Montana - Day 16 - to Fort Benton, via Missouri Breaks

Benton RV Park, Ft. Benton

Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Because we took our first walk around 4:00 AM, nobody else was up and Dext and I could walk around town a bit.  Quiet town.  The local team mascot is the Harlowton Engineers.  Really.

When we got back to the campground it was still quite dark, and we surprised a deer that was feeding there.  We'd seen deer in the campground/city park yesterday too, so it wasn't a complete surprise to us, though it seemed to be to the deer.

today's route

My travel plans for today were formed around 2 goals.  The first was to see the Judith Mountains (actually lots of things are named Judith in this part of Montana); the second was to go to the visitor center for the Missouri Breaks National Monument.  The monument covers a good part of Montana - it's the brown area in the route map above - and I'd never heard of it and couldn't figure out online what it was.  So those two things are where we went today, though we got the added unexpected bonus of historical Ft. Benton.

Despite US-191 being a federal highway, it's basically what in Texas we call a farm-to-market road.  At one point I had a veritable army of 4 huge mowers (I guess) coming down the road toward me, taking up more than their fair share of space.  In fact, I saw several parades like that during the day, once with 2 campers stuck behind them wanting to pass but unable because of the narrow road and the monster machines.

I passed a large wind farm with all the turbines turned off.

I passed several large flocks of sheep, herds of cows, a few horses, and vast fields - some with grain and some intended for grazing.  It was a rolling patchwork of fields, and I had a view of them for many miles.

I passed a horse-and-buggy warning sign, indicating Amish families were in the area.

Several times I saw a lot of bee boxes situated next to a grain field, though I wouldn't have expected growing grain would interest a bunch of bees.

I passed the towns of Judith Gap (very tiny) and Garneill (mainly some kind of grain facility).  And I passed several larger towns that didn't have signs saying what their names were.

Sadly, I saw a wolf or coyote dead by the side of the road.

A sign told me the Big Snowy Mountains were nearby, though you couldn't have proved it by me.

At Lewistown, the Kiwanis Club has sponsored a nice rest area that actually allows camping (no plug-ins) for up to 10 days.  While we were there taking a walk, I watched 2 police cars with 3 officers having some kind of very involved discussion with the 2 people in one of the tents that had been pitched there.  The 2 people had clearly only just gotten out of bed (it was about 9:45).  I couldn't hear any of it, though it seemed odd enough that I kept an eye on them.  But before we left, both cop cars had left and the 2 people were packing up their stuff.

At the rest area, I found several interesting exhibits.  First there's this one from WWII.

text enlarged below

As you can see in the map below, the Nez Perce Conflict of 1877 and their subsequent flight covered areas I passed in Idaho and already in Montana.  I expect I'll see more information about it as I go farther into the state.

enlargements below

enlargements below

And finally, there was this information about the local countryside.

A lot for one rest area, huh?  And the rest area also had a lot of gophers (Dext was excited) and a zillion grasshoppers, with one taking a ride on Dext's back till I brushed it off.

As we drove through Lewistown itself, I was surprised (though I don't know why) at how well-established it seemed.  Around 6,000 people live here and they have some beautiful public buildings.

Carnegie Library
(per the etching above the entrance)

Fergus County Courthouse
(the clock is set to the correct time!)

I noticed the local movie theater was showing Where the Crawdads Sing, which I'd never heard of and thought was a joke until I looked it up.  Instead, it's a first-run novel-turned-movie that is apparently well-thought-of in some circles.  I was impressed when I saw that David Strathairn is in it.  Actually, I was more focused on the other sign there that said the theater offers "carry out popcorn daily."  This seemed to be a thriving town, clean and attractive.

I'd originally thought of staying overnight here but couldn't find a campground.  As I was leaving town, I passed an RV park that was part of the local fairground, neither of which showed up on Google's map.

Not far from town I passed a sign telling me to turn for "Gigantic Warm Springs."  I didn't but was curious and learned online that there's a wide warm spring on a private ranch out here.  They say it has the highest flow volume of any warm springs in the world.  But they don't allow pets.  I can understand that, but after so many "no pets" signs during the last couple of months, I'm getting a little tired of it.  Not that it was a problem for me because I didn't go there.  But I guess lots of other people do.  The water stays 68° year round, so people enjoy it even in the summer (when other MT lakes are chilly).

Past Lewistown, a sign told me I was passing the Judith Mountains.  I wondered where the name came from, because I haven't heard of any other geographic features anywhere in the US named Judith.  Online I learned the mountains and Judith River were named by William Clark when the Corps of Discovery passed through here.  He'd fallen for a girl back home named Julia Hamilton (he eventually married her), and for some reason that no one explains - online at least - he called her Judith.  That's something else I've never heard of - Judith as a nickname or alternate name to Julia.  If I'd been Julia, I'd've objected, but she apparently didn't since she married him and they had 5 children together.

