Almost Too Much...
Lots of confusion with dining area and kitchen
and stairway being made into an integrated area of the house - sheetrockers and
carpenters vying for the same space. Unbelievable decibel levels too. Spent
the weekend in a fast roundtrip to Bozeman and back to retrieve Adam from school
for the summer. Great drive through the Rockies, as usual, and spent an evening
and morning in Bozeman along Main Street taking pictures. Lots of images of
that below in the form of triptychs taken along Main Street at night and in the
day. There are also a few shots from upstairs of a great sunset at the end of
last week.
Wow, since my last post it's been one incredibly
busy set of days. The house crew was going to work over the weekend to get
things finished so the drywall crew could finish up early this week. Wednesday
we had a huge load of drywall panels lifted into the second and third floor
areas by hydraulic arm. Thursday Rick and Joe set about finishing all the
window areas and lintels and wall-to-wall areas so there would be backing for
the sheet rock. I asked Joe to help me move everything from the dining room and
most of the kitchen items into either the pantry or living room. The dining
room has a ceiling beam separating it from the kitchen and that beam is now
superfluous, which means Rick and Joe were going to remove it sometime during
the period the dry wall crew is here so they can finish the ceiling area between
the kitchen, dining room and the new upstairs stairwell. All these areas now
are tied together and when finished with new dry wall will look like an
integrated unit.
This is an interesting area of the house because the kitchen is part of the original 1,000 square foot "war box" house. The dining room is a late addition added, we believe, within the last ten years. The stairway tower is our addition. All three of these are now tied together structurally and, with the addition of the dry wall, will be tied together visually and outwardly-physically.
There was a lot of material in the dining room and kitchen. All our dozens of pots, pans and utensils were hanging from a cloverleaf-shaped wrought-iron hanging grid, which had to be removed along with everything hanging from it. The new Kitchen-Aid mixer and its accessories had to be removed. Basically everything which was "kitchen" is now on top of the dryer or washing machine The extra countertop and bookshelves for the cookbooks are now either pushed up against the stove or in the living room. The dining room chairs are now back in our bedroom, either on the floor or up on top of some of the existing stash of boxes. The dining room table is in the living room, straddling the existing coffee table. The buffet, which was serving as the desk for all my digital stuff, camera, makeshift-stereo, CD blanks, toolset, etc., is now also in the living room, sitting in front of one of the bookcases. In short, our house is now crammed practically to the point of non-livability and the dining room is blank. The light fixture has had its glass globes and light bulbs removed since it would be in harms way when Rick and Joe remove the beam. We also can barely use the kitchen. Rick and Joe have set up a plastic wall using two ceiling-to-floor adjustable braces to keep out the drywall dust, but, that makes the living room much smaller and leaves only a two foot corridor to get to the kitchen area.
All this was probably good so far as timing since I planned on leaving Saturday morning to head for Bozeman to retrieve Adam after the end of the school year at Montana State. Friday morning I get up and meet the drywall crew which sets about immediately putting the upstairs in shape. I can get to the kitchen to make coffee and spend part of Friday finishing up some things before having to leave Saturday. Adam had called Thursday to inform me that his bike was stolen from a locked rack in front of his dorm which is a complete bummer because now he has no bike to get around DC, where he'll be spending the summer with Leif. It's a bummer also because now two of us have had our bikes stolen and in Adam's case he had it locked with a pretty good Kryptonite bike chain and lock secured to a rigidly attached steel bike rack. I can only imagine that the persons who ripped me off and the different person or persons who ripped Adam off were in such dire need of either the bike or the money that they would stoop to that level. I'll allow Fate and Karma to provide the proper justice and worry about getting on with things. Now we have to figure a way to get Adam a bike - probably in the District. He won't have access to a car and so getting another REI bike might be a problem since both REI stores in the DC area are essentially car-only accessible, one in the Maryland suburbs near College Park and the other in the Arlington suburbs near Bailey's Crossroads.
Anyway, not to matter, there's enough other stuff to do to get ready for the eleven-hour trip that I'm occupied pretty much the entire day Friday. At the end of the day I did check on the drywall progress upstairs and, in addition to the most mess I've seen in years with gypsum dust and small cut pieces of drywall everywhere, there's also nearly an entire floor's worth of real walls. The insulation is now sandwiched between opposing sides of drywall with studs in between. The hallway, doorways, closets, rooms and bath now actually look like what they're supposed to. We discover a few more glitches with a few of the windows but that's also okay since the window company representative will be here in a couple of days to tune all the windows up and presumably fix whatever's wrong with the few windows with glitches. Actually, out of 34 windows, only three have minor glitches, and only one may or may not need replacement. So, we'll just have to await the MilGuard representative. These are pretty sweet windows, argon filled, thermally isolating, UV protecting, anodized aluminum frames and incredibly easy to operate and very stylish to look at or through. The non-functioning windows, of which there are a few in my room and in Adam's room, are plate glass and tempered. The upstairs is looking good, despite the gypsum dust everywhere.
