I’m always surprised when friends wrinkle their noses when I say I have to shoot in Billings. What is it about The Magic City that elicits this response? I can cut people some slack if they’ve never been downtown and have only seen, say, King Avenue or 24th. Both of these streets have heavy traffic & box stores and are NOT pedestrian-friendly. But downtown Billings? Montana Avenue? It’s full of great galleries, antique shops and phenomenal dining. (See previous posts on Harper & Madison and Montana Vintage The Downtown Billings Alliance even has a Loan-A-Bike program where you can park and borrow a bike.

Billings is also home to some of Montana’s best restaurants. One of my favorites is so well hidden that out-of-towners may need a GPS to find it. Tucked in an industrial section among auto body shops and warehouses, Café DeCamp takes Slow Food and Farm to Fork concepts to new heights.

Chef Jason Corbridge began seeking vendors before he and his wife Emily, who co-owns the business, bought the building. “Ingredients were definitely the most important thing,” he says. “They provided the framework, and I put a menu together based on what I knew would be available and on the concepts I wanted to implement.”

The website lists over 50 Montana businesses the cafe supports, including Ten Spoon Vineyard and Winery, The Montana Wagyu Cattle Company, Lavender Lori and Shane Creek Bison. “And the list grows daily,” says. Jason “Like any craft that has artistry to it, I’m always looking for something new.”

It’s a popular place. Lined with windows and finished with reclaimed wood and metal, the small space is furnished with a hodgepodge of vintage tables and chairs set close together, creating a communal vibe. A “chef’s table”-style bar seats seven, and a spacious patio is open spring to mid-fall.

Certain items on the menu are perennial (like the Real Montana Lamburger with fresh mint, Dried Pear Rings, Smoked Chevre, Balsamic Apricot Syrup, local Bacon and fresh Arugula on toasted Ciabatta with Honey Garlic Aioli & House-cut Potato Chips).

Specials are fresh and change daily. “That’s why I have a daily soup, quiche, fresh catch,” says Jason. “So I have a clean slate and can do whatever I want with it.” (As I write this, the menu is titled “End of Summer/Beginning of Fall.)

They offer both sourdough and savory crepes (like the Migas Parmesana & Chorizo—a Chorizo-stuffed crepe beneath two runny Eggs, Parmesan Breadcrumbs and a Smoked Paprika Romano Tuile topped with Grilled Pico and Parsley Chive Crème Fraiche) as well as lunch items like Strawberry Rhubarb Smoked Turkey Ciabatta (Seder Ridge Turkey, Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Marmalade, Honey Garlic Aioli, Smoked Gouda and local Radish Sprouts on grilled Ciabatta bread with Yoghurt Waldorf Salad and House-cut organic Potato Chips).

Whether Kate from Rosetto Garden calls and says, “Hey, I just picked some pineapple sage and some chard. I’ll bring it down,” or the owner of Beartooth Coffee Roasters—who roasts the café’s custom fair trade, organic house blend—shows up at the back door with coffee beans, Corbridge values the connections he’s made with local purveyors.

“It really matters where it came from and how it was treated,” he says. Jason buys from people who are passionate about what they grow and do, and he matches that passion in the kitchen. That expertise—from farm to fork—comes through in every bite.

NUTS & BOLTS

Café DeCamp – 1404 6th Avenue North. (406) 256-7285. Open Tuesday through Saturday. Lunch 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Dinner 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. www.cafedecamp.com

From the instant you step through the front door and see the parlor’s ten-foot ceilings and hand-carved fireplace, you’re ready to unpack and relax. Innkeepers Sonja and Kevin Maxwell have preserved the home’s “regal cattle baron” decor, polishing the 9-foot tall quarter-sawn oak pocket doors and finishes to a honey-colored sheen. The home looks much as it did when Charles and Anna Krug’s five children roamed its wide hallways, and several pieces of original furniture can be found throughout.