Judith Peak, in the Judith Mountains, is 6,428' tall.  The Judith River, when I crossed it, seemed to have a water level much lower than the riverbank shows is normal.  And I've been passing stock tanks that are clearly about half dried up.

I passed huge fields of corn and big mounds of round hay bales.  Unlike Idaho's bales that seemed to be mostly squared, Montana's are mostly round.  Maybe MT has more cows to feed for longer periods than ID.

I saw 4 of those white †s all together and wondered if an entire family had been killed.

I've spent a little time trying to figure out what grains I've been looking at, without success.  As far as I can tell from the internet, wheat is a kind of hay (which I wouldn't have thought was true) and timothy is a kind of hay and alfalfa is a kind of hay.  And straw is a byproduct of hay: after farmers harvest the grain heads, the stalks that are left are straw.  Okay, I grew up in cities and maybe all this seems obvious to more privileged people, but my takeaway is to call all the grain I've been seeing either grain or hay - and you can decide what kind of plant you think I'm talking about, because I have no more clue than that.

Signs have been warning me to watch for deer - and in fact I saw a herd of mule deer that were disguised by all the road construction equipment they were standing around.  But signs don't say to watch out for gophers/prairie dogs (whatever they are) which I'm seeing even more of than deer.  And the gophers run across the road even more too.

The litter crew in this area was "Old Lonesome George."

I've been seeing a few signs saying, "Save the Cowboy - Stop the APR."  The APR refers to the American Prairie Reserve, which is a nonprofit organization that's gradually buying land across Montana with the goal of uniting 3 million acres of contiguous shortgrass prairie land to serve as a wildlife refuge and low-key tourism attraction.  

The opposition instead sees the APR as heedless of the people and communities who currently rely on the farms and ranches on the land APR wants to buy, saying they'll be eradicating hundreds of family farms and ranches.  

Knowing only what I've read on their websites, my sense is that those family farms aren't being threatened by eminent domain, but instead by people who want to sell land to willing buyers.  If they really are family farms, then presumably the families own the land and they can choose not to sell their land.  If they don't own their land but are renting it, then they've always been at the whim of the owner (or the owner's heirs) and APR isn't changing that.  But both sides feel strongly so who knows.

The road in this area makes a lot of 90° turns, presumably to match property lines.  Reminds me of driving in farming country in Texas.

There are still plenty of hills around here, and I found myself on an 8% grade for a bit.  Followed by a road full of frost heaves.  And I reminded myself that Montana gets plenty cold enough for frost heaves, though I'm used to thinking of that being a product of permafrost in Alaska.

In Geraldine, I saw a truck transporting a whole lot of bee boxes.

I passed Rick Oshay Lane (say it fast).

There were lots of white †s along today's route, which doesn't seem particularly dangerous to me, but it obviously can be.

I saw a whole herd of horses walking across a field almost single-file.  And then the road took another steep descent down to the Missouri River and Fort Benton, "Birthplace of Montana," they say.

Our first stop, of course, was the Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center.  Because Dext wanted a walk, I started my tour with the displays they had along a walkway outside.

A Tribe In Search of Recognition
enlargements below

There were other signs, but I thought this one was a little surprising.

Preserving History and Enhancing the Environment & Economy
details enlarged below

Inside the center were a number of exhibits on various topics, but I found myself most impressed by this information on how Meriweather Lewis figured out which of 2 branches of water was the Missouri.

This set of exhibits gives information about the Missouri and its environment.

I tend to think of the Mississippi as the most important river in the US,
but as this shows, it's not the longest and, for this part of the country,
isn't even the most important - the Missouri is.

This photo illustrates what
"the Missouri Breaks" looks
like - see below

. . . and its cultural environment.

Here's information about the Missouri's geology:

enlargements below

This illustrates how the Missouri changed
its course because of glaciers.

As I've noted in other places, one of the core historical and cultural events for this area was the US government's treatment of the indigenous people - specifically, the Nez Perce tribe.

This is the route the Nez Perce took when trying to find
a place to live without interference from a government that
kept breaking its treaties.

By the time I'd gone through all these and many other exhibits at the Interpretive Center, I still didn't understand what they were talking about when they mentioned "the Missouri Breaks."  Not one exhibit gave any sort of definition or explanation.  So I finally asked the nice park ranger who admitted she'd never been completely clear about that herself, and she phoned a supervisor to ask - and she put him on a speakerphone so I could hear too.  It sounded like he'd been asked this before, and he explained that it was a phrase that referred to "the broken landscapes that rise from the river bottom to the uplands."

