usa: montana: castle town and helena

I was pretty proud of myself for how quickly I got moving the next morning, I left Karla's house not long after she did. Karla drove to work, and I drove away from Cody.

A few weeks earlier I'd seen a post on social media by another Garmisch friend of mine, she'd taken her kids to a ghost town in Montana. I found it on Google maps, and headed in that direction. From what little research I'd done, I knew Castletown is located on private land, only the road going through the area was public. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get off the road at all, but I had hopes.

It took me a few wrong turns to find where I wanted to go, but eventually I got there. The road going through Castletown wasn't in good shape, at all, meaning I had to drive quite slowly. As I got close I saw several signs reinforcing the information that Castletown is on private land, and I shouldn't go off the road at all.

I might've possibly ignored the signs. It wasn't easy to find a place to park the car, but I succeeded eventually. Since I knew I was breaking the rules I pretty much ran onto the land to find what remained of the ruins of Castletown.

Castle Town was incorporated in the late 19^th century, it was one of many towns created by the silver and lead rush of that era. One sight I found online said nearly a thousand claims were registered in the area. At it's peak, the city had a whopping 2000 residents.

When Castle Town was in its prime there were 7 brothels and 14 saloons! There was also a jail, stores, and a school. I'm not sure which buildings were which, as there is nothing left that would identify each building. (Not to me, at least.)

I've always found abandoned buildings fascinating, this time was no different. There was no identifiable trail to get to the buildings, I had to get through some tall grass and goodness knows what else. I didn't go very far into any of the buildings, as they were all very much on their last legs. I'm used to seeing abandoned concrete buildings, but these were wood, which was awesome.

I ran around taking photos, though I only looked at the buildings on one side of the road. There were a few on the other side as well, but they were further away, and I was pretty sure I'd have a good hike to get to them. 

I got back in the car and turned around to get back to a more major road. As I drove away I wondered who I would need to contact to arrange permission to explore the area properly. I hadn't seen a phone number, but the information must be listed somewhere. 

Sometime mid afternoon I got to my destination for the next couple nights: the capital city of Montana, Helena. It was easy to check into my hotel, after which I relaxed for a bit. Free wifi isn't always a good thing, hee hee. 

I should've gotten out into the city to explore a bit, but as usual, I procrastinated a bit too long. Whoops.

Instead of exploring the city I went to a chain restaurant called Perkins for dinner. I'm not normally a fan of chain restaurants, but I'm a sucker for pie, and this place has good portion sizes of pie. YUM.

The next morning I went to a local place for breakfast, called Steve's. It was a diner, so I was happy.

My first sight in the city was a European style cathedral, which is not at all what I expected in the capital city of Montana. St Helena Cathedral is big, with a high vaulted ceiling. There were plenty of stained glass windows, which always make me happy.

From the church I walked to the mansion in which the first governor of the state had lived. I wanted to go inside, but you can only go on a tour, and the next one was several hours away. I didn't want to wait, so maybe I'll see it if I return to the city.

As I walked the streets in this area of the city I noticed that a number of the homes were quite grand, and had historical marker signs in front.

Walking to the city center was easy. Helena is the state capital, but it doesn't feel at all like a capital city. It is easy to walk, I didn't see a lot of traffic. As I've looked up information from Wikipedia, I've learned the population of Helena is just 30,000 or so, so that explains why there was so little traffic. 

I get the feeling Helena isn't known for anything in particular, but the state needed a capital city, soooo...

My walk to the pedestrian area of the city center took me past an old style soda fountain, I couldn't resist stepping in. My drink was totally worth it :)

I walked up a small hill to see an old fire tower on top. The grass was pretty dry, I don't think it had rained much recently. I can see why the hill was chosen as a good place to put the fire tower, as you can see pretty much the entire city from there. (The city isn't big, so anything that elevates you just a little is good enough.)

Not too far from the fire tower/hill was an area called Reeder's Alley. I think it was supposed to resemble what the street looked like back in the day, but it didn't look like anything special to me. It had different shops and whatnot in the buildings, so it was just a shopping district with old style decoration. Argh.

While standing on the fire tower hill I'd seen a building that looked like a mosque, it made me curious. I walked in that direction, and figured out it was a cultural center. Very cool.

Not too far from the cultural center was a small park with a victory arch/city gate looking thing in the middle. I set up my tripod and camera to take a photo, and go figure, it fell over as the timer was beeping the countdown. Argh. It didn't look good for my camera for a while, but I was able to get everything back to normal after a few minutes of fiddling around, thank goodness.

From there I walked to the State Capitol. It's another really grand building, totally out of place compared to the rest of the city. 

Across the street from the Capitol are ranch style homes, Helena really does feel like a small town.

I got to the entrance just in time to find the sign saying I'd missed visiting hours by 15 minutes, darnit. Thank goodness, the next day was still an option. Instead of continuing to explore, I walked back to my car (still parked next to the church where I'd started the day,) and drove to the same restaurant for dinner as the night before. More diner type food, more pie. I seriously considered getting some to go, to bring with me when I left town. 

The next morning I went back to Steve's for another breakfast, then drove out to the Gates of the Mountain rec area for a boat tour.

I thought I'd booked a ticket online, but the cashier couldn't find my name in his list. I pulled up my email confirmation only to find that somehow I'd booked my ticket for a week from then, whoops. The cashier said no problem, and gave me a ticket anywho. The boat wasn't quite full, so it didn't make a difference. Plus, he knew I wouldn't be showing up on the day for which I'd actually booked the ticket.

The tour was lovely. The guide spouted history and stories for most of the way out, then was mostly quiet on the way back. We learned some of the stories told by the Native Americans who'd lived in the area, as well as some of the history from fires and settlement. The guide pointed out a couple eagles in trees, which I loved.

There was a quick break when we all got off the boat at a campground of sorts, we had about 30 minutes to stretch our legs. This was not one of the campgrounds at which Lewis (but not Clark,) had stayed while exploring the region, before the US was the country it is now. 

That particular area is underwater, according to the guide. They're not exactly sure where it is, if I remember correctly what he said. The reason they know it is underwater is because the water level of the area is higher, since they formed the lake with a dam and flooding took place.

After the tour I drove back to Helena, straight to the Capitol. It was Sunday, around noon, middle of summer. In other words, I practically had the building to myself. It has a fantastic rotunda, gorgeous stairwells, and statues galore. A photographer's dream. I loved being able to wander whereva I wanted to go for the most part. I got to see the Senate and Representative chambers, as well as the old State Supreme Court, all of it awesome.

After walking out of the building I hopped back in my car, and started driving toward my next city: Coeur D'Alene.

I don't know that I need to come back to Helena, but Montana itself is pretty fantastic, I definitely want to explore more of the state.