Unlike farther south in Wyoming and Colorado or north around Glacier National Park, the Rocky Mountains in central Montana do not rise up in one united front but rather small, individual “pockets” of mountains are scattered across the middle of the state from Canada to Wyoming. These small ranges are often separated by broad valleys rippling with golden grasses under the ever present wind. Think of a strip of “bubble wrap” running across the middle of Montana from Canada toWyoming.
Heading north out of the Yellowstone River valley our path winds through one of those broad valleys, the Shields River Valley. The main stem of the Rocky Mountains is west to our left, the tallest of the mountain islands, the Crazy Mountains, rise east to our right. The 1806 Clark expedition camped at the mouth of a small river flowing from the north into the Yellowstone and Clark named it the Shield River after a member of his party.
A memorial to the trappers and mountain men who roamed this area stands in majestic solitude against the background of the Crazy Mountains while looking at the Bridger Mountains to the west.
Continuing north another mountain island group, the Castles, begin to rise out of the amber landscape above the winding road.
Towns amongst the mountain islands are few and far between. Before mechanical vehicles were prevalent a spider web of railroads covered Montana like a spider web with spurs reaching out from the main lines into the hinterlands. The small towns established along those lines usually provided a post office, grain elevator, maybe a school and church along with a store to serve ranchers and miners in the surrounding areas. Once mechanization came into popularity economics of scale lead to the demise of most of these railroads and the associated towns. Many survive as a mere shadow of their former selves. Here, along Highway 87, the town of Ringling (named after John Ringling of Ringling Brother’s Circus fame who had interests in the area in the early 1900’s) hangs on with a post office, church and vibrant bar to serve locals and sportsmen who flock to enjoy the surrounding mountains and valleys.
Two of my brothers have a get-a-away spot in the mountains near Ringling and I made a point of stopping because just last month Cathy, my sister-in-law, celebrated her birthday with brother Pat with great prime rib at the Ringling Bar! Ringling is not on a main tourist route and the bar caters to locals, as evidenced by the fact that it doesn’t even have a sign…
Across the highway from the bar and up a small hill sits the local church, serving as an additional area gathering spot for those who perhaps need to atone for their sins…
Just past Ringling the road climbs out of the Shield River Valley over a broad, grassy saddle and down in to the broad meadows of the Smith River Valley. The Smith River flows north to join the Missouri River.
White Sulphur Springs, county seat of Meagher County, appears in the distance at the base of the Little Belt Mountains. The highway turns a hard right and the small town occupies a gradual rise between the Little Belt Mountains to the north and the Castle Mountains to the southeast.
I bypass White Sulphur Springs and head northwest up the Smith River as it continues north along the western edge of the Little Belts meandering across a broad valley. Camp Baker was established in the valley in 1869 about 20 miles northwest of White Sulphur Springs as part of an effort to protect the freight road between Fort Benton on the Missouri River and the Helena gold fields to the southwest. Later named Fort Logan, the fort was abandoned in 1880 but the blockhouse remains.
The pavement ends so I turn around and head back to White Sulphur Springs. White Sulphur Springs is named after the natural hot springs around which the town grew. John Brewer settled next to the springs in the 1860s and a brief silver mining boom in the late 1880’s helped the little town grow. In 1900 John Ringling, of the Ringling Brothers Circus, bought the property with the idea of building a grand resort but his plans never materialized. Today around 1,000 people live in the town, roughly half the population of Meagher County. Mining played out early in the 20th century and the local economy is primarily based upon agriculture, federal employees managing the surrounding forests, etc. Hunters and fisherman roam the surrounding mountains utilizing White Sulphur Springs as a base of operations (there are 7 bars in the three blocks of the small downtown.) Today there is a bit of a hope in the air concerning the future of the area as a new copper mine is being developed about 15 miles north in the Little Belt Mountains. The highway is the main street through town as it climbs between hills on both sides.
The 1953 mid-century modern Meagher County Courthouse is by far the most substantial building on the small downtown business strip.
