Virginia City

We left Helena for Dillon, Montana, and took the scenic route following the Lewis and Clark trail plus adding a few ghost towns along the way. First stop was at Three Forks in Gallatin City. The Headwaters of the Missouri is the confluence where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers merge to form the 2,300 mile Missouri River. I was able to stand at the confluence and there seemed to be water coming from all directions. An aerial view shows it looking like a delta with lots of meandering branches.

I borrowed this photo from the Headwaters website to show the meandering. I can’t really tell which river is which and think I was standing somewhere lower right.

This is what I saw when I stood at the headwaters of the Missouri. Notice the snow covered Rocky Mountains in the distance.

The drive was beautiful with mountains all around, many of them with snow still on the tops.

I made a stop in Virginia City, Montana and discovered that it is a preserved gold-rush town from the mid-1800’s. First stop was the Virginia City Creamery for some homemade ice cream.

They made the ice cream in these wooden barrels and the pulleys were turned by the ropes hooked up gears and motors somewhere near the ceiling. I had a scoop of Cowboy Coffee and Huckleberry, Honey and Lavender ice cream.

Then I wandered the town. Some of the buildings have tourist businesses, others you are free to step into and view all the antiques.

I’m amazed that the wood isn’t rotten and gone. But apparently the humidity is so low and the wood is cedar and it stays like it was (with a little help from the preservation society). Notice the wooden sidewalks and roof overhangs.

Collections of doll heads like this always freak me out a bit.

Virginia City Feed and Seed. The hardware is hanging above the ceiling; the seed drawers are center right.

Some of the buildings got pretty fancy. Virginia City Dance and Stuart General Mercantile Store.

They had plenty of these saloons here. Even though there were women and children, most were bachelor men looking for gold.

You’d find this in the saloons – liquor, guns, rifles, music, animal horns…

I like this photo, but find it hard to understand where and when gold miners would wear this.

The town Laboratory, where they would analyze the rocks and minerals coming out of the mines.

Further on down the road I came to Beaverhead Rock. This is important with regards to Lewis and Clark. They understood from Sacajawea to look for the rock because that’s where her birth family, the Shoshone, came every summer. And they hoped to get horses from the Shoshone to cross the Rockies before winter came. Remember Sacajawea was kidnapped from the Shoshone here in western Montana and taken to the Mandan near Bismark, North Dakota where she and her husband, joined the Lewis and Clark party as Indian interpreters.

I don’t think I’m at the right angle to see the Beaver Head. Another interesting part about this photo is that the water below the rock is designated a National Sandhill Crane Nesting Site. But there were none there, only a few pelicans.

If you got this far, I have to report that the tour has officially fessed up to a COVID outbreak. As of this morning, there were 8 confirmed cases, and many other unconfirmed, including me. Symptoms are mostly 2 days of extreme fatigue and sore throat, then lingering cough. Reactions to the news has been varied and across the board.

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