the late 1890s through the
early 1920s. The scars this mining technique left on the 14-miles of
Alder Gulch remain 80 years later. The dredges recovered 9 million
dollars worth of gold at the cost of virtually the entire floodplain.

Across the continent small-scale placer miners washed gold out of
stream gravels with a sluice box, a long wooden trough with cleats
nailed crosswise to its floor. Miners shoveled gravel into one end of
the sluice box, and washed it through with a stream of water. Gold,
being heavy, lodged behind the cleats while the lighter pebbles washed
through. This small-scale mining by individuals could never wreck the
havoc or create the immense damage the big steam dredges did.

A pullout half way between Ennis and Virginia City on Montana 287
provides a magnificent view of the Madison Valley around Ennis. Make
sure that you stop at this pullout and soak up the view if you pass
this way.

Around Ennis both sides of the highway are a mosaic of cattle ranches,
wheat fields, and irrigated hay. It would be hard to find a more
picturesque drive.

The area around Ennis and Virginia City is a place we intend to return
to. There is so much to see and do. This is obviously a fly fishing
mecca. Fly fishermen virtually litter the river along this route.

A few miles before US-287 intersects with I-90 we took Montana-2 west.
This is as beautiful a drive as any in Yellowstone or the Tetons.
About mid-way along Montana-2 we spot an open field with hundreds of
RV's and tents in it. It looks to us that something interesting is
about to happen and we want to be part of it. We pull up to the
entrance and inquire about what is going on. As it turns out a group
of rock bands are scheduled for the weekend. There is going to be
3-days of head butting rock music. The cost is $100.00. The place
was filling up fast and this was just Thursday. From the looks of
things they are going to have another Woodstock. We asked who some of
the bands would be because this place looked like it was going to
rock. We did not recognize any of the bands and from the sound of the
names they all had purple hair and multiple body piercing. This just
was not us so we passed up the opportunity. As we continued along
Montana-2 toward I-90 we witnessed a "ton" of travel trailers and
other RV's heading to the rock music pasture. This drive takes you
through several miles of canyons where the rock cliffs are as close to
the road as any we have seen. For the adventuresome this stretch of
Montana-2 is a "must drive".

On I-90 just east of Butte we pass over the continental divide again.

Using our GPS and SA-8 software Joyce guided us straight to Butte's
pride and joy, their brand spanking new Super Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has
done us proud, they have installed 110-volt outlets for their
overnight RV-friends. How much better can it be to boondock with 110
volts? Does it get any better? Thank you Wal-Mart. In Wal-Mart's
expansion to a Super Store they actually went out of their way to
accommodate RV's. They have an enormous parking area on the side that
is designed for RV's. It is located far from the entrance so that the
RV's will not interfere with other vehicles. The automobile service
center manager explained that the 120-volt outlets serve a dual
purpose. During the summer they are for RV'ers and during the winter
they are for store employees to plug in their private automobiles
since temperatures get down to minus 20 and minus 30 degrees.

Friday, August 10, 2001
Wal-Mart Super Store: Butte, Montana. Elevation 5,484 feet.

Butte is Montana's fourth largest city with 33,000 people. Between
1882 and 1890, this mile-high mining town grew to the world's greatest
copper producer and the largest inland city in the West. The telephone
and light bulb came on the market about the time rich copper ores were
discovered here. In a sense Butte owes its existence to the telephone
and light bulb. In 1961 the Secretary of the Interior designated a
portion of downtown Buttes historic district as a National Historic
Landmark stating "Butte the town that electrified a nation". "The
Richest Hill on Earth" has described Butte for more than 100 years due
to the vast wealth of ores beneath the town.

Like other western mining towns Butte was a melting pot of immigrants.
At the start of World War I Buttes 100,000 residents spoke a dozen
different languages. Of the 100,000 residents 90,000 were men, the
10,000 ladies, well you know, serviced the men. As new immigrants
migrated into town they settled in communities that spoke their
language and had things in common. Today the original ethnic
communities are nothing but a memory as the new neighborhoods became a
melting pot.