Visitors are welcome to stretch out in more than 2,000 feet of public space and view hidden architectural treasures like the butler’s pantry or the antique bank vault door on the family’s wine cellar. Homemade breakfasts are served at 7:30 and 8:30 in a large formal dining room. Kevin works away in the kitchen as apron-clad Sonja darts back and forth filling coffee cups and bringing plates heaped with sourdough pancakes, sausage, and cantaloupe topped with chopped, fresh mint.

Enormous leaded glass windows flood the five guest rooms with natural light. Named after Krug family members, all have private baths, television, air conditioning, high-speed wireless and are extremely comfortable.

We stayed in the Annie suite, which is perfect for families. Dan and I had a queen-size bed, desk and sitting area with large t.v., In the large adjoining sitting room, the Maxwells pushed two large couches together to make a giant bed for the kids. Their half of the suite also had a writing desk, small fridge, armoire and lots of room for them to play.

The b&b is extremely family-friendly. My five-year-old loved the large aquarium in the first floor sitting room. There’s a room in the basement full of board games and toys, and the upstairs hallway is lined with bookshelves and has a Victorian conversation nook at one end. (Our kids loved curling up with a book and snuggling with the large stuffed animals in the carved mahogany nook.)

The Maxwells keep a supply of snacks (cookies, granola bars, bags of microwave popcorn, packages of gummy-fruit) and packets of hot apple cider and cocoa on the dining room buffet—perfect for mid-afternoon warm-ups if you’ve been hiking in Makoshika or out on a dinosaur dig.

The Inn is just steps away from the historic Bell Street Bridge and walking path, which spans the Yellowstone River, and is only a couple blocks from downtown shops and restaurants. (See my previous post Glendive: Good People in Badlands embed link: http://vimeo.com/24305749 ) As convenient as the location is, once you settle into a room, you’re not going to want to go anywhere.

NUTS & BOLTS:

Charley Montana Bed & Breakfast –103 North Douglas Street, Glendive, MT. (888) 395-3207. Open year-round. Prices range from $95 -$135 (single occupancy) per night. www.charley-montana.com

Two of Montana’s most scenic blue highways—239 between Hobson & Utica and 541 between Utica and Windham—are also two of its least traveled. That changes the second Sunday of September, when forty to fifty larger-than-life hay sculptures line the asphalt between Hobson and Windham, making the road less of a thoroughfare and more of an “Ag Art” installation.

Welcome to “What the Hay” (please embed link: http://montanabaletrail.com ), an annual harvest celebration in which farm and ranch families compete at building elaborate straw sculptures in the pastures and stubble fields of central Montana’s Judith Basin. “It’s your basic fun with bales,” says Susan Aune, a member of the Utica Road & Gun Club, which helps sponsor the event. “Other towns have a Harvest Ball; we have Bale Day,” she laughs. “I’m just floored by how many people come to our little town for it.

It can be downright dangerous when hundreds of motorists and budding photographers stop haphazardly on the thin-shouldered two-lane to gawk. The bumper-to-bumper traffic moves at a pregnant heifer’s pace past clotheslines, barns, windmills and shelterbelts through painter Charlie Russell’s old stomping grounds, where fence posts still outnumber people.

It can be fairly surreal passing by a 30-foot-tall clock made of hay that has life-size straw statues of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet strumming guitars to “It’s 5:00 o’clock Somewhere”. (As if using hay as a medium weren’t challenging enough, contestants must also incorporate the words “hay” or “bale” into each entry). Hence rancher Clint Carr’s “It’s 5:00 Hay Clock Somewhere.”

“I’ve had several ideas in the bank for years,” says Carr, who’s mechanized entries are usually a shoe-in for the People’s Choice Award when spectators’ votes roll in. “I think about building them all summer long out there on the swather or the tractor. In my mind, I build it about 3-4 times before I actually start. I can’t tell you what this year’s entry is going to be…but I can tell you it’s going to be pretty large. I don’t go lightly!”

