Marley Makes 3: 7.30.26 Helena MT (brake job!)--8.02.26 Ennis, MT Ghost Towns: Virginia City and Nevada City, Lewis & Clark Caverns

7.30.26 Travel Day!!! On to Helena North KOA. Brakes!!!

We drove along for over an hour and decided we could use a snack so we pulled into the one and only rest area along the route. I went to drop the steps and could smell hot rubber. Al checked with his heat gun and the rear brake drum was over 300 degrees…very, very hot! He pulled off the tire and we didn’t have any parts so we slowly drove to the next town.

We drove through a town called Choteau, that had big dinosaurs all over!

First we pulled into the visitor center parking lot to use the restroom and so Al could check the brakes. Hmmm…they aren’t hot anymore! What’s going on?

I went in and there was an old guy (older than me!) sitting behind the counter. I came out of the bathroom and he started talking. I think he was lonely. He told me all kinds of things. He works there two days a week for two hours. If no one is there to take his place, he locks the little office window and leaves the bathroom doors and lights on until 8:00 and then they automatically lock themselves. He was retired military and he just moved there from Ohio a few years ago. He doesn’t like sitting around so he worked at Lowes for a couple years and while he was there, he noticed some of the younger girls were being harassed by guys sometimes so he got them all together and they made up a code “I need a brown receipt!” then he would go help them get rid of the harasser or walk them to their vehicle or whatever they needed. He talked about calling his daughter and the cell service. He thought we should stay and go to the park that night because on Thursday nights they have a band and food and it’s really fun. I kept backing toward the door and Al finally came in to see where I was!

We drove past….Egg Mountain: a world-renowned paleontological site located in the Two Medicine Formation, just 12 miles west of Choteau, Montana. Discovered in 1978, it is famous for containing the largest concentration of dinosaur eggs, embryos, and baby skeletons in the Western Hemisphere, which provided the first evidence that dinosaurs nurtured and cared for their young.

Famous fossil discoveries were the first T-Rex unearthed in 1902 near Jordan, Montana. Baby Dinosaur bones found in 1978 led to the discovery of Maiasaura (Montana’s State Fossil).

“Leonardo the Mummy” is a preserved Brachylophosaurus with fossilized skin impressions found in 2001 near Malta, Montana.

Dueling Dinosaurs: In 2006, on a private ranch in Montana's Hell Creek Formation, fossil hunters uncovered something that shouldn't exist — the complete skeletons of a T-Rex and Triceratops, buried together, tangled together, with clear evidence that they had been fighting when they died.

The theropod's teeth were lodged in the Triceratops. The Triceratops horn had punctured the theropod's inner thigh — dangerously close to the femoral artery. Both animals show injuries consistent with close combat. Not scavenging. Not chance burial. Combat.

This specimen spent years in legal limbo and private ownership before finally being acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in 2020. Preparation is still ongoing, and the full scientific description hasn't been published yet, which means we're still waiting for the complete story.

But we already know enough.

The Triceratops horn went in. The tyrannosaur teeth held on. And the floodplain buried them both before anything could pull them apart.

67 million years ago, in what is now eastern Montana, these two animals fought and neither walked away. We don't know what started it — territorial defense, a predation attempt, bad luck. We just know how it ended.

There were parts inside the brakes that just fell off and were rolling around in there!

7.31.26 Al fixed the brakes and we got groceries and washed Max. We would highly recommend H&H Fabrication for having the parts we needed and the hints on installation. Thank goodness Al was able and knowledgeable to fix the brakes himself!

8.01.26 Laundry! Supposed to be 106 degrees!

8.02.26 Travel Day! We moved to Ennis Montana

We saw Bleu Horses—

The "Bleu Horses" are a herd of 39 life-sized steel horse sculptures located on a rolling hillside off Highway 287, just north of Three Forks, Montana. Sculptor Jim Dolan created the herd in 2013 as a "thank you" gift to Montanans for their support, and to give back for the in-state tuition he received while studying agriculture at Montana State University in the 1960s

Boseman Trail

The Bozeman Trail was a 500-mile overland shortcut in the American West active mainly from 1864 to 1868. It branched off the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming and ran north through the Powder River Basin to the gold fields in Virginia City, Montana. The route brought intense conflict with Native Americans because it cut through their vital hunting grounds.

