SUNGRL

We have spent the last three days in Billings playing golf, shopping and a little bit of sight seeing.  There is no Sales Tax (GST) in Montana so a little bit of retail therapy was had : 0

When the Northern Pacific Railroad set its sights on southeastern Montana in the late 1870’s, the small town of Coulson saw opportunity.  It’s residents raised land prices significantly and Northern Pacific chose to establish it’s own town rather than pay the outrageous prices.  Thus, in March 1882, the “Magic City” was born.  Seemingly overnight, like magic, Billings was established and became one of the most vibrant towns in the west.

Billings sits at 3,567 feet above sea level and has a population of 104,000 with over 140,000 in the entire Yellowtsone County.  Billings is the State of Montana’s largest city.  The average temperature in January is zero degrees while the average temperature in July is 30 degrees Celcius.

One of Billings’ most significant industries is oil refining with three plants surrounding the city.  These three refineries produce about 180,000 barrels of oil a day from oil operations in Montana, Wyoming and primarily Canada.  That oil is then distributed to nine western states.

Agriculture is Montana’s number one industry, hence it plays a vital role in Billings economy.  A diverse climate and fertile soil help Montana farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of high quality food products.  While wheat and beef are the two largest commodities, many other products contribute to the state’s agriculture, including corn, barley, sugar beets and cattle.

Sugar beets are second only to sugar cane as a source for sugar.  This is one of Billings most lucrative industries, the sugar beet thrives here.  Farmers all over the region grow the crop and sell it to the Western Sugar Cooperative Plant – one of the nation’s largest sugar cooperatives with a local processing plant processing a multi-million dollar crop of sugar beets each year.

We didn’t get a lot of time to do much sightseeing here but I did borrow a bike and go for a ride along the Yellowstone River.  The Visitor Information Centre has bikes you can borrow for free – you just need to leave your credit card number as security.  

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles (1,114 km) long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming.  In Montana the river has been used extensively for irrigation since the 1860s. In its upper reaches, within Yellowstone Park and the mountains of Montana, it is a popular destination for fly fishing. 

It was really hot but the breeze I generated as I whizzed along kept me cooler.  I spotted the Rimrocks, known as the “Rims” by the locals which are geological rimrock sandstone formations that outcrop in sections of Billings.

I also spotted these little white paws spray painted on one side of the bike path and a large paw spray painted on the other side – it certainly made me be aware of my surroundings.  The bike paths were actually concrete with a yellow line down the middle – I made sure I applied the left hand drive rules : )

The Great Montana Centennial Cattle Drive Monument 1889 to 1989

The Montana Centennial Cattle Drive Bronze is dedicated to every child who dreamed of being a cowboy… Every cowboy who dreamed of clear water and rolling prairies… Every traveller who gazed at Montana’s mountains and knew they were home… And all the Montanans who hold the dream of our precious heritage in their hearts.

We found this little course on the Internet just outside Billings that we thought looked pretty good and if you played after 3pm it was only USD25 each including a cart.  Our first round was on Sunday afternoon and although the weather was warm the black clouds were rolling in.  We had been treated to a massive lightening and thunderstorm on the Saturday night so we knew how wet we could get if the heavens opened up.  SUNGRL being the external optimist believed we would be fine.  We got a few spits on the second hole and the wind got up but that was the extent of it.  Montana is getting with the SUNGRL’s mantra – it never rains in my world : )

We got chatting to the guys in the Pro Shop and they were quite interested in NZ.  I went off to the toilet and when I came back Steve was behind the counter – what the…  He was busy showing them Cape Kidnappers on their computer and giving them his email address for when they come to visit.

It is a nice little course and we managed to play 18 holes in two hours and forty minutes.  Steve went back to the Pro Shop afterwards to buy some golf balls and they gave him the staff discount rate : )

We went back out there this afternoon for the same deal.  It was a typical Montana Big Sky Day – blue skies with not a cloud in sight.  The course looked even better in the sunshine.  We played the 18 holes in about three hours today.

History of the Course

As Matt Martinson grew up on this piece of property in Montana, he dreamt of building a home here. But instead, he and his family built something that the community of Billings can enjoy.

From the beginning, the vision was to design a high end daily fee course with a residential community. Matt and his father, Vernon, began building the course many years before it opened. Eaglerock opened to the public in 2003. It is located just 15 minutes from downtown Billings. The 18-hole facility has a fun, challenging layout with scenic views and beautiful sunsets over the lake. The family has a passion for the game of golf and have enjoyed the journey of bringing something to their community that will last for generations to come.

