Frances Hunter

blog of the author To the Ends of the Earth

 

Frances Hunter's Journal
November 2007

Winner, Violet Crown Award for Fiction

Silver Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards

Finalist, Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Awards

 

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November 30, 2007: Gates of the Mountains and Tower Rock

After another enormous breakfast at Jorgenson's, we packed up and prepared to say goodbye to Helena, the Queen City of Montana. Swung by a nice Safeway on the way out of town and picked up the fixings for a picnic lunch.

The main event of the day was a boat ride through the stupendous Gates of the Mountains. This is one of the most beautiful wild areas of the entire Lewis & Clark trail, and one of the most accessible too. For a nominal fee, you simply board a boat (our was called the Sacagawea II) at the public boat launch at Upper Holter Lake and set off for a couple of hours of fantastic scenery and interesting history.

Under sparkling skies of blue and big puffy clouds, we passed through the rugged channel of the Missouri beneath towering limestone cliffs. The boat pilot/tour guide pointed out how the folds in the cliffs were formed by the action of plate tectonics and explained how the river was forced through here by glacial forces rather than by erosion as one sees at the Grand Canyon.

Meriwether Lewis named this area, but he saw it in a very different light than we did. In his words of July 19, 1805:

this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these clifts rise from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet. every object here wears a dark and gloomy aspect. the tow[er]ing and projecting rocks in many places seem ready to tumble on us.

the river appears to have forced it's way through this immence body of solid rock for the distance of 5¾ miles and where it makes it's exit below has thrown on either side vast collumns of rocks mountains high. the river appears to have woarn a passage just the width of it's channel or 150 yds. it is deep from side to side nor is ther in the 1st 3 miles of this distance a spot except one of a few yards in extent on which a man could rest the soal of his foot. several fine springs burst out at the waters edge from the interstices of the rocks. it happens fortunately that altho' the current is strong it is not so much so but what it may be overcome with the oars for there is hear no possibility of using either the cord or Setting pole.

The "Crying Giant" at the Gates of the Mountains

it was late in the evening before I entered this place and was obliged to continue my rout untill sometime after dark before I found a place sufficiently large to encamp my small party; at length such an one occurred on the lard. side where we found plenty of lightwood and pichpine.

"Elephant face"

this rock is a black grannite below and appears to be of a much lighter colour above and from the fragments I take it to be flint of a yelloish brown and light creemcolourd yellow.— from the singular appeaerance of this place I called it the gates of the rocky mountains.

The "Gates of the Rocky Mountains" swinging open

This is a wonderful trip for bird watchers! We saw many white pelicans, California gulls, ducks, great blue herons, kingfishers, ospreys (and their nests), and bald eagles. The sight of a bald eagle in flight through the canyon is unforgettable.

There are unusual plants here too, including a clumpy, moss-like plant that is an exceedingly rare breed of rose.

These petroglyphs were old when Lewis passed this way. No one knows what they mean.

The probable sight of Lewis's campsite, Field's Gulch, though another area, the Meriwether Campground (below), is also a candidate, and there are several others. It is also possible that the campsite may have been inundated when the river level rose after the building of Holter Dam in 1918. Clark never saw the Gates of the Mountains; he was out scouting for the Shoshones.

Normally, you can get out and walk around at the Meriwether Campground and even stay behind for a hike or a picnic to get a later boat back. But the area had been recently threatened by wildfires (scorched earth and burned trees and underbrush were well in evidence), and Forest Service regulations prohibited a stop on the day of our visit.

Mann Gulch, a sobering reminder of the tragic incident in 1949 in which a dozen smokejumpers were killed. This was the subject of Norman MacLean's famous book, Young Men and Fire. Fortunately the fires were quiet on the day of our visit and the air was not noticably smoky.

 

After returning to the marina we had a great picnic in a shaded pavilion next to the lake. It was great to sit by the water and reflect on all we'd seen. Great gift shop here!

Regrettably, it was now time to make our final return to Great Falls. I wish this trip could go on forever. On the way, we stopped at Tower Rock, a giant rock formation that Meriwether Lewis reported "climbing with some difficulty" for a panoramic view and the sight of immense herds of buffalo. It was an anxious time for Lewis and Clark when they camped here, as they were searching for the Shoshones and planning their course through the Bitterroots after having lost weeks of travel time at the Great Falls. We decided not to hike the trail because of the posted rattlesnake warnings. Right next to Tower Rock is a big refuse dump where we saw people bringing their bulk trash.

Mary at Tower Rock.

Back in Great Falls, we stopped and looked at the great Bob Scriver statue of Lewis, Clark, York, and Seaman that overlooks the town. Then it was back to the La Quinta for a great swim and soak in the hot tub.

