Cross Country – Tacoma to Naples (10)

Tacoma, WA, to Kalispell, MT, to Missoula to Butte, MT

Leaving Tacoma with our Puget Sound view and condo finally furnished was a bit bittersweet with my sister Patty feeling the same way. However, fall was approaching, so, it was time to start the return trip to Naples.

Our first stop was Kalispell, Montana, which is in northwestern Montana. We drove across Washington state and the Cascade Mountains, across Idaho and to northwestern Montana. Kalispell is best known as a ski area and as the gateway to Glacier National Park, which we had visited on a prior trip. On the way to Kalispell we drove by Flathead Lake. It is the “largest natural freshwater lake by surface area that is west of the source of the source of the Missouri River in the contiguous United States.” The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacial. It is a huge, beautiful lake!

Our friends had previously lived on the lake but have since moved to acreage by Kalispell, and, we enjoyed several days with them. We met Harry and Jane many years ago when we lived in Dallas, and, we stayed in touch and visited through many moves on both our parts. Sadly, Jane died of cancer some years ago. Harry has since remarried, and, the story of how he met Suzanne just has to be shared (I got their permission!). Harry had been a bachelor for a while, and, Bigfork (where he lived on Flathead Lake) had a charity event auctioning off bachelors. They asked Harry to participate, and, being a good sport, he agreed, putting together “his package of events.” Harry does not do anything “half-heartedly,” so, true to form, he made a dramatic entrance as Zorro! The bidding went a bit wild, but, Suzanne “won” Harry. After going on the agreed events, Harry called Suzanne to invite her to dinner just because he wanted to see her again. They talked well into the night, and, about three months later, they were married!

Leaving Kalispell and the Hyatts, we were on our way, with our first stop being Missoula, Montana, for lunch at The Burns Bistro. We knew that either our GPS was wrong, or, I had the wrong address as we found our ourselves in a residential/semi-industrial area of Missoula. We stayed with the GPS, though, and were rewarded by finding the bistro in an unlikely setting. It was definitely a place known to the locals as it was both very good and busy.

Continuing our journey we were off to Butte, Montana, where we arrived early afternoon. Staying downtown at the Finlen Hotel, I had time to walk the downtown Butte streets and do a bit of shopping. In wandering the streets of Butte, I learned that I could stand in the middle of a downtown street and take a photo with no concern about being hit by a car (it was a football day) and that Evel Knieval was born in Butte. Butte is located in the Summit Valley in the heart of the Rocky Mountains on the west side of the Continental Divide in southwestern Montana.

What I learned by reading was that Butte was the first major city of Montana, beginning in the late 1800s as a gold and silver mining camp. With the industrialization of America and the development of electricity, the demand for copper increased. That demand for copper caused the copper mining industry in Butte to become one of the first centralized and industrialized businesses in the world. By the first decade of the 1900s the Butte mines and associated businesses (smelting, processing, railroads and timber) were consolidated among three “Copper Kings.” Further consolidation occurred resulting in the Anaconda Copper Mining Company that dominated Butte and Montana for most of the 20th century. As an aside, the Copper Kings left some beautiful mansions in Butte.

Being in Butte and the copper mining center meant that we had to go to the World Museum of Mining and take the underground mine tour. The museum is located on an actual mine yard and goes underground 100 feet. We learned all kinds of details about the mining industry, the miners and Butte. What I found most interesting was that the future of copper mining is essentially assured with the rising demand for electricity as copper conducts electrical current better than any other metal except silver.

We ended the evening with dinner at the Casagrande Steakhouse in Butte, along with everyone else in Butte! It was a very popular restaurant, and, I was really glad that I had made a reservation some weeks earlier. And, so, we left Montana the next morning.