While I'm gone, Rick and Joe were going to work Saturday to try and finish the siding on the back of the house so they can move their platform and finish up the tower area, which still has the steep side windows missing. The drywall crew indicates it will take them only three days and they'll have all the sheet rock in place for the tower, the second floor, and the stairwell area as well as the living room alcove.
Saturday morning I'm up at 5:00 am and out the door heading for the West Seattle Bridge about ten minutes before 6:00 am. My experience with traveling long distances is such that I always prefer to leave by six in the morning. On a week day or weekend day, if one is leaving the big city or even a resort beach or mountain area, leaving by six means you're ahead of ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population. Yes, it's a bear to get up early enough to do that, more of a bear if there's more than one person traveling. But, the payoff is huge. The first two or three hours don't even count. First off, there's literally no traffic, either in town or in the boondocks. By the time it's 9:00 am, you're ready for a break and most of the rest of the population has just gotten started. Stopping for a coffee at that hour catches most folks in a pretty good mood and most places are fairly efficient still at that early hour. The great news is that you're now at least 150 miles from where you started and often closer to 200. For a long trip, say 600 to 800 miles, that means you're about a quarter there. To be a quarter of the way to a goal at 9 o'clock in the morning is a fantastic feeling and gives the traveler the advantage of a whole day still ahead.
By 10:30 am I was already zooming through the Saturday morning traffic in Spokane and feeling pretty clever that I was ahead of that car-choked city's Saturday regimen. I had to stop for gas at Coeur d'Alene, which is a good break point because that town is only about thirty minutes past Spokane, is in another state - Idaho - and is a much smaller and much nicer place to get gas. Now all I've got is half of Montana to get through and I'll be in Bozeman. The stretch of Interstate 90 between Coeur d'Alene and Missoula, Montana, is one of the most amazing stretches of high-mountain, lateral-G force, roller-coaster highway in the country. The fact that it's an interstate doesn't detract because there's never any traffic on this stretch. I mean literally. I've been on I-90 between Idaho and North Dakota - basically the entirety of Montana - now at least two dozen times, different times of the week, different times of the year, different hours of the day. I've never seen any traffic worth bothering with between the Idaho border and Missoula. There are at least two major mountain passes with miles of winding up or down slopes to contend with, many at least six percent grade - which is a major steep element for an interstate. The speed is posted 70 through Washington and Idaho and 75 through Montana and one can make a good engineered vehicle, which my Volvo S-70 is, perform nearly like an airplane through these roads. I sail along, accompanied by the tunes from my iPod and am in a complete long-distance driving trance.
By the time I get to Butte, I'd talked to Adam via cell phone and we both realized that I'd be in town with plenty of daylight left. I actually get to Bozeman about 5:00 pm but Adam wasn't going to call me again till nearly 6:00 so I park the car near the apartment he's staying at with friends who will work the summer in Bozeman. School had let out Friday and Graduation was Saturday so the town is packed and my favorite motel is full and I wind up staying in one of the oldest and cheapest motels at the very north end of Main Street, right off the exit from I-90. That's fine, it's a slight bit more than thirty bucks a night and even has an old-fashioned gas-fired room heater with pilot light - talk about retro. But, it's in easy walking distance to where Adam's staying, to the entire stretch of downtown Bozeman along Main Street, and in plain view of the Bridger Mountains and at least two other ranges. Cheap but clean and efficient.
I actually run into Adam and one of his friends I'd met previously, Tyler, while walking about the neighborhood. We walk over to the apartment where Tyler and another friend of theirs, Brandon, will be staying the summer while they work for the University. Adam will be going home to Seattle only long enough to wash clothes, ditch his books and other gear, and pack for the summer he'll be spending with Leif in DC. Adam will have to get a job and pay for his share of the townhouse which Leif now lives in but it'll be a fun summer for Adam. He's got life guarding skills and certificates, and, having worked in the University Food Court the past year, now has short-order cook skills as well. Adam will be able to see his good friends over the summer. Everyone he grew up with in the District is now getting deep into whatever transition they're going through - either college, or apprenticeship, or fixing to leave town for other spots. In a way our move to Seattle was a major disruption to Adam's life since he was born, raised, and lived his entire life in the same house in the District. Despite traveling throughout North America with me, on his own, or with Katherine, and despite having travelled relatively extensively in Europe - Ireland and the Netherlands in particular - he's always had a home at Fessenden Street. Now, he's somewhat a person without a home. He's got no one he's met in Seattle yet, though he knows friends from school who live somewhat near in Portland. He's not really "lived" in the Seattle house yet, only visiting for the holidays. He won't really "live" here this summer since he'll be staying in DC with Leif. Come this Fall he'll probably go to the University of Washington and either live at home or find some place nearer the school. Ah, to be twenty again and have one's life in such a transition.
