Copper Mines and other Butte adventures

I apologize for the lack of blogging. My job keeps me pretty busy now seven days a week so I'm also slacking in my New Year's resolution to explore more of Montana. But sometimes my job is a pretty good adventure in itself. In the past month without even leaving Butte I've seen some crazy stuff and learned some crazy stuff too.

Butte is a big mining town. Has a long history of it and still does it today with open pit mining. I went into the active mine for a story. They've got some verrrrry large equipment in that mine.

The tires on these trucks are bigger than a large SUV. And in the next picture the white piece of equipment is called a shovel.

To me a shovel has always been a very small thing that people use to dig up some dirt or when you're a kid you have a nice neon colored plastic one to play in the sand with at the beach. So needless to say I learned something haha. And I even got to go into the shovel and watch it in action. Video here.

So my job that day was a very big adventure. Another recent adventure, taking a historic walking town of Uptown Butte. For those who don't know, Butte is the largest Historic District in the country. The tours have been around since 2004 and take you to a speakeasy from prohibition years, an old jail, barbershop and more.

Inside this jail the guide talked about how the city county of Butte-Silver Bow actually has the most fallen law enforcement officers of any other county in Montana. Interesting, especially since a day before a statewide parade honoring the 119 fallen Montana officers was held in Butte. So I learned that fact during the parade and also learned that while the area has the most fallen officers, it hasn't lost one since 1937. Basically Butte was a pretty rough town early on haha.


But anyways, the jail and everything else is underground because the population of Butte used to be 100,000 plus so they had to utilize all the space they could, even underground. Well, the owner of the tour company was clearing out a basement in one of the old buildings and found a ton of stuff that led to even more discoveries. Including a room where what he calls "ladies of the night" would take men back in the 1800's to do ummm ladies of the night stuff. He says it looks like no one has been in the room for 100 years, especially since the staircase to get to it no longer existed and he had to build a staircase to get to the room. 1800's wallpaper still hangs on the walls.

So while I haven't had the chance to get out of Butte much to really explore I've had several chances to explore the mining city.

Snow, mountains, and candy...a spring adventure in Montana

I drove about 110 miles to Philipsburg, MT. If you know Montana at all you know that from Butte to Philipsburg is not 110 miles but since my boyfriend was in town we took a looong detour so that I could show him some Montana scenery he hadn't seen yet.

Unfortunately it was snowing. Yes, snow in late April. In fact it is snowing right now as I type this. So the scenery may have been a little white and cloudy but it was still a fun adventure and still pretty. We drove along the big hole river to see some great views and also some very small towns like Dewey and Wise River.

For the two of us who come from suburbs of major metropolitan areas it's hard to imagine what life would be like in these towns where there's a small grocery store, one or two bars, a post office, and a handful of homes. But we did agree that along the river is a nice place for a vacation home. (we're gonna need to make a lot of money in the future for that haha) You wonder what people do in such small towns. Joey joked he'd have a lot of hobbies to kill the time. But around here I've learned that there's a lot to do if you're into things like fishing, hunting, skiing, snowshoeing, biking, and any kind of outdoor recreation no matter the season. Anyways, after our looooong detour we finally arrived in Philipsburg.

Philipsburg has a population of 914 according to the 2000 census. It's probably similar to that now and this is bigger than the previously mentioned Dewey and Wise River. The first time I ever came to Philipsburg I thought I was on the set of an old western movie. I think it's the architecture that makes me think John Wayne could appear at any minute. We made our way into the Sweet Palace, Joey and my first stop in the town. It is a massive candy shop where they make a lot of their own stuff.

We walked out of there spending over $30 on candy and fudge. Well worth it. We had a bag of gummy candies, a bag of chocolate candies, some chocolate peanut butter fudge, and these...

One cashew cluster and one pecan cluster. Basically just a giant cluster of nuts and chocolate. The sweet palace had several different versions of these.

Next we ate at the Doe Brothers restaurant and old fashioned soda fountain just across the street from the Sweet Palace. At our table we were able to entertain ourselves with a game of checkers with some unusual pieces.

Joey won the game. Oh well. The food was good he said his reuben on a pretzel bun reminded him of home, which is good. I had something called jimmy cricket, basically chicken salad. For those who know about my recent vegan diet, I took an exception day. I felt seeing my boyfriend for the first time in three months was a special event and warranted an exception. Especially with that candy to eat!

After leaving Philipsburg we headed back to Butte but of course took in the scenery on the way back too. After all Montana Highway One, which is the highway Philipsburg is on, is called the "Pintler scenic route."

"You look like you got some cowgirl in you!"

I drove about 33 miles to a ranch east of Deer Lodge, Montana for work. I followed two yellow school buses from Butte High School all the way there. Why? Because the Montana History classes and club were going to brand cattle. I had already been to one cattle branding since moving here so I knew to wear clothes that weren't my favorite, I knew that it would smell like burnt hair, and I knew the calves would be making a horrible noise when the brand hit them. I was prepared but maybe I'll never really be prepared for cattle branding.

The one cattle branding I had experienced almost a year ago was done differently. At that ranch they had some contraption that the calves would walk into then the people standing there would turn it so the calves were on their side and then all the happens with a branding would occur. And just so you know they don't just get branded, this is also the time when they get their vaccinations. At my most recent cattle branding experience the kids were to learn how it was done in the 1800's, since after all they were the history classes and club. They had do have a hands on experience in history. So no contraption was used. Instead cowboys lassoed the calves in their pen and dragged them out by the rope. Then a group of students basically had to tackle the calves and hold them down long enough so they could be branded and vaccinated.

I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor calves. I understand on a ranch it's something that needs to be done. You have to keep your herd of cattle healthy and you have to know which ones are yours in a land where there's tons of ranches.

Talking to the kids who were doing the branding I was actually surprised by how many of them said it was a lot of fun...even girls! I just couldn't see this being the case with my high school friends or even people I wasn't friends with in high school. But I guess I'll never know since to my knowledge no one in my high school ever went on a field trip to brand cattle. We went to museums, which is cool, just very different. You can't touch stuff there. Anyways, at one point the students teacher came up and told me it was my turn and he took the camera. Luckily they let me just hold the head. Another fun fact, when calves are branded the poop...a lot. So I did not want to be a person holding onto the backside.

I had to leave the branding before they were finished to get back to the station in time to edit and get the story on the 5:30 news. But just as I was about to leave everyone ran over to a certain part of the fence. I went to see what the commotion was and turns out a cow had just had a baby. Pretty crazy and definitely not something I had experienced before. Everyone stood there watching as the mom was trying to get the baby to stand up. Apparently calves walk within hours of being born. Don't quote me on that though, just what I was told on the ranch. After the branding the students were going to have a big lunch and them ride horses. It would have been nice to stay the whole day because I still have yet to ride a horse. Oh well another day.

The title of my blog is something a man said to me two days after the story aired. I was covering another story in Butte when he came up to me and said that and then proceeded to ask me about the branding experience. You can watch the story here.

5 people and a dog in a space smaller than your bedroom

Some friends and I drove 203 miles to a cabin in De Borgia, Montana. The cabin is pictured. 5 of us and my roommates dog stayed there for two nights. Surprisingly that little cabin contained 2 bunk beds, a bathroom, and a kitchen area.

Now to be fully honest this trip took place over a month ago I've just been slacking in the blog world. But the whole reason for the trip was to ski at lookout pass. A ski area just over the state line in Idaho. When we went that particular ski area had received more snow than any other ski area in the past week. Unfortunately, it wasn't my best day of skiing. Oh well. The highlight of the day actually wasn't a good run but the fact that I got to meet some family who live in Idaho who I had never met before. My dad's cousin actually works at Look out pass as a ski instructor and once he found out I was there this sign was waiting for me when I got off the chair lift...

So once I got to the bottom I went to go meet him and his daughter was actually there too! So I got to meet two Yuill's that day! It was very cool.

As for 5 people and the dog staying in that tiny cabin. It wasn't awful. We actually managed pretty well. We were able to entertain ourselves in the cabin with board games and old VHS' from the 1980's. Very hilarious. However, I think two nights in that tiny cabin was enough for me. I was happy to get back to my Queen bed.

Happy St Urho's Day!

I only had to drive one mile to cover the celebrations for this Finnish Holiday today. That's the beauty of Butte, you are never far from a party. To celebrate Fins and non Fins gathered at the Helsinki bar in Uptown to crown this years King of St Urho's Day. And of course enjoy some alcoholic beverages, wear green and purple, and have a good time.

The story goes that St Urho drove the grasshoppers out of the vineyards of Finland with a pitchfork and saved the grape crop. That's why for this holiday the women wear purple to represent the grapes and the men wear green to represent the grasshoppers.

When I got to the bar to cover the crowning of the new king it was just a mob I had to push through with my camera and tripod. Luckily, people are super nice here and moved out of my way and even offered up their spots close to where the crowning would take place so I could get my video from there. But then the man who was to crown the new king offered me a spot standing on top of the pool table. I accepted and the camera and tripod and I went up on the pool table and it was a good place to be so I could get some great crowd shots and all the action when the new St Urho's Day King was crowned. The new king received a purple robe, viking hat, and a stuffed grasshopper on a pitchfork. (Pictured below. The other picture is a crowd shot)

It seems silly and the guy who was crowned king may have told me he felt like an idiot wearing that stuff but at least everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Not quite a Moose on the Loose

I drove about 27 miles yesterday for a story. I ended up just north of the town of Whitehall, MT. Lots of open land, very pretty. Also saw a lot of cows on the land but inside fences so obviously belonging to the property owners. The picture is what I saw crossing the street. I literally had to stop the car to let them cross, and trust me they didn't really hurry along either. Guess the car moving at 50 mph towards them wasn't all that scary. I found this an unusual sighting to be crossing the road. Deer are normal and even in Montana I've come to think that a moose is normal. (Since I've now done two stories about moose wandering around Butte.) I probably wouldn't even be that shocked to see an elk or buffalo. Although a buffalo would be awesome. A stray cow would have seemed normal, a horse, a dog, a cat. For some reason this sighting made me think I was on the east coast. I couldn't see any body of water anywhere near me. Doesn't mean it's not there but still, I've come to expect more of the mountain, forest wildlife. I could see mountains all around me and land that was not so green, more brown and sand colored so I was thinking "where are they going?" If I had seen a squirrel I really would have felt like I was back on the east coast. I just don't see squirrels anymore.

1,090 mile joy ride

First off yes, I changed the name of my blog. I've been thinking about it recently because I won't be in Big Sky Country forever and even now my adventures aren't always in Montana. I felt this would be an appropriate post to change the name of the blog for just because I drove so many miles for this most recent adventure so let's get to it...

In the title when I say "joy ride" that is complete sarcasm. It should be titled "1,090 mile ride from hell that caused me more stress, sadness, and anger than any other drive in my life." So what happened you ask? Here goes...

My news station is a combined market. Meaning two cities combine to form one news market. So Butte and Bozeman are together, however, we have separate nightly newscasts. Our morning show is a combined show that comes out of Bozeman and up until now our weekend show has come out of a totally different market, Billings. Now our market is getting their own weekend show and it will be coming out of Bozeman. Butte stories are always fed over to air on the morning show since it is a combined market and the same will be done for the weekend show. The problem, we don't have anyone in Butte who works weekends. So until we get some extra help I'll be working a lovely seven days a week work schedule to make sure that Butte news is represented in the new weekend show. In lieu of this news I asked if I could leave early on Friday to drive to Bismarck and see my boyfriend since who knows when I would have another weekend off and be able to do that. I got the necessary approval. I had my car checked out and checked the weather prior to the drive. Weather.com told me the worst I would run into would be some flurries, flurries I can handle.

