I recently attended a week-long seminar in Billings, Montana. En route, I stopped at the Gladstone exit, the beginning of the Enchanted Highway.
In the background is one of the metal sculptures created by Regent farmer, Gary
Greff. See some of the other sculptures here.
On North Dakota's western border, I stopped in Beach where my Dad graduated from
high school. Beach is the home of Prairie
Fire Pottery, a nice shop featuring works by local potter Tama Smith.
Her business place is just down the street from the spot where my grandfather's
grocery store once stood.
A vacant lot is all that remains after Vukelic's Grocery Store burned several
years ago. I remember visiting as a youngster. My grandfather Emil
had a soft spot for the folks riding the rails. The railroad tracks were
no more than 75 feet behind me as I took this photo. The word spread that
Emil would give anyone a free sandwich and his store became a popular stop,
especially during the Depression when so many people went west looking for
work. Union Pacific estimated they pulled 47,000 "trespassers"
off trains last year.
It was a tad on the warm side driving through Montana. Witness:
The flowers in the photos are plastic. In Forsythe, Montana the bank
clock/thermometer read 505 degrees Fahrenheit! I thought maybe I had died
and was finally getting my just reward. I hoped for a respite from the
heat in Billings. It came--the day I left town for my return trip.
But, as Dan Quayle once said, "The future will be better tomorrow."
I spent some time at Pompey's Pillar, about 30 miles east of Billings.
William Clark of the Lewis & Clark Discovery Expedition stopped at Pompey's
Pillar on July 25, 1806 and carved his name into the sandstone.
Pompey's Pillar was probably named after Sakakawea's son, Baptiste, whose
nickname was Pomp. It straddles the Yellowstone River and affords a great
view of the countryside.
Looking to the southwest from the top of the monument, there are now irrigated
fields where buffalo roamed.
Seventy-one years after Clark's visit, infamous General George Armstrong Custer
camped across the river from Pompey's Pillar on his first, last, and only trip
to the valley of the Little Bighorn River. This national monument, along
with several others in the western United States are in danger of losing their
character because of new rules proposed in Washington that would open the lands
to mining, timber, and oil exploration activities.