Fort Peck, Montana

Day 22, Our start time this morning was not until 9:45, WHAT A TREAT! We did a ride share over to the Fort Peck Dam and Interpretive Center. The dam is the first dam of the Missouri as you go south. It was started in 1933

and was completed in 1940.

During the peak of building there were 10,564 workers. It is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the world, holding back a lake 130 miles long!

There is a spillway which they call the longest concrete "bowlin alley" ever. I'll bet the skate boarders would LOVE to get down there! They said to their knowledge, it's never been used.

The interpretive center had wonderful exhibits of the wildlife, fossils found in the area, pictures and memories of the building of the dam. As soon as we walked in we were greated by (I wish I had my grandson here who could tell me the name of this dinosaur because I’ve forgotten it….) The skull on the left was found when building the dam and is the only one of its kind. I believe they said they discovered that there were only 30 of these creatures which is strange because that is the dinosaur studied the most and it seems that there were thousands of them.

After our tour, Marcia and I drove up on the dam to the look out points as well as across the dam. There’s also a wildlife preserve area you can drive through, but you need to drive up there towards dark if you want to see any animals. During the day, we didn’t need to drive up there, we found all kinds of “Bambis” running through our campground. Bobby, Marcia, Bill and I hosted our first barbecue for the group. We had buffalo burgers, which were quite delicious, baked beans, salad, and homemade brownies for dessert.

In the evening, we all headed to the town of Ft. Peck to see the Play “Sylvia” at the Fort Peck Theater.

Sylvia is kind of like “Marley and Me.” It was a broadway show starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Very cute. The theater was built in the 1930’s to entertain the men who worked on the Dam. The seating was the old wooden pull down seats. For 25 cents, they rent you a seat cushion which we found is a worthwhile expense.

We needed a laugh, which the play provided us, since we discovered that our refrigerator decided to quit….. Our caravaners were very nice to offer room in their refrigerators to store our food until we can get it replaced. We think we are going to have to wait until we get to Oregon to get a new fridge, and they aren’t cheap! They cost more than fridges for a regular house and they are WAY SMALLER!

Day 23, The cold came in last night and the rain started this morning. It’s in the 40s today, hard to believe it’s summer. We headed to Havre, Montana, where we have a one nighter before going on to Great Falls.

About 5 miles out of Glasgow, we saw dinosaurs on the hill!

We decided to do an unscheduled tour of Beneath the Street of Havre. Our stop coincided with their 2nd annual celebration of their heritage. In the early 1900s the town burned to the ground so many of the establishments opened up shop in their basements.

They started to connect the basements and eventually they had what I would call an early 20th Century Indoor Mall. At first it was a necessity to stay in business, but they found that it was really nice to have a place where people could “window” shop and not worry about the harsh weather. It ceased to exist around 1976. It’s amazing all the items people donated. Towards the end of the tour, there was a set up of a kitchen & there I saw the exact same model canner that I use today! And it was in better shape than mine since the wooden handle on my canner is about to crack in half.

We are expecting it to go down to 34 tonight and we are supposed to get 1 inch of snow tomorrow morning.