Flurries turned into freak out of nowhere Blizzard over in Eastern North Dakota. Luckily, I wasn't there yet so didn't get stuck in that. I was in Eastern Montana when my boyfriend called to tell me that I-94 from Dickinson to Bismarck had been closed. (For those who don't know, I have to drive that stretch to get to Bismarck since Dickinson is West of Bismarck) I pulled off the interstate at some random exit where all there was was some scary looking gas station. He told me he'd call me back while I was checking the weather over there on my blackberry. When he called back we decided I would keep going because the meteorologists at his station were saying that this storm was leaving and would be diminishing as the day went on and I wouldn't get there til 11 p.m. anyways so it should be gone by then. I pulled back onto the interstate and continued to head east. About two hours later into my drive my boyfriend tells me that a no travel advisory had been issued for Bismarck. I asked if I should turn around he talked to another meteorologist and told me to keep going saying if the road didn't open tonight it would be open by Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Knowing this we were both thinking that even if I had to spend Friday night in a hotel and not reach Bismarck til 10 a.m. on Saturday it was better to see each other for one day and one night then not at all. I kept on trucking and kept on asking if the road was open yet only to be met with a depressing no. Finally when I was two hours away I decided I needed to stop and buy a toothbrush because it looked like I'd be spending the night in a hotel and I keep a toothbrush in Bismarck so I hadn't packed one. Literally the minute I got out of the gas station with my newly purchased toothbrush my boyfriend told me that the road would definitely not be opening that night. Ok, time to find a hotel in Dickinson. Well turns out that was impossible, they were all booked. Luckily my boyfriend's news station has a Dickinson bureau reporter who said I could crash with him and my roommate has a friend in Dickinson who also offered to let me crash. I felt extremely lucky to have options of where to stay in such a situation. I ended up staying with the reporter and his girl friend just since they had been contacted and offered first. They were both super nice people (I had never met them before) and I'm super grateful they let me stay.

Needless to say I didn't sleep much on their couch. Not through any fault of the couch's either. I was super stressed and freaking out over the situation. In my mind I just kept thinking what if this road doesn't open? But still thinking oh no it will I'll be ok. Boy was I wrong. 7 a.m. I-94 was still closed and at 8 a.m. and at 9 a.m. and at 10 a.m. and at 11 a.m. at that point my boyfriend and the Dickinson reporter were both making phone calls trying to get any idea of when I-94 would be open again. Through the phone calls we learned that no one had a clue when it would re open but it wouldn't be anytime soon. At this point the weather was fine and at least on my drive it had never not been fine. The picture attached to this blog I took during my drive. It was clear skies and roads for me the entire time. Anyways, the problem with I-94 was that 800 motorists were stranded on it and it was closed because they had to clean off all those vehicles. Ughhhhh is basically what I was thinking when I learned this. My options now were take an alternate route or drive 8 hours back to Butte. The alternate route would take over three hours and if I could take 94 it would only take me about an hour to get to Bismarck. But I thought oh well at least I would get there. Well turns out that was just too risky. According to the ND department of transportation the first half of the alternate route would be fine but the closer to Bismarck I got the road was just continuous ice, may be down to one lane because of snow drifts, and could even become impassable due to blowing snow. Alternate route was out. Only option left was head back to Butte. I couldn't sit and wait for an interstate to open that my not for days and if I was going to drive the 8 hours back to Butte I wanted it to be mostly in daylight.

I went to Walmart to get some supplies for the drive back and as I was getting on the interstate to head west and start the journey home my eyes blurred by tears I noticed cars heading east. They're going east! Maybe the road is open or they are just getting through somehow. Suddenly there was hope! I got off at the next exit and turned around to head east as well. My hope was short lived a couple exits later I saw the line of semi trucks and cars just waiting to be allowed on I-94 and I saw the gate in front of me across the road that said "road closed" and the cop car sitting behind it. I followed the other cars that had been heading east and exited the interstate only to get back on it to again head west and start the journey home a second time. Depression set in and I felt horrible. A quote from "Blind your Ponies" best describes my feelings, "inside a horrendous storm assailed his vitals. He had the sensation of being so close he could touch it and yet being so far." I'm obviously a she but you get my drift.

I did get back to Butte just as the sun had finished setting and walking into my house when I felt I was supposed to be in Bismarck was one of the saddest, most angering moments. I drove 545 miles to Dickinson and was less than 100 miles from seeing my boyfriend. I just couldn't cross those last miles to get to him I had to turn around and drive 545 miles back in less than 24 hours since I had started the journey to North Dakota. I know there's an upside that I'm safe, he's safe, everyone I know is safe and much worse things can happen and are happening every day. I have to put it in perspective and realize this sucks but it's not that bad.

By the way if you'd like to learn more about the closure of I-94 and the 800 motorists stranded it has become a national story but here is KFYR's coverage