Garryowen, MT - A Flat Tire and some Graffiti

Hey, did you hear that someone flew a drone in Yellowstone and it crashed and sank in the Grand Prismatic Spring? It is, of course, illegal to fly drones in the National Parks but some dumb cluck did and it crashed into one of the most marvelously colored springs in the park. The park service can’t see the drone from the boardwalk around the spring, of course, since the spring is 300’ in diameter and 160’ deep and very opaque so they might have to fly a helicopter over it to find the drone. What kind of numbskull would do something like this?

I’ll have to admit that we saw people do some dumb things in the park: like walking within 20’ of a bison - with their kids, like stopping their car in the middle of the road to get out and snap a picture of a bison, like letting a 4-yr old get out of the car - alone - in the middle of traffic to see a bison, like stepping off the walkways to see the colors better. Why, oh why, do people leave their heads at home when they leave? You’d think that, since their head is attached to their bodies, that the. head would come along when the body leaves, but, no, somehow, they’ve managed to detach the head and walk out of their homes without any common sense, any thinking ability or any brains. Lots of headless people walking around - but, then, it’s not just at National Parks.

It is possible that the materials in a drone, plastics, batteries, metals, could harm the colors in the spring - forever. Drone expert Patrick Mullen says: “It’s probably a good idea to try to get it out of there, rather than just letting it sit,” said Mullen, who engineers unmanned aircraft. ‘An aircraft like that, god knows what it would do to the chemistry of the pool.’ The pool’s bacteria is what gives it brilliant colors.

This is not the first time that trash has ‘found its way’ in to the pools and geysers of Yellowstone. Back in the 20’s, it used to be quite a trick to toss a dirty handkerchief in to a pool and watch it bubble up clean. ‘Handkerchief Pool’ has never been the same since. Old Faithful used to be used this way also. Old Faithful, the Laundromat.


OK, that’s enough ranting for now. How about another topic? Have you ever heard of Pompey’s Pillar NM? If not, you’re probably not the only one. It’s not the most famous NM, it’s not the biggest, in fact, it might be one of the smallest, but it is pretty interesting. It’s the only tangible, physical evidence that William Clark of Lewis and Clark actually passed this way, actually did travel up the Missouri, through the Louisiana Purchase territory. It’s his signature on a huge pillar of sandstone, in the middle of Montana, on the Yellowstone River. Today we’d call it graffiti but this is actual historical record.

We really hadn’t planned to see it: we’re pretty tired since we’ve been on the go since we left California in early April. We’ve traveled up the coast of Oregon and Washington and then west to Montana. In the last 2 months, we’ve been in 4 National Parks which are just crammed jammed full of neat things to see. We’ve been getting back to the RV about 7:30 in the evening. BUT, this is a National Monument and we’re in the area, let’s go see it. 80 degrees at 8:30 when we take off - looks like it will get up to 97 as predicted.

So, we’re on our way about 8:30, down Interstate 90 to Fly Creek Road, a gravel road but in pretty good shape. We’re tooling right along - until we hit the grader and slow down to a modest 5 mph. Doesn’t look like the grader even notices us so we drop back the required 50’ and chug along after it. Finally it lets us pass, we speed up, find the NM entrance and park in the parking lot. Hmm, why is that tire light on? Better check and - sure enough - here’s what we see. Oops.

We (mostly Gary) gets out the spare, the jack and goes to work. No problem until he can’t get the tire itself off the rim. Usually, they just drop off but this one is wedged tightly. One couple in their 50’s tries not to notice us as they return to their truck, 2 spots away from us in an empty lot, start up and take off. Then a nice young couple in their early 20’s stop to help. The guy is a mechanic and knows that tires can stick on the rims so he and Gary force it off. The rest goes fine and we’re on our way to the Monument. By the way, did I mention that it was hot?

We toured the museum and took the Ranger walk at 1:00 up to Clark’s signature and then to the top of the Pillar.

When Lewis and Clark were returning to St. Louis where they had started, they split up so they could get more exploring done - more bang for Jefferson’s buck as it were. Lewis took the Northern route and Clark explored along the Yellowstone which empties into the Missouri in North Dakota. Both Lewis and Clark had taken copious notes about the flora and fauna they had seen along the route, even shipping lots of plants and some live animals back to Jefferson for him to see personally. They described about 122 species and subspecies and 178 plant species. Most were unknown to the scientific world at that time. Clark also described the journey itself in minute detail and filled in the map of the Western US. The first map is the map the L&C took on their journey. The second is the map that Clark filled in.

When Clark and his company camped near the Yellowstone River, a few miles northeast of modern day Billings, he noticed a singular sandstone pillar, climbed it and took it the view.

‘this rock, I ascended and from its top had a most extensive view in every direction. . . . The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year.’ after Satisfying my Self Sufficiently in this delightful prospect of the extensive Country around, and the emence herds of buffalow, Elk, and wolves in which it abounded, I descended and proceeded on.’
                                                                William Clark

Pretty cool. Here it is. As you can see around Clark’s signature, there are lots of additions to his signature. Which is graffiti and which is historical record?

When the railroad went through here, they put an iron grating over this to protect it. Later the the former owners of the property, the Footes, replaced the grate and put this glass case over it. The park service has kept the glass case in place.