This is my photo taken at the visitor center.  That's the
Missouri River, though I don't know if the upper bank
qualifies as what they mean by "the breaks."
Still, it rises straight from the riverbed.

This is an enlargement of the exhibit titled "Geology"
above; it's also the same site as shown in the center's
brochure for the national monument, so I'm sure it
qualifies as an example of "the breaks."

The land encompassed by the national monument boundaries isn't even actually here at Ft. Benton.  It's farther inland, farther along the route of the Missouri.  And as far as I can tell from the maps, the only roads leading in are unpaved.  When I saw that, I decided I'd have to give a miss to seeing this area.  But it's apparently a beautiful landscape if you're only hardy enough to make the trip.

After this visit, I drove the mile or so into the heart of town.  Actually, I tried to stop sooner than that to walk Dext in the green space along the river, but there were too many deer so I had to give that idea up. 

But I discovered that the downtown is oriented around the river (which makes sense because the river access was the reason for the town's founding) and the town capitalized on that.  They claim the title of Birthplace of Montana because this is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the state.  Ft. Benton was once "the World's Innermost Port" - the furthest navigable point on the Missouri River.

Ft. Benton was named for Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton.  I wondered if it was because it seemed fitting to name the town on the Missouri River for a senator from Missouri, but all I've found online is that quite a few states have counties or cities named for him (Arkansas has 2).

Ft. Benton is the seat of Chouteau County which, in 2007, tied for highest wheat production in the US.  (It was clear to me that they're still producing a lot because less than a block from tonight's campground Dext and I found a Montana Wheat & Grain processing facility.)

The main street in town has a long green space beside the river with a walking path and historical signs at intervals.  Here are some I found interesting.

This was carved into one side of the 
statue's pedestal (at left).

 

The pedestal also notes "The Mullan Road" has been designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. 

Remember the statue in front of the state capitol of a man on horseback?  That was Thomas Meagher who was acting governor at the time of his apparent death (his body was never found after he presumably fell overboard).  Well, this next set of photos is that same guy and it was here in Ft. Benton that Meagher apparently fell overboard into the Missouri River.

The plaque under the bust begins with a phrase that I assume is Gaelic, followed by the name "Thomas Francis Meagher" and "1823 Ireland - 1867 Montana."  "Irish Patriot - American Civil War Hero - Acting Governor, Montana Territory."  Then this: "A few yards from here Meagher met his mysterious Fate on July 1, 1867.  '(We) shall not look on his like again.'  Shakespeare"

It was sponsored by "Montana and National Hibernians - Community of Fort Benton - People of the Republic of Ireland" and dedicated June 28, 2009.

These next groups are historic buildings (the real ones) with the exhibits about them the city has displayed.

This sign says the original building
(photo top right above) was built in 1968.
It also says the original wooden building was 
replaced by a brick building in 1893 so
it's safe to assume the first date as 1868.
The 3rd floor was added in 1910.

This is that same 3-story building today.

This is the other side of that sign above.

I.G. Baker Home
built 1867 (see below)

This is the current home of the Masonic Lodge.
They originally had a beautiful brick building near the other historic buildings,
but they lost title around the turn of the last century in an economic downturn.
I couldn't find anything that said what this building was intended for or how old it is.

And here's the Missouri River, which these signs, statues and buildings face.

The Missouri River in Fort Benton

From there, we drove another mile to tonight's campground.  That was a strange experience.  The office was closed and, though I called the number a sign said to call, it got me nothing.  I walked around a bit, wondering how long I'd have to wait, when a man drove up in a pickup.  He was the husband of the campground's manager and knew the number to call that would actually connect to his wife.  He pointed out a vacant campsite I could use.

That site was clearly intended to be 2 sites, each back-ins so they'd be back-to-back.  When I managed to find the guy again (he let his dog out and his dog, unleashed, raced over to bark at us), he assured me they weren't going to have anybody park there tonight so I could treat it as a pull-through.

I found a mostly level part of that site, got us plugged in, and took Dext for a walk.  The roads were all gravel in that neighborhood (which hurt Dext's feet) and it was a really warm afternoon, so we retreated to air conditioning.

Then I heard banging on the rear of the RV and thought somebody was stealing my hubcap or something else weird.  I went out and saw a little kid about 3 years old, sitting on a bicycle and ramming it into my bumper.  His dad, who couldn't see what he was doing, hollered at him to stop.  And I told him not to do it any more and was relieved to see the kid take himself and his bike over to their space near mine.

That was followed by the entire family using my picnic table to eat their supper on, carrying their plates and drinks over from their site.  They were already using their own table and the one from the site in between theirs and ours to stack their stuff on and there wasn't room for eating so, without a word to me, they casually used mine.  Probably what they'd been doing for a while, but since I was actually there it seemed weird that they were that oblivious.

It was just a strange visit.