Sunrise at our campsite, we were still in the wildfire smoke so the sun has the orange glow.

8.03.26

We went to Virginia City and took a train to Nevada City, toured and then back to Virginia City. We walked around both old west cities completely and ate lunch at the Virginia City Diner. We took a tour on an antique fire engine.

We went looking for a view of the Madison River. We are both tired.

We rode this little train to Nevada City. Nevada City is deserted. There are no businesses or vehicles. It's a museum and only has a visitor center inside the train depot.

Nevada City, Montana

Is an authentic gold-rush ghost town in Alder Gulch that boomed in 1863 before turning to ruin. Rescued by the Bovey family, it now operates as a living history museum featuring the largest collection of antique, automated music machines in North America.

While it started as a legitimate 1860s mining camp, the majority of the 108 preserved historic buildings were relocated there from other ghost towns across Montana to save them from demolition.

Nevada City's main street was the site of the famous 1863 trial of outlaw George Ives. An estimated 2,000 miners gathered around a bonfire to watch the trial, which ultimately sparked the formation of the Montana Vigilantes.

During the gold rush, the Alder Gulch area attracted nearly 10,000 people. But by 1876, as the placer gold ran dry, Nevada City was almost completely deserted.

The "Obnoxious Horn Machine" at the Bale of Hay Saloon. When you visit the Bale of Hay Saloon (Montana’s oldest bar), you might hear tales of the Wurlitzer 150 Band Organ. In the mid-1900s, this massive, coin-operated contraption of horns, drums, and cymbals belted out so much noise it was affectionately dubbed the "obnoxious horn machine". It was so incredibly loud and persistent that fed-up patrons routinely threatened to silence it for good. The town eventually moved it to neighboring Nevada City, but it remains one of the area's most famous acoustic headaches.

Applebound & Crabb Store

This building was featured as a general store in the movies Little Big Man (1970)-Dustin Hoffman was “Crabb” and Return to Lonesome Dove (1993).

Doctor Don L. Byam House is a preserved 1863 frontier home and office in the Nevada City, Montana ghost town. Dr. Byam was a physician, lawyer, and the first judge of the miners' court who presided over the famous 1863 George Ives murder trial.

Sheriff Al. Our train pass was the sheriff star sticker.

The hanging of George Ives on December 21, 1863, as described by Thomas Dimsdale George Ives was the first of the “road agents” to be hanged. The ridge log of an unfinished building was lowered at the rear end so the street end elevated over the front wall. “Near that point,” Thomas Dimsdale described, “was tied the fatal cord with the open noose dangling fearfully at it’s lower end. A large dry goods box was the platform. The night had closed with a bright, full moon…Fifty-eight minutes after Judge Byam pronounced sentence, Ives was led to the scaffold. People crowded every rooftop, and revolvers of men on both sides of the verdict flashed in the moonlight. Upon the order, “Men, do your duty,” guards aimed at the crowd, cocking their weapons to dissuade would-be rescuers. The sound had an eerie effect; complete silence fell upon the crowd as Ives swung to eternity.”

George Ives, a tall, suave, clean-shaven and remarkably cold-blooded killer from Wisconsin, Ives committed a final fatal act by murdering Nicholas Tbalt and stealing his mules. Tbalt, a young German orphan, was fetching the animals for his employer at Ives’ “day camp” below Alder Gulch.

To read the full story click this link!

The Old School House

Reported to be Montana’s oldest standing public school, this cabin served as the school from 1867 to 1873. The teacher made $40 per month, and classroom resources were sparse. One teacher is said to have used a potato as a globe, peeling areas to represent oceans and leaving continents unpeeled. The students shared in the cleaning, fetching water and firewood, etc.

Notice the Twin Boys and Girls outhouses in the back and the swing set!

The Livery

Dimsdale School

Dug into the hillside on Cover St. in Virginia City, this 1863 small cabin was a private school, operated privately by Thomas Dimsdale. Dimsdale charged a weekly tuition of $1.75 to attend his school. (VERY pricey for the time!)

Mary Ronan, one of his students, remembered Dimsdale: "He was an Englishman, small delicate-looking and gentle. In his school, all was harmonious and pleasant. While his few pupils buzzed and whispered over their readers, ... the professor sat at his makeshift desk near the window of the log school house, writing,...always writing. When ... his "Vigilantes of Montana" was being published in the Montana Post I thought it must have been the composition of those articles which had so engrossed him."

