Exploring Dillon and the Beaverhead River

Hi Blog!  Thursday, August 8th was our first full day in Dillon.  Time for a little exploring.  First stop, the Visitor's Center.  Check out the sculpture out front - "Binding Contract."  There are a number of these western themed sculptures around town.  They are all for sale.  So, if you are interested, let me know.  We'll pick one up for you.

Next was the local history museum.  On they way, we passed the future home of Beaverhead Brewing Company.  Kathy tried valiantly to gain entry, but alas the door was locked.  We found out from some of the locals that they are not scheduled to open until January.  <Sigh>

The history museum was located in the old Dillion rail station and freight terminal. Like many Montana towns, it got its start during the gold rush.  Once gold was discovered in the area, the railroads looked for the easiest routes to the gold.  They established the town of Dillion in the vast valley created by the Beaverhead and Big Hole Rivers.  The main section of the museum had a number of different galleries depicting the early life of the settlers.  In addition to mining, there was timber, sheep, horses, cattle and all the mercantile businesses that service those trades.

One exhibit was on the Chinese influence in the West during the railway building and gold mining era.  Dave and I worked with the museum staff to gather up all the information they had on the Chinese homesteaders. It was fascinating to learn about this aspect of western history.  In those old western movies, you rarely saw Chinese depicted, and if they were, it was usually as a cook or servant.  You never saw the miners, cowboys and business men.  At that time, one-third of the population of both Idaho and Montana were Chinese! This is something we want to be able to share with our grandson.

Several old buildings were donated to the museum and reassembled next to the rail station.  Here is one of the oldest cabins.  What we found amazing was not that it was built in 1885, but that it was still lived in up until 1984! Almost 100 years of continued occupation.

The more modern furniture and appliances were removed and replaced with antiques from the 1800s. to return the cabin to its original condition.

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for flies, visiting the local golf course to get a tee time and stopping at the grocery store to fill up our pantry.  We had a late lunch at a local watering hole, so we opted just to skip dinner and head up to the Clark Canyon Dam and fish the start of the Beaverhead River.  The river is quite deep here, so wading was difficult.  Here is Kathy throwing a line in from the bank.

This area of Montana is very dry this time of year.  Much of the surrounding hillside is covered with brown grass and sagebrush.  While the river looks nice and wide, all the stream side bushes make it difficult to cast.  After about and hour without getting a hit or even seeing a rise, we gave up on this part of the stream and drove off to find another spot.

About a mile or so downstream, we found some nice stretches of water.  It was still difficult to get out into the water, but at least the fish were active.  We gave it our best shot, but it looks like it is going to take a little more practice (and luck) to land one of those big brown trout.

Tomorrow, we hope to visit a few of the ghost towns in the area.

Chat at you later!