Bob Scriver's depiction of York, Seaman, and Lewis & Clark overlooks Great Falls.

We had a farewell dinner for the trip at a lovely restaurant called Dante's, which is housed in an old restored ironworks with pressed tin ceilings. The food was great!

This trip was everything I dreamed, and I'm grateful to Lewis and Clark for all the adventures. I'll wrap up blogging about the trip with one more entry next week!

November 20, 2007: Helena

Helena, Montana, is a great small city and a really fun place to visit for Lewis & Clark buffs and history fans.

If you are a guest at Jorgenson's hotel, you can get a gargantuan lumberjack breakfast for only $1.99. After barely making a dent in our pancakes, we set off on a short and pleasant stroll from the hotel to the Montana Capitol Complex.

The Montana State Capitol in Helena

 

The Montana capitol building has a stately dome and a beautiful sandstone facade. Inside, we went on a self-guided tour and enjoyed the pretty deep reds and greens that set off the ornate stained-glass windows, frescoes of Montana scenes, and statues of famous Montanans. Lewis & Clark art includes several Edgar Paxson paintings, a large bronze relief in the Senate chamber, and in the House chamber, the famous Charlie Russell masterpiece, "Lewis & Clark Meeting the Flatheads in Ross's Hole." Next time, I might go on a guided tour in hopes of getting a closer look at this recently restored painting.

When we were done looking, we went across the street for the main event of the day, the Montana Historical Museum. We had a brief visit here in 2003 and barely had time to scratch the surface. We really made up for it on this visit! This museum is definitely worth a day of your vacation.

We looked at a neat exhibit of 1871 photographs of Yellowstone before plunging into the extensive permanent exhibition, "Lewis & Clark's Montana." This exhibit centers around an extensive collection of Indian artifacts. At times the interpretation made me tired -- Lewis & Clark were such clueless dumbasses, and the Indians were so wise -- but overall this exhibit is an amazing in-depth look at the historic encounter between Lewis & Clark and the Indians.

Next we viewed the museum's great collection of Charlie Russell paintings. I especially enjoyed the epic buffalo picture, "When the Land Belonged to God," and the exhibit of Russell's hilarious letters filled with charming sketches. The personality of this unique man remains delightful through the decades.

With a break for lunch in the little cafe in the capitol, we spent a couple of hours in the permanent exhibit on the history of Montana, which starts with the geography of the land and delves deeply in the 10,000 years of Indian habitation, showcasing artifacts, petroglyphs, weapons, and beadwork. The history of the white man was no less interesting, with excellent exhibits on fur-trapping, the gold rush, the rise of copper and the role of unions, the steamboat era, and the hard times of the Depression and World War II. This trip through Montana history left us filled with admiration and respect.

In the afternoon, we took a break from the museum to take a city tour on the Last Chance Tour Train. This motorized "choo-choo" takes you on a really extensive tour of historic Helena, including the Capitol complex, the governor's mansion, the amazing cathedral, and great Victorian mansions built by the early gold barons of Montana with mule deer lounging around in the yards. We saw the Masonic temple (where Meriwether Lewis's apron resides, still blood-stained from his final night at Grinder's Stand), the onion-shaped towers of the Civic Center, and the memorably-named Last Chance Gulch -- once the site of active gold claims, now a shopping and dinng area.

The Helena Civic Center. It was once a Shrine temple, but was damaged in the 1935 earthquake. It was retooled into a civic center as a New Deal project.

Victorian Mansions in Helena were built by gold barons. Helena once had more millionaires per capita than anyplace in the United States.

Old fire watchtower in Helena. One of only five such towers remaining in the United States, it dates back to the 1870s and is known as the "Guardian of the Gulch." The spires of St. Helena's Cathedral can be seen in the background.

The modern-day street layout of Helena is still governed by the lot lines that ran through the original gold claims. One of the most amazing stretches of the tour was a drive past old mining cabins built along the bedrock of a hillside, still in use after all these years. Nothing goes to waste around here!

We finished up at the museum afterwards, taking in an exhibit of a man's lifelong effort to document train engines in photography, resulting in over 40,000 priceless images of a now-vanished technology and way of life; looking at the mounted remains of "Big Medicine," a prized white buffalo who lived to be 26 years of age; and taking a quick glance at an extensive collection of militaria. We were finally chased out of the gift shop as the museum closed at 5PM!

We loafed around the hotel for a while, then went to the Last Chance Gulch area for supper. We ate at a neat restaurant called The Windbag Saloon, which used to be the town's most celebrated bordello. We got yummy salads, coconut shrimp, and great chocolate cake. A great dinner and a great day! We heart Helena!

November 15, 2007: From Orofino to Helena

Lewis and Clark's westward-bound journey took two years, while their return home took just six months. It's only natural that the "great journey west" gets most of the attention, but the return trip is just as important. After all, if they hadn't come back, we wouldn't still be talking about them 200 years later.

