# Travel Log - Montana



## Son_of_Perdition (Jul 18, 2014)

*Montana* - Lewis & Clark, Sitting Bull, George Armstrong Custer and Henry Plummer all contributed to establishing Montana as a state.  In 1804 a year after the Louisanna Purchase, President Jefferson enlisted Merriweather Lewis and William C Clark to explore the newly purchased land that was to later become part of United States.  The journey took a year and half, the quest became known as 'The Corp of Discovery' and will forever become a major event in US history.  Adding to the settling of Montana was the 'Battle of the Little Bighorn' with the bigger than life leaders of the battle, Sitting Bull and Gen George Armstrong Custer.  One will have the reputation for valor and bravery and the other will be remembered for his ruthlessness, only in the future will those wrongs be righted.  Each will be exonerated and the true story will become fact.  One player will emerge along with his cronies and there will be questions about the real story of his exploits, Henry Plummer the infamous sheriff of Bannack during the heydays of the gold mining camps and his ultimate hanging by the local vigilantes.   

 The vigilantes had the mysterious set of numbers '3-7-77' painted on their tent or cabin law breakers knew that they had better leave the area or be on the receiving end of vigilante justice.

       The oldest interpretation is that it meant that the criminal had 3 hours 7 minutes and 77 seconds to leave town.

     Another common interpretation is that the numbers represent the dimensions of a grave, 3 feet by 7 feet by 77 inches. 
     The sum of the number 3+7+7+7 total 24, representing the criminal had 24 hours to leave town. 
     That it was borrowed from California or Colorado vigilance organizations where member number #3 and #77 were authorized to carry out executions. 
     Frederick Allen, in his book A Decent Orderly Lynching, claims the number means one had to buy a $3 ticket on the next 7:00 a.m. stagecoach to take the 77-mile trip from Helena to Butte. 
     May have something to do with the date March 7th, 1877; the numbers  were first used in that decade and first appeared in print later in that decade of the 19th century 
 
 Other places of interest is my journeys is Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Road.  Great Falls and the Lewis & Clark museum.  My travel along US 89, to photograph and document what I could about the places of interest is also a part of the states historical stops from the southern border to the northern border at St. Marys.   

 On my travel we entered Montana from the south through Yellowstone Park at Gardiner then following US 89 north through Helena and then north to the Blackfoot reservation.  The Blackfoot were known as one of the strongest and most aggressive military powers on the northwestern Plains, I heard once that they were never defeated.  My family has made at least five trips through Montana, entering mostly from the south but once from the west along I-90 into Missoula connecting up with I-15 to return home.  We stayed in Dillon on that trip.  Another trip we went through West Yellowstone then to Butte and once again traveling along I-90 to Hardin to finally reach the site of the 'Battle of Little Big Horn'.  I was rather disappointed in that stop.  We attempted to listen to the cassette describing the battle but I was looking among the many little white markers and no indication that anybody but the Custer's men were involved in the fight.  Another trip I, my son-in-law and grandson decided to go along US 89 through Yellowstone (my son-in-law was from Texas and had never been to Yellowstone).  We ventured on to Livingstone stopping at the interesting Railroad museum.  We came back through West Yellowstone. Another trip we came along the Salmon river into Montana stopping in Bannack, touring the ghost town then onto Bozeman to the King Tut touring display.  We decided to leave the state north of Cody, Wyoming.  The next visit was so I could continue on my journey along US 89 and visit Glacier, Great Falls, the Canadian border and back into Wyoming.  The other trips all were for one thing or another but of no importance.  I did like the scenery and vastness but getting used to the speed limits was a little unsettling as I aged and become more cautious.


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 18, 2014)

Love reading your logs Son, Montana is beautiful country!


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