Day 58 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Thursday 8/23/18

Free Day to explore and take care of daily needs that tend to be forgotten when you are on “vacation” every day! I’ll share a brief history of Missoula. The first inhabitants of the Missoula area were American Indians from the Salish tribe, actually the first inhabitants were probably relatives of these two guys! They called the area "Nemissoolatakoo," from which "Missoula" is derived. The word translates roughly to "river of ambush or surprise," a reflection of the inter-tribal fighting common to the area. The Indians' first encounter with whites came in 1805, when the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the Missoula Valley.

The first white settlers were CP Higgins and Francis Worden, who opened a trading post called the Hellgate Village on the Blackfoot River near the eastern edge of the valley around 1860. It was followed by a sawmill and a flourmill, which the settlers called "Missoula Mills". The completion of the Mullan Road connecting Fort Benton, Montana with Walla Walla, Washington and passing through the Missoula Valley meant fast growth for the growing city, buoyed by the U.S. Army's establishment of Fort Missoula in 1877, and the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883. With this, Missoula became a trading center in earnest, distributing produce and grain grown in the agriculturally prosperous Bitterroot Valley. The Missoula Mercantile Company in the early 1880s.

The city's success was aided by two other factors. First was the opening of the University of Montana in September 1895, serving as the center of public higher education for Western Montana. Then, in 1908, Missoula became a regional headquarters for the Forest Service, which began training smokejumpers in 1942. The Aerial Fire Depot was built in 1954, and big industry came to Missoula in 1956, with the groundbreaking for the first pulp mill. Until the mid-1970s, logging was a mainstay industry with log yards throughout the city. The current site of Southgate Mall was once the location of the largest log-processing yard within several hundred miles. The saws could be heard over two miles away on a clear summer night. However, by the early 1990s, changes in the economic fortunes of the city had shut down all the Missoula log yards.

In 1995 “A Carousel for Missoula” opened. However, it began about four years before that. It all began with a few parts, ambition and a dream. It was almost a “build it and they will come” kind of thing. Chuck Kaparich said “If you will give it a home, and promise no one will ever take it apart, I will build A Carousel for Missoula.”  That was the promise the Missoula cabinet-maker made to the Missoula City Council in 1991. Kaparich, who had spent many childhood hours on the carousel at Columbia Gardens in Butte, Montana, had already carved four carousel ponies and had purchased an antique frame in thousands of pieces.  The Council agreed and Kaparich’s dream of A Carousel for Missoula became the dream of a community. A board of directors was formed to facilitate organization and fund raising, Kaparich taught others to carve, mechanics began the process of restoring 16,066 pieces of the antique frame and motor, painters were recruited, and Missoula began working together to create a treasure.

After four years of a huge volunteer effort, the Carousel for Missoula opened its doors to the young at heart. By Opening Day, May 27, 1995, over 100,000 hours of volunteer time had gone into the construction of 38 permanent ponies; three replacement ponies; two chariots; 14 gargoyles, gargoyle frames and mirror frames; and the largest band organ in continuous use in the United States, all within a jewel box building. Community members donated time, services, materials and encouragement.  School children collected over one-million pennies to adopt four ponies; stained glass artists constructed shimmering windows; mechanics poured Babbitt; majestic horses’ heads emerged from blocks of wood; and people found lasting friendships among the woodchips. 

Each horse has an adoptive family and a story. Here are a few of the stories from the carousel pictures I took. Silver has an adoptive family of Randy, Theresa, Jason, Jessica and Jamie Cox. His story includes … as a boy growing up on a ranch near Cascade, Montana, Randy had a horse named Silver. The pony looks like the real Silver in many ways, including its saddle. The flowers across the rump are sweet peas, flowers that grow wild in the spring in the Smith River and upper Missouri River country. When Randy and Theresa first met, he would bring her sweet peas. The three J’s on the stirrup are for the Cox children.

Behind Silver is Midnight Rose, her adoptive family is First Interstate Bank. Midnight Rose was the name given to this horse by her carvers from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The community extended far beyond Missoula. The pony was a gift to the Carousel from the Midnight Rose Carvers. Midnight Rose is dedicated to the memory of Pat Davis, a bank employee who was killed in a horseback riding accident. 

Cannonball has an adoptive family of the Missoula Rotary Clubs. His story is that of an outside-row jumper, Cannonball was named for a beloved horse of world famous wilderness outfitter Smoke Elser, a Rotary member. The pony has gold armor, emblazoned with the Rotary emblem, and royal blue and maroon trappings.

