Montana --- Helena and Missoula

Street art in Helena (left) and Missoula (right)

After leaving Yellowstone on Thursday morning, we planned to spend a couple days driving across western Montana and seeing just a bit of the cities out this way.  We stopped for lunch in Bozeman, which has a vibrant little historic street with shops and restaurants.  But we had miles to go so we decided to push on to Helena.  Our Lonely Planet guidebook said that the Last Chance Gulch area of Helena was a cool spot to hang out in.  Maybe, but by the time we got there everyone had cleared out of town. 

I guess 5pm on a Thursday night isn’t a good time to go sightseeing in this state capital.  The town has an epic-looking cathedral – it seems more like it belongs somewhere in Europe than in a western American town.  But I guess we arrived after visiting hours – do churches even have visiting hours? – because all the doors were locked and there was no way for us to catch a glimpse of the interior.  Such a shame; the stained glass windows were probably gorgeous from the inside.

Cathedral of St. Helena – built in 1914

We had better luck today in Missoula.  First of all, we arrived around lunchtime, and the historic downtown area was bustling.  If you ever have a chance to tool around Montana, this town looks like it might be worth your while if you are looking for bars and restaurants or quirky off-beat shops.  But one of our favorite bits was this carousel.

According to the nearby plaque, a Missoula cabinet maker named Chuck Kaparich organized a group of volunteers to build the carousel.  He taught them how to carve the pieces and together they made each one of the 38 ponies, 2 chariots, and 14 gargoyles by hand.  The Missoula community rallied around the project and mechanics and stained glass artists also donated their time to get the carousel running.  By opening day in 1995 more than 100,000 volunteer hours had gone into its construction, and its ongoing maintenance is done on a volunteer basis to this day.  Very inspiring, and a beautiful piece of machinery to boot.  The detail work was incredible -- it even had a carved dragon with rings in his teeth that the kids could grab as their horses swooped by.