Seeley Great Adventure 2022

 Gold was discovered near Deer Lodge, MT in 1862. Subsequent area discoveries prompted a gold rush that attracted lots of “characters” - and bad activities.  Finally vigilante groups formed to hang or banish those participating in thievery, lawlessness and murder. In late 1866, the Territorial Legislature requested funds from Washington to build a prison; Congress approved the project but provided too little funding. Deer Lodge was picked for the site, but many delays postponed the commencement of construction until 1870; the first prisoner arrived in 1871. In 1893, the annual report mentioned that the old wooden walls which surrounded the prison were in great disrepair, which prompted the decision to build a new wall using stone from a nearby quarry and prison labor, since funding was “unavailable”.  (In November of 1889, Montana had become the 41st state, thus the burden of operating the prison fell on the shoulders of the new state government. Inadequate funding and overcrowded cond

We arrived at Glacier National Park on Wednesday afternoon after driving on state roads thru the rain much of the time, and taking a detour around Rt 89 due to heavy road construction for over 6 miles near the Park.  Elliott was exhausted from the trip and required an immediate nap. Wednesday night we had rain, with forecasts for potentially serious thunderstorms and a flood watch for Thursday. We ventured out the next morning to the St Mary’s entrance and visitors’ center to talk with the Rangers and scope out the area. Because of extremely overcast skies and predictions of storms ahead, we hung out in our campground and did maintenance and cleaning chores, including laundry. Friday morning we took a morning drive west on the Going-to-the-Sun Road for the first 12 miles or so. On Friday afternoon we went on a scenic boat tour in the Many Glacier area, northwest of St Mary and about a 50 minute drive to the Many Glacier Hotel where we met the boat. We sailed across the Swiftcurrent Lak