The event kicks off Saturday night with a barbeque beef dinner and auction at the Utica Rod & Gun Club followed by a dance down the street at the Oxen Yoke Inn.

Sunday from 7:30-10:30 a.m., the Mason’s Hall in Hobson serves a breakfast of homemade pancakes, eggs, sausage, coffee and orange juice. Garage Sales abound around town, and then it’s time to grab a ballot and hit the Bale Trail. (I always throw a couple lawn chairs in the back of my dad’s pickup so I can shoot unencumbered.)

You’ll pass sculptures like The Great Sphaynx, a gigantic bust of Hay-braham Lincoln, The Metropolyahton Museum of Art featuring Vanghay’s Star-hay Night, Monhay’s Water Lillies, da Vinchay’s Monhay Lisa and works by MicHaylangelo and PicHaysso.

Children’s entries typically follow the shape of whole bales: Mick-Hay Mouse, Taco Bale. Politics and current events are always popular.

About halfway between Hobson and Utica is the Midway Caf-Hay, where you can buy Indian Tacos and drinks and stretch your legs. (All sales benefit the Hobson Library & Museum.) There’s tons of parking and children’s activities, including a gigantic hay maze.

Then further on down is the town of Utica and the Utica Day Fair. Held on the sprawling grounds of the Utica Club House (where my grandparents’ 50th Anniversary was celebrated in 1979!), vendors sell handmade arts and crafts. There’s live entertainment, food carts, face-painting. But the highlight is inside the clubhouse, where the Utica Women’s Club sells homemade pie and coffee.

It’s just a really fun end-of-summer activity. Un-bale-lievable, really. Fun for the whole famil-hay. There’s something for ever-hay-one. Don’t Bale!

NUTS & BOLTS

The 2011 “What the Hay” Day is Sunday, September 11. Visit http://montanabaletrail.com for a map and information.

One of the best vintage shops I’ve run across is Montana Vintage in downtown Billings. Not only are the prices great and the selection vast (they have children’s and maternity!), but the merchandise is also impeccably clean and well cared for.

“We launder everything, so it’s either been washed or dry cleaned before it hits the floor,” says owner Sherry Daly, who opened shop in 1998. “If it’s not in good shape, I don’t put it out.”

Daly gets most of her merchandise from within a 300-mile radius. “From northern Wyoming all the way up to Medicine Hat,” she says. “I just never know what’s going to come through door. I just love being able to recycle items that are truly keepsakes.”

The bright store is an eye-popping kaleidoscope of textures and colors. Everything—from 1890’s tea dresses and petticoats to frothy 50’s party dresses and 1980’s bubble dresses—is organized by decade and measurements, not sizes. “There’s no standard sizing,” explains Daly, “So our tags list measurements. We end up with happier customers because things fit right,” she says, adding, “There are clothes for every shape in here.”

Weather a body is hourglass and better suited for the wasp-waist styles of the 1950’s or more straight-up-and-down—where 60’s mod cuts that de-emphasize the waistline are more flattering—there’s generally a decade that works. “And you don’t have to be going to a costume party to wear vintage,” says Daly. “I wear it all the time and get complements. The secret is mixing it, not wearing head-to-toe from one decade. I may wear a 40’s suit jacket with a pair of jeans. The best looks are eclectic.”

Daly has quite a following of customers who don’t have pierced ears. “So I have clips-ons galore,” she says of her extensive jewelry selection. She’s also got a rainbow of gloves—from wrist-length up to evening gown—and purses from hand-tooled to patent leather. Shoes can be found throughout the store ranging from metallic gold sandals to cowboy boots. Hats? “A lot of 40’s and 50’s”, says Daly. “Wide-brimmed, small-brimmed, pillbox. I’ve got lots of flowers out right now, but come winter you’ll see more wool with ribbon.”

