Day-05-Eastern Montana

A few days ago we visited an abandoned gold mining town. Today we realized that towns are still dying.

Roundup is not doing really well but the old store building at the corner of 1st and Main has someone with faith in the town’s future; although I think I’d not hold my breath.

In many of the towns all of the commercial buildings are boarded up and abandoned. In at least one case the town seems to have disappeared without a trace except for this old school building. There just must have been other buildings here once….

It is possible, in this country, to drive well over 100 miles without passing a gas station. Occasionally, if you watch, you an catch a glimpse of the frontier. It is quite possible to imagine that this might have been a homesteader’s cabin.

Rt 12 has been improved and relocated several times through its history. At one time today our GPS showed us a full 1/4 mile off what it thought was the road. In an older upgrade it bypassed this old bridge over the Powder River.

Tonight we are in Bowman, ND. Tomorrow evening we have reservations in Watertown, SD.

Tom