Tyler, another friend, Adam, and I get all his stuff and pack it in the car - huge quantities of stuff - computer, camping gear, clothes, books, boom box, case after case of music, all his digital toys, a beach ball (??), winter coats and heavy comforters, pillows, an electric guitar and speaker-amp, incredible amounts of stuff all fit neatly into the Volvo trunk and back seat area. That's another reason I continue to buy Volvos - if one has any sense of three-dimensional space or volume at all, an entire life can be packed into a Volvo.
Once we're done we all pitch in and help move some furniture and other stuff into Tyler and Brandon's apartment and Adam and I then walk to a nearby favorite grill on Main Street to have dinner. Afterward, Adam is going to hang with his friends for the night and I figured I'd have one more chance to walk around Bozeman and head back to my motel. It's just after the sun has set, it's Saturday night of Graduation Day for Montana State University students, and I figured it'd be the last time on a regular basis that I could go stroll along Main Street and maybe capture some photographic impressions of Bozeman.
I've been driving to and through Montana since the early 1970s and I've gotten to know the state and its towns. It's a huge state. Texas has more square miles and there are certainly stretches of Texas which can vie with Montana for sheer distance. But Texas is way far South in the North American landscape and much of Texas is barren - the same landscape repeated ad infinitum for three or four hundred miles. I say this dearly loving elements and areas of that state - the Big Bend, the mountainous areas of way west Texas around McDonald Observatory and Alpine, the Gulf - from Beaumont all the way to Corpus Christi, the Guadalupe River area and New Braunfels, the Texas Hill Country, even the high plains basin and Amarillo. But, truth be known, Montana is an even more wondrous place. It has huge high plains in the east which it shares with the western sections of the Dakotas and northern Wyoming and it has geology to beat the band. But, more than any other state, Montana has the mountains. It has so many ranges of mountains that even after three dozen trips across the state I still have to look at maps to remember which ranges are which. It has the Continental Divide and it has the huge pit of Butte. It has the Sapphire and Bitterroot Ranges, it has the Beartooth and shares with Idaho the Sawtooth Ranges. It has two of the most wonderful places in the country - Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.
Yes, yes, I know that most of Yellowstone is in Wyoming. But, three of the five entrances to the park are from Montana, the Northeast entrance at Crooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, the North and original entrance at Gardiner, Montana, and the West entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana. Wyoming has the East entrance slightly west of Cody, Wyoming and the South entrance which is within the National Parkway connecting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, with Jackson, Wyoming just south of the southern entrance to Teton park. For a great set of maps covering Yellowstone, see <http://www.nps.gov/hfc/carto/YELL.html>. Most visitors come to Yellowstone from either the highways along Montana or through Bozeman's Gallatin Field International Airport. It's true that there are thousands of millionaires who call Jackson, Wyoming, home, but they don't live there because of Yellowstone, they live there because of the skiing around Jackson and the wilderness south of the Grand Tetons. I have no particular issue with Montana calling Yellowstone theirs - Idaho also has a slice of Yellowstone park. The way I view it, most folks get TO Yellowstone by going THROUGH Montana and it's a park filled with great geologic sights and fantastic mountains so it belongs equally to Wyoming and Montana and Idaho.
Montana has these great highways which go east-west from mountain range through mountain range to high plains and it has these even greater north-south highways which follow either the valleys up through the mountain ranges or skirt along some of the ridges with pass after pass. Montana also has some of the greatest settings in the country for its cities and towns. Even Butte has its charm - to me anyway. But the truly beautiful Montana towns are Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. Each of them is set in a mountainous area with one, two or more different mountain ranges around them and one, two or an entire valley's worth of rivers and streams coursing through them. You want wild life, visit these towns and then venture away toward the mountains or streams. You want civilization, visit these towns and take in a show, concert, artist exposition, reading, or play. See history and see living history. See architecture from last century and see architecture from this century and even the next. You want pure air to breath - just take a breath anywhere in these towns or around them.
