We had nothing on the agenda today and were available for aimless exploration of the surrounding countryside. I cooked breakfast and soon afterward we were on the way to a castle-looking structure right here in this simple little town. The actual name of the place was The Castle and Carriage House Museum. We could see it from almost anywhere in town because it is located on a little hill on the north side. We were soon pulling into their tiny parking lot.
We went into the carriage house and coughed up $5 a head to check out the carriages and the house. We had to wait a few minutes in the carriage house before the tour started but there is plenty of stuff to see there; old mining and blacksmithing implements, photos of original residents, carriages, models of farm and industrial implements, saddles and other tack and some old pump organs which must have been popular because there are four here. Soon the curator, Sheryl, showed up an took Peggy and me on a 45 minute exclusive meander through all three floors of the big stone castle. There is not too much original stuff from the house inside but the locals have been more than generous with donations of period antiques and they are strewn throughout this neat old building. The interior woodwork is pretty snazzy. This house also had indoor plumbing and was the first place in town with electrical power. Some folks named Sherman built an impoundment for water, laid in pipe at a good fall and ran two electrical turbines (back then they were called dynamos) so initially his house, then his barn, then the town had electrical power. The pond was small so they only had power for about 6 hours a day but when there was going to be a big event in town, they overfilled the pond so they could keep the lights on later into the evening.
After the museum we took off out of White Sulphur Springs on US-12. We passed through some rolling prairie for about 30 miles catching glimpses of some browsing deer and many birds doing bird stuff. Near a town called Martinsdale, we turned southwest on MT-294 for a drive through some almost completely uninhabited Montana countryside. I understand why old-time residents used to kill each other over land here. This is not the dramatic mountain ranges and interesting geography seen elsewhere but it appears to be terrific cattle and sheep country with almost endless opportunities for grazing. There is very little traffic on the roads. We saw maybe six cars or trucks all the way back to US-89, a distance of some 25 miles.
After completing our loop, we figured we needed a reward so we stopped in town at 2 Basset, a local brewery. They have about a dozen and a half varieties of beer on tap and we tried several of them. The brewer/proprietor/local snow shoveler was a very nice guy and his family all work at this place. They had no porter which was disappointing initially but we soon found they had some excellent alternative stouts and ales that kept us happy for some time.
Montana only allows brewery patrons to consume 3 pints on the premises before being shut out so we had our quota and departed. The weather looked like it was going to turn unpleasant so we drove back to the Barbarian Invader at Conestoga RV Park and settled in for some good food and fair TV.
We got some pix along the way today and you can see some of them if you click here