After a stop by the AAA (not only helpful for state maps but local maps too, when your GPS becomes flabbergasted that new roads have been built. Indeed it seems half of Helena is one big construction project that distinctly lacks the visuals Glacier offered when we waited in its traffic) we found the library and spent some much needed time researching and getting caught up on the blog.
We arrived at the library at 4:45. Isaiah found online that there was something fun to do and free (when you read where our destination was you may question the word "fun." Still I stand behind it). The activity started at 5:00, so we promptly left the library.
Each Thursday the Montana Historical Society offers free admission to it's museum which is right across from the capital building. With several different large exhibit rooms on the main level and another smaller one on the third floor we would need the couple of hours before it closed for the night.
In the first large exhibit room was a small collection of artwork by Charles M. Russell. Small only in that, during his lifetime the beloved Montana artist created over 4,000 paintings and several hundred scultpures. We actually saw a great deal of his work that spanned from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. The majority of the work depicted cowboys on the range, the West's wildlife and native culutural traditions. Though it was beautiful to see, some enjoyment was lost when two local men barged in who, despite scant artistic understanding, were able to go on at length about the emotional impact the artist had on their lives, though this seemed to amount to little more than how much they would, rather than observe him at work in his studio, "love to throw back some whiskey with him."
The second large exhibit room offered a bounty of Native artwork and artificats including a "Winters Count." The Winters Count is a piece of animal hide used to chronicle a year's significant events, like enemy attacks or a crop killing frost. A real functional and yet creative historical document.
The largest exhibit encompassed multiple rooms and was an illustrated timeline of Montana history. It began with prehistoric geology and the first natives and finished in the 1950's. We took a walk through history. It only took us an hour to walk millions of years, during which Isaiah found how warm and heavy a buffalo hide is.
I will briefly mention the small exhibit room on the third floor as it does offer a perspective on Montana and American history, but I will also mention that it has become all but a forgotten afterthought by the museum. Holding artificats from both World Wars the room contains medals, uniforms and other military memorablia. The downside is that most of the picture frames are falling apart, all the placard cards have yellowed with age and the only update this century seems to have been the cultivation of a distinct musty odor.
Once we completed our rounds at the museum we stopped back at the library briefly and then to where else but Walmart for the night.
Isaiah trying on a buffalo skin
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