Daly has lots of fun with high school boys when prom rolls around. “They come in to get a ‘tux’, which to them usually means pairing a plaid jacket with hounds tooth pants,” she says. “It’s a stitch!”

She says she gets really excited when something like a pair of men’s platform shoes comes in. “Men’s clothing is harder to find. They usually have fewer items in their wardrobes, and a lot of men’s clothing is wool and gets moth-eaten so there’s just not as much of it out there.”

She’s got ties from every era (bow ties, hand-painted ties, skinny ones, fat ones), great suits and real tuxedos (I especially like the 1970’s section). Racks brim with vintage t-shirts, western snap-button shirts, 50’s bowling shirts and hats that would make any L.A. stylist drool.

The children’s section is perhaps my favorite. Stuffed with polka dots, plaids and ginghams, there are petticoats and 70’s psychedelic. There’s even a sweet toddler apron with bunnies and chicks!

To top it off, Montana Vintage has maternity wear—we’re talking Peter Pan collars and bows. “It just reminds me of what Lucille Ball would have worn,” laughs Daly.

Items are displayed seasonally. “Virtually, the whole store changes overnight in the fall,” says Daly. “The wool coats come out an the spaghetti straps go away.”

She clearly enjoys her job. “I have a passion for vintage clothing, and I love sharing what knowledge I have and seeing new life come to old clothes,” says Daly. “It’s so fun to see other people like them as much as I do.”

NUTS & BOLTS

Montana Vintage
110 North 29th Street
Billings, MT 59101
(406) 248-7650

Open weekdays 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday 11:30 to 5:00 p.m.

www.montanavintage.com

My husband Dan and I got a wild hair while visiting my parents in Denton last August to return to Livingston over the Belt Mountains. This would involve traveling roughly three hours on gravel roads past the headwaters of the Judith River, up a narrow, winding pass and down onto Highway 12 just east of Checkerboard. We’d then head home on asphalt through White Sulpher Springs.  I had last done this trip in about 1985 with my parents and the Snooks Family. I remember when we went I had an asymmetrical haircut AND had just bought Prince’s latest album Around the World in a Day on cassette. Much to our parents’ dismay, we kids cranked His Royal Badness the whole way—and it’s a long way. To this day, whenever I hear the song Raspberry Beret, I think of this trip.

Because my parents hadn’t done the drive for about 25 years, they agreed to come along—as long as I promised not to play any Prince. My mom hopped in with the kids and me. My dad went with Dan, and we headed west on Highway 81 W bound for Denton. I absolutely love this wide open country with the Highwoods and Square Butte anchoring a giant blue sky.

We passed through downtown Denton—which has a gas station, grocery store, the excellent Backroads Café (burgers to die for and hand-cut fries), a bank, a bar, a hardware store—and turned north by the elevators onto Benchland Road.

Ya gotta love rural Montana intersections where 4H Clubs have put signs listing the surnames of families who dwell down that road and the distances to their homes. This one was put up by the Denton’s “Sunnyside Shiners”.

We cranked the air conditioning and told the three hungry (& slightly cranky) pre-schoolers in back to put a cork in it, because we’d be eating soon enough. None of the starving passengers’ was thrilled when I stopped to take a shot of a unique street sign (they didn’t mark rural roads with street signs til the 1990s’) or a roadside patch of hollyhocks.

In about forty-five minutes we pulled up to the Oxen Yoke Inn in Utica and immediately ordered cheese sticks. (Nothing like a little deep-fried goodness to keep hunger meltdowns at bay!)  Dan kept the kids occupied with a video game (I don’t think he ever put quarters in) and my parents and I sat in barrel-shaped chairs and drank pop while waiting for a bevy of big burgers to be delivered to our table.

After paying the bill we jumped back in our trucks and headed north on Pig Eye Road past the Utica Museum and the Utica Rod and Gun Club. The road becomes gravel on the edge of town winds through the foothills of the Little Belts along the Judith River, which originates here.  You pass through Sapphire Village (famous cornflower blue Yogo sapphires are mined nearby up Yogo Gulch) before zooming past the Circle Bar Guest Ranch.