All over the city of Butte mine frames dot the landscape. These mine
frames look similar to an oil well drilling derrick. These mines
feature a vertical shaft that drops straight down from 1,000 feet to
over 5,000 feet. From these vertical shafts the mines would move
horizontally along a rich vein of oar bearing rock. The oar bearing
rock had to be hauled back to the vertical shaft and loaded into large
steel buckets that were hauled to the surface. This is where the
large mine frames that dot the landscape came into use. At the top of
these frames was the pulley that the cable rode on that went down into
the shaft. Large mining operations had huge frames stout enough to
support several thousand feet of 1" steel cable plus the load of oar
the cable would pull to the surface. Smaller mines that were only
1,000 feet deep did not need nearly as big a mine frame. These
smaller mines would use smaller diameter cable and smaller oar
containers.

Deep underground, in the horizontal mine shafts mules were used to
haul the oar to the vertical shaft for its ride to the surface. These
mules lived their entire adult life underground. Their only way up
was for burial after they were dropped down into the mine. Imagine in
you mind how these miners transported a mule several thousand feet
down a vertical shaft. It was not easy. We examined a series of
pictures that explained in detail the procedure for lowering a mule
into one of these vertical shafts. The first thing was to tie the
mule's head tightly to a hitching post. Next a rope was placed around
one of his front legs and the leg was then pulled up and tied where
the mule now only had 3 legs. From there a heavy leather strap was
put around the three remaining legs and his eyes were covered. In the
next step the mule's legs are tied like a calf at the rodeo. In the
last step the mule appears to be virtually in a large bag with only
his head protruding. At this time the mule is loaded into the
container for his ride down the vertical shaft. From this time on the
mule never saw the light of day. Thousands and thousands of mules
were utilized in the Butte mines in the late 1800s.

In 1955 the Anaconda Mining Company purchased the homes, businesses,
and schools of two working-class communities including a number of
deep shaft mines. Anaconda began to dig an open pit mine utilizing
large trucks. By 1980 this pit was 7,000-feet long, 5,600-feet wide
and 1,600-feet deep. When mining was ceased in 1982 1.5 billion tons
of material had been removed from the pit, including more than 290
million tons of copper ore. Gold, silver, lead, and other valuable
metals were also recovered. State and federal legislation requires
current and past owners be responsible for environmental cleanup. The
cleanup is ongoing. At this time the pit is full of toxic water
leached from the thousands of miles of tunnels through metal bearing
oars. A number of new technologies are being demonstrated in an
effort to mitigate the environmental damage.

Once the oar was transported to the surface it had to be processed.
Large rocks were crushed in stamp mills that pulverized them into a
sandy dust. One large stamp mill, located at the corner of Granite
and Arizona Streets in historic downtown Butte, is emblematic of the
era when Butte was the most heavily industrialized area in the world
at the height of the Industrial Revolution. This particular stamp
mill consisted of 10 stamps. Each of the 10 stamps would support the
lives of 250 miners. Smelters extracted copper and other metals from
the pulverized rock.

Joyce and I spent more hours than I want to admit touring the "World
Museum of Mining and Hell Roarin' Gulch". Joyce allowed me to
examine in detail a host of mining equipment including the complete
headframe of the once active Orphan Girl underground mine. Hell
Roarin' Gulch is a recreated mining town with a Chinese laundry,
sauerkraut factory, funeral parlor, ice house, school, general store,
saloon and many, many other businesses that would make up a
"hell-on-wheels" mining town. Each of these businesses was decked out
in 1889 appurtenances. The saloon had a working orchestrion (an
automatic piano/drums/cymbals/woodwinds and a variety of other
instruments all contained in what looked to be a large upright piano).
What a super instrument especially since it was working.

Joyce reveled in the businesses and associated paraphernalia that made
up the old mining town and I got lost in all of the old mine
machinery. My brother-in-law, Van, would go wild in a display like
this. I would love to tour it with him.

Included in this museum is the spectacular Roy Garrett Mineral
Collection, containing over 1,600 mineral specimens expertly displayed
and identified. Anyone interested in rocks and such could spend hours
and hours in this exhibit. Even for a novice it was hard to move on.

This is probably the best museum we have visited in the four months we
have been traveling and we have seen some good ones. We could spend
several more days in the 12 acres of items on display. This is a
"must see".

A trolley car tour of Butte leaves the Butte Visitors Center several
times a day. It takes you on a tour of many of the older places in
the historic district. This one and one-half hour tour is a very
worthwhile thing to do.

Saturday, August 11, 2001
Wal-Mart Super Store: Butte, Montana. Elevation 5,484 feet

I got up bright and early and took the Saturn to get 4 new tires and
an alignment. It was time for the new tires so took the laptop and
cell phone with me while the Princess got an extra hour or so of
beauty sleep.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix