Tonelli's Travels

As we inched closer to Yellowstone National Park, we traveled to Dillon, Montana and a few more ghost towns.  

Dillon, Montana is a quiet city nestled in the southwest corner of Montana.  Home to Montana Western University, a brewery, and a few shops, it is a nice stop over on travels to other destinations.  We found a cozy place to rest right in downtown, Southside RV Park, and settled in for two nights.  (It was meant to be one, but we soon realized we were a little ahead of schedule for our reservations at Yellowstone.  Oh well!)  While my dad and I did spend some significant time shopping in the Patagonia Outlet downtown (who can refuse 50% off of already reduced prices?), these two days were more about resting and catching up on chores.  Ahh yes, RV life and traveling isn’t always so exciting and wondrous.  Haha.  So we used the laundry facilities at the campsite, filled up our water tanks, dumped our waste water, and planned the next leg.   We enjoyed the (limited) WiFi and spend a few leisurely days enjoying just being.

After our second night, we headed towards Virginia and Nevada City, two former mining towns along the Ruby River and area know as Alder Gulch.  It was mistakenly named the Ruby River by miners because the red stones found along the shore were actually garnets.  The Shoshone-Bannock who originally inhabited the land called it the Passamari.

As you drive down the road which was once the main thoroughfare for gold prospectors beginning in 1899, both sides of the road are flanked by large piles of rubble and rock – the aftermath of the gulch and river being dredged, or dug up by large boats that literally turned the land inside out.  Little more than short, stubby trees and straggly scrub brush grow here today, 121 years later.  It is a desolate scene.  Most of the gold taken from these Shoshone-Bannock lands was used to establish Harvard University.

Eventually, further down 287, you come to the location of two ghost towns – Virginia and Nevada City.  Now, this is a rather interesting place.  Unlike Coolidge, a true ghost town untouched since it was abandoned when the mine failed in the 1950s, Virginia City and Nevada City are actually a museum of preserved structures from all across Montana.  Mr. and Mrs. Bovey, a wealthy white couple who loved history and were passionate about saving it, invested a significant amount of money to buy, move, and restore important buildings from different stages of Montana’s history.  The ghost town does exhibit some buildings original to Virginia and Nevada City, but is mostly a hodgepodge of interesting architecture from the later 1800’s through mid 1900’s.

On one side of the road, who can explore the railroad line that the Bovey’s financed in order to bring and store historic trains to the area. They have all largely been restored and rest alongside two reconstructed train stations. There is also a live train that runs on the tracks giving ewww visitors a scenic tour of the area.

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On the other side of the road is the building museum.  At one end are refurbished cabins from the 1900s that are now rented out to area visitors.  At the other end you can find everything from the city jail, to the babershop, horse stables, China town establishment, old houses, and even an historic post office. There are 47 buildings in all, chronicling the development of Montana from the 1870s through 1980s.

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My favorite, of course, were the two schoolhouses brought to the museum. The first is the first schoolhouse in Virginia City, from 1863. A tiny one room building just big enough for a teacher’s desk by the window and log benches against the other four walls. Known as the Dimsdale School for its first teacher Thomas Dimsdale, students could attend the private school for a small fee – $1.75 a week. Dimsdale was an Englishman and was reported to have spent most of his time writing Vigilantes of Montana, a series about the homegrown watch force that protected the town from thieves and robbers. The second schoolhouse is supposedly the first public school in Montana, from 1867. A slightly larger room, with permanent single and double desks anchored in rows to the school floor, a large chalkboard at the front, and stove in the middle to heat the room, gave students in the area a free public education. The teachers made about $40.00 per month and classroom resources were scarce. There was a room built of the back of the schoolhouse, just big enough for a bed, washbowl, and stove, where the teacher lived. In places where the school did not have this extra room, teachers lived with their students’ families, rotating monthly. This building and teacher life was typical of rural schools in Montana into the 1940s.

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Many houses from across Montana were also preserved and rebuilt here by the Bovey’s, but one never moved. That was the Finney Homestead, built in stages by Frank Finney beginning in 1864. It started as a low kitchen and front room and was added on to over the following years as the family gained wealth. When Nevada City declined as the gold dried up, the Finney’s stayed and added abandoned buildings to their “estate.” Frank Finney’s daughter, Cora Finney, lived in the house until she passed in 1958, making her last “old-time” resident of Nevada City.

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Overall, it is a strange and unique place to wander through, unlike any “museum” I’ve visited before. It is quite remarkable that one couple was able to move so many markers of (mostly) white history to one location for generations to learn through. Today the Montana History Foundation manages and protects the site.

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After walking back in time, we headed to our last camping spot before Yellowstone on the Gravelly Range in the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest, aptly named Riverview as we sat high above the Madison River. We had our pick of spots and lucked out that a cell phone tower was right down the road! So, a chance to reconnect and a laugh with friends before a night of rest.