Roughly thirteen miles outside of Utica, we decided to take a detour and visit a historic Forest Service cabin. At some mysterious (and utterly undefined!) point, Pig Eye Road becomes “Southfork Road”  (?!?!)

So at the “Y’ of Southfork Road and Yogo Creek, we took a right and drove another mile to the Judith Guard Ranger Station, a beautiful two-story log cabin built by a ranger in the early 1900’s which sleeps up to eight adults and can be rented for $60/night.  No one was renting it, so we peeked in the windows. It’s on the National Historic Register and is decorated with historically accurate furniture and wallpaper. There’s a vault toilet adjacent to it and a campground down the hill. We made a mental note to come rent it for a long weekend.

We backtracked to South Fork Road and drove into the Little Belts. I just love this part of the drive. The road winds through ponderosa pines past numerous caves and campsites, passing the turn to Hay Canyon.

The occasional limestone outcropping or 1950’s-style family cabin can be glimpsed through the timber. The road follows the south fork of the Judith for most of the way then veers upward toward the South Fork of the Judith Trailhead, where the road splits again. We stopped to survey our map and were pretty sure we should continue straight.

(Not much could be confirmed by our map, so we trusted our guts and proceeded straight.) Eventually, we reached the pinnacle then began a curvy descent.

At another magical—yet to our eyes, utterly undefined—point the road becomes Spring Creek Road. The drive was just as stunning as I’d remembered it. But what had I been thinking (both in my choice of music and that asymmetrical haircut)? Ennio Morricone’s dramatic compositions would’ve much better accompanied these sweeping vistas.

NUTS & BOLTS

Our map was a Rand McNally Road Atlas from 2007. I highly recommend using the Montana Atlas & Gazetteer: Topo Maps of the Entire State. Visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/lcnf/ for up-to-date road information or call (406) 566-2292.

A place that should top every Montanan’s bucket list is the Virgelle Mercantile, a remote and exceptional antique store and bed & breakfast near Coal Banks Landing on the Missouri river. You can get there by floating 42 river miles downstream from Fort Benton or by driving 19 miles down a gravel road from Loma and crossing the river on the Virgelle Ferry—one of only three Missouri River ferries left in Montana. My favorite route is an eight-mile drive down a gravel road hemmed by wheat fields and blue sky that shoots off of Highway 87 North between Loma and Big Sandy. One thing’s for sure: No matter how you arrive, it’s going to be wild & scenic.

“You’ve got Coal Banks Landing at one end of the valley and the ferry on the other,” says Don Sorensen, who grew up six miles down the road on his family’s farm and bought the Mercantile—which will be 100 years old in 2012—in 1978. He began selling antiques immediately, and within a year he was also orchestrating river trips and renting out homestead-era cabins that were hauled in from within a 40-mile radius. He now rents out six cabins and a sheep wagon; each features period furnishings and has its history displayed inside—as well as a copy of the deed showing when the family “proved up “ on the homestead.

“We sell ice cream bars, water, soda, sunscreen, mosquito repellant, ice,…” explains, Jimmy Griffin, who became a partner in the Mercantile in 1993 and has operated the Virgelle Ferry for nearly twenty years. “Pretty much anything you’d need on the river, but it’s not a real, actual mercantile.”

Antiques are for sale throughout the building—even the second floor b&b, and down the block in the bank (also owned by Sorensen and Griffin), as well as in the dining room that adjoins the Mercantile’s kitchen. “I promise not to sell the chair you’re sitting on, though” quips Sorensen, who serves b&b guests a locavore feast of waffles made from locally-grown KAMUT wheat topped with chokecherry syrup from the kitchen of Sorensen’s mother and sister in nearby Big Sandy (Don picks the berries on the banks of the Missouri!) and a platter-full of sausage from a locally raised hog…ground and spiced just the way Don likes it. “And in the fall I like to serve cantaloupe from Pearson’s Big Sandy Missouri River Melons.”