Iron Rod Post Office, Built in 1869

In 1873, a federal postal inspector stopped at the Iron Rod Post Office and was surprised to find the local mail facilities sandwiched between a saloon and a bank. The mail was brought in and dumped on the floor, and everyone took what they wanted.

The agent, inquiring for the postmaster, was told by the bartender that the postmaster was out hunting gold. The official then demanded the keys to the post office, and the bartender took a candle box, containing what mail was left over, kicked it out the door, and told the agent in no uncertain terms, "There's your post office, Now get!" He 'got', but Iron Rod lost its post office until 1876.

This building was a post office (except the three years it was shut down) until 1882, but continued as a small store until the 1930's, and later as a residence. The porch, added about1900, updated the log structure to the look of the 20th century.

During the gold rush, the Alder Gulch area attracted nearly 10,000 people. But by 1876, as the gold ran dry, Nevada City was almost completely deserted.

The double decker outhouse!

Two-Story Outhouse

Nicknamed “Big John,” Nevada City, Montana’s two-story outhouse is a rare Gold Rush-era double-decker privy. Built in the 1860s, it connects directly to the second-story balcony of the historic Nevada City Hotel, allowing second-floor guests to skip a trip downstairs during cold Montana winters. The ingenious, frontier-era engineering featured a built-in chute behind the first-floor wall. Any deposits made on the upper level would safely funnel all the way down into the main vault, avoiding the guests occupying the lower unit. Because wood is not a sanitary conductor of waste—and the smell could get rather overwhelming on hot summer days—the upper level was often affectionately referred to as "Big Bad John". Today, the outhouse is a beloved roadside attraction and one of the most photographed buildings in the open-air ghost town.

We got back on the train and rode back to Virginia City! We passed the dredging machinery that was used to dredge gold and the lots of tailings. Leftovers from gold dredging are called tailings. These consist of the sand, gravel, and large cobbles processed by a dredge. Since early 1900s operations were less efficient than modern methods, these dumps can still hold significant amounts of fine "flour gold" or undiscovered nuggets.

Back in Virginia City!

Virginia City, Montana is famous for being a remarkably well-preserved 1860s gold rush boomtown, serving as the Montana Territory capital from 1865 to 1875, and its dramatic history of outlaws and vigilante justice.

Gold was found in Alder Gulch in 1863, triggering a massive rush that brought over 10,000 people to the narrow valley.

Miners pulled more than $30 million in gold out of the ground back then, worth billions today.

The booming settlement became the capital of the Montana Territory in 1865 before the government moved to Helena.

The Oldest Saloon in Montana

Montana’s oldest saloon is the Bale of Hay Saloon, located in Virginia City. Established in 1863 as a grocery and liquor store, the watering hole is famous for its preserved Old West atmosphere and is said to have nightly ghostly visitors. Reportedly there are bizarre phenomena, including self-playing jukeboxes, sudden phantom smells of mothballs, and the ghostly laughter of long-gone patrons echoing through the saloon.

There have also been reports of a translucent man sitting quietly at a corner table, vanishing if anyone gets too close. The saloon features antique player pianos and music machines. Witnesses have claimed to hear them playing lively tunes late at night when the building is entirely empty. Cold drafts are frequently felt near the back of the building, and disembodied whispers have been overheard in the quieter, adjoining opera house sections.

Time for lunch at the Virginia City Cafe

Al had a bison burger and tater tots (he said it was very good) and I had a Monte Cristo with fries. I never had a Monte Cristo before and although it was good, I wouldn't order it again. It's a ham and cheese sandwich on thick bread dipped in crispy breading and deep fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with strawberry jam.

After we ate, we didn't want to walk right away so we got on this vintage fire engine tour. We were the only ones on the ride. The driver and tour guide said his son lives in Madison and is in theater. He was a good tour guide and story teller!

Virginia City Courthouse-is being refurbished. Note the numbers on the police vehicle in the lower left.