Some Montanans claim that their state is giving everything away just to scrape a living but there's such a huge amount of the state that even if this statement were true - which it may indeed be - the state will still be there. Alaska is grander, no question. The spaces in Alaska are just so vast as to be almost undefinable. Montana is just about the limit of comprehension and perhaps that's what makes it all work. Just when you thought you couldn't climb another mountain, there's a huge valley. Just when you thought you couldn't take another mile of high plains, there's this bizarre mountain range in the middle of nowhere. Just when you thought it was too arid for too long, here comes a forested hillside with a river. Just when you thought you were in the middle of nowhere along comes a town with a symphony. Montanans also seem to understand education and culture in a way which belies their cowboy image. There is a university in every town of note in the state, all well attended and all with large out-of-state populations. True, there's a better university somewhere else, but the point is that Montana understands its environment and its intelligence in a way which is fairly unique for states, the only other place where I sense this same native ethic is Pennsylvania - another state with vast natural resources and fantastic geologic features. Perhaps the two go hand-in-hand. I've thought that the environment plays a powerful role in positioning one's self and making one reflect upon things. Reflection may bring forth the curiosity required for education and culture. Just a notion to ponder.
Of all the cities in Montana, my truly favorite is Bozeman. Not just because Adam has been going to school there, though that's part of it, for sure. But beyond that, Bozeman is a place which thinks about itself. It's a town which sees its past, sees its present and senses its future. It knows its roots well and has tried to maintain, nourish and help grow those roots in a sustainable manner. It's still an agricultural and ranging town with all the right industries and support factions. That element of the community has a strong voice and a good ear in the community. The arts and cultural component which have grown up with and alongside the University's presence also have a strong voice and a good ear from the community. There is an independent cultural component, though, which has grown up in the Gallatin Valley. This is a valley ringed by seven different ranges or sets of mountains with thousands of stream-miles and the source waters of the Missouri River. It's a place with huge blue skies and fierce winter snows. It's a valley which sees the sunrise over the eastern mountains and which sees the sun set behind the distant western mountains. It's a place which one enters and exits through passes through these mountains and yet it's a huge valley, rich with soil and water and livestock and crops. It's a path on the way through Montana and has been ever since its founding - which was made because of one of the passes nearby. It's a town with a Main Street which continues to grow and evolve rather than shrink and die. It's a town with a commitment to its own future and which has made good on its investments in the past decade.
Not surprisingly it's also Montana's fastest growing and wealthiest county. And, not surprisingly, its airport is one of Montana's big league airports.
What's so surprising is that this is a town of roughly 30,000 with a metro area of roughly 70,000. Montana itself only has about 910,000 residents. One out of every 13 Montanans can claim to be "from" Bozeman. Is there the same excitement and diversity there as here in Seattle? Well, no! But, walking along Main Street on Saturday evening, I passed one coffee house and two clubs, each of which had a local band which was extremely good - really good. One jazz, one pure rock and roll, and one alternative rock-rhythm-and-blues. They were damned good. House bands in a college and arts and cowboy town, with the Intermountain Opera about to stage a major production here as well. Were there cowboys whooping it up in their trucks cruising Main Street? Sure. Were there fancy dudes and their ladies walking down the avenue looking in the windows? Sure. Was there an air of civility in the evening's chill? Yes. Was there an air of anticipation and excitement lingering in the night mist? Absolutely.
Some small towns in some places have a better fate than others. Bozeman is one of these places. They'll do the right thing because the place seems to attract individuals who care where they live and how they live. There are growth issues and big-box stores but they are aligned in areas which the town and town council have decided make sense and fit in with the pattern of the city's evolution. It's a place where satellite communication has created a huge set of information choices which still believes in its local paper, which publishes on Sundays. It's a town with local radio and television stations which still have local talent even though some of them are owned by out-of-towners.
I like these kinds of towns. I've found dozens of places like Bozeman in my travels around North America. Not every state has a set of great towns or cities but I've found at least one great town in every state and province - some states and provinces have several or even dozens of great towns. One of the things which defines a great town or city to me is not how many sports teams it has, or how many restaurants or clubs, or even natural attractions. But, rather, does the town and its population and its resources and its talent and creativity and history and evolution "make sense." Does it have a perspective on itself that creates an entity which is whole? Is there a "there" there? Is there something about the place which is definable in a way which makes it "that place." If the answer is "yes," no matter how miniscule the dimensions, then that place and its people have created something worthwhile, some place worth visiting and lingering about. A place worth coming back to, if only to see how they're doing.
So I walked up and down Main Street, taking pictures of places and things and people I've seen lots of times before but may not see for a while in the future. I did the same thing Sunday morning, Main Street at night and Main Street in the daylight. I figured that I knew the place pretty well. Knew what it was that I liked about Bozeman and its people and what it was that I wanted to capture. A series of snapshots to show off the place and a series of snapshots which I could use later - who knows how much later - to look back and see how things have changed and where they're heading.
It was a beautiful Saturday in the Gallatin Valley and a beautiful Sunday. The weather was perfect for an evening stroll in a single long-sleeve shirt and the next morning was perfect for short sleeves. Adam finished with his Red Cross lifeguard and CPR refresher course Sunday about 11:00 am and we were off, heading back home to Seattle. Along the way we passed the guy who's been walking across America to raise money and consciousness about diabetes. He was walking along the shoulder on I-90 with his support van barely moving behind him. See <http://www.defeatdiabetes.org/wakeuplocalmap.htm> for information and details about "Mr. Diabetes."