Cabin guests receive a Continental breakfast, but a variety of packages—from canoe and kayak rentals to a one-day White Cliffs cruise all the way up to a to a full-on 7-day guided package…are available. http://www.canoemontana.com/ . Some packages even include hors d’oeuvres and dinner on one of the Mercantile’s porches.

“I just love what we do,” says Sorensen. “The whole world comes to my backyard, and I get to show them where I grew up.”

He got the ultimate complement a few years ago. “A group left, saying, ‘We don’t feel like we’re leaving a place of business. We feel like we’re leaving the home of a relative.” That’s certainly how I feel every time I pull away, belly full of chokecherry syrup, brewed under the eye of a Big Sandy farmwife.

I was shooting a travel story in eastern Montana a few years ago for the New York Times, and I had always been bothered by that fact that I’d never been to Circle. It’s only 46 miles from Glendive on Highway 200 and 59 from Terry on Hwy 253, so when I finished my assignment, I hightailed it to this speck of a town.

Circle has about 600 residents and is the McCone County Seat. If they ever remake The Last Picture Show, they can just come to Circle and skip hiring a set builder; it’s a visual throwback to another era. Even some of the trucks that are parked haphazardly around town would make good props.

There’s a webpage titled “85 Things To Do Around Circle For Less Than $10”. The very clever list includes, “Play Horse Shoes in the Park”; “See the Vintage Clothes at Family Heirlooms”; “Buy A Shot of Liquor from Midland Lumber & Home Renovation Supplies”; (???!!!!) and “Have Your Blood Pressure Checked at the McCone Clinic”. Where to start?!

The first business I pulled in front of, Farm Equipment Sales, is one of the best John Deere Implements I have ever found. I have a five-year-old son who LOVES tractors…so, oddly enough, I find myself frequenting John Deere stores. I bought several Johnny Tractor illustrated books, four green & yellow trademarked sippie cups, a toy lawn mower, a wheelbarrow and several teething rings shaped like ears of corn for my twin babies. (Who knew you could tick your husband off by going hog wild with the joint checkbook in a town like Circle?!)

I loved the LunchBox, where you can get deli sandwiches, wraps and espresso drinks—as well as tan and have your nails done. Talk about consolidating errands! Nearby, JoAnne’s Boutique (embed this link: http://www.mtboutique.com ) stocks clothing, jewelry, cowgirl hats and even Montana-crafted, hand-thrown pottery.

I just love the DIY mentality of whomever fabricated the cement dinosaurs gracing town.  No, they’re not authentic-looking. In fact, they more closely resemble Dino from the Flintstones than the state-of-the art replicas down the road in Glendive…but they’ve got heart.   You can tell a Circle native rolled up his or her sleeves and said, “By gosh, this is Dinosaur Country. We need some dinosaurs around town!”…then walked directly to hardware store and got busy. Here’s one by a gas station that certainly makes a good photo op.

This “installation”, my favorite pile of dinosaurs in Circle, is in the yard of the McCone County Museum. I’m pretty sure that they’re supposed to be fighting, but I can’t help but think, “Crustaceous Caligula,” when I look at it.

Speaking of the McCone County Museum (open May 1 through September 30), it’s brimming with 7,000 items of historical interest—including over 200 mounted birds and animals displayed in their natural settings. It also has the one-room Cow Creek Schoolhouse, a prairie church, and the old Northern Pacific Depot. I really loved a room displaying portraits of McCone County ranchers and their brands and saddles.  And, of course, the Crustaceous Caligula scene depicted on the lawn out front is a high point.