Our return journey for this trip began as we pulled out of Orofino in a light rain. Rain continued off and on for most of the day as we proceeded east on Highway 12 through the mountains that gave Lewis & Clark so much trouble. It wasn't too bad driving except when big logging trucks came barreling along at 70 miles per hour. I felt sorry for the bicyclists we saw laboring along in the rain. They must be suicidal to try this road.

We stopped again at the great rest area at the Lochsa Historical Ranger Station and visited with the hosts, Bob and Felicia Squires, and their sweet dog Buddy. Nice people, homemade treats, history, and clean restrooms. What more could anyone want? This is THE place to stop on Highway 12.

Mary at Devoto Grove

We made two interesting sightseeing stops this morning. First, we stopped to see the beautiful cedars and bubbling river at serene Devoto Grove. Bernard Devoto was a great western historian and Lewis & Clark scholar who did the fine abridgement of the Lewis & Clark journals that we like to use. His ashes are scattered here. Second came the Lolo Pass Visitor Center, situated near a Lewis & Clark campsite. This place seemed very new and included not only the historic site, but information, restrooms and an awesome gift shop.

Author's fantasy at Lolo Pass -- "The Creation"

By the time we stopped for burgers at Lolo Hot Springs, it was raining harder and getting progressively colder! We finally exited the mountains but had a long drive remaining, dragging through traffic-choked Missoula (there's no loop) and then heading east on I-90 towards Butte.

We turned off for Helena on what turned out to be an amazing drive. We climbed and climbed towards MacDonald Pass and the Continental Divide (over 6250 feet above sea level). As we did so, the rain ended and the sun emerged in a magnificent rainbow that stretched across the entire sky in the complete arc! As we made our ear-popping descent from the peak, we were treated to an incredible view of the valley and rolling hills for many miles. What a vista!

Rainbow over MacDonald Pass

Finally hit Helena and found Jorgenson's, a nice older hotel near the city center. We ate supper in the adjacent restaurant. This place is a full-blown blast from the past, a trapped-in-amber dining experience circa 1970, complete with tall relish trays of julienned carrots and cold breadsticks and entrees that all came with a baked potato and string beans. Even the music was vintage. It was fun eating here.

As Lewis would say, "My fare is really sumptuous this evening; buffaloe's humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout parched meal pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is not considered the least of the luxuries."

November 8, 2007: To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark wins Violet Crown Award

Liz and Mary (Frances Hunter) at the Violet Crown Awards

On Saturday, November 3, we were honored to be presented with the 2007 Violet Crown Award for Fiction. Thank you to the Writers' League of Texas, who sponsors the competition, and everyone who believed in us and our book!

We enjoyed taking part in the Texas Book Festival and in the panel discussion at the event. We were especially pleased because our uncle, aunt, and cousin were in town visiting my mom (who isn't in such great health), and were able to come to the ceremony. That made it extra special.

Great fun talking with the other authors at the reception afterwards at the Brown Bar! And the Longhorns won too -- what better Saturday could you want?

Rafting on the Clearwater

The Clearwater River

One of the great things to do in Idaho is to go rafting on one of the many beautiful rivers in the state. For months, we eagerly anticipated our float trip on the Clearwater, which parallels Lewis and Clark's hellish journey through the Bitterroots.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in August when we left Orofino and headed east on Highway 12 to Syringa and the River Dance Lodge for our river trip. It was fun to see people picking blueberries along the side of the road.

At the lodge, we met two guides, Leda and Andy, a young couple from Maine who worked for ROW, the river outfitting company who also operates the lodge. We found out that we were the only people signed up for the river trip today and would get a private tour with Leda! The neat custom-built rubber raft with oars and a comfortable padded bench seat would have been the envy of Lewis & Clark. They were forced to make an arduous journey overland for this part of the journey because the Clearwater was far too shallow for their canoes.

Andy drove us to the river about eight miles upstream from Syringa and we "put in" to the crystal-clear, rapidly flowing stream. The river bottom is shallow and strewn with smooth rocks and big boulders, and full of fish, especially steelhead trout darting upstream to spawn. Tiny bugs danced constantly on the surface along with more menacing black and white wasps. We saw a lot of birds, including soaring ospreys and hilarious merganser ducks that windmilled their way on top of the water.

It was fun to go over some small rapids, but most of the day was a gentle float with plenty of time just to look, talk, and understand better what river travel is like. Even with the specially designed raft, we sometimes got hung up on the rocks and Leda would have to wrestle us off. Getting to know this impressive young woman was one of the highlights of the trip. Despite being only 21 years old, she had already guided all sorts of outdoor adventures over a period of many years, and was planning to become a paramedic. She could definitely have joined the Corps of Discovery!

