Prickly Pear Canyon ...

Back in the days before the Interstate Highway system, old US 91 was unquestionably one of the great drives in Montana. Between Butte and Great Falls, the route crossed the Continental Divide and wandered through a series of lovely mountain canyons, evocative of the best of Montana.

One of the narrowest and most spectacular stretches of road was along Prickly Pear Creek, north of Helena. Prickly Pear Canyon was narrow and steep-walled and scenic, with barely enough room for the creek, the road, and the tracks of the Great Northern Railway.

Today's photo is an old postcard view of the canyon, probably shot in the 1920s or early 1930s. (The road through the canyon was paved in 1931.) The photo has been retouched a bit and heavily hand-colored, but it's a great view of a scenic spot and a vanished age of travel.

Mid-century Billings ...

Here's an interesting postcard view of Billings, shot to advertise a downtown motel in the late 1960s or so. Both the motel and its adjoining restaurant are great examples of mid-twentieth century roadside architecture, and the classic advertising signs add to the period feel.

Lurking in the background, though, are two other major examples of mid-twentieth century design. The staid, tan-and-cream office tower is the Yellowstone County Courthouse, built in 1957 to replace a far smaller (and more imposing) building. The extraordinarily ugly building off to the right is the federal courthouse, which was completed in 1963.

Most of the buildings in this view still survive today, although a new federal courthouse was completed in Billings hast year. The motel and restaurant lost their classic looks in later remodeling projects ... and of course the Sambo's restaurant chain went bankrupt over 30 years ago, following a backlash against the perecived political incorrectness of the business's name.

Not of London ...

If you get off the freeway in Butte looking for a place to eat, one of the first options you see might be an older, nondescript building on South Montana Street ... part restaurant, part casino, and not really recommended.  But a couple of generations ago, the place was something of a landmark, and one with a memorable name:  Lloyd's of Butte.

I don't know much about the history of the restaurant ... it was opened by a man named J. M. Lloyd in the 1940s or so,  and it was in business under that name into the 60s.  But it would have been a great place to visit just because of its advertising slogan:  "Lloyd's of Butte -- not of London."  Can't beat that!

This is an old postcard view of Lloyd's, probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Picture-postcard view ...

There's no doubt that as a state, Montana is overrun with postcard-worthy views. I've always thought, though, that the very best of those scenes were of Lake McDonald, up in Glacier Park. Most postcard photos of Lake McDonald are shot from the Apgar area, looking down the full length of the lake at the impossibly-beautiful mountains that frame the opposite shore. But I like this closer view even better, taken from the boat dock at what is now Lake McDonald Lodge.

This photo is probably from the first decade of the twentieth century, when visits to the lake were becoming more popular but before Glacier Park itself was formally established ... the caption makes no mention of a national park, but simply says "Lake McDonald, Northern Montana."

Wigwam Cafe ...

Here's a great old postcard from Browning: the "Wigwam Cafe and Service Station." I won't pass judgement on the political correctness of the design, but architecturally this is about as cool as it gets.

The old cafe has of course been closed for decades, but the old teepee-shaped building is still a landmark on the east end of Browning's little main street. Last time I was in town, someone had opened up an espresso stand in the place.

There's a similar building down in Busby, too ... that one looking much the worse for wear.

Evans Hotel ...

Here's a great old photo, probably taken in about 1910 or so. We're in the little northeast Montana town of Culbertson, looking north up Broadway Avenue. The Evans Hotel looks like it was quite the place.

The Evans apparently didn't last too long, though. A 1930 map of Culbertson shows a completely different building on the site, called the "New Evans Hotel" ... so probably, there had been a fire. As for the New Evans, the building is still there today, though its no longer a hotel and most of the first floor has long since been boarded up. It would be a great restoration project for someone who wanted to return a bit of style to poor old Culbertson.

Silver Dollar Bar ...