From the drive east to Bozeman, I knew that if we left by noon heading west, we'd reach West Seattle in time to still catch the evening's twilight. We rolled across the West Seattle Bridge at 9:45 pm, with twilight still slightly aglow over the Sound and decided to unload the next day - Monday. We snuck a quick cappuccino and marionberry pie at Caffe Ladro - I really love coffee houses which are open every night until 11:00 pm. We then went home again and crashed after a wonderful, scenic and easy 750-mile, ten-hour cruise along a mostly isolated I-90. The best parts were the passes through Montana and coming back home through the Cascades. Adam had never come home this way - driving down from Snoqualmie Pass and crossing Lake Washington and going through the Mercer Island tunnels or the Mt. Baker tunnel or even the I-90 to I-5 merge and then merging to the West Seattle Bridge. That's a really great entrance to a city, by the way. All the geography was highlighted by the setting sun and twilight and the city lights and harbor lights were a welcoming beacon. This is a great town.
Monday morning we unpacked the car and Adam set about to put some things away and get things set up for his trip next week to DC. He'll have to pack for both a summer's living in DC and a week's reunion at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. I'll drive east in mid August and pick Leif and Adam up on the way to the beach and then drop Leif off in DC and drive back across the US of A with Adam. Another great set of road trips a mere three months away. One would think I did nothing but drive, but in reality I drive to explore. To see roads I've not seen before. To find those great small towns that I know are out there. To put more of this planet into my mind in a most personal way.
The drywall guys got nearly the entire house done today - Monday. By Tuesday, tomorrow, all the sheet rock will be in place and half the siding will be up. I'll focus on some house photos later in the week.
There are two photo essays - Bozeman at night, and Bozeman in the daylight, below. Enjoy, there's some great sights on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana, and I've tried to capture a few of them.
Chas
Inside the upstairs foyer looking west just after the sun set last Thursday evening.
Same view from the corner windows in what is shaping up as my multimedia studio.
And, just to complete the experience, the same view from the third-floor tower aerie. These
will be a standard element of our days out here in a few weeks when the additions are
finished, the carpeting installed and all the boxes unpacked and moved into their new rooms.
The completely retro gas-fired furnace in my Ranch House Motel room.
It is probably part of the original outfitting for the motel, which looks like
it was built in the late 1940's.
Main Steet Bozeman, Saturday night of the Class of 2004's Graduation Day at Montana State University. Image on the left
is of one of the local casinos at the north end of Main, the two adjacent are side and front views of the Montana Ale Works, a
local "brew pub" and MSU hangout.
Further south along Main, the Heeb's grocery store, American Bank and two-story architect's offices which front both sides of
Main in the older section of the street, closer to the railroad yards and original brewery.
An older apartment building on the left, looking south along Main and one of the westside-of-the-street original
turn-of-the-century shops, now a knick-knack and head shop.
The eagle neon sign over the Fraternal Order of the Eagles lodge, a shop window in the center, and a work of art looking into
one of the galleries which line Main Street. Bozeman is home to nearly a hundred local visual artists, and has over a dozen
well-stocked galleries sited along Main Street and some of the adjacent cross streets. The area has become home to a huge
array of artists - visual, musical, kinetic, dance, and more.
Getting toward the more concentrated center strip along Main Street, the image on the right is inside the window of one of the
local architects and shows a nearby river valley and a variety of homes and developments the firm is working on.
More scenes along Main near Rouse Street with bar/club on the left, antique toy shop in the middle and restaurant on the right.
More Main Street sights - corner shop on the left, wine bar in the middle and clothing shop and restaurant on the right.
Main Street right near Grand Street, the cross street which previously was the location of many of the town's turn-of-the-century
well-dressed set and a street which is esplanaded and lined on both sides with mature trees. On the left a local sign shop with
some samples of the different neon tubes one can use and a local book store using a goodly number of those same tubes.
More images taken inside a local gallery (left) and book store (center) and along Main Street (right).
More visual art, painting on the left, and sculpture with painting behind (center) and across the street at a club and shop.
Across the street from one of the old hotels, now restored, with three restaurants right next to each other on the main floor (left),
inside a local clothing store (center) and looking into one of the late-night coffee shops along Main Street (right).
Left and center images are inside the showroom windows of the "Thirsty Ear," a local very-high-end stereo shop. The image
on the right is in the window of one of the many local outfitting and tour firms. The Gallatin Valley is a huge tourist destination
for fishers, canoeists, backpackers, and horse-back riders as well as day-trippers.