Eaglerock is a labor of love, started by a father and son. Hard work and a commitment to the family vision made it a dream come true.

The Rattler strikes again – he tapped in for a birdie : )

My second shot landed on the path so I did a Phil Mickleson and played it where it lay – I made a bogey but was pretty happy with my path efforts : )

Cart with a view and natural air conditioning – the cart had no windscreen which turned out to be ideal given it was about 33 degrees!

We travelled thirty minutes from Butte to Anaconda to play the Old Works Golf Course which is a Jack Nicklaus Signature design.  Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, the Old Works Golf Course has been reborn on the site of Anaconda’s historic century old copper smelter.  Jack Nicklaus incorporated many historic relics in his Signature design.  

It is a really nice course with interesting surrounds due to it’s mining history.  During the initial design phase, Jack Nicklaus believed slag would add a historical aspect and wondered if the slag would be a viable alternative for bunker sand.  After doing some field testing they confirmed that slag was an inert material that posed no risk so the bunkers are filled with black slag.  The slag is a by-product of the copper smelting process.  The practice facilities at the course are also great.    Due to my many experiences in the bunkers I can also tell you that hitting out of the slag was better than hitting out of conventional sand : )

History of the Land

In 1883, an Irish immigrant, Marcus Daly backed by J.B. Haggin and others purchased the land on which the city of Anaconda and the Old Works were to be built. In September 1884 the Upper Works began production, with a capacity to treat 500 tons of ore daily.  Remnants of the Upper Works can be seen today when playing the front nine at Old Works.

In 1886, installing updated equipment increased capacity to 1,000 tons per day.

The need for more smelting capacity from the Butte mine’s resulted in construction beginning on the Lower Works in 1887, one mile east of the Upper Works. Shortly after completion, the Lower Works were destroyed by fire. The rebuilt Lower Works were operational by 1889 with a capacity to process 3,000 tons of ore daily. To keep up with the ore supply, a third smelter was planned across the valley. Marcus Daly never saw these Reduction Works in operation; he died in New York in 1900.

The new more modern Washoe Smelter had the capacity to process all of the ore from the Butte mines, resulting in the dismantling and closure of the Old Works. The location lay idle until 1983 when it became a super fund cleanup site. In 1989, Anaconda citizen’s formed a group to promote the construction of a “world class” golf course on the site. Through hard work and cooperation, between the community, ARCO, State and Federal Agencies along with golf legend Jack Nicklaus, ground was broken on May 26, 1994.

On Friday I joined a tour to go and visit Our Lady of the Rockies.  There were 9 of us on the tour including three children.  Our guide Rhonda was really good and told us a lot about both the statue and the area.  Butte sits at about 5,400 feet above sea level and Our Lady is at 8,510 feet so we had a bit of a climb in the van to get there.  Prior to the tour we watched a video about how Our Lady came to be.  It was very interesting and the passion of the people involved was quite phenomenal.  The statue was made in 4 sections and Butte literally came to a standstill when the final piece of the statue was helicoptered up and put into place, as you can see the statue from the town below.  The statue sits on top of the Continental Divide that separates the Pacific from the Atlantic – we crossed the Continental Divide six times before reaching the top.

The statue was first imagined by local resident Bob O’Bill. In 1979, his wife was seriously ill with cancer. He promised the Blessed Virgin Mary that he would make a 5-foot statue of her in his yard if his wife recovered.  When she recovered he began the project with his fellow workers who gradually changed the initial vision to a 90-foot-high mountain top statue. Many people in Butte donated materials and time to make the statue a reality. The design for the statue was engineered by Laurien Eugene Riehl. He was a retired engineer for the Anaconda Company who donated his engineering skills to the project. The statue had to withstand the powerful windsheers that buffet the ridge tops. Joe Roberts donated his lot and buildings for the construction of the statue. The statue was airlifted from Roberts Rocky Mountain Equipment to its present site on the Continental Divide.

Work on the project began in December 29, 1979. Volunteers spent many summer evenings blasting a road to the top of the Rockies, sometimes making only 10 feet of progress a day. The base of the statue was poured in September 1985 with 400 tons of concrete. The concrete was provided by Pioneer Concrete Company, a longtime family business in Butte, Montana. On December 17, 1985, a CH-54 Tarhe from the Army National Guard’s 137th Aviation Company lifted the statue in four sections into place.

Our lady of the Rockies is entirely nondenominational, and was dedicated by workers to woman everywhere, especially to mothers. 