I freely admit that I have an unusual fondness for kitschy destinations ... and Montana certainly has its share of those. I haven't visited nearly as many of them as I'd like, though.

One destination in that category is "Lincoln's 50000 Silver Dollar Bar," in the little town of Haugan, out on I-90 almost to the Idaho line. The place started its long run back in 1952, when a single silver dollar was embedded in the top of the bar. Soon, the bar's patrons began a tradition of adding dollars to the display, and before long there were thousands of them, each labeled with the donor's name. The place was called the "10000 Silver Dollar Bar" for a long time, and I've heard that there are now over 70,000 silver dollars embedded in the building today, making even the revised name seriously obsolete. Of course, a whole series of other tourist-related businesses are now attached to the bar, including what purports to be the largest gift shop in Montana.

This is an early postcard view of the bar ... probably from about 50 years ago, when there were only a mere 6,000 silver dollars in the whole place.

Fur-bearing fish ...

I'm kind of surprised I didn't upload one of these postcards sooner ... after all, this is a true Montana legend.

People have been telling stories about fur-bearing fish in this part of the world for at least 80 years, and taxidermists have been encouraging the legend for just as long, by creating examples of the species. They're almost always trout, and the local version of the myth has them coming from Iceberg Lake up in Glacier Park. Other states have their own fur-bearing trout stories, too.

All in all, not quite as iconic as the Wyoming Jackalope, but still not bad. :)

Main Street Polson ...

Today's photo is an old postcard view of downtown Polson, taken maybe fifty or so years ago. Back then, they probably made postcards like that for pretty much every fair-sized town in the state ... the same head-on view of Main Street, the same script lettering, everything. It's an interesting image, but it's also too bad in way ... there are lots of things that make Polson engaging and unique, but this mass-produced postcard doesn't really show any of them.

Monarchs of the Past ...

Here's another great old postcard photo: "Monarchs of the Past," by T. J. Hileman. The image probably dates from the 1920s, when Hileman was an official photographer for the Great Northern Railway, capturing views of the Glacier Park country for use in the GN's promotional efforts. The shot is highly reflective of the GN's traditional use of Blackfeet imagery in its advertising materials ... and in a broader sense, it typifies the period's popular romantic nostalgia for the rapidly-vanishing traditions of Native American life.

Largest lumber mill ...

This is an old postcard view from about 1960 or so, with the caption, "the largest pine lumber mill in the world." The photo shows a part of the old J. Neils Lumber Company complex just outside of Libby, by then owned by St. Regis Paper. Neils Lumber was the economic lifeblood of Libby for decades, harvesting timber with a sustainable-use philosophy that both kept the company strong and sustained local forests. After the company was sold, though, absentee owners increased production to the point where the forests could no longer keep up ... and before long the whole thing collapsed. The mill closed in 2002, devastating the local economy, and a spectacular fire last year destroyed much of what was left of the place.

Campbell Lodge ...

I'm sure that if one's starting a business in a town named Glasgow, there can be an almost-irrestible temptation to market the enterprise using a Scottish theme. Hence the Campbell Lodge in Glasgow, Montana ... complete with a huge signboard featuring an improbable kilt.

The building itself is a standard piece of 1960s architecture -- something that Glasgow has in abundance, thanks to the short-lived boom caused by the brief life of Glasgow Air Force Base. And that's another story worthy of exploration someday ...

Ralph's Cabins ...

Let's head out to southeastern Montana for a couple days of photos. Here's a postcard photo of an old Forsyth hostelry called Ralph's Cabins ... a shot from maybe 60 years ago. Looks like a welcoming and homey place, that at least in some ways would beat the heck out of a Super 8.

Fairgrounds ...

There are state fairs in most American states, I suppose ... but the situation in Montana is a little more complicated: we have two annual events vying for statewide attention. Great Falls has the Montana State Fair, and Billings has something called MontanaFair, which claims to be larger. My vote definitely goes to the event up in Great Falls, partly because I like the city more, and partly because Great Falls has a handsome and classic fairgrounds. The venue in Billings is a nondescript trade-show space, with a thoroughly-ugly arena named for a car dealership.

