Big Sky Country Montana

Crossing the Wyoming-Montana border on this beautiful Monday morning. Again, few traffic, wide open land, prairie landscape, few settlements and more deer than people to be seen. Driving through Crow Reservation land for our first stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield - one historic place which was always on our bucket list. 

We had a tour with a Crow Indian and got to know the National Battlefield, the place where the  US Army's 7th Cavalry and the Lakotas and Cheyennes fought in one of the Indian's last efforts to preserve their way of life. 

 

On June 25 and 26, 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. "Bighead" Custer made a stupid, selfish decision and caused the death of many soldiers (and Indians). A 4.5 mile tour road goes through the land of the Crow and panels road-side show exactly how troups approached and where Indians had set up their tipis. Highly interesting, and, even for people without historic interest, a must-see,. The landscape on its own is fascinating.

Indian Monument:

                                            Where Custer died,,,

On into Billings,  the largest city (founded in 1877), but not the capital of Montana with approx. 120,000 population. The whole state counts about 1.3 mio, less than e.g. Munich. Mining, Quarrying,  Oil & Gas Industry play an important role here.

 To get an overview we first drove up to Swords Rimrock Park (photo), then into downtown, situated along Montana Ave. and Broadway. 

After check-in into The Nelson Hotel, conveniently located, we checked out downtown, the railroad depot, the museums (below: Heritage Center with a statue of city founder Frederick H. Billings) and stores, the historic Babcock Theater (*1907) and other historic buildings (below). What surprised us is the number of microbreweries alone in the downtown area.

   We had an appointment at 4 pm with a young, talented and highly creative hatmaker by name Darren James (left photo), who works in a huge storehouse, in an industrial area of town, together with his mentor and teacher Rich Rand. 

Interesting to get to know how intense and detailed the measuring process and the whole production is, and, how many choices of different materials, shapes, bendings, hat-bands, rims and other "decoration" customers have. 

 

 Rich Rand, steaming a hat to prepare it for bending

                                Darren, burning a hat to "age" it and to make the material more resistant

First (very tasty) steaks on this trip in the evening, coming along with nice conversation and helpful information, before we retired to The Nelson Hotel: