I was glad to finally get out of Butte, but actually didn’t leave until 6:30 …. the latest I have started driving on any day of my trip. I was in no hurry, because my first stop didn’t open until 8 am.
Down I-90 is the town of Bozeman, Montana … the home to Montana State University (MSU). In contrast to Butte, Bozeman is a great town …. very new looking … no gutted buildings converted into casinos (I saw two casinos … all off the main street a piece, and in new buildings of their own).
MSU has a museum called “Museum of the Rockies” (MOR). Lots of schools have museums. Some, like the Peabody at Yale, are famous in their own right (which helps when you are attached to a school like Yale). The MOR attempts to tell the history of the northern Rocky Mountains. There are displays on the native peoples, and on westward expansion, up until WWII.
But … what the MOR is world famous for are its dinosaurs. The MOR has the largest holding of dinosaur fossils of any institution in North America (not the Field Museum, not New York’s Natural History Museum, not even the Smithsonian can rival it), which really isn’t bad for an institution which didn’t open until the 1950s. From humble betginnings, this museum and MSU have been the toast of the world when it comes to dinosaurs, so much so that the museum became an affiliate of the Smithsonian (an honor not accorded many museums, especially of their modest size).
Most of the recent work has been done by Dr. Jack Horner, a guy I was studying in college almost 20 years ago, and who still works there. Their specilties are the dinosaurs of the northern Rockies), which just so happen to include notables like Triceratops and Tyranosaurus. They hold the largest T. rex skull in the world, and an in situ skeleton which is on display. They have a massive Triceratops which is as big as an elephant (literally). One of their Tyranosaurs made a huge buzz a few years ago when one of the museum scientists found soft tissue which had survived fossilization. Not only did it spur on a race to compare dinosaurs to birds, but to actually complete a dino genome. If that sounds a lot like Jurassic Park, it should: Jack Horner was one of the inspirations for Michael Crichton’s protagonist, Alan Grant. Horner even served as a consultant on the film. Many of the species in the book and film are on prominent display in the museum. I thought I might spend thirty minutes there, but after an hour and a half, I had to politely ask to be kicked out so I could get going.
Speaking of Steven Spielberg films, as I passed through Montana into Wyoming, I decided to take an hour detour off the interstate to search out Devil’s Tower. Historically, it was the first natural monument to enter into the National Park Service. Of course every one from my generation remembers it from Close Encuonters of the Third Kind. Amazingly, there are in fact numerous cattle raches surrounding the site, as well as a train line (just like in the film). The only thing the film exaggerated was an evacuation: I doubt more than 3,000 people live within an hour of the site. An evacuation would not be as difficult as they made it seem to be. The movie aside, it is a strange place. You can see taller mountains in the background, but this hunk of rock, where it seems none should be, seems to jut out of the ground with those weird grooves on the side. I didn’t get too close (getting closer would have been more time and money), but I took some time to contemplate this curiosity. As humans we automatically start trying t ocategorize and compare. It looks like a mountain, but it is clearly not a mountain. It is in the midst of hills, but it is clearly not a hill. It seems to defy easy categorization, and geologists have had some trouble figuring it out for the better part of this century.
One of the visual highlights was driving through the Badlands. When I drove through southern Wyoming, I could only think “desolation”. Driving thruogh the Badlands harkens back to Buzz Aldrin describing the moon as “magnificent desolation”. The closest description would be to think about what you saw. if you ever saw Dances With Wolves. An endless sea of prairie grass covering rolling hills of different heights and configurations. Sometimes, when you reach a tall hill, you can see for miles in all directions and see this view to the horizon. I could only imagine what it would have been like to be a Native American, or an early settler seeing this pristine for the first time.
As I ended my time in Montana, I passed through a Reservation for the Crow Tribe (it is on this reservation where the Little Bighorn Battlefield is, but I did not stop, opting instead for the museum and Devil’s Tower). From what I could see, it is a sad reminder of how these people were swept out of history’s way, given a plot of land, and little else … rusted wrescks of cars, trailer homes, many in a sad state of repair … it was hard not to play the beautiful scenery off of that.
I crossed into South Dakota, and it was easy to tell when you got there. I think South Dakota has an anti-tacky law. They keep anything of legitimate historic interest, bulldoze the rest into oblivion, and build new. I was impressed with how neat everything appeared. Even the signs for touristy thnigs that are normally in bad sahpe all looked brand new.
I needed to get an oil change, and was able to do that thanks to the hotel staff, and had a nice meal. Exercise and rest before heading off for minnesota tomorrow.
Also, I hope to see the seeds of Armageddon (or at least the hole into which one was planted) at some point tomorrow.