3-7-77 Vigilante Trail

The code 3-7-77 is a famous and mysterious symbol from Montana's frontier history. First used by 19th-century Montana Vigilantes as an ominous warning for outlaws to leave town, its true exact meaning remains unproven. Today the Montana Highway Patrol prominently features 3-7-77 on their shoulder patches and vehicles as a nod to early frontier law enforcement.

Popular theories on its meaning include:

Grave Dimensions: A widespread belief is that it denotes a grave measuring 3 feet wide, 7 feet deep, and 77 inches long.

Time Limit: Another theory suggests it meant a person had 3 days, 7 hours, and 77 minutes to get out of the area.

Stagecoach Ticket: A lighter theory claims it was a prompt to buy a $3 ticket on the 7:00 a.m. stage for a 77-mile trip.

Original Brewery Dugout Cabin.

This specific dugout provided early miners with a place to live and brew alcohol. Beer was often healthier than water in the 1800s. The brewing process required boiling the water, which killed harmful, disease-causing pathogens like cholera and dysentery. Additionally, the alcohol, hops, and acidic pH in the beer created an environment inhospitable to surviving microbes. During the 1800s, rapid industrialization and urbanization led to heavily polluted waterways. Untreated water from wells and rivers often mixed with human waste and industrial runoff, making it a primary vector for deadly illnesses.

Historical evidence from this era—such as economic studies on 18th- and 19th-century England—confirms that areas experiencing beer scarcity also saw higher mortality rates from waterborne illnesses. "Small beer," a low-alcohol brew, was a staple for laborers and children precisely because it provided safe hydration and caloric energy without causing intoxication.

The name "Boot Hill" was used in several western towns for graveyards where men who died violently were said to have been "buried with their boots on." In Virginia City, this hill became the final resting place for five men the local Vigilantes said were "road agents," or robbers who attacked travelers and gold shipments. In the winter of 1863-1864, many robberies and killings along the roads near Virginia City and Bannack frightened miners and merchants carrying gold. A secret group of citizens formed a "vigilance committee," called the Vigilantes, and began capturing and hanging men they believed were part of a gang of road agents. On January 14, 1864, five men-Hayes Lyons, Boone Helm, Frank Parish, George "Clubfoot" Lane, and Jack Gallagher-were hanged near Virginia City and then buried on the hill now known as Boot Hill.

The fire engine tour guide told us the cemetery had many more residents but they were moved by family after the outlaws were laid to rest there. The families didn’t want their loved one’s final resting place to be next to the “road agents.” Some families didn’t bother digging up their loved one’s coffin and just moved the headstone.

St Paul's Episcopal

This church was founded in 1867 but this building wasn't built until 1904.

We just thought this was a pretty church.

Per experts that visited the church and evaluated the pipe organ, they said there is only one similar instrument west of the Mississippi, and very few left in the world- this is an historic organ!

The candy store that had such rave reviews! Of course we went in.

Candy is sold by the pound. You grab a bag and put in what you want. We actually didn't get much. My opinion...I wouldn't stop there again. We've seen stores like this other places including Mackinaw Island and Fort Worth Texas...

This was a goofy stuffed bear in a free museum. I think he needed a little more stuffing. You know we needed a picture!

A building full of antique toys!

This tree needed a cane to hold it up. I wonder why they didn't just cut it down.

We have walked miles today! We are finally back to the truck at the other end of town. We are tired but still smiling!

A little more "Old West Lore"

Joseph Alfred "Jack" Slade, a notorious Old West outlaw and stagecoach superintendent who was hanged by vigilantes in Virginia City, Montana, on March 10, 1864. Following his execution for drunken disorderly behavior, his wife, Virginia Dale, refused to bury him in Montana soil. Instead, she had his body pickled in a zinc-lined or tin coffin filled with alcohol—often cited as whiskey—and kept it under her bed for several months before transporting him to Salt Lake City, Utah, for final burial.

The Hanging: Jack Slade was a highly competent frontier agent but an extremely violent, destructive drunk. After a two-day drinking binge where he tore up a saloon, threatened a judge, and held a town hostage, the local Committee of Vigilance decided they had had enough and lynched him behind Rank's Mercantile.

The "Tub" and Pickling Rumor: Over time, folklore has adapted the "metal-lined coffin filled with alcohol" into variations involving a tin bathtub or wash tub, but historical records note it was a specially constructed, alcohol-filled casket designed to preserve his corpse through the winter.