A fishing rod-and-reel shop on the left and close-ups of one of the mechanical wonders in one of the clock shops along Main.
More clock shop photos with some of their local work on display. Inside are antique clocks, watches, designer watches and
clocks and custom-made timepieces.
Clock shop windows have always fascinated me, hence, even more photos inside the clock shop's nighttime windows.
One of Main Street's dozens of intersections on the left, a "Western" furniture and handmade object d'art store (center),
and another local work of art as seen through a gallery window on the right.
A far and near shot inside yet another gallery window on the left and center, and the fronts of two shops along Main on the right.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles neon eagle from the other side of the street on the left, a boutique in the center and a kitchen
and cooking store on the right, featuring modern variations of the old frontier cook stove.
The front of one of the offices housing architects and planners on the left, a fanciful window display for a clothing store in the
center, and Rocky Mountain Roaster's coffee shop at the north end of Main. They have two others in town, including a very busy
shop at the intersection of Main and Seventh Street right in the center of town. They roast their own and make their own
blends and happen to make a really good cup of coffee too! Also, for $2.50, one can have a 96-fluid-ounce carafe filled for the road.
Main Street in the daytime. On the left the Community Coop building. These guys can teach Puget Consumer Cooperative
a few tricks as they go many steps further in the organic food and recycling arena than does PCC. They also have a slightly
better set of choices for their bulk grains and spices. PCC needs to continue working to improve things. In the center, the
Lewis & Clark Motel with a "congratulations MSU grads" sign and on the right the Rocky Mountain Roasters coffee shop at
7th Street and Main.
A surf shop on the left, the overhead sign at 7th Street and Main in the center, and the former Bozeman High School building,
which is now the home to the town's arts and sciences private high school. Bozeman High is in a new modern facility a few
blocks south on Main.
The Gallatin Pioneer Museum on the left. The museum is in the former Bozeman and Gallatin County Jail, which has been
kept in its turn-of-the-century condition as a backdrop for a fascinating array of historical artifacts and dioramas which the
museum now has. In the center, the Gallatin County Court House building, right across the street from the city's largest
Catholic church.
It was Mother's Day so everyone going to church this Sunday was wearing their brightest and finest garments. Center and
right views are looking north along Main Street from just past the church.
On the left is one of the intersecting streets to Main with views off the mountains to the west. Center view is looking north along
Main Street, with mountains in the distance here too. The flags on the right are the US flag, the Montana state flag, and the
City of Bozeman flag in front of the Town Hall building with one of the older hotel buildings behind.
A couple items of local street art, on the left a mural depicting turn-of-the-century life in Bozeman as the backdrop for an
in-city block park. In the center is a fanciful waterfall treatment from the front door of one of the galleries to the street in
the center of the sidewalk. On the right is a historic metal etching reprint of a Bozeman Chronicle photograph of Main
Street in 1897 with the then new streetcar. Bozeman is nearly as old as Seattle. The west was pretty much settled,
it seems, in one fell swoop beginning at the end of the Civil War.
Facades of several of the buildings along Main Street showing off the elaborate window and door treatment so common of
turn-of-the-century brick and masonry structures. The ones in Bozeman have been well-cared for and maintained.
More daytime streetscapes along Main Street. The town two years ago completely refurbished the entire length of sidewalk
for the mile-and-a-half length of Main through the center section of town, installing new light standards and bike racks and
trash cans the entire length, as well as planting new trees to replace many which had died of old age. Pretty typical blue-sky
day for Spring in the Gallatin Valley.
A look south along Main Street near the center of town with the corner outfitter shop featured on the right. Bozeman
maintains the classic American Main Street look and feel along its "Main" Street. Back East, all the "main" streets
would be called "market" street.
Another tri-a-rama view along Main showing off more of the town's main thoroughfare with its cozy look and feel. It's the active
center of town and seems to have street life about 18 hours a day, seven days a week. It's also US Highway 191, which takes
folks south to West Yellowstone, which makes it a showcase avenue for the town since there's so many people passing through.
In addition to several multiplex theatres in local shopping centers on the outskirts of town or up by the University, Bozeman
has two original motion picture theatres - the Ellen being one and Rialto being the other. That's a "star" for Gary Cooper in
the sidewalk in front of the Ellen. He actually showed up here for the release of one of his movies way back when. Cooper
was born in Helena, a mere two hours up the road from Bozeman - maybe a half-day's drive back then, though. Home-made
wood toys are still available in a few stores in Bozeman.
Inside a wood furniture store and another set of shots looking along Main Street in the center and on the right.
Local wood carving art in front of one of the town's historic buildings - in this case the original all-grade school. The County
Courthouse in the center and a sign advertising the Intermountain Opera's latest production on the right. Bozeman has opera,
a symphony, ballet, a very well-used library system and lots of country and rock and alternative live music in the town clubs.