It wasn't always that way, though ... here's a postcard photo of the Billings fairgrounds back in the 1930s. If only the place still looked like this!

Siesta Motel ...

For whatever reason, many Americans have long tended to associate modernity with the state of California. The appeal of the Golden State translated itself into American culture in a variety of ways, and one of those was architecture. Beginning in the 1920s or so, building designs that evoked southern California themes became popular across the country, especially for businesses that reflected contemporary trends. Movie theaters and motels, for example, often tried to feature a Southwestern "look" ... even in faraway places like Montana.

Here's a great example from Bozeman -- the Siesta Motel, as it looked in a postcard view from the 1940s or so. Back then, the Siesta was at the edge of town, at a major intersection on the main road heading towards Yellowstone Park. Today, of course, the motel is long gone, and its location is near the center of a fast-growing city. There's still a motel at the site, though ... and happily, the current motel is as quirky as the old Siesta was.

Fort Peck Christmas ...

A new online acquaintance named Steve Bixby was kind enough to send me some historic Fort Peck images recently ... and though I should have probably held this one till Christmastime it was cool enough that I wanted to post it now. Thanks, Steve!

This was one of the giant dredges that dug up Missouri River sediment near the Fort Peck damsite ... the dredge material was carried in pipelines to the construction area, and used in building the earth-fill of the new dam. This postcard photo probably dates from 1934 or so.

Tenure ...

Just a quick follow-up to yesterday's post ... an old postcard photo showing that the Blue & White motel definitely has some tenure. I'd guess that this photo was taken back in the 1940s or so, and the buildings in it still appear to form the core of the current hostelry.

Hunter's Hot Springs ...

A century ago, the greatest hotels in southwestern Montana were the spa resorts created at some of the region's natural hot springs. The most impressive by far was the Dakota Hotel, constructed in 1909 at Hunter's Hot Springs east of Livingston. The hotel was large and elegant, the swimming pool and hot springs complimented by tennis courts and a golf course. Quite a place, indeed.

Hot springs resorts fell out of vogue before too long, though, and when the Dakota Hotel burned in 1932 it was never replaced. Only a few tiny remnants of the once-grand resort at Hunter's are still visible, and back in the 90s the springs themselves were piped in, supplying hot water to a Japanese-built hydroponic greenhouse. I think the greenhouse failed, too.

There are still several hot springs in this part of the state, fun places to visit ... but destinations like Hunter's are probably gone for good.

Malta schoolhouse ...

The phrase, "They don't make them like that anymore," applies to a lot of things in today's world ... and it's definitely the case for schoolhouses. While I'm sure there are technical advantages to some of the ones they're building nowadays, pretty much all of the new ones are thoroughly uninspiring in their architecture. That certainly wasn't the case a century ago, when nearly every small-town schoolhouse was a local architectural landmark.

This photo of the old school at Malta is the perfect example -- what a gorgeous structure that was! The nondescript buildings that replaced it may be more efficient, but in terms of inspiration they certainly can't compare.

Townsend's Broadway ...

When it comes to Montana topics, I certainly have my favorites ... but even so, I strive for some geographic diversity in my blog posts. Every now and then I go looking for a photo of a town I haven't mentioned here before, like this one: a postcard image of Townsend, taken about fifty years ago. You're looking east on Broadway Street, out towards the Big Belt Mountains.

The editors of the great WPA guidebook to Montana were usually a fairly laudatory bunch, but they used the words "drab" and "neglected" to describe Townsend. That always seemed a little mean to me, but honestly, they weren't really far off the mark. The view in this photo is anything but drab, though, thanks to the now-classic cars on the street, and all those great advertising signs. I love that stuff.