The Bed and the Burial: Virginia kept the pickled corpse stowed under her bed until the spring thaw of 1864 made the mountain passes passable. She then hauled his remains by wagon to Salt Lake City. Because the preservation began to fail and the casket smelled terrible, he was buried there in the Salt Lake City Cemetery where he remains today.

On this date in 1868, Mark Twain witnessed a Frenchman hanged in Virginia City, Nevada for murdering a popular prostitute.

More about “Jack” Slade

https://montanakids.com/cool_stories/ghost_towns/justice.htm

The Hanging of John Millian

Julia Bulette had turned up murdered in January 1867; her parlor ransacked for valuables. The crime went unsolved for several months until John Millian was caught selling one of her dresses.

The immigrant spoke very little English and was effortlessly convicted, though he maintained his innocence to the gallows, and was hung April 28, 1864.

Some three thousand people turned out for the hanging … among them Mark Twain, who was back to visit the town where he had lived a few years before, writing for a local newspaper.

He wrote about the execution in a letter from Virginia City, published in the Chicago Republican May 31, 1868.

To read Mark Twain’s account of the event click the link: https://www.executedtoday.com/2008/04/24/1868-john-millian-julia-bulette-mark-twain-virginia-city/

8.04.26 LAUNDRY DAY!

Al went spelunking at the Lewis & Clark Caves

It was a 3/4 mile hike to the cave entrance and we were told that we had 20 minutes to get there. If you weren't there when the tour guided started the tour you had to turn around and walk back, of course I made sure I was one of the first ones there!

We were notified that there are bats in the cave so if you have a fear of bats this cave is NOT for you!

The original entrance for this cave is actually up higher on the mountain and is a vertical shaft and tourists were lowered down by ropes with a candle to view the cave and then get hoisted back up. Eventually a miner name Dan Morrison became interested in the cave and applied for mineral rights which made him the owner of the cave. He did improvements adding steps and walkways and eventually mined this shaft into the side of the mountain to the cave.

Bats!

Some of the steps are very steep and the handrail was needed for balance.

This was probably the largest column in the cave. A column is created when a stalactite from the ceiling meets a stalagmite from the floor.

Some of the stalagmites reminded me of a chocolate fountain!

This was a stalagmite that eventually got too heavy for it's base and tipped over. The young woman in the photo is Grace, our tour guide.

This formation was called the Mary and Joseph formation, I think you can see why!

This was called the waterfall.

I don't remember what Grace said this type of formation was called but I thought it was really cool!

Grace turned off the lights for a short time and told us a story of a man that decided to explore the cave on a Friday and when he got down into the cave he dropped his candle and couldn't find it in the darkness. There are only 3 spots that total darkness with zero light occurs, outer space, the bottom of the ocean and caves. Well this gentleman was smart enough to know that he shouldn't move and should just wait for someone to find him and rescue him. Unfortunately for him no one knew he was missing until Monday when they found his vehicle with no sign of him in the area. Being in total blackness for 3 days causes "cave blindness" and hallucinations. This made the rescue harder to find the man because as the rescuers were calling his name he thought he was still hallucinating and didn't respond not realizing they were real until one of them put their hand on his shoulder. When he finally was led out of the cave into daylight it took 7 days for his eyes to adjust to the natural light outside of the caves. This photo was taken after the total darkness and the black light shows the glow of some of the minerals on the ceiling of the cave.

This is an actual geographic marker for being one mile above sea level.

This is part of the Paradise Room but the whole room is only included in a separate tour.

This is a tunnel that's about 530 feet long and took 18 months to blast and excavate without too much damage to the structures inside the cave. Because compasses don't work inside the cave the miners had to mathematically calculate where to start mining on the outside and were hoping to come within 15 feet of the Paradise Room. Much to their surprise and satisfaction they came within 2 inches of their target! When the tunnel was completed they had to put a door at the entrance so they could lock it to keep people out that weren't authorized to give tours or be in the cave. The one thing the designers didn't take into account was that when they opened the door to the cave the difference in atmospheric pressure would create up to a 100 MPH wind through the tunnel system to the other opening blowing out all the candles and lanterns. For this reason a secondary door was installed inside the tunnel and would not be opened until the outside door was closed, a pretty clever solution in my opinion.