Don MillerI headed south from Great Falls to get to my next AirBnB in Dillon, Montana. I took the back roads because I had plenty of time before check-in and I wanted to revisit the historical town of Virginia City, the capital of the Montana Territory back in the 1860’s. When gold was found nearby, the town grew to over 10,000 in a year. The gold dried up It is mostly a ghost town for tourists now. I don’t know how many of those 10,000 have stuck around as ghosts but there are about 200 living people that call it home now.
I first came across it back in 1996 on a ski trip. Not much has changed since then other then my hairline and camera quality. In fact, a quick google search reveals that The Bale of Hay Saloon holds the distinction of Montana’s Oldest Watering Hole. Oddly enough, it wasn’t open the both times I stopped by so I can’t confirm the truthfulness of their marketing campaign. I couldn’t help taking a now picture to compare against the then picture I took.
1996 |
2022 |
Dillon is designated as one of the “prettiest towns” by Forbes Magazine. Or so the local $400/night boutique hotel says on its website. I did a bit more research and that is from a 2010 article. I am going to take their word for it because I don’t think its fair to judge a place after a mostly sub zero, low snow February stay.
Dillon lies in a wide valley between Yellowstone National Park and Idaho surrounded by mountains. So, yeah its a pretty location. During the warmer days I walked all over town. It has 2 proper sized grocery stores, a couple of farm
supply stores, a Carnegie Library busting at the seams from too many books. There are at least a couple money pits that are called casinos in Montana. For a small town, there are a lot of schools, a university and enough churches to make for a nice Sunday morning walk regardless of whose rules you follow. There is a hospital that, so far, I have not had to visit. There doesn’t seem to be any zoning codes either. My experience across Montana is that the houses within a few blocks of main street are big Bungalows and turreted Victorians. The further you walk from town, the housing style turns to catch, as catch can. Old log shacks, Single wide mobile homes, double-wide prefabs and sometimes additions added to additions to support growing families.
One thing that I have noticed is the dogs. Or more aptly put, the many things that I have noticed are the dog turds. Everywhere! Not just here either. I have noticed all over Montana, people have no compunction to clean up after their dogs. I guess its a good push for not wearing your boots in the house. Walking at night is just asking for a front porch date with a stick to clean boot treads. I think I have gone relatively unscathed but that may change when I turn up the floor heater in the car on my way out.
After crossing the town left and right up and down on foot, I had pretty much seen everything. Its flat as a pancake here so other than the dog turd two-step, city walking was not really burning the calories as evidence as my losing hope in my hopefully sized jeans that I had just bought. If my pasta dinners and lack of good cardio kept up, My next purchase was going to have to be at the Lululemon store. And NOBODY wants that.
A little research and I found a strenuous but short hike with a high ridge view of Dillon as the payoff. Conveniently called the Dillon Overlook trail. It is a pretty nice view of the valley floor and the surrounding mountain ranges in the distance. I was going to make it a daily thing but it was just too cold and windy. Instead I put my hopes in the length of my sweat pants’ drawstring and settled into the not as comfortable as it looks easy chair with the TV Remote.
As I have made it abundantly aware, Dillon is in the middle of nowhere. Far enough into nowhere, that TV antennas don’t pick anything but lightning strikes. There was no cable TV but there was a ROKU button on the remote. I always though Roku was a pay for service but if you can put up with the randomly placed and repetitive ads, There is plenty to watch if you don’t mind reruns, I don’t. I got through the 1st 6 seasons of Doc Martin before I needed a subscription. I moved on to The Saint from the 1960’s and got through 3 or 4 years of that. As my time here came down to the wire, I found a New Zealand show called “800 Words”. Even though it was a little Hallmarky, even leaning towards Lifetime, I liked it. The pretty scenery helped the storyline through the overly dramatic sections. I was worried that I wasn’t going to finish the 3 seasons and was geared up for an all-nighter to burn through them all all. But alas, season 3 is going to have to be a goal, it requires an Acorn subscription. I was a little pissed but then again I got a good night’s sleep.
I didn’t entirely burn 2 weeks in the easy chair, I played a LOT of old-school analog solitaire, held my own against the daily Wordle and half-heartedly worked on my taxes. I did stroll over the Old train Depot one afternoon. It is now the local history museum and theater. They were having The Dillon Junior Fiddlers tournament. For little kids with little fingers, they were pretty good. There was a lot of community support, or these kids come from big families. Either way it was a pretty good turnout for them.
During my walks around town, I saw a flyer for ski Joring which I had never heard of before. From the pictures, a skier is towed by a horse through an obstacle course followed up by parties late into the night. Truly stupid fun and an insurance actuarial nightmare but since I have missed the outhouse races the past few years, it would be a fun day out. And if you believe in signs, I just happened to be reading Ivan Doig’s novel Last Bus to Wisdom. The final 3rd of the book is based in the same town that the Ski Joring contest was being held. Had to go now.
For some reason I figured I would do some googling the night before to figure out what I was getting myself into. They had the lazy man’s website, a Facebook page. I am loath to click on Facebook search results because it’s Fkn Facebook but since there was no other info, I Clicked. I saw this message….
“So we are sad to say that due to Mother Nature not cooperating, we the Big Hole Valley Association have canceled skjoring for 2022… With that said… THE PARTY IS STILLL ON IN THE BIG HOLE VALLEY.” I was still intrigued by the party but that wouldn’t get started until the evening and It would be a 60 mile deer dodge all the way home in the dark. I stayed home but now I have another party sport on my list to check out.
My month long stay in Dillon has come to an end. If I were looking for a succinct description of Dillon, I would have to say that it doesn’t make February feel like the shortest month.
Contrary to the sub-zero weather that has settled in here over the past week, it looks like Winter is on the wane (more or less) back at the property. The temps are above freezing some days and the sunny days are getting longer. It doesn’t sound like there has been much snow since January. I am not expecting balmy breezes anytime soon and fully expect winter to unleash a few more feet of snow before all is said and done. But it is time to start making my way back to the property. My neighbor was nice enough to fight the 8 ft drifts of snow to check out my property. Below are some pictures he took in mid February. I am happy to see that the stuff I put up is still standing and kind of surprised that the roof over the old trailer isn’t laying on the trailer. The roof over my old outdoor kitchen has collapsed though. I only use that building for storage and a rat party pad now so no loss.
 the steep roof is paying off |
 Trailer cover is still standing |
Spot the Ooopsie? |
 Roof Collapsed |
I am not sure when I am going to get back to home base. A bit depends on how the car camping goes. But I am looking forward to getting back to watch the snow melt. At least it will be something to do. In the meantime, here are some more grain silos…..