One of the local bike and outback stores in a house-turned-shop along Main Street closer to the University on the left. The
electric meter and explanatory sign in front of the Community Coop building in the center. The Coop has installed electric solar
cells on its roof and sells power back to the local utility as part of their recyling program. The meter shows the output of the solar
cells and converter - in effect the reduction in their electric bill by using self-generating power technology. The Coop is also
the local billboard for anyone wishing to post any notice even close to the alternative life style themes of Fremont. There are
hundreds of these notices, people post and update these items throughout the day so there's always something new here. The
Coop also operates an organic restaurant and grill upstairs along with a pretty good organic coffee shop. They have an upstairs
outdoor balcony for enjoying your lunch or coffee and looking down on Main Street.
The Bozeman Chronicle operates a pretty decent online newspaper as well as publishing a "real" paper seven days a week.
This is the Sunday edition in the paper rack outside the Coop. Center and right images are leaving Bozeman along I-90 and
passing through the Sapphire Mountains between Bozeman and Butte. These are some of the prettiest mountains in the entire
Rocky Mountains and I never tire of riding this or any of the other highways which go east-west through this part of Montana.
More scenes through the Sapphire Mountains heading west.. The skies are a fantastic reminder of what it really means to be in
the Big Sky Country of Montana. If you've never been to Montana, you're in for a treat. If you have, you know why it's probably my
favorite state in the Lower 48. Washington, Oregon and Northern California are all way up there, too. So then are Vermont, New
Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania and western North Carolina. Guess I just like mountains a whole lot.
This is an interesting area of the house because the kitchen is part of the original 1,000 square foot "war box" house. The dining room is a late addition added, we believe, within the last ten years. The stairway tower is our addition. All three of these are now tied together structurally and, with the addition of the dry wall, will be tied together visually and outwardly-physically.
There was a lot of material in the dining room and kitchen. All our dozens of pots, pans and utensils were hanging from a cloverleaf-shaped wrought-iron hanging grid, which had to be removed along with everything hanging from it. The new Kitchen-Aid mixer and its accessories had to be removed. Basically everything which was "kitchen" is now on top of the dryer or washing machine The extra countertop and bookshelves for the cookbooks are now either pushed up against the stove or in the living room. The dining room chairs are now back in our bedroom, either on the floor or up on top of some of the existing stash of boxes. The dining room table is in the living room, straddling the existing coffee table. The buffet, which was serving as the desk for all my digital stuff, camera, makeshift-stereo, CD blanks, toolset, etc., is now also in the living room, sitting in front of one of the bookcases. In short, our house is now crammed practically to the point of non-livability and the dining room is blank. The light fixture has had its glass globes and light bulbs removed since it would be in harms way when Rick and Joe remove the beam. We also can barely use the kitchen. Rick and Joe have set up a plastic wall using two ceiling-to-floor adjustable braces to keep out the drywall dust, but, that makes the living room much smaller and leaves only a two foot corridor to get to the kitchen area.
All this was probably good so far as timing since I planned on leaving Saturday morning to head for Bozeman to retrieve Adam after the end of the school year at Montana State. Friday morning I get up and meet the drywall crew which sets about immediately putting the upstairs in shape. I can get to the kitchen to make coffee and spend part of Friday finishing up some things before having to leave Saturday. Adam had called Thursday to inform me that his bike was stolen from a locked rack in front of his dorm which is a complete bummer because now he has no bike to get around DC, where he'll be spending the summer with Leif. It's a bummer also because now two of us have had our bikes stolen and in Adam's case he had it locked with a pretty good Kryptonite bike chain and lock secured to a rigidly attached steel bike rack. I can only imagine that the persons who ripped me off and the different person or persons who ripped Adam off were in such dire need of either the bike or the money that they would stoop to that level. I'll allow Fate and Karma to provide the proper justice and worry about getting on with things. Now we have to figure a way to get Adam a bike - probably in the District. He won't have access to a car and so getting another REI bike might be a problem since both REI stores in the DC area are essentially car-only accessible, one in the Maryland suburbs near College Park and the other in the Arlington suburbs near Bailey's Crossroads.