Circle’s website says, “In four hours of light traffic you can be in Billings, MT or Bismarck, ND.” So when I got to the edge of town heading southwest on Highway 200, this sign sent shutters up my spine. I knew I was settling in for one loooooong drive back to Livingston. (Anytime a sign puts you XXX miles from Jordon, you’re a long way from anywhere.). Thankfully, the drive winds through jaw-dropping, wide-open country and is nothing short of magnificent.

Who says you need to travel to exotic lands and faraway places to experience the changes and meaningful encounters travel brings? Circle is plenty far. And let me tell you…if you hit the right farm implement, it’s no bargain trip either.

Nuts & Bolts

Circle’s website: http://www.circle-montana.com

Farm Equipment Sales – Hwy 200 East; 406-485-2145

McCone County Museum – Open May 1 – September 30th; Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm.; 406-485-2414

Joanne’s Boutique – 201 Main Street. Open Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Saturdays 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; 877-485-2577; http://www.mtboutique.com

LunchBox – 902 MT Hwy 200 West.; 406-485-2386.

One of the neatest late-summer events I have ever attended is Chief Plenty Coups Day of Honor; a daylong celebration of cultural sharing designated to honor the great Apsaalooke (Crow) Chief. Now in its 17th year, the event takes place on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend at the 195-acre Chief Plenty Coups State Park (Embed link: http://fwp.mt.gov/parks/visit/chiefPlentyCoups/ one mile east of Pryor on Montana’s Crow Reservation (about 40 minutes from Billings).

At the crack of dawn, Park employees begin roasting enough buffalo to feed 600 guests in a giant pit built especially for the occasion. (It slow-roasts for twelve, juicy hours, yielding the most tender and delicious meat I have ever tasted.)

Meanwhile, craft vendors and artists set up tables with shell earrings, beaded items, Native American dolls, and paintings. Guests roll in with lawn chairs, heading straight for the towering cottonwoods that surround Chief Plenty Coups house—a two-story cabin where interpreters are on-hand to give tours.

2010’s Day of Honor featured Crow artists and craftspeople, as well as eight storytellers who’d lectured at the Park throughout the summer. They sat on the cabin’s front porch, at picnic tables or under canopies telling tales of pictographs, Chief Sore Belly, the Arrow Creek Battle and giving sign talking demonstrations. My kids just loved it.

Guests wandered from speaker to speaker and into the museum or visited Chief Plenty Coups’ grave. Many also walked the .56 mile interpretive trail that winds around the park amid chokecherry bushes and wild plumbs. Kids climbed around on the large playground, and vendors sold fry bread and lemonade at a frantic pace.

The Well-Known Drum Group sang intermittently as dancers–from tiny tots to teenagers—performed, bells jingling and elk teeth shaking.

“There’s also a Medicine Springs here,” says Susan Stewart, Park Manager, of a clear spring near the house. “It’s a very sacred site for many people, and it was sacred to Chief Plenty Coups as well. Many people come here and sit and meditate by the springs. It’s a very spiritual place.” Tied to a tree, dozens of prayer flags and offerings flutter in the breeze.

At the end of the day, around 3:30, the event culminates with a bison feast that’s free and open to the public. “It’s pretty typical in Native cultures to feed their guests,” says Stewart. And boy, do they feed you here. Plates heaped with roasted bison, corn on the cob, fry bread, watermelon and berry pudding are placed on picnic tables beneath a white tent. Lemonade and coffee are swilled as people sit around visiting or tossing horseshoes.

The State Parks website for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, says of Chief Plenty Coups State Park, “All people are invited to participate in the Chief’s great legacy of promoting peace, harmony, and cultural understanding among all races.” I don’t know how else to say it: There’s definitely some good karma floating around this serene and special place, and the Day of Honor is a fine time to soak it all in.

NUTS & BOLTS

Chief Plenty Coups State Park
406-252-1289
http://fwp.mt.gov/parks/visit/chiefPlentyCoups/

DRIVING DIRECTIONS: From Billings take Exit 447 off I-90 and travel 35 miles south to Pryor. Then turn right and head west 1 mile. (Lat 45.429 – Lng 108.549)

Chief Plenty Coups Day of Honor will take place this year on Saturday, September 3, 2011. Admission to the Park is FREE on this day.

