Yesterday was our transfer day from Wyoming to Montana. When we woke in the morning it had snowed another 2 or 3 inches of snow overnight. Unfortunately this had collected in the awnings covering the slide-out sections of our motor home. The problem was this snow was about 10 feet in the air so was tough to reach. Karen was sent out on an emergency mission and returned some 10 minutes later with a borrowed ladder. 20 minutes later we are ready to go and head off north to Montana. As we travel towards the north entrance of the Park we once again see parked up cars on the side of the road and a Ranger moving vehicles on. Immediately we see why everyone has stopped because some 50 feet to the side of the road in front of us is a grizzly bear – the closest we had yet got to a bear (not sure we’d want to be much closer!!).Moving on we say goodbye to Yellowstone and pass into Montana, and after a few hours we arrive at our stop over campsite, Butte KOA (Kampground of America).
Butte is built around a mountain, once known as America’s most valuable mountain. This community was created as a result of the discovery of the precious materials, in particular copper. The emergence and wide use of electrical power caused a huge surge in the demand for copper, resulting in the meteoric growth in this town and in the wealth of certain of its inhabitants. The mountain is a mile high and the mine system is reputedly a mile deep. Today the mines are exhausted and the town is past it’s hey day – and reminded us somewhat of some of the old mining communities in Cornwall and Wales. As is always the case once those resource are done what happens to the town? For the most part Butte looks run-down and dismal, which is not helped by the dour weather for the time we have spent here. To try and make the most of their assets the city has decided to illuminate the head frames of the mines dotted across the mountain – which actually did cut quite a dash but not exactly enough to draw in the crowds.
Originally we only planned to spend on night here before moving up to Glacier National Park, but the weather is so gloomy and wet we decided to hang around another day and see what Butte had to offer. At least there is a semblance of a town here where as we were not sure what we’d find up near Glacier.
Anyway today we decided to go and visit the World Mining Museum. The museum is located on the old, disused Orphan Girl Mine from which the minerals zinc and silver were mined until its closure in 1956. This mine is over 3000 feet deep but has filled up like most of the local mines with water to a few tens of feet from the surface. Although this is called the World Mining Museum it is really about the mines in the Butte area and ,in particular, this mine. Some of the original mine’s buildings and structures still exist (including the Head frame and hoist house) as well as a reconstruction of a 1890s mining town called Hells Roaring Gulch, complete with 2 churches, a school house, a bank, a saloon and an undertakers. Unfortunately as well as being wet it is extremely cold so we don’t hang around outside amongst the exhibits for 
too long. I am not sure we’d have made good miners this being said. Up here in Montana the winter temperatures can reach down to -20 oF (-30 oC) and conversely the underground temperatures can be 100 oF. Mark had to leave to make some phone calls so the rest of the crew went on a tour that went down to the underground exhibits – with a guide who had worked the mines in the past. It was a great experience to hear the stories of mining life and how the equipment operated from a person who have lived through this.To end the day, as it was still damp and gloomy, we headed off to the local cinema to watch the latest Indiana Jones movie – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What a blast – we simply loved it.
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