A chapel was built on the site some years later with the base being in the shape of a star.  On the walls of the base they have a Womens Memorial Board where thousands of women’s names are listed under the year they died.  These names include Princess Diana and Mother Theresa.

You also got a really good view up there over the town and the various mountain ranges that surround the town.  You can see the active mine below and the lake of extremely toxic water as a result of the mining industry that has dominated this town for many years.

The pit of greenish poison a mile is a half a mile wide and over a third of a mile deep. It hasn’t always been so – it was once a thriving copper mine appropriately dubbed “The Richest Hill in the World.” Over a billion tons of copper ore, silver, gold, and other metals were extracted from the rock of southwestern Montana, making the mining town of Butte one of the richest communities in the country, as well as feeding America’s industrial might for nearly a hundred years. By the middle of the twentieth century, the Anaconda Mining Company was in charge of virtually all the mining operations. When running underground mines became too costly in the 1950’s, Anaconda switched to the drastic but effective methods of “mountaintop removal” and open pit mining. Huge amounts of copper were needed to satisfy the growing demand for radios, televisions, telephones, automobiles, computers, and all the other equipment of America’s post-war boom. As more and more rock was excavated, groundwater began to seep into the pit, and pumps had to be installed to keep it from slowly flooding.

By 1983, the hill was so exhausted that the Anaconda Mining Company was no longer able to extract minerals in profitable amounts. They packed up all the equipment that they could move, shut down the water pumps, and moved on to more lucrative scraps of Earth. Without the pumps, rain and groundwater gradually began to collect in the pit, leaching out the metals and minerals in the surrounding rock. The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. 

They are working to clean the site up.  The most recent development in the clean-up was the construction of a treatment plant on Horseshoe Bend. This facility treats and diverts water coming from the Horseshoe Bend flow. In addition, it will be able to treat the existing Berkeley Pit water in 2018, or whenever the water level hits the critical point of 5,410 feet (1,650 m) above sea level. This number was set by federal order and is intended to protect the ground water from being contaminated by the water in the pit.

The Berkeley Pit is a Superfund site – Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.

We arrived into Butte on Wednesday for three nights.  We had been told that Butte was a nice town with a lot of history and it was also relatively close to a Jack Nicklaus golf course Steve had found on the web and wanted to play.

Butte is a city in, and the county seat of, Silver Bow County I the state of Montana.  As of the 2010 census, Butte’s population was approximately 34,200. Butte is Montana’s fifth largest city.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Butte experienced every stage of development of a mining town, from camp to boomtown to mature city to center for historic preservation and environmental cleanup. Unlike most such towns, Butte’s urban landscape includes mining operations set within residential areas, making the environmental consequences of the extraction economy all the more apparent. 

Butte was one of the largest cities in the Rocky Mountains in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Silver Bow County (Butte and suburbs) had 24,000 people in 1890, and peaked at 100,000 in 1920. The population steadily declined with falling copper prices after World War I, eventually dropping to 34,000 in 1990 and has since been reasonably stable.  In its heyday from the late 19th century to circa 1920, it was one of the largest and most notorious copper boomtowns in the American West, home to hundreds of saloons and a famous red-light district. 

Butte began as a mining town in the late 19th century in the Silver Bow Creek Valley (or Summit Valley), a natural bowl sitting high in the Rockies straddling the Continental Divide. At first only gold and silver were mined in the area, but the advent of electricity caused a soaring demand for copper, which was abundant in the area. The small town was often called “the Richest Hill on Earth”.

Since the 1950s, five major developments have occurred: the Anaconda’s decision to begin open-pit mining in the mid-1950s; a series of fires in Butte’s business district in the 1970s; a debate over whether to relocate the city’s historic business district; a new civic leadership; and the end of copper mining in 1983. In response, Butte looked for ways to diversify the economy and provide employment. The legacy of over a century of environmental degradation has, for example, produced some jobs. Environmental cleanup in Butte, designated a Superfund site, has employed hundreds of people.

Around 20 of the headframes still stand over the mine shafts, and the city still contains thousands of historic commercial and residential buildings from the boom times, which, especially in the Uptown section, give it a very old-fashioned appearance, with many commercial buildings not fully occupied. 

A century after the era of intensive mining and smelting, the area around the city remains an environmental issue. Arsenic and heavy metals such as lead are found in high concentrations in some spots affected by old mining, and for a period of time in the 1990s the tap water was unsafe to drink due to poor filtration and decades-old wooden supply pipes. Efforts to improve the water supply have taken place in the past few years, with millions of dollars being invested to upgrade water lines and repair infrastructure. Environmental research and clean-up efforts have contributed to the diversification of the local economy, and signs of vitality remain, including a multimillion-dollar polysilicon manufacturing plant locating nearby in the 1990s and the city’s recognition and designation in the late 1990s as an All-American City and also as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations in 2002. In 2004, Butte received another economic boost as well as international recognition as the location for the Hollywood film Don’t Come Knocking, directed by renowned director Wim Wenders and released throughout the world in 2006.