Anyway, not to matter, there's enough other stuff to do to get ready for the eleven-hour trip that I'm occupied pretty much the entire day Friday. At the end of the day I did check on the drywall progress upstairs and, in addition to the most mess I've seen in years with gypsum dust and small cut pieces of drywall everywhere, there's also nearly an entire floor's worth of real walls. The insulation is now sandwiched between opposing sides of drywall with studs in between. The hallway, doorways, closets, rooms and bath now actually look like what they're supposed to. We discover a few more glitches with a few of the windows but that's also okay since the window company representative will be here in a couple of days to tune all the windows up and presumably fix whatever's wrong with the few windows with glitches. Actually, out of 34 windows, only three have minor glitches, and only one may or may not need replacement. So, we'll just have to await the MilGuard representative. These are pretty sweet windows, argon filled, thermally isolating, UV protecting, anodized aluminum frames and incredibly easy to operate and very stylish to look at or through. The non-functioning windows, of which there are a few in my room and in Adam's room, are plate glass and tempered. The upstairs is looking good, despite the gypsum dust everywhere.
While I'm gone, Rick and Joe were going to work Saturday to try and finish the siding on the back of the house so they can move their platform and finish up the tower area, which still has the steep side windows missing. The drywall crew indicates it will take them only three days and they'll have all the sheet rock in place for the tower, the second floor, and the stairwell area as well as the living room alcove.
Saturday morning I'm up at 5:00 am and out the door heading for the West Seattle Bridge about ten minutes before 6:00 am. My experience with traveling long distances is such that I always prefer to leave by six in the morning. On a week day or weekend day, if one is leaving the big city or even a resort beach or mountain area, leaving by six means you're ahead of ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population. Yes, it's a bear to get up early enough to do that, more of a bear if there's more than one person traveling. But, the payoff is huge. The first two or three hours don't even count. First off, there's literally no traffic, either in town or in the boondocks. By the time it's 9:00 am, you're ready for a break and most of the rest of the population has just gotten started. Stopping for a coffee at that hour catches most folks in a pretty good mood and most places are fairly efficient still at that early hour. The great news is that you're now at least 150 miles from where you started and often closer to 200. For a long trip, say 600 to 800 miles, that means you're about a quarter there. To be a quarter of the way to a goal at 9 o'clock in the morning is a fantastic feeling and gives the traveler the advantage of a whole day still ahead.
By 10:30 am I was already zooming through the Saturday morning traffic in Spokane and feeling pretty clever that I was ahead of that car-choked city's Saturday regimen. I had to stop for gas at Coeur d'Alene, which is a good break point because that town is only about thirty minutes past Spokane, is in another state - Idaho - and is a much smaller and much nicer place to get gas. Now all I've got is half of Montana to get through and I'll be in Bozeman. The stretch of Interstate 90 between Coeur d'Alene and Missoula, Montana, is one of the most amazing stretches of high-mountain, lateral-G force, roller-coaster highway in the country. The fact that it's an interstate doesn't detract because there's never any traffic on this stretch. I mean literally. I've been on I-90 between Idaho and North Dakota - basically the entirety of Montana - now at least two dozen times, different times of the week, different times of the year, different hours of the day. I've never seen any traffic worth bothering with between the Idaho border and Missoula. There are at least two major mountain passes with miles of winding up or down slopes to contend with, many at least six percent grade - which is a major steep element for an interstate. The speed is posted 70 through Washington and Idaho and 75 through Montana and one can make a good engineered vehicle, which my Volvo S-70 is, perform nearly like an airplane through these roads. I sail along, accompanied by the tunes from my iPod and am in a complete long-distance driving trance.
By the time I get to Butte, I'd talked to Adam via cell phone and we both realized that I'd be in town with plenty of daylight left. I actually get to Bozeman about 5:00 pm but Adam wasn't going to call me again till nearly 6:00 so I park the car near the apartment he's staying at with friends who will work the summer in Bozeman. School had let out Friday and Graduation was Saturday so the town is packed and my favorite motel is full and I wind up staying in one of the oldest and cheapest motels at the very north end of Main Street, right off the exit from I-90. That's fine, it's a slight bit more than thirty bucks a night and even has an old-fashioned gas-fired room heater with pilot light - talk about retro. But, it's in easy walking distance to where Adam's staying, to the entire stretch of downtown Bozeman along Main Street, and in plain view of the Bridger Mountains and at least two other ranges. Cheap but clean and efficient.
I actually run into Adam and one of his friends I'd met previously, Tyler, while walking about the neighborhood. We walk over to the apartment where Tyler and another friend of theirs, Brandon, will be staying the summer while they work for the University. Adam will be going home to Seattle only long enough to wash clothes, ditch his books and other gear, and pack for the summer he'll be spending with Leif in DC. Adam will have to get a job and pay for his share of the townhouse which Leif now lives in but it'll be a fun summer for Adam. He's got life guarding skills and certificates, and, having worked in the University Food Court the past year, now has short-order cook skills as well. Adam will be able to see his good friends over the summer. Everyone he grew up with in the District is now getting deep into whatever transition they're going through - either college, or apprenticeship, or fixing to leave town for other spots. In a way our move to Seattle was a major disruption to Adam's life since he was born, raised