3 Aug - Laundry, Military Museum, State Capitol, Cathedral, Fire Tower (Lengthy)

3 Aug
Doreen got on the laundry first thing this morning.  Fort Harrison has a laundry facility located just down the hall in the headquarters building where we initially checked in, and it is provided free of charge!  There are 10 heavy duty washers and 10 large dryers.  Adjacent to the laundry room there is also a lounge area with a pool table, TV, snack machines and reading materials.  We loaded up our laundry plus she wanted to do the blankets if they had the machines to support it, which they did.  I dropped her off then went back to the FamCamp and knocked out a few maintenance tasks from my list.

While at the laundry Doreen found a brochure on the Montana Military Museum, located right here at Fort Harrison.  It is only open on Thursdays, and guess what - today is Thursday!  Score!  After lunch we drove there and were greeting by one of the volunteers.  The museum is basically split in two parts, one primarily from the start of Montana's militia through World War II and the other from Korea through present day.

One remarkable item of history relates to the 1st Special Service Force, known as "The Devil's Brigade".

It was an elite American-Canadian commando unit in WWII.  It was organized in 1942 and trained right here at Ft Harrison.  The Devil's Brigade served in the Aleutian Islands, fought in Italy and in France and was disbanded in December 1944.  There was a movie made in 1968 about this called The Devil's Brigade starring Cliff Robertson and William Holden.

Museum entrance.  This facility used to be a supply headquarters, built in the 1920's

Here are various pictures of displays in the museum, some with notes:

Beautifully restored Jeep.

Basket sleds built at camp Rimini and shipped to many other bases.  Used with military working dogs.

Nice display of German WWII items, including a 9mm Mauser "Broom Handle" pistol, potato masher grenades, etc

 

USS Helena display

The USS Helena fought in the Philippines and other locations in the South Pacific

Many firearms on display.  

A beautiful Chief's headdress was presented by Chief Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet Nation to MG John Prendergast  in 2004 on the occasion of his retirement.  MG Prendergast served as Montana's Adjutant General for 12 of his 42 years of service.

A wildland firefighter display.  The National Guard plays an important role supporting these domestic efforts.

The Cold War display, showing civil defense items.  The square metal tin in the rear of the display was full of 37lbs of candy, or the official name "US Civil Defense Carbohydrate Supplement"  We used to have one of these in the basement of the Lucas Building in Des Moines when I worked down there.  The stuff was nasty!

Vietnam-era Muster.

After lunch  we headed towards downtown to visit the Montana State capitol building.  Just a couple blocks away my eyes focused on a very familiar sight - an orange 1971 Ford Pinto!  I owned an orange 1971 Ford Pinto!  The biggest difference is the one we saw today was a hatchback and mine was not.

Before:  Our garage in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1971.  The owner of this green 1971 Ford Pinto crashed into the ditch and rolled it, causing extensive damage.  We bought it totalled, cheap and fixed it up.

After:  My repaired Ford Pinto.  We repainted it orange.  My picture has faded.  It used to be as bright as the one below.

The orange 1971 Ford Pinto sitting on the street just west of the Montana capitol building, photo taken today!

The Pinto insignia.

So, back to the capitol building.  Helena was voted to be the state capital in 1899 and after the vote construction started.  It was completed in 1912.  The exterior dome is covered in copper and has a statue of Lady Liberty on the top.

Out in front is a statue of Thomas Francis Meagher.  He was a Brigadier General in the Civil War.  After the war he was appointed acting Governor of the Montana Territory.  The statue was dedicated on July 4, 1905.

We entered the capitol and proceeded to the rotunda.  There is beautiful marble columns with ornate gold colored light fixtures and paintings on the walls.  The interior view of the dome, looking up from the rotunda, looks like this:

There are four pictures in the rotunda that depict the four important types of people in Montana's early history:  a native American, an explorer and fur trapper, a gold miner and a cowboy.

Am Honor Roll of the First Montana Volunteers who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Spanish-American War

Looking up the stairs to the second floor

A statue of Mike Mansfield and his wife Maureen.  Mike served as a US Senator from Montana, the Senate Majority Leader and later the US Ambassador to Japan.  He would not allow the statue to be completed without his wife being included as she played a key role his career.

Montana Statehood Centennial Bell, 1889-1989.  

 There is various artwork display but one high above the senate chambers stands out with Lewis and Clark meeting the Flathead Indians.

 After leaving the capitol we headed towards downtown and the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena.  It was built in 1908 and completed in 1918.  It was damaged by earthquake in 1935 and the south tower was almost completely destroyed.  The architecture is Gothic.

Side view from the parking lot.

The bells in the towers ring every hour and were playing when we arrived.

View from the south at the main entrance.

  There are 59 stained glass windows in the cathedral, all made in Bavaria ans shipped over here.  Absolutely beautiful.

 After the cathedral we drove a few blocks further downtown and tried to find the Old Fire Tower.  A Google search pointed us to a location which turned out to be the Old Fire Tower Coffee House!

 Across the street was an interesting old sign

Doreen and our girls have a passion for the Golden Girls TV show starring Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty.  We passed this place and she had to take a picture!.

 After getting good coordinates for the fire tower, we headed a few blocks there.  We stopped at the Montana Wilderness Association in a unique building called the Bluestone House, just below the tower.  We assumed this was a visitor center, but it was not.  The lady at the desk pointed us in the direction of a trail that leads to the top of the hill and the tower.  On the way out we read a plaque that talked about the unique building.  This area used to be the "red light district" and this building was a house built by James F. Stranahan for his new bride.  The locally-quarried blue granite would surely have differentiate it from the "red" buildings in the "neighborhood"!

The Bluestone House.  Amazing stonework.

A view of the Bluestone House from the top of the hill.

The Old Fire Tower is located at the top of Catholic Hill in Helena overlooking Last Chance Gulch.  In the 1800's the town's structures were primarily made of wood, therefore fires were devastating.  There had been several fires in the mid- to late-1800's and this tower was built in 1874 to help protect the town from forest fires.  There was a large bell installed to notify residents and the firemen and later replaced with a telephone in 1878.  The tower was restored after it was damaged in the 1935 earthquake.  In 1991 it was most recently restored.

The tower is fenced to prevent climbing now.

 

A view from below.

A view of the nearby Cathedral from the base of the fire tower

Downtown Helena MT

Doreen at the hilltop.  The Bluestone House is shown below on the right.  The area below would have been the red light district.

Tomorrow at 1000 hrs we will go on the "Gates of the Mountains" boat ride down the Missouri River and retrace a portion of the route of Lewis and Clark.