Yellowtail Dam and Big Horn County Historical Museum

Well, we are finally in Great Falls just waiting to get on the road to Alaska but before we got here, we managed to squeeze in one more day at Garryowen. A park employees suggested the Yellowtail Dam area as a must-see destination. Being only an hour away, which is a short distance out here, off we went. Upon arrival we first took photos outside then we went in to tour the visitors center where there were the obligatory documentary films and then some chit chat with the rangers. The two films covered the same topic, building the dam, but one of them touched upon the Crow Indian Nation. The one fact that managed to stick with me is that the reservation was slightly larger than the entire state of Delaware! There was an interesting story about the native naming of the Bighorn River, but my memory does not serve me well enough to retell it. Before the dam was built in the early 60’s there was always the possibility of flooding the river basin. Now, with the dam and the secondary dam below the major dam the flooding is under control, the power generated by the power plant has changed the life of people for miles around and the recreation possibilities are unlimited.

As we travel the roads out here, we occasionally see beehives placed out in the fields and we thought that they are honeybees but when I asked one of the rangers, he explained that the are cutter bees. Not knowing what a cutter bee is I googled them and found out that cutter bees are of the same family as honeybees but are used to pollinate Alf Alfa fields that are being grown to produce seeds instead of hay. When the bees are used the fields can produce as much as ten time more seeds. However, if the rancher uses too many bees it actually hurts his production. I guess this is an example of too much of a good thing can be harmful.

After leaving the dam we drove to Hardin MT to see what we could find for a late lunch or early dinner. As we entered the town, we asked a local where they would suggest for eating and they only had one place to suggest. When we arrived at the eatery there was a sign in the door explaining that due to a shortage of help, they would not be opening until 4:00 PM so with over an hour to kill we found the Big Horn County Historical Museum. All the bigger the town was I wasn’t expecting much but this place was huge! Consisting of a museum, several older buildings set up to replicate life in the early twentieth century and acres of old equipment this was going to be very interesting. It was kind of a shame the amount of old farm equipment that was just rusting away but when I asked if the museum would ever consider selling some of the equipment sitting outside. I was told that the museum refused to sell anything since so much of it had been donated by local families, they didn’t want to offend anyone by selling it once it arrived on site. I would think it better to sell some and use the revenue to restore something else instead of letting it all rust away. Since I am really interested in old trucks you will have to bear with my selection of photos.

While touring the museum I saw the wedding dress pictured below, but other photos showed the Elk Dress being used to celebrate other milestones in a women’s life. One can only image how long it took to acquire the elk teeth needed to make just one. I would guess that some elk teeth or even complete dresses may have been passed down through several generations.

Another display was one of the largest collections of barbed wire I have seen! Once the west was opened up to homesteaders something was needed to keep one’s livestock on one’s property and barbed wire was one of the answers.

After the stop at the museum, we went back to Three Brother’s Bistro and Pizzeria for a really good pizza pie. Unfortunately, no photo is available cause we were too hungry!

Hopefully we will have an adventure or two while staying in Great Falls so stay tuned!