Clark named the rock after the son of Charbonneau and Sacagawea, Jean Baptiste. The boy had been born 17 months earlier at Fort Mandan where Lewis and Clark and their company had wintered. Clark had given the boy the nickname of ‘Pomp’ which means ‘little chief’ or maybe it means ‘little dancing boy’ in Shoshoni, Sacagawea’s tribe. No one seems sure which of these meanings is correct. When Clark’s journals were later edited by Biddle and Allen in 1814 for publication, they changed the name of the rock to Pompey’s Pillar - by which name it is known today.

The story of Pomp, Jean Baptiste, is interesting in itself. He was obviously born to be an explorer. When the Corps of Discovery landed in St. Louis, Charbonneau was paid $533.33 and given a land warrant for 320 acres to farm. Guess what Sacagawea was paid? Yep, nothing: although she was only a tag along to her husband, Charbonneau who was hired as an interpreter, she proved to be one of the most valuable members of the expedition. And, she got nothing? But, the land warrants and the $533.33 were a small fortune to Charbonneau but he was not a farmer and sold the land to Clark for $100. Later, after Pomp was weaned, they traveled back to St. Louis to give the child to Clark to raise and educate.

‘As to your little Son (my boy Pomp) you well know my fondness for him and my anxiety to take and raise him as my own child. I once more tell you if you will bring your son Baptiest to me I will educate him and treat him as my own child--I do not forget the promis which I made to you and Shall now repeet them that you may be certain--Charbono, if you wish to live with the white people, and will come to me, I will give you a piece of land and furnish you with horses, cows, & hogs...Wishing you and your family great suckcess & with anxious expectations of seeing my little dancing boy Baptiest I shall remain your friend.’
                                                                        William Clark

When he had finished his education, at the age of 18, he headed back to the frontier where he met Prince Paul Wilhelm of Germany who took him back to Germany with him. Here he lived in the court, learned 4 languages and became quite sophisticated. Later he returned to the frontier of America, became in turn a mountain man, a guide, a trapper and a gold seeker. He died of pneumonia and is buried in Danner, Oregon. Interesting that he could be at home and successful in both worlds. But, then, Sacagawea, his mother, was quite amazing also.

We toured the museum, walked to the top of the rock, ate lunch and were on our way - very slowly - to the nearest gas station where we could pump some air into our spare tire which seemed to be a bit flat. They also patched our original tire and we headed home.

Cody, WY - Buffalo Bill Dam

Today was a 3-fer: the Buffalo Bill Dam, breakfast out at Our Place and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, in that order. The dam is on our way into town and we decided to stop there first and have breakfast later. Knowing how long we’d stay at the Dam, we also had a bowl of fruit and yogurt to tide us over.

Buffalo Bill Dam & the Shoshone Project

Buffalo Bill is well known for his Wild West Shows, but that’s not all he got involved in. He was also interested in getting a reliable source of water in the the valley here so that it could grow. (The main river in the valley is the Shoshone, which was originally called by John Colter the Stinking Water because of the sulphur odors that permeated the area. Someone thought ahead to future tourisms and suggested that maybe ‘Stinking Water’ might not be the most attractive name. The Wyoming legislature passed a law in 1901 renaming the river.) Cody and a few friends planned a canal to divert water from the Shoshone River but ran out of capital before they could begin their project. They then joined with the County Commissioners to ask the federal government to help with irrigation and this project was one of the first projects undertaken by the newly formed Federal Bureau of Reclamation.
It was designed to be the tallest dam in the world at 325’ and the workers kept track of the height, measuring it against another dam. In this picture, the height of the current highest dam, the Croton Dam, is the black line in the middle of the picture, the projected height of the Shoshone Dam is the white print at the top of the picture. They had another picture with the National Capital superimposed onto the dam.

Obstacles? Of course. First it was a deep granite canyon, hard rock and lots of it. Below is the ladder and the boat used to drill dynamite holes in that granite.

Second, there were no natural deposits of sand and gravel at the site so they had to grind down the granite: pieces weighing from 25 lbs to 250 lbs were hand placed in the concrete. Third, the terrain itself was a huge obstacle: the canyon was deep and steep. My favorite picture is the one below showing the catwalk over the dam construction. Want to walk along this?

Fourth, this area was pretty remote and they found it hard to keep workers. Finally, that darn ol’ river didn’t know the schedules and sometimes flowed too heavily and overran the dam. 2 companies which didn't work over the winter went broke trying to finish the dam but the third company decided to work through the winter to get the dam finished high enough so that the spring run-off wouldn’t interrupt their progress. It was finished in 1910 and the valley began to produce. As we drove through the valley, we could see tons of green crop circles and the irrigation made this valley productive.

Because of the remote location and the harsh conditions of work (7 workers were killed on the project), the workers went on strike to increase their pay to $3.00 per day and an 8-hour day. This was actually the first strike in Wyoming history. A second strike was threatened but the construction company replaced the Italian workers with Bulgarian workers.

Neat pictures throughout the VC and we looked at them all. In the end, there have been bigger dams built across larger rivers but the engineering theories and lessons learned at this dam made a more exact science out of dam building. They also built a new road through the canyon from Cody to Yellowstone and it wasn’t long for the first tourists to try the road out.

Next was breakfast at Our Place, a local hangout. We’re in a new town and want to eat breakfast out. Well, check out the parking lots - which lot has the most locals in it. And, hands down, it was Our Place. Not fancy from the outside - in fact, all you could see were the cars parked outside. Family owned, good food and we talked with the owner for a while.