Thanks to the people on the rv.net forum, I was able to choose the KOA park in Deer Lodge, MT. Isn't that a great name for a town? It is the county seat of Powell County. So, that is how we ended up in Deer Lodge. The town has quite a history, including being home from 1871 until the late 1970s of the Montana Territorial (later state) prison.
The prison is no longer housing lawbreakers. Now it houses two museums and is the center for three more. The first museum, of course, is the prison museum. For some reason, there is also an automobile museum on the premises. Across the street are a toy museum, an 1850's village and a museum of the military history of the region. For a measly $12 a head (for seniors--Jill has a fake ID. ;-) ) it is a bargain.
We enjoyed the prison museum and were able to compare it with the Arizona Territorial prison in Yuma. Both were pretty advanced for their era, focusing on giving the prisoners useful work to do and education in the hope that at least some of them would become productive citizens, after they paid their debts to society.
The Montana State prison was the site of a famous riot in 1959. The Deputy Warden was killed and the Warden was wounded. The riot was quelled after 36 hours, when the National Guard fired a bazooka round into the guard tower that the leaders of the insurrection had taken over and stormed the prison yard. Within 90 seconds the National Guard had freed the hostages and ended the riot.
Here are a few photos of the prison:
There is a nice history of the prison here. Many of the structures, including the stone wall, were built by prisoners.
The auto museum is quite a good one. It is laid out pretty much in chronological fashion, so that you can see the progress in automobile engineering as you progress through the museum. We have visited so many car museums on this trip that I only took one car photo, but I also clicked some posters.
I had never heard of the Yellowstone Trail, which was
literally a trail that ran coast to coast in the 1930s and was used to
promote making Yellowstone Park amenable to the automobile.
This is a photo of a "travelers camp," which later
became the KOA campground where we are staying.
Another photo taken in the "travelers camp."
This is one of the most beautifully restored 1931 Model A Fords I have ever seen.
Across the street, we visited the 1850s village. There is a school, a jail, a wheelwright's shop, a church, a post office, a dental office and a home, as well as a mine and assay office.
As near as I could glean from the information in the displays, this village represents the town of Cottonwood, which was the original name of Deer Lodge. Some of these buildings are the real buildings that were moved and others are replicas. All in all, it was very interesting.
Prior to the museum tours, we did a tour of Main Street. There are some wonderful examples of various kinds of architecture here. Click the pictures to see them in better detail.
This building was built in 1889 and retains most of its original materials.
This is the original location of the Larabie Brothers Bank, built in 1886.
The original building was replaced in 1912 by this sandstone beauty.
Here's the story of the National Bank Building built in 1910.
And here's the National Bank Building, now an office building.
The Hotel Deer Lodge is not in operation, but there is
apparently a campaign afoot to save the building.
The Rialto Theater is still in operation.
You can tell, if you have read much of my blogging, that we love historical stuff. I didn't get pictures, but there are two wonderful locomotives preserved in Deer Lodge, too. The town was once a hub of the Milwaukee Road rail line.
Although we had no idea what to expect in Deer Lodge, and although we were initially a bit underwhelmed by this modest but wonderful KOA RV park (having just come from the first ever KOA park in Billings), we have thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I guess that is the beauty of serendipity!
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