Looming above town on the north is the Castle, a mansion built in 1892 out of granite blocks mined in the nearby Castle Mountains atop a hill north of downtown. Closed for the season on this trip, I know from past visits that the interior is richly decorated with imported rugs, wash bowls and stands made of Italian marble in the bathrooms and crystal and brass lighting fixtures throughout the house. Expansive views from the mansion stretch west across the Smith River Valley to the Big Belt Mountains.
Across the dip to the south that houses the downtown strip another Victorian mansion provides a counterpoint to the Castle from atop a hill. Unfortunately, it was not built of granite nor maintained as a museum and so sits in tattered splendor.
It has been a dry fall in Montana and while I am settling in at the rv park in White Sulphur Springs I see evidence of a forest fire burning in the Little Belts just northeast of town.
While growing up in Billings the Castle and Little Belt Mountains were a favorite recreation destination for my family, especially during the fall during hunting season. Two of my brothers still have weekend “get-a-way’s” in the Castles. I am going to try and circle back around the southern perimeter of the Castles to see if I can get up to Castle Town, an old ghost town from the days of the silver mining boom in the 1890’s. Photographs from the time show a bustling town deep in the Castle Mountains.
Smoke hangs heavy in the morning air as I head south back towards Ringling before turning left and heading east between the southern side of the Castles and the northern foothills of the Crazy Mountains.
Cresting a low saddle the view is to the northeast down the valley of the South Fork of the Musselshell River.
The turn off to reach Castle Town is at Lennep, an abandoned town at the eastern base of the Castle Mountains. Originally a station on the Milwaukie Railroad, Lennep had a store, the Lennep Mercantile, which opened in 1914; a post office established in 1914; a school and Lutheran Church. The post office closed in 1962 and the little town began to fade away with no residents in the immediate vicinity.
Today the only building still in active use is the church and on this Sunday morning, four cars in the church parking lot illustrate that people around the area have come out for Sunday services. Note the outhouse toilet to the left of the church. There is no plumbing in Lennep and the outhouse is in active use!
The small one room school house has been in use recently as evidenced by the satellite dish on the south side. Just to the left of the school is the road that I had planned to take up to Castle Town, about 7 miles into the mountains. Unfortunately the condition of the road was too bad (infrequently used gravel roads tend to “washboard” which leaves numerous ripples on the surface which bounce around the Lunch Box to the point that I worry that important connections might jar too much.) In addition at this particular moment a herd of cattle are starting to meander across the road. Given that combination of factors I decide to pass on Castle Town and return to the paved highway to continue east.
Past Lennep the valley gradually begins to open up into the broad grassy expanse typical of the transition from mountain to prairie in central Montana. A line of trees marks the path of the South Fork across the valley floor. Crossing the small river we reach our next destination, the Bair Museum.
Near the town of Martinsdale (home to Martinsdale Reservoir, a favorite fishing spot of my father’s) sits an unexpected surprise out here in the middle of nowhere, the Bair Museum. C.M. Bair and his daughter Alberta have left an indelible stamp on this area as well as in Billings, about 120 miles to the south east.
Charlie Bair and the Bair Family
Charles Bair (CM) was born in Paris, Ohio, in 1857 and came to Montana in 1883 as a conductor on the Northern Pacific Railroad. He filed a claim for 320 acres of desert land and began raising sheep near Lavina, Montana, (about 50 miles northwest of Billings) and married Mary Jacobs in 1886. They had two daughters, Marguerite (1889) and Alberta (1895). In 1898 CM sold his flock of sheep and went to Alaska where he became a millionaire by investing in the manufacture of machines that thawed the frozen tundra allowing for the extraction of gold. He returned to Montana and established the headquarters of his ranch on the north bank of the South Fork of the Musselshell just outside of Martinsdale. In addition to raising sheep Bair invested in oil in Wyoming as well as other ventures and continued to build his wealth.
The house has just closed for the season because they are replacing all of the windows but the barn and art museum are open. The barn is just to the left of the house and houses displays about the family’s ranching history.
