Border crossing
Look at :
Border crossing
Le Montana
The first village crossed further on at
around fifty kilometers was Shelby where
on a hill an immense spangled banner
floated triumphantly. Without doubt I was
in the USA.
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| Shelby ! |
Great Falls
After lunching on a rest area I arrived at
Great Falls to fill the tank with food at
Wal-Mart and diesel at Pilot where I spent
the night. The road from Coutts to Great
Falls is not different from Alberta, as far as the eye can see
large plains breaking
into white horses in the hills.
Every Tuesday morning I went to Tourist
Information for the collection of booklets
and Wi-Fi connection. In my electronic
mailbox I
found an alarm of the “Visa card”
announcing that there would be three
debits of the amount of the diesel purchase! I
returned to Pilot and showed
to the manager the copy of alarm. He asked
me to come back the following day, he will
have the report of the debits in Monday. I
stationed on the carpark for a second
night far from trucks turning
their engine all the night.
Hellena
On Wednesday morning, the manager gave me
a C.R. of the debit of my Visa Card, it
had there only a debit of the amount of
the diesel purchase. I sent this document
to “Visa card” and to my HSBC agency at
Draguignan to check the reality of this
information. Then I headed to Helena the
capital of Montana with population of
about 30000 inhabitants. The visit was
fast. Cathedral St Helena whose
architecture takes as a starting point a
church at Vienna in Austria is the
landmark of the city located in a valley.
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| Landscape, Hwy #15 |
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| Cathedral of St Helena |
On foot I strolled towards Capitol by
stopping at the Governor's mansion of the
state from 1912 to 1959. Montana State
Capitol was built in 1912 and the interior
was decorated with murals by Charles M.
Russell.
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| Governor's Mansion |
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| State Capitol |
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| State Capitol |
Montana's Museum exhibits in several rooms
the life of the first people and the
conquest by Americans by recalling the
epopee of Lewis & Clark. I retained a
Sheep Wagon, precursor of the immense
American motor homes. A room is of course
devoted to paintings by Charles Mr.
Russell. I left Helena around 16:00 to
bivouac on a rest area.
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| Petroglyphs |
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| Sheep wagon |
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| Sheep wagon |
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| Charles M. Russell |
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| Painting by Russell |
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| Fire tower |
Butte
I left Hwy #15 to make a detour towards
Butte on Hwy #90. Few cities in the U.S.
can match Butte's colorful history and
characters, copper baron William Clark &
daredevil Evil Knievel. Butte produces
silver, gold and copper. The copper mines
created enormous wealth. In 1900 Butte was
one of the largest cities west of the
Mississippi. The landscape of the city is
characterized by a dozen head-frames. In this low season I visited
open attractions. Berkeley is a open-pit
which was exploited until 1982 by Anaconda
Copper Mine. Since its
closing the percolation waters created an
artificial lake. The residences of William
Clark and his son are representative of
fortunes related to copper. World Museum
of Mining usurps its title, I visited
better organized museums in Australia. I
found not far a gravel parking which
accommodated me for the night. At +1700
meters high the night temperature will be
around -6°C.
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| Berkeley Pit |
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| Copper King
Mansions, William Clark |
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| Entrance Gate |
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| Hell Roarin' Gulch |
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| Orphan Girl Mine, headframe |
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| Headframe in the night |
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| Humor |
Bozeman
Bozeman did not leave an imperishable
memory but I have to do shopping in
Montana which is free tax. Moreover I
wished to rest me in a campground, KOA
Kampground close to the city accommodated
me for the weekend.
