Bozeman, Montana

Bozeman is a delightful little city, sandwiched in a flat spot between the Bridger and Gallatin ranges.  It’s big enough to have a Costco and small enough to get around in easily, two features which endear a city to me.   The downtown area has several blocks of small shops and interesting cafes and seems to be always pleasantly busy.  Bozeman is not all that far removed from its rip-snorting wild west days but is now one of the fastest growing cities in Montana, high-tech and entrepreneurial.   With major ski destinations nearby, it has become a hub for the schussing  set and has the mini-mansions to prove it.

The town was named for John Bozeman, a frontiersman who established a short cut for travelers on the Oregon Trail that branched off in Wyoming and headed straight through Indian territory and into Montana.  The natives took exception to the trespassing and the trail became known as “the bloody Bozeman”.  John himself was a handsome fellow who met an untimely death in his early 30’s.   There is still some controversy over the cause of his demise – was he killed by a Blackfoot band on the Yellowstone River or was he done in by a jealous husband?  The truth will likely never be known but the official answer is carved on his tombstone here at Sunset Hills Cemetery.

The Pioneer Museum, housed in the former county jail, sports an interesting collection of memorabilia from the town’s earliest days, including a full feather head-dress found at the Little Bighorn the day after Custer made his last stand.  Unlike most “hanging trees” this jail features an indoor contraption (used only once) that takes up little space and looks almost modern compared with other devices for that purpose.

It was a crisp sunny day when we headed west to visit Madison Buffalo Jump State Park near Three Forks.  The park has few explanatory signs, a lock-box for entrance fees and the jump.  And just about all the silence a body could handle.  “Remote” does not begin to describe the place and it’s hard to imagine the noise and confusion that must have accompanied the end of a tribe’s bison hunt. 

Somewhat less remote is the Missouri Headwaters State Park, not far from the town of Three Forks.  Here the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers come together to form the Missouri, which then heads north before making a dog-leg to the right and heading east.  The snowpack had only just begun to melt when we were there and the rivers were running at a good clip but not dangerously so.  The river was just a great place to romp for this herd of horses; they were splashing around, having a grand time and enjoying a find spring day.  Standing on the bank, listening to the sound of water, brings to mind the Norman Maclean book “A River Runs Through It”.  It’s also easy to picture Lewis and Clark poling their pirogue, at least where the water is deep and smooth.  And, once again, the quiet was all-encompassing except for the river sounds.  There’s not much traffic here this early in the season.

One of the quirkier museums we’ve ever visited is the American Computer Museum, housed in a corner suite of what can only be described as “a professional park”, mostly insurance offices and medical specialists, near the MSU campus.   The museum has room to display only about 6% of its collection but they have some fascinating items to show.  It can be a bit depressing to see devices you once thought of as highly advanced from a technology standpoint now viewed as “antiques”.  We were disappointed that a model of our first Xerox computer, or at least the daisy wheel printer, wasn’t  exhibited.

I wanted to get a closer look at the big white “M”, a symbol dear to the hearts of Montana State University alums, so we drove out for a look-see.  It was an extremely windy day so we didn’t even attempt the steep trail up to the “M”.   Not that failing knees would have permitted it.  This leads me to wonder where the dividing line falls in Montana weather reports – one day was described as “breezy” and the next as “windy” but both made the coach rock and stirred up a bit of motion sickness just sitting in the car.  As near as we could determine,  “windy” is 1 mph stronger than “breezy”. 

From there we headed across town and out toward Four Corners then up into Gallatin Canyon going toward Big Sky.  We had no intention of going that far but were looking for something called “House Rock” which a local had told us was a sight to see when the river was running high and the water went over the rock and not just around it.  We aren’t sure that this is House Rock but it was certainly fun to watch these rafters fairly flying downstream.  We saw one single-man raft flip over but the occupant soon righted himself and continued on to the pick-up point below.  There were spectators perched on rocks overhanging the river but we were content to watch from the safety of a nice solid highway pull-off.

Besides the ski areas of Big Sky and Bridger Bowl, Bozeman’s biggest attraction is The Museum of the Rockies, a fine facility on the MSU campus and one affiliated with the Smithsonian.  Montana has been a treasure trove of dinosaur bones and has active digs going on in various parts of the state.  And those big bones have to be displayed somewhere, hence the museum.  We spent four hours roaming around, gawking at the exhibits.  There were models, of course, but many of the actual skeletons are displayed.  It’s almost too much to take in all at once which is probably why the admission fee is for a two-day pass.

In addition to the dinosaur exhibit, there is a nice collection of Native American artifacts.  The beadwork was especially interesting and it’s always fascinating to see such modern-looking designs on primitive pieces.  Photographs were not permitted in that section of the museum.

There’s also a large space for rotating exhibits and we were fortunate enough to arrive in time to see “Frogs: A Chorus of Colors”.  Many zoos and aquariums have displays of frogs and toads but this exhibit featured the brightest and most interesting of the species.  There were the gaudy poison dart frogs, with their electric colors.  and the long-nose horned frog which was hard to locate thanks to his looking pretty much like a dried up oak leaf.  But these were our favorites, the waxy monkey frogs, who reminded us of those fine fellows in the Budweiser commercials.  At first they appeared fake, never moving or changing expression (can frogs smile?) but finally one swallowed and I was finally convinced they were real.

And so we said farewell to Bozeman and moved on a bit north to White Sulphur Springs.  We’ll be reporting from here early next week.  Meanwhile, we can mention that from the front window of the coach we have a grand view of a herd of black Angus, the snow covered foothills of the Big Belts and the Smith River which is nearing flood stage.  Stay tuned.