The foundation of the Bair ranch efforts involved raising sheep and the first alcove details the history of the sheep operation.
The entire family was involved and different period photographs show CM and Alberta supervising. Sheep shearing was a major operation and photographs document Alberta, the youngest daughter, supervising the shearing in the barn wearing her mink coat and cloche hat.
A truck loaded with bags of wool waits for a full load outside of the barn and a rare photograph from 1910 shows a train of 47 cars full of wool from the ranch being shipped to market.
The extent of the Bair sheep empire was hard to comprehend. A story that appeared in the magazine the Saturday Evening Post at the time illustrates the point: “Bair was attending a dinner at the Washington home of James Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railway, and was introduced to a Washington lawyer, James C. Hooe, who had just bought a farm in his home town of Bluemont, Virginia. That farm was the pride and joy of his life. Hooe inquired as to Mr. Bair’s business and when told that he raised sheep, was quick to volunteer that he, too, had a flock of about 150 on his farm. ‘And how many do you have?’ inquired Hooe. ‘Well,’ said Bair, ‘I haven’t counted them lately, but I’ve got more sheep dogs than that.’” At the time the Bair ranch was running more than 300,000 sheep!
The Bair’s actually lead a relatively simple life. The big house in Martinsdale has two floors. The main floor is replete with elegant rooms decorated in an extravagant style and antique furniture. Alberta’s bedroom on the main floor holds a grand carved four poster bed with extensive drapery and antique carpets. The rest of the family had similar accommodations on the main floor. The reality of their everyday life, however, was that the first flfoor was seldom used. The second floor is where all of the family actually resided using basic, ordinary rooms and sharing one small bathroom. A story in the Great Falls Tribune in 2015 tells this story about Alberta. “When the stairs became too much for Alberta to handle, she tried a few nights in the downstairs bedroom before rejecting it as akin to ‘sleeping in a museum.’ She withdrew to a modest room behind the kitchen.” A similar dichotomy exists regarding the dining room. The main floor dining room is set with French china and elaborate silver place settings but the reality again is that the family most often ate in the kitchen, which was a classic kitchen from the 1950’s with yellow appliances and a Formica table set with Fiesta ware bought at the local Harlowton hardware store. As I noted, the house was closed during my visit but a picture from the same article in the Great Falls Tribune shows the colorful kitchen.
While Alberta and Marguerite lived frugally they did love to collect fine artwork and antique furniture. After their mother died in 1953 the sisters began traveling through Europe on a regular basis, bringing home the treasures that they found. They also amassed a collection of Western art. Before her death Alberta staged the house and grounds for continuance as a museum and an art gallery was built adjacent to the barn to show rotating collections and Bair memorability. The house and barn are hidden behind the art museum in this photograph.
This is a world-class museum with four galleries. The first gallery houses a collection of Native American beading. I was fascinated by the technology involved. A large case holds a myriad of beaded items. A monitor on a stand in front of the case has a live screen of the display, you simply touch the item that you are interested in and a screen pops up explaining that individual item. Very slick!
The second gallery displays a collection of rare photographs of the North American Indian between 1907 and 1930 by Edward Sheriff Curtis. The photogravure plates are printed on delicate Japanese tissue paper that is easily damaged, the lights in this particularly are dimmed to avoid affecting the printings.
The third gallery showcases original art, most by American western artist including Henry Sharp and CM Russell, two of the preeminent western artists of the 20th century.
I particularly found the personal artifacts from Charlie Russell. Here is the actual envelope from a letter that Russell sent CM Bair in 1903 where Russell did a miniature water color on the envelope.
A 1924 letter from Russell to Frank B. Brown of Great Falls, MT, is illustrated with miniature water color.
The fourth gallery houses a rather eclectic collection of personal items from Mrs. Bair, including an Edwardian evening gown from the late 1890’s.
Definitely an interesting stop in central Montana. Living the Bair ranch the highway descends into the Musselshell Valley where our path rejoins US Highway 12 and we turn due east towards the plains of Eastern Montana.
Next up: Central Montana
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