We stopped at a beach and had sandwiches and fresh veggies, sharing the space with a family and their obese basset hound. We mostly had the river to ourselves with the notable exception of a giant group of young men in tubes who somewhat improbably claimed to be a church group from Kamiah.

We got to see the river in several moods today, because in the afternoon a strong headwind kicked up, followed by very dark clouds and some moderate rain. We donned rainsuits and could only admire as our young guide powered the boat into the strong wind and current. Being a river guide is no easy job!

When we got back, we got delicious hot chocolate and treated ourselves to some huckleberry pie in the lodge. Great trip -- very well done!

Liz at the Heart of the Monster, birthplace of the Nez Perce people. Wish I had a warmer jacket.

The change in the weather had brought much cooler temperatures and intermittent light rain. Nonetheless, we stopped on the way back to Orofino to view the Heart of the Monster, a giant clumplike rock. Here Coyote killed the monster and created all the native peoples of the region, including the Nez Perce. It was special to see such an important mythical site of the Nez Perce.

We got warm and dry back at the hotel. Bagged a satifying dinner of fish and chips, salad, and huge rolls for dinner at the Ponderosa Cafe, a local institution since 1857. Here's to a great day!

November 1, 2007: To the Ends of the Earth gets a Four-Quill Review in The Copperfield Review!

Check out the review, then read the rest of this interesting on-line historical fiction journal.

Canoe Camp and Nez Perce Visitor Center

[This is the latest post in a series about travels around Lewis and Clark country a couple of months ago.]

We awoke to a beautiful morning and a stupendous and smoke-free view from our room at the Best Western. We took advantage of waking up early to run do our laundry. Somehow there's something especially satisfying about this task when you're on vacation. Between that and the hearty breakfast buffet at the hotel, the day got off to a great start.

Liz at the Canoe Camp

Lewis and Clark spent a lot of time in what is today Orofino. Their "canoe camp" turned out to be just a short drive from our hotel. Here Lewis and Clark recovered from their ordeal in the Bitterroots made the big dugouts that they would pilot from this spot all the way to the Pacific Ocean. We were astonished to learn that the canoes were over 50 feet long, made of giant ponderosa pines that the Nez Perce helped them find.

We took in the scene and the towering view of nearby Dworshak Dam. Too bad Lewis and Clark couldn't enjoy the river the way we did. They were terribly sick with diarrhea when they were here. I'm sure the Nez Perce weren't very impressed.

We headed off for our main event of the day, the Nez Perce Visitor Center at Spalding. As we drove west along the amazingly beautiful Clearwater River, we watched the landscape transform from timbered hills to yellow rolling hills patched with burned areas. This land has a rugged beauty of its own, and it's sad to think of how heavily populated it was by the Nez Perce and how sparsely inhabited today.

When we got to Spalding, we achieved a personal milestone in our Lewis and Clark travels, completing the "handshake" across the continent. We have now traveled the entire route of the Expedition from the White Cliffs of the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean!

We had a brief stop at the Nez Perce Visitor Center in 2005, and I was glad we came back. In the visitor center itself, you can see an excellent film about Nez Perce history (it dates back some 8000 years), the forces that tore them apart in the 19th century, and some about their lives today. My impression was that they're not very interested in wallowing in their "victim" status.

The adjacent small museum features amazing vintage photographs and exquisite regalia such as beautiful beaded dresses, shirts, bags, and other artifacts from the old days, many of them preserved by a descendant of the chief named "Lawyer."

The most interesting aspect to this place, though, is to take a walk through historic Spalding. This now-deserted site was once a thriving Nez Perce community, coming and going on the Clearwater for millenia. In 1836, missionary Henry Spalding made this his headquarters and began the process of Christianizing that pitting brother against brother in the tribe.

If you had come to Spalding one hundred years ago, you would have found steamboats plying the river, the railroad running through town, and a multi-racial community of people living in houses, cabins, and tipis. Today it stands as a time capsule of that brief era and a symbol of the still uncertain future of the impressive Nez Perce.

This general store served whites and Indians alike from the late 1880s until 1964.

We wandered through the remaining buildings -- an old store and trading post, Spalding's Presbyterian church, the Indian agent's house, Spalding's house and mission site, and the old mission graveyard. It must have been devastating to the Nez Perce to lose control of this beautiful place and end up under the thumb of "whitey."

Finally we were chased away by crazed bees, leaving with much food for thought. And speaking of much food, we had a great lunch at M&M Pizza back in Orofino.

We took the rest of the day off to enjoy the nice pool and hot tub at the hotel. Supper was a giant Mexican feast at Fiesta en Jalisco. They feed you good in Orofino.

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