Given the mining history we thought we would go and check out the World Mining Museum.  They have recreated an 1890s mining town, with 15 intact historic structures and approximately 35 buildings constructed from old materials by the many volunteers who put the museum together from the mid-1960s to the 1980s.  The museum is located on the site of The Orphan Girl Mine which gives you an opportunity to look at the 100 foot tall head frame and hoist house up close as well as some of the original equipment.  They also do underground tours but we weren’t too keen on that.  Instead we looked at all the exhibits and photos – it was an extremely dangerous industry to be involved in.

The Orphan Girl Mine also remembers the 2,500 men who were killed in the Silver Bow Mining District since 1865. These men lost their lives in a mining, mill/smelter, concentrator, or railroad accident in any of the mine outfits in this district that employed so many for so many years. The fine presentation of four polished black granite slab memorial walls, that were sandblasted with all the names of the deceased miners are a great tribute to these souls who died on the job.

Over the years of its operation, The Orphan Girl Mine was a copper/zinc/gold/silver mine, owned and operated by Anaconda Copper Mining Company. A tremendous amount of copper was brought to the surface, creating wealth and prosperity for owners, and a decent if dangerous living for workers. At other times, gold, silver and zinc mining were also very profitable for owners and helped to keep the economy of Butte humming along. It was open from 1875 to 1956, which is a fairly long time for a mine to be in production; which gives an idea about how much rich volume of hard rock ore this mine had within its walls.

They also had a couple of separate exhibits – one was a dolls house exhibition which was really good.  The detail in these doll’s houses was unbelievable.  The photos below don’t do them justice.

Some of the Health & Safety signs from days gone by…

The Doll’s Houses including Sherlock Holmes Baker Street….

The Copper King Mansion, also known as the W. A. Clark Mansion, is a 34-room residence of Romanesque Revival Victorian architecture that was built from 1884 to 1888 as the Butte, Montana residence of William Andrews Clark, one of Montana’s three famous Copper Kings.  Apparently he was worth about USD200 million when he died in 1925.  His last surviving daughter has just passed away and her jewellery collection alone was worth USD30 million!

We had been told to try Huckleberries if we came across them – we saw a sign for Huckleberry Smoothies so we pulled in and got one – it was very yummy : )

We also found a really nice Cafe called The Hummingbird Cafe – lots of fresh, healthy food with vegetarian and gluten free options.  I had a ‘Parading without a Permit’ smoothie – strawberries, banana, almond butter, chocolate and soy milk – delicious.  

This community garden was next door to the Cafe. 

As mentioned in my previous post, we had a tee time booked at Meadow Lark which was nearly put in jeopardy due to me throwing my credit card away in the carpark!

We got organised very quickly upon arriving at the golf course.  It was hot – about 35 degrees!  The course is very picturesque with lots of trees.  After playing five rounds at Desert Blume which has no trees I had a bit of trouble on the first couple of holes but it sorted itself out.

The Canada Cup was in the bag so today the boys were playing for the Budweiser at the end of the round.  We had a nice afternoon and Gary was victorious again – Stevie was buying the beers.

Meadow Lark Country Club was founded in 1919 and sits on the beautiful curving Missouri River.  They had obviously had some issues with flooding because along one of the holes they had all these old cars forming a stop bank.

On Tuesday the 2nd August we left Medicine Hat after a wonderful week of good company, good food, wine, golf and many laughs.  Gary & Anita were kindly driving us across the border into Great Falls, Montana where we picked up a rental car to continue our trip in the US of A.

We travelled through more prairie land and saw many crops – wheat, flaxseed, canola, barley and lentils.  There are just thousands of acres planted out in these crops.  The harvest will start in the next two to three weeks so the crops were looking particularly good. We were travelling along at quite a good speed when eagle eye Gary spotted a rattle snake sunning itself on the side of the road. We pulled over and went back to get a closer look – Steve and I had never seen one before. To be honest Steve couldn’t have cared less if he never saw one so kept quite a distance away! I of course wanted to get a photo. Kamikaze Gary wanted to get the snake to rattle so used Steve’s 5 iron to provoke it much to Steve’s disgust! I must say I was a bit nervous but apparently they only strike you if they are coiled and this one wasn’t. He was just annoyed that someone was poking him with a 5 iron!  Photo obtained we moved on. 

