Havre has quite a history

I got up this morning in no particular hurry. I packed and headed out of Havre, figuring I would catch breakfast in the next cowtown, if at all. There is a hill on the west end of town, right by the Best Western Plus (the Plus refers to the price. I asked if there was a Best Western Minus in town, before moving along to the Hi-Liner as described yesterday). On the hill was a sign - "Historic Marker 1/2 mile". Luckily for me, when I saw that sign it triggered a thought. I was going to take a tour before I left town!

"Make a U-Turn" the voice in my head told me.

I had scoped out the ticket office the night before when I was walking back to the motel from the restaurant so I knew exactly where I was headed, once I remembered I was headed there.

They opened at 9 and there was a tour group ready to leave so I grabbed a ticket and joined them. The tour guide was Gene, a Korean War veteran, who knew (or at least memorized) a lot about the history of the town of about 10,000. Unfortunately I can recall only bits and pieces of it, so you'll have to schedule your own visit to get "the rest of the story".

In 1904 the town was growing with quite a few buildings and businesses comprising the downtown area.

One night three rapscallions were tossed out of a bar for starting a fight and were arrested, an outcome they were not expecting. When released the next morning they had sobered enough to remember which bar had tossed them but not enough to know they should quit while they were ahead. They returned to the alley behind the wooden building and set the bar on fire. Unfortunately the wood burned very well and the fire spread to nearby structures. By the time it had been put under control four blocks of downtown Havre lay in ruin.

The businesses wanted to rebuild quickly but the town would not allow more wooden structures and ample stones were not to be available for quite some time. So they came up with a masterful plan. The town already utilized a central steam plant for underground heat ducts so they were expanded. Each business burrowed underground. The cement sidewalks were modified so that each business had a stairway with handrails going down under the sidewalk, one from the left side of the walk, the next from the right. Between each set of buildings they placed grids of glass to allow natural light in

This is one of the few remaining sections of 1904 cement sidewalk with glass sky lights.

Underground were a number of businesses including a post office, pharmacy, a meat processing shop, a bar and a bordello with adjoining opium den.

As amazing as this was, the incredible array of items displayed here was even more so, in my opinion. They were not all original but instead were displayed to show what the times consisted of. 

This is a WWI dentist chair. Note the foot pedal for the dentist to spin the (very) low speed drill!

The pharmacy would have offered just about everything needed for life in the early 20th century, including these early P&G products

This one is for Colls!

This poker table top (or maybe a restaurant table?) features advertisements for local businesses. You probably can't make them out, but each ad features the three digit phone number of the business!

You may be wondering, as many of us were, where the town name came from. It was originally known as Bullhook Bottoms, the English translation of the Native American Ihavenoideawhatthehecktocallit.  The founder of the town, James Hill, who brought the Great Northern railroad to town to service the nearby Fort Assinaboine (I did NOT make that up) hated the name and left it to the town's people to decide on a new name. Several French Canadians who lived here wanted the town to be called France, but were voted down, so they settled for La Havre, the region of France from where they came. The town's populace went along with the idea but wanted "La" dropped, and it was. After Havre was voted on, the discussion turned to "how do we pronounce it?" The Frenchmen lost out again when the French "Avrey" was over ruled by two guys arguing over a girl at the bordello, finally settled their disagreement when one of them shouted "you can have 'er!" So it was settled.

After the tour (which was much more interesting than my telling of it) I headed west again, but only a few blocks, where I found this

The name reflects the sound the Buffalo made when they jumped off the roof

I took another small group tour and added this to my list, which was used to transport us up and down the 20 degree slope of the hill

Look familiar Colls? A Polaris ATV

I was expecting to hear about how the Indians stampeded buffalo off of a cliff but found out this went back through three distinct groups of people's, as defined by archeologists, the Besant dating back 2,000 to 1760 years ago and hunted with an atlatl, the Avonlea Complex dating from 1350 to 900 years ago that hunted using lipstick and eye liner, and the Old Women's Complex dating from 900 - 355 years ago who used bow and arrow.

Archeologists found three distinct layers of bones

We also got to throw the atlatl and I hit the buffalo the first time! I didn't tell them that I had thrown an atlatl in my previous life as a Scout Master to keep boys from leaving camp.

The tour really was quite interesting. The hunters had it figured out from A to Z. They herded a specific number of bison into a cone shaped area and funneled them toward the cliff. They knew how to keep them from escaping the funnel and the survivors from the fall were kept from escaping by fences covered with hides, where they were killed and processed, using virtually every part of the animal.

When I left the Buffalo Jump it was nearly noon. Talk about a late start! The only remaining items on my agenda were lunch and riding 177 miles to East Glacier portal, where I found a nice room at a reasonable rate.

When I think of Montana I think in terms of mountain peaks, forgetting that the eastern 200+ miles are nearly flat plains, ideal for ranching or jumping off cliffs. I was excited when, after more than 90 days on the road, I was able to make out the faint outline of a mountainous horizon. Much of this day was along the trail that Lewis and Clark had explored in 1805. Now I was nearing the mountains of Doofus and Lark!

I knew that going to Glacier Park would be an emotional experience for me, but I guess I under estimated the impact it would have on me. I'll explain in my next post, titled "closing the circle".