The Eagle Chariot was adopted by the Missoula Building Industry Association. His story is that association members were anxious to provide a way for children and grownups of all abilities - especially those with disabilities and limited abilities - to enjoy the Carousel, and therefore decided to adopt a chariot that could be used by the very young, the very old and everyone in between. The seat can be lifted, and a wheelchair fastened into the chariot. The eagle and patriotic colors are symbols of the group’s umbrella organization, the National Association of Homebuilders.

Paint has an adoptive family of Irene and Larry Pirnie. As a world-renowned Missoula artist Larry Pirnie has always seen the running horse as an ever-changing array of electric colors. A favorite of Missoula children and visitors alike, Larry’s personal design and paint job represent Pirnie’s fantasy of jumping on the back of a wild horse “hanging on with great joy, as it leads him on endless adventures.”

Behind Paint is Red Ribbons, her adoptive family is the local newspaper, the Missoulian. Her story is told in the book “Red Ribbons” by John H. Toole, Missoula’s first printing press was hauled to town by horse and wagon in 1870. Just outside of town, the driver, Joe Magee, stopped and his men tied little red ribbons to the horse’s ears and mane. Thus adorned, the horse pulled the printing press into town and Missoula’s first newspaper was published. Red Ribbons, the Carousel pony, pays tribute to this little known anecdote in Missoula history.

Snapples has a pretty face. Her adoptive family is the Missoula school children. Her story is thanks to the efforts of the littlest volunteers. Sally Nelson’s fourth graders in Lolo designed Snapples, a shortening of “Sally Nelson’s Apples.” They won the rights to the design by collecting 19,039 pennies in the Pennies for Ponies fundraiser. The story of the Carousel includes wood and metal, concrete and colored glass, hearts and hands, and countless hours of loving labor. The spirit of giving which created the Carousel didn’t end when the building opened.  Volunteers carve ponies for other carousels and local not-for-profit organizations, and restore ponies for antique carousels.  The mechanical crew donates time to keep the machine in tip top condition, and many others help improve and maintain the Carousel as a gift to the community.

We entered the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, School of Forestry part of the University of Montana. In December of 1937, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company donated 19,058 acres to the Montana Forest and Conservation Experiment Station. Two years later the Northern Pacific donated an additional 1,210 acres. Over the years smaller tracts have been obtained from private individuals to bring the total acreage to its present figure. 

The forest was named for WC Lubrecht, who was the general manager of the Anaconda Company lumber operations at Bonner. According to newspaper reports at the time, the gift provided the school with "the most extensive holdings of any such school in the US.” The initial buildings at Lubrecht had been constructed from wood cut and sawed by the students from the property. For almost forty years, the camp at Lubrecht consisted of a collection of old buildings and temporary facilities. In 1982, the Castles Forestry Center was built to provide a permanent space for research. Many of the recreation facilities were constructed by students in the 1950s using lumber sawn on site. In 1996, the 32-bed lodge and one-bedroom apartments were added.

Lubrecht Experimental Forest is a 28,000 acre forest located 30 miles northeast of Missoula in the Blackfoot River drainage. The Montana Forest and Conservation Experiment Station, at the WA Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, owns and manages 21,000 acres. The other 7,000 are managed cooperatively with the State of Montana Department of Natural Resources. University of Montana students and faculty use Lubrecht for study and research. Members of the public use Lubrecht Forest for recreation, for conferences, weddings, and other special events. The forest even boasts nordic ski trails, that are groomed and maintained by Lubrecht staff with assistance from the Missoula Nordic Ski Club.

The forest has been actively managed over the years, with some commercial thinning done particularly for the mountain pine beetle in the 1970s and 80s. It is still possible to recognize remnants of the three earlier Anaconda Company cuts of the late 1800s, 1916, and 1925 to 1926 and associated railroad grades as well as two clearcut areas from the 1960s. Small amounts of timber are offered for sale annually, with the proceeds going to support further projects on the forest, as well as the maintenance and management of Lubrecht.

The Garnet Back Country Byway provides a 12-mile journey through the Garnet Mountain Range in western Montana. Garnet Ghost Town is a major point of interest along the Byway. The Byway begins 30 miles east of Missoula where the Garnet Range Road leaves MT Highway 200. As the Byway climbs 2,000 feet into the evergreen forest of the Garnet Mountains, outstanding panoramas of the Blackfoot River Valley, the Swan Range, the Mission Mountains, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness come into view. We took this scenic drive to the Garnet Ghost Town.

Garnet was named for the semi-precious ruby-colored stone found in the area and it was a good place to live. The surrounding mountains were rich in gold-bearing quartz. There was a school, the crime rate was low, and liquor flowed freely in the town’s many saloons. The bawdy houses did a brisk business and Missoula and Deer Lodge were close enough for necessary supplies.

In the 1800s miners migrated north from played-out placer mines in California and Colorado. Placer mining of gold or other minerals is done by washing the sand and gravel with running water, but by 1870 most area placer mining was no longer profitable. The Garnet Mountains attracted miners who collected the gold first by panning, then by using rockers and sluice boxes as the free-floating gold diminished. Although miners had located gold-bearing quartz veins, the lack of decent roads and refined extracting and smelting techniques, made further development unfeasible at that time. Silver mines elsewhere started to draw the miners out of the Garnet Mountains, but in 1893, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act set off a panic throughout the region. Silver mines closed, and within weeks thousands of unemployed miners were on to gold mining in the Garnets. Miners began to trickle back.

At the head of First Chance Gulch in 1895, Dr. Armistead Mitchell erected a stamp mill to crush local ore. Around it grew the town, which was originally named Mitchell, but in 1897 became known as Garnet. Soon after Mitchell erected his mill, Sam Ritchey hit a rich vein of ore in his Nancy Hanks mine just west of the town. The "boom" began. By January 1898 nearly 1,000 people resided in Garnet. There were four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school with 41 students, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons comprised the town. Eager miners and entrepreneurs built quickly and without planning. A haphazard community resulted. Most of the buildings stood on existing or future mining claims, and about twenty mines operated.

After 1900 many mine owners leased their mines out, the gold having become scarcer and harder to mine. The Nancy Hanks yielded about $300,000 worth of gold, and an estimated $950,000 was extracted from all the mines in Garnet by 1917, but by 1905, many of the mines were abandoned and the town’s population had shrunk to about 150. A fire in the town’s business district in 1912 destroyed may commercial buildings, most remaining residents moved away to defense-related jobs. By the 1940’s, Garnet was a ghost town. Cabins were abandoned, furnishings included, as though residents were merely vacationing. F.A. Davey still ran the store however, and the hotel stood intact.

In 1934 when President Roosevelt raised gold prices from $16 to $32 an ounce, Garnet revived. A new wave of miners moved into abandoned cabins and began re-working the mines and dumps. Then, World War II drew the population away again. The use of dynamite for domestic purposes was curtailed, making mining difficult. Garnet again became a ghost town. Once again FA Davey and a few others remained. Several new cabins were constructed following the war, and in 1948 an auction was held with items from the Davey store. Much remained however, and souvenir hunters soon stripped the town not only of loose items, but of doors, woodwork, wallpaper, and even the hotel stairway. The future of this historic town now depends on the work of volunteers and contributions from the public.

The jail was erected in 1897 but never received much use. During the early days, there were shootings and problems with claim jumpers, but people generally would work out these messes without using the jail. Supposedly the only person to be seen in the jail was Frank Kearn, a miner who got drunk and killed someone’s dog. It wasn’t unusual for rifles to be carried in town, but they were only used for hunting game. In the 1960s, a man known simply as Mr Stoddard lived in the jail while collecting weather data.

The post office was built between 1896 and 1900 as a miner’s cabin. In the 1930’s, Nels Seadin was the Postmaster when he moved into Adam’s house. After his death in 1939, Walter Moore took over.

Kelley’s Saloon is a two story frame building built before 1898. The owner at the time was Robert Moore and it was called the “Bob Moore Aloon.” On October 21, 1898. LP Kelley purchased the saloon from Moore for $1,500. Part interest in the business was sold to Thomas Fraser, and it became known as the “Kelley and Fraser Saloon.” In 1907, Nellie Fraser sold it to Ward Mulleneux who resold it to the Montana Liqour Company in 1908, but Kelley continued to operate the saloon. It was one of the thirteen bars in Garnet during the boom period that offered “Male-oriented” entertainment.

In Missoula, we traveled on Orange Street, going under the bridge. Technically, it’s a bridge that goes over the street, but because the bridge contains both train tracks and North First Street, it makes for a much wider overpass than a typical bridge. Hence, the underpass is literally a small tunnel. The art work that adorns the tunnel is awesome and awe-inspiring.

On our way back into town, I googled “barber near me” and we got off at the next exit and the barber shop was right there. Charlie walked in and got right into the chair and got his hair cut! We got back into camp and relaxed a bit, before we had huckleberry ice cream and our road log review for our travel the next day.