» August 11th, 2012
Red Flag Flying
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – I finally put two and two together this morning. My eyes had been burning like crazy for several days; no amount of eye drops seemed to help. Was I spending too much time staring at the computer screen? I’d had a nagging little night cough too; it seemed to begin when I opened the window for some fresh air as I went to bed. But come to think of it, I hadn’t been able to see the Sleeping Giant mountain for several days; the valley was covered in haze. Maybe the air wasn’t so fresh, after all. On my way to breakfast, I stopped at the front desk and asked. “Yes, there’s a forest fire burning to the north,” she confirmed. “All that smoke in the valley is bad for a person’s allergies.” Allergies, and eyes, I thought. Back in my room, I closed my window and sat down with my coffee to find what I could about forest fires in Montana. The InciWeb Incident Information System at the Montana State Travel Site quickly brought me up to date. http://visitmt.com/fire/conditions.htm » read more
» August 10th, 2012
Talent Is
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “To have talent is no credit to its owner,” Charlie Russell said in 1925. “What man can’t help he should get neither credit nor blame for.” Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926) moved to Montana when he was sixteen, seeking the life of a cowboy. It wasn’t his talent, however; he was fired from his sheep-ranching job in just a few months. He followed Jake Hoover for a while, hunting and trapping; then hired on as a wrangler at a cattle ranch near Missoula. He was finally living the cowboy life, going on cattle drives; he continued this for seven years. He also spent a year with the Blackfoot Indians, learning their ceremonies, hunting methods, and tribal legends. He sketched and drew these things he experienced during a time of Montana’s vanishing frontier – the 1880’s and 1890’s. And Charlie Russell found his talent. He created more than 4,000 paintings, drawings, and sculptures in his lifetime, becoming one of the world’s best-known and most authentic western artists. Today his statue represents Montana in Statuary Hall in Washington, DC. As I read the story of this remarkable man, I see two significant marking points – in 1886 and in 1896 – when the talent he was so modest about began to be recognized. » read more
» August 9th, 2012
Horribilis
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “We’re headed for Glacier but we don’t expect to do much hiking there,” said the mom of the group. I was chatting with a family of four in the breakfast room; a mom and dad and two grown-up daughters enthusiastic about their holiday. One of the daughters spoke up then. “It’s the grizzlies; we’ve heard they are everywhere.” The other daughter chimed in too. “We saw three on the drive from Colorado. One was eating a deer carcass by the side of the road. He was huge.” I wished them a safe trip and headed upstairs to my computer. Are there in fact a lot of grizzly bears in this part of the country? According to Montana Fish and Wildlife, the grizzly bear, Ursus arctos horribilis, occupies over 6 million acres in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) of western Montana, notably Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness; the NCDE is believed to have the largest population of grizzlies in the lower 48 states. » read more
» August 8th, 2012
Life With Brian
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “On your left you’ll see two deer in the yard,” said Brian, as our tour train rounded the corner two blocks from the capitol. I thought he was joking, pointing to a yard with fake deer for effect. But one of the deer moved its head. Everyone scrambled left, cameras clicking. It was deer, all right; two deer sitting by the hedge on the lawn of an ordinary yard in this downtown residential area. One a speckled fawn? Too cute! “Some people put flower guards out to protect their tulips from being eaten by the deer,” Brian continued, as we rounded yet another corner to stop before the governor’s home. Brian pointed out the designs in the glass door, and then around another corner we went, waving at the neighbors in their yards. It was a sunny morning, and the Last Chance Tour Train was packed; half of us tourists and half locals who wanted to show off their town in the sweetest way possible – on a tweetsie little train driven by a history teacher in an engineer’s hat, delivering interesting facts with a sometimes humorous twist. » read more
» August 7th, 2012
Going Wild
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – Montana is big. 94,109,542 acres big, to be precise. It is a state of riches, overflowing with nature’s generosity. And since the passage of the Wilderness Protection Act of 1964, signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, 3,443,038 acres of that land (about 3.7%) have become designated wilderness areas. Enthralled by the landscape around me, I’m getting information from the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA). Headquartered in Helena, the organization was founded in 1958 by Ken and Florence Baldwin; it was the nation’s first state organization concerned with wilderness preservation and the management of public lands. This nonprofit’s mission is
“to protect Montana’s wilderness heritage, quiet beauty and outdoor traditions, now and for future generations.” The ensuing years have seen coalitions and controversies, lawsuits and victories. In 1964 some of Montana’s best-known wilderness areas were designated – Bob Marshall, Cabinet Mountains, Gates of the Mountains, Selway-Bitterroot, and Anaconda-Pintler. By 1978 the Lincoln-Scapegoat, Great Bear, Rattlesnake, Absaroka-Beartooth, Mission Mountains, Welcome Creek, UL Bend, Medicine Lake, and Red Rock Lakes areas were added; more campaigns continue. » read more
