Montana...big sky country

Sunset from the Bear Canyon Campground

On Sunday, we rested. After such an active day at Yellowstone National Park the day before, we spent the morning catching up on laundry and such. We met the parents for lunch at Famous Dave's again (naturally) and then stopped at a thrift store or two before we took a dip in the hotel's pool in the afternoon. In the evening, Ken made us all a nice dinner and we enjoyed happy hour while watching the beautiful sunset from the campground. Nice.

On Monday, with renewed energy and a desire to return to Livingston (and the Montana Rib & Chop House for lunch again), we made our way there. After another fantastic meal we toured the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County. While Ken and I trudged up the three flights of stairs in the old schoolhouse building, Mom and Dad enjoyed the company of the museum's director, Paul Shea, who regaled them with stories about each of the interesting pieces of historic machinery in the museum's backyard.

Yellowstone Gateway Museum

Ken and I saw exhibits about the area now known as Park County, including the famous Yellowstone Trail, a historic national highway that crossed the country from Plymouth Rock (in Massachusetts) to Puget Sound (in Seattle). Beginning in 1912, the Yellowstone Trail was the farthest north of four transcontinental highways through the country and the only one conceived through a grassroots effort, beginning with J.W. Parmley of South Dakota. Eventually the route desired between destinations within South Dakota expanded to include a road to the new Yellowstone National Park. Through his and other small business leaders' lobbying efforts, a series of local roads were improved and marked from Puget Sound to Plymouth Rock to become the Yellowstone Trail.

Replica of homesteader's cabin

We also learned about the development of Montana through the Homestead Act of 1862, whose subsequent acts in 1902, 1906 and 1909 increased the number of homesteaders in the state by allowing irrigation, use of national forest land, and larger homesteading parcels, respectively. The 1912 act decreasing the amount of time required to prove up the land also led to the establishment of more homesteads, which significantly increased the development of remote areas of the country, specifically the previously less-desirable high desert areas of Montana.

In another room of the museum we learned the Yellowstone River flows through the Livingston area and has supported humans here for over 11,000 years, long before the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in 1806. The discovery of the area by Lewis and Clark was described in Clark's journal entry from July 15, 1806 at 2pm, "Struck the Rochejhone (Yellowstone) one and a half miles below where it passes out of the Rocky Mountains. River 120 yards wide, bold, rapid, and deep."

Upstairs we toured through the Native Cultures room, an exhibit designed by the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation people. The displays centered on the tribe's continued friendship with the U.S. Government following the 1825 Friendship Treaty, as well as on the importance of the buffalo to the Crow people's culture. We read quite a bit about the buffalo's near extinction at the hands of white fur traders in the late 1800s and the reintroduction and protection of the species since the early 20th century.

Exhibit of women's roles in Montana

The last room in the museum covered an exhibit about women's roles in the success of Montana, especially as teachers in one-room schoolhouses in rural areas. Today, according to the display, 63 of the remaining 200 active one room schoolhouses in the country are found in Montana. Fascinating!

We returned to the main level where the guide at the front desk directed us to the display of coaches and such in the museum's backyard. We wandered out there and saw an original sheep wagon, basically a very early version of an RV designed in 1884 by a Wyoming blacksmith specifically for sheepherders to use out in the field while tending to their sheep. With cloth windows that roll up, a little wood stove nailed to the floor (and vented through the roof) and a platform bed, the sheepherder could be relatively comfortable for long stretches.

Urbach Schoolhouse
with first mechanized roadgrader

Yellowstone Park Co. coach

Nearby in the garage stood an original Yellow- stone Park Co. coach used to bring tourists to the park from Livingston. (According to the museum's director, though, the coach has been painted the wrong shade of yellow and will eventually be painted Yellowstone yellow.) Two other companies' coaches were also on display, a green one (Yellowstone Transportation Company) and a red one (Yellowstone-Western Stage Company), though only the Yellowstone Park Company continued to operate in the park until 1980.

Outside the garage, we saw the original Urbach Schoolhouse. Built in 1898, this was a great example of the one-room schoolhouse so popular in educating rural children at the turn of the century. The inside of the schoolhouse was decorated with donated items, like the original teacher's desk and the children's desks. One the wall we read an article about a mysterious explosion that occurred under the home of the Urbach's, resulting in the death of Mrs. Urbach followed shortly after by the suicide of Mr. Urbach in his intense grief. No one was ever apprehended for the crime and the shroud of mystery remains. Odd.

Yellowstone River with the 'sleeping giant' figure
barely visible in the middle of the mountains

Moose!

Mom and Dad had spent the entire time Ken and I toured the museum chatting with Mr. Shea about the exhibits and all things Livingston. He encouraged us to tour Sacagawea Park where the Yellowstone River flows through part of the town. So we headed there. The river is separated from the roadway by a large gravel berm on top of which the locals walk their dogs. I climbed up there and looked down the river and saw...a moose! She was standing in the river almost up to her chest munching on the river grasses. While Ken, Dad and Mom came over to see her, she nonchalantly walked up the embankment on the other side of the river from us and began chewing on a willow bush, tugging at the leaves and branches. Eventually she moved on, but we sure enjoyed watching her from our lookout.

Magpies enjoying the shade next to Yellowstone River

A man out walking his little pup mentioned that it is unusual to see a momma moose without her baby, but for all the time we watched her, no baby moose appeared. Perhaps she had stashed him safely in the bushes. In any case, this fellow also pointed out Mt. Baldy behind the river. The peaks and valleys to the left of Mt. Baldy form a 'sleeping giant', complete with a side view of his face, chin, neck and chest. Sure enough, as soon as we looked in that direction, we could easily make out the giant. Cool!

We headed back to the RV for happy hour and to enjoy the cool breeze coming in the windows. For dinner, the MacKenzie River Pizza Company in downtown Bozeman fit the bill. With great service and tasty pizza, we were stuffed, with plenty for the next day's lunch. We parted company with the parents and returned to the RV for what little remained of the evening. What a super day!