Day 28: Dillon to Bozeman

Wednesday
We have changed our plans, to try and beat the weather (I am sure a dangerous concept in this part of the country) Sally and I are going to drive 335 miles East along I90 as quickly  as possible and parachute into Big Horn, then work our way back South West to Cody and Salt Lake City. So today we drove to Bozeman, to where Roy and Anne went to yesterday, only to find that they are still there as Roy is overhauling his brakes, so yet again we have to say goodbye to them!
Our route across to Bozeman took us up the Beaver Head Valley (also a tributary of the Jefferson R), across to the south of the Tobacco Root mountains into the Madison River Valley, with it's amazing views of the area south of Ennis, then up and over to the Gallatin River Valley - all three tributaries of the Missouri in one day. A day which is rich in both the beautiful mountain scenery and the American History to be found along the way.
Beaver Head
Just north of Dillon is The Beaver Head, which is a large rock which to the Shoshone Indians looks like a beaver head. It is a very special place to them, a meeting place and a place which is in a rich environment, being by the Beaver Head river, where it widens into a lake, plenty  of game, berries and water. It is such an important feature that the whole area is named after it, mountains, river and valley.
To Lewis and Clark is was a gateway to the West, they had paddled up the Missouri and its tributary the Jefferson for two years, they now needed to cross the Continental Divide and drive on to the West Coast, however they did not know the way! Their guide, Sacajawea, was originally a Shoshone Indian who had been kidnapped and sold to a Canadian, before joining the expedition, gave instructions to find the Beaver Head Rock, as there they wold find help. On finding the place Sacajawea recognised the chief as her long lost brother, so that would have been quite a party! The Shoshone sold them horses and gave directions on how to find the Nez Perce by traveling across the Lolo Pass (see last Friday's Blog). So it was a pivotal point in their journey.
As a place it is a fabulous wetland habitat teeming with bird life. In the couple of minutes we were there we saw Sandhill cranes, white pelicans, canada geese, many types of ducks and a bald eagle cruising above the lake. Botanists have studied this area, consider it to have remained unchanged for a long time and have recovered many fossils from the last thirty million years from the mud and surface sedimentary rocks.
A fascinating place.
Virginia City
Leaving Beaver Head we turned North east out of the valley and swung round the southern end of the Tobacco Root Mountains. This road winds along the ruby Valley between two mountain ranges becoming narrower and narrower, eventually forcing the road up over a pass which provides magnificent views along the Madison Valley (middle fork of the Missouri tributaries). Almost at the head of the valley garnets and then gold were discovered in the 1863, so once again we were travelling through Gold Rush Country, although it started with individual miners after a time the gold recovery was on an industrial scale, with large steam driven dredges ripping up the valley floor for many miles in their search for gold, leaving the whole area looking like a land fill site.
The towns that sprung up have largely died, several of them have been preverved by the state and are now tourist attractions. Nevada City was the first we traveled through and then Virginia City. Virginia city became the territorial capital (before Montana was a state) in 1865, when it wrested it from Bannack (the ghost town near Dillon), until 1875, when Helena became the State Capital.
Here is what Wikipaedia says about it (note that there are many hyperlinks to follow here, though the font colour makes them difficult to see):
"In May 1863, a group of prospectors were headed towards the Yellowstone River and instead came upon a party of the Crow tribe and were forced to return to Bannack. On May 26, 1863, Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar discovered Gold near Alder Creek.^[6] The prospectors could not keep the site a secret and were followed on their return to the gold bearing site. A mining district was set up in order to formulate rules about individual gold claims. On June 16, 1863 under the name of "Verina" the township was formed a mile south of the gold fields. The name was meant to honor Varina Howell Davis, first and only First Lady of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Verina, although in Union territory, was founded by men whose loyalties were thoroughly Confederate. Upon registration of the name, a Connecticut judge, G. G. Bissell, objected to their choice and recorded it as Virginia City. ^[7]

Within weeks Virginia City was a boomtown of thousands of prospectors and fortune seekers in the midst of a gold rush. The remote region of the Idaho Territory was without law enforcement or justice system with the exception of miners' courts. In late 1863, the great wealth in the region, lack of a justice system and the insecure means of travel gave rise to serious criminal activity, especially robbery and murder along the trails and roads of the region. Road agents as they became known were ultimately responsible for up to 100 deaths in the region in 1863 and 1864. This resulted in the formation of the Vigilance committee of Alder Gulch and the infamous Montana Vigilantes. Up to 15 road agents were hanged by the vigilantes in December 1863 and January 1864, including the sheriff of Bannack, Montana and alleged leader of the road agent gang, Henry Plummer.^[8]

The Montana Territory was organized out of the existing Idaho Territory by Act of Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 26, 1864.^[9] Although Bannack was the first territorial capital, the territorial legislature moved the capital to Virginia City on February 7, 1865.^[10] It remained the capital until April 19, 1875 when it moved to Helena, Montana.^[11] Thomas Dimsdale began publication of Montana's first newspaper, the Montana Post in Virginia City on August 27, 1864.^[12] Montana's first public school was established in Virginia City in March 1866."

One can only imagine the life there (though that may be enhanced somewhat by what we see in the movies), but what little we saw as we rode through was amazing. We stopped here for a cup of tea and an ice cream and had a look at some of the buildings, which look so typically western, with their wooden sidewalks. We looked in the Hangman's Office - a place owned by the water company where they hanged people.
Another fascinating place!