» August 6th, 2012
When The Bus Breaks
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “Our bus broke down in Cheyenne,” she explained. “It was something about the compressor, and my husband drove to Denver to get the part. They didn’t have it either.” So Rory Block got to Helena by renting a car and driving 700 miles to sing for us tonight. “I kind of got into the groove for that Montana speed limit,” she confessed. Rory Block is sitting mid-stage in the Myrna Loy Center and I’m sitting 40 feet away in Seat #2, with a straight-line unobstructed view. She’d walked onstage precisely at 8 PM, a long, tall drink of water, in long legged slender slacks, long blond hair brushing the center of her back, some sparkly bracelets her only flash. This 5-time Blues Award Winner, heralded as “a living landmark,” “a national treasure” and “one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists” was here with us now, chatting to the house of 250 as though we were sharing our living room. The New York Times once declared of Rory “her playing is perfect, her singing otherworldly as she wrestles with ghosts, shadows and legends.” The evening took it one step more; she manages finicky sound systems and broken down buses with equal aplomb. » read more
» August 5th, 2012
Signing In
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “Please No Guns or Cell Phones Inside” states the sign at the door of the No Sweat Café on Last Chance Gulch, where another sign advertises the Two Dot Burger. I pushed through the screen door, glad to know I could expect a peaceful lunch. The nine tables and five booths inside were highly varnished knotty pine, served by pretty women in cute shorts and cowgirl boots. The Two Dot burger, by the way, is one patty bigger than the One Dot; most items on the menu leaned towards breakfast fare – omelets and pancakes and sausage, all done from scratch; I chose a sandwich, turkey and cream cheese, lettuce and tomato; with chips. The chips were blue corn and the tomato tasted as if it had just been picked from the tomato patch out back, it was that juicy fresh. I asked about their name; was told the original restaurant was near hot springs, therefore, people who came in were not (or were) sweating. Whatever, the cheeky humor and simply good food were a fun stop on a warm afternoon of exploring Helena. And being enticed by signs. » read more
» August 4th, 2012
She’s Here!
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – “I ate at my first Applebee’s on that trip,” Matthew reminisced during Tuesday’s final goodbyes before I headed for Helena. Grandson Matt was referring to our trip of 2001, when he was almost 10 and we went to three capital cities and three national parks in a three-week period. Helena, Bismarck, and Pierre were the capitals; Glacier, Yellowstone, and the Badlands were the parks. I chuckled that he remembered the Helena Applebee’s stop; he didn’t want to go to an unfamiliar place but I promised an oreo shake. He tried something new, and he loved it; the next day we visited the capitol. He loved that too. Little did we know that day just how it would affect our lives. Matt is 20 now; he’s studying Japanese with plans to head for Japan next year for more study; he plans to live there, and teach. Matt’s vision expanded under the wide-open skies of Montana; my vision expanded by watching a kid in a capitol. That’s why I’m here today. » read more
» August 3rd, 2012
Helen Air
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – The Sleeping Giant was still snoozing when I woke up this morning. He’s straight across the valley from my hotel, a camera-zoom from my second-floor window revealed the details of his nose. The mountain goats that live in the Sleeping Giant Wilderness Area have been awake for a while, I figure,and the bighorn sheep and black bear; I imagine them roaming around looking for breakfast. I head downstairs in search of food myself. The coffee is ready in the sunny breakfast room; make your own waffles or choose sausage and eggs and biscuits and gravy; there are cheerios for the faint of heart. I slip an English muffin into the toaster and pick up the morning newspaper. “Welcome to Helena” is the header on Helena’s daily, the Independent Record; that’s www.helenair.com . The cover sheet is a Daily Visitor Guide, how nice! “Downtown Helena is a place of riches,” I read. » read more
» August 2nd, 2012
Rocky Mountain Roads
Linda Burton posting from Helena, Montana – Just an ordinary day in the life of a cross-country traveler. I crossed Clark Fork sixteen times, was slowed by orange road-work cones seven times, stopped for gas two times, and observed a smashed-to-pieces motorhome one time. Actually I saw the smash-up twice – once on the freeway at the scene of the “incident” (as the Montana temporary highway markers defined it); later when stopped at the St Regis Travel Plaza (where they serve huckleberry shakes). A truck hauled a piece of it in; I shivered at the sight, a shambles of dangling wiring, a sink poised in the upper corner as it lay pitifully on its side. What happened to the people? What happened to their dishes? What happened to their plans? Were they headed cross-country like me, or did they just want to spend a week parked by the creek, fishing peacefully? I gave a pat to my sturdy Scion, thankful we were safe. » read more