We were going to cross the border at Coutts on the Canadian side and Sweetgrass on the US side.  Gary & Anita said that the US customs officials could be a bit tough here so we made sure we had everything in order.  You are not allowed to take any meat, fruit or unprocessed food across the border so we duly ate the apples and sandwiches we had made before crossing the border.

You drive up to the booth and hand your passports over.  We knew we would have to step inside given we were from NZ and sure enough we were told to pull into the carpark and go inside.  We all went and sat inside and waited to be called.  The lady that questioned us was very pleasant and all we had to do was supply an address in the US where we would be staying.  We then had to pay USD6 each for our Visa Waivers and we were on our way.  I got all the passports, paperwork and my credit card back from her and off we went.  That was fairly painless.

Last glimpse of the Canadian flag before crossing into the US.

A few minutes down the road I had this sudden thought that I hadn’t put my credit card away – I knew she had handed it back to me and when I had hopped in the car I had handed the passports and paperwork to Steve to put away.  We pulled over on the side of the highway and searched the car – no credit card!  The only thing I could think was that when we were wandering back through the carpark I had dropped it – I was so excited that it all went smoothly and was busy explaining that we had until the 30th October to leave the US that I was probably waving my hands around as I do!

What to do?  It wasn’t that simple to go back as that would mean crossing the border back into Canada and then re entering the US.  Not to mention we were on a tight schedule – we had a tee time booked!  I tried phoning the credit card company but it wouldn’t go through.  Anita looked up the phone number for the border crossing and Gary phoned them.  Hallelujah the card had been found in the carpark and handed in.  Gary asked if they could possibly courier it to Great Falls were we were staying the night – due to them being in the middle of nowhere the courier services are not too frequent!  We got put through to the supervisor and it turned out he was travelling to Great Falls the next morning and would bring it through with him.  It also turned out that he was married to a Kiwi girl from Wellsford, north of Auckland.  

The world really does have some good people in it and perhaps some of those good deeds we have done in the past gave us a little bit of good karma : )

Relieved, we carried on with our plans.  What a noggin I was!

We arrived into Great Falls about 2pm and went straight out to Meadow Lark Golf Club.  After golf we had a drink and some appetisers in the club house.  It was a hot day so we found a nice shady spot to watch the golfers on the 18th green.

We checked into our hotel and met in the bar for a drink.  We got chatting to the waitress who made a couple of bar and dinner suggestions for us.  She also showed us a picture of her three year old daughter and told us that she was a You Tube sensation singing Adelle’s Hello with a cardboard guitar.  The clip has had over a million views.  If you want to see it type in Adelle Kimber Hello to your browser.  This is the You Tube Link  https://youtu.be/HpKaPlU9Wkk.  So, so cute!

Anyway we went into Great Falls and checked out Sip n Dip, a bar she had recomended.  We were unsure what to expect.  It turned out they have a swimming pool in the wall behind the bar and there were two guys swimming around in there with mermaid tails on : 0. It was ladies night.  We got seats right up at the bar so we could check it out – it was amusing to start with but then we found it a bit weird.  These guys would swim around then stop to wave at us.  A girl joined them later in the evening.  We ended up having a late dinner there and in true American fashion the portions were huge!  Steve got a full rack of ribs and declared them some of the best ribs he had ever eaten.

After dinner it was back to the hotel. I had to go on a mission the next morning to get a bottle of champagne for our US customs friend who was dropping my credit card off at 9am. I google mapped the supermarket and it said there was one 950 metres away. Perfect. What I didn’t see was that the 950 metres was the direct route – I had to take a much longer route due to the railway line and highway. I got back with 20 minutes to spare. He arrived at 9am on the dot and it was service with a smile – what a nice guy : )

It was then time to say goodbye to Steve’s brother from another mother, Gary and his lovely wife Anita.  We had such a blast with them and look forward to catching up in NZ at some stage in the not too distant future we hope : )

Great Falls, Montana

Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States.  The 2015 census estimate put the population at 59,638.

Great Falls takes its name from the series of five waterfalls in close proximity along the upper Missouri River basin that the Lewis and Clark Expedition had to portage around over a ten-mile stretch; the effort required 31 days of arduous labor during the westward leg of their 1805-06 exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and to the Pacific Northwest Coast of the Oregon Country. Each falls sports a hydroelectric dam today, hence Great Falls is nicknamed “the Electric City”.