Chief Plenty Coups State Park is open for day use May 1 – September 30. The Museum is open May 1 – September 30 and by appointment in the off-season.

Day Use: $5.00 Non-Resident, Vehicle
Walk or Bike In: $3.00 Non-Resident Per Person

Country Clubs don’t get more “Country” than the Square Butte Bar & Country Club in Square Butte, MT. Anchored at the northeastern end of the Highwood Mountains at the base of the butte for which it’s named, the unincorporated town has a historic stone jail, two dormant grain elevators, a former schoolhouse, a 13-year-old mayor, “And about twenty residents, give or take a few,” says Amy Wentz, owner of the Square Butte Bar & Country Club. “I’m the only business left in town.”

Wentz bought the place on July 1, 2008, moving to Montana from Pennsylvania, and is thoroughly enjoying small town life. “I get a lot of locals and people stopping in from Lewistown, Great Falls, Fort Benton, Stanford,” she says of her clientele, “But when the weather’s good, they come from all over.”

Hunters arrive in the fall. “We have three trees out back with outlets in them, so they can hook campers up right out there if they want.”  Last October I stopped in for lunch and visited with a group of antelope hunters from North Dakota. “We’ve been staying out back for a week and have eaten every meal here,” one of them told me, his mouth watering. “Amy’s made us Pork Roast, Stuffed Sicilian Steak…she even gave us Brie with blackberries!”

Wentz has definitely taken the menu up several notches. I would have never dreamed that the Coyote Nowhere place my parents used to bring me to for burgers and steaks would one day be serving sushi! “Friday night we always have a fish or seafood special, and it’s fresh…not fried,” says Wentz, though Fried Jumbo Shrimp is a staple on her menu—as is every cut of steak imaginable, salads, and made-from-scratch Chicken Alfredo. “For example, this Friday I’m making Grilled Shrimp & Lobster with Herbed Penne Pasta.

Dinner specials on Fridays and Saturdays include potato or pasta (whatever goes with that particular dish) and salad bar. “On these nights, my salad bar has twelve to fourteen items on it, and not just homemade salads. I do a cheese tray, homemade focaccia bread. Sometimes I do sushi.”

The menu has Rocky Mountain Oysters and a long list of burgers. “Ten—to be exact,” declares Wentz. Perhaps best of all, her fries are han-cut, and those  big and juicy hamburgers are hand-pattied in the kitchen. There’s a Portobello & Brie Burger and one called The Heart Attack. “It’s topped with a fried egg, sausage patty, sautéed onions and peppers, bacon, and cheddar cheese,” explains Wentz. “That one’s pretty popular, believe it or not.” She also makes a Square Butte Reuben:  thinly sliced rib eye with sautéed onions, mushrooms, sour kraut, thousand island dressing and melted cheese. “That thing is almost a foot long!” she exclaims.

The menu alone would bowl over any wayward Foodie, but so does the decor. The building, built in 1901, has very low ceilings. Although a few beer posters and bumper stickers that were inherited from the previous owners hang behind the bar, most of the barn wood walls showcase the artwork of Phyllis Dickson, who grew up nearby on the Four Sisters Ranch. Now in her 80’s, Dickson divides her time between Square Butte and Santa Fe. “Phyllis brings new painting in when she arrives every summer,” says Wentz, adding that Dickson mainly paints from photographs. “Her subjects are all locals and regular customers, except for Marilyn Monroe and Butch & Sundance,” explains Wentz. “She says she won’t take any money for her art, because then it would be a job.”

Hmmmm….Wentz charges a mere $12.50 to $16.50 for Friday and Saturday night dinner specials, which include the extensive salad bar. Do I detect a kindred philosophy at play?

Here’s a link to an exceptional piece on Main Street Lewistown.