Discovering Deer Lodge

Hi Blog. Today was our first full day in Deer Lodge, Montana.  We are about halfway between Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park.  We decided that we needed a little break from all the summer crowds.  We spent the early part of the day helping Eddie and George wake up.  We also did a good deal of shopping to restock and reorganize our rig.  After lunch, we walked into town to discover what's up in Deer Lodge.

First stop, was the local pharmacy where we bought our tickets for the Bull-a-rama! We are told by the local residents that this is a must see event.  We are hoping it will be as entertaining as the Mud Truck Rally in Perry, Florida.  Tune back in on Saturday for the full blog report.

Next we stopped at the local museums.  One price got you entry into the Old Montana State Prison, Montana Antique Car Museum, Frontier Montana History Museum and Cottonwood City. As we started our walk this afternoon, we weren't sure what we would discover.  We weren't really preapred to be tourists today.  We didn't bring a camera or Iphone with us.  So, the pictures below were borrowed from the internet.

Here is what the prison looked like from the outside.  Many of the offices inside were left as is when the entire operation was relocated to a new facility five miles down the road.

The cell blocks are very reminiscent of Alcatraz.  A few of the cells were set up like they would have been in 1970s, but most of them are empty.

The prison once had a 600 seat theater.  A fire in 1975 gutted the building.  It is now used for storage, including the states traveling gallows.  We were surprised to learn that the gallows has only been used seven times.

After the prison, we walked over to the auto museum.  The folks in this part of Montana are absolutely crazy about old cars.  In fact, most of the cars we've seen in town are about 20 or 30 years old.  All of the cars in the museum are on loan from their owners. We were impressed by the size of the collection. Everything from Model Ts to Mustangs.

This Corvette was featured on the cover of Vett Magazine.  It was completely remolded with gold trim.  While it contains all the latest and greatest add-on parts, the car itself has never been driven.  It is just a museum piece.  Seems like a waste of $200,000 to me.  If I'm going to spend that kind of money fixing up a car, I darn well better be able to drive it!

After wandering through over a 100 years of auto history, we walked across the street to see how the area pioneers lived.  There were a number of exhibits on clothes, housewares, town life, etc.  But, the one thing that Pioneers had in abundance were guns - long ones, short ones, cheap ones, fancy ones.

Next door to the Pioneer Museum is the recreation of a typical pioneer town called Cottonwood City.  Folks have donated old buildings from their farms.  The buildings are then reconstructed and furnished in period artifacts.

 There is a livery stable, post office, church, homestead cabin and mining office.

By the way, did I mention that Deer Lodge is a hotbed for alien encounters?  Check out the documentary on You Tube - The Secret of Redgate.  Just to the east of town, was an old homestead with a red gate. The area was thought to be haunted, but many teens used it as a "lovers lane."  Many of the local residents reported seeing strange lights in the sky.  If the light got too close to the car, the car wouldn't start or the paint would be melted.  Two residents remember encountering aliens when they were 4 and 6 years old, and then repeatedly visiting with the aliens thereafter.

This has been a pretty good first day.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Chat at you later!