I started the day off with a long walk with the dogs. I had planned to get up early and hike a trail but I managed to sleep until 7. We had a long days drive today into and across Montana and we needed to get going. Yesterday’s post noted bison and turkeys, and that was the first two hours of the morning. I’ll pick up from there.
Leaving Theodore Roosevelt NP we headed east and then north. There are tons of oil fields up here and the place is booming. The road (85) actually is a 4-lane divided highway, which made the travel quick. And then I saw a sign …. Lewis and Clark Museum.
This museum in Alexander, ND is named Lewis and Clark Museum, but is really a pioneer museum of the area and celebrates all the families that settled and built in this land. The first piece was a log cabin that one family with 8 boys lived in. It was decorated with some early 1900’s frontier artifacts. The main museum is the old 3-story schoolhouse. They have a little bit of everything in there, from frontiersmen and trappers coats made from buffalo, beaver, horse, or any other animal hide, to a history of electricity and radios coming to the area. The museum was built and funded by families in the area who paid for shadowboxes where they could display family photos, heirlooms, Knick Knacks, etc.
The next building housed a history of farm equipment from the area in this massive barn. There were even a couple of Ford model T’s and an International Truck. We spent two hours there, the last portion being in the gift and coffee shop where we met Cathy.
Cathy grew up here and told us stories of her grandfather and grandmother who settled here in 1902, where he first built a small shack on their property. Her grandmother told him to wait on building the house and get the barn completed because that would make them money. Cathy said the barn still is used and maintained on the property. We’ve seen quite a few exhibits and museums, and this one is the best so far. And Cathy also said the town has a hamburger fry in the park every summer Saturday, if we wanted to attend. It’s been going on for the past 70 years. Small town America is such a special thing.
We walked the pups and then got back on the road. Another hour up was the famous Fort Union Trading Post. The actual post was destroyed by the army after it was purchased by the Government and then abandoned for Fort Buford down the river, but this reconstruction is beautiful and gives a good sense of the fort at the time. During its 50 years it was a major trading post for the American fur Company where Indians and trappers and settlers could trade goods from around the world.
The rest of the day was driving down I-95 and then to our campsite, which we found on iOverlander, and turned out to be perfect spot at a fishing access point on the Bighorn River. It started sprinkling and then the thunder and lightning and downpour came. One of my happy places…rain on the roof while camping. Tomorrow we have another big day to get to Yellowstone. I managed to get two nights there in a campground; it’s a tent site, but with parking, so the TC will be great.
Here are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250621-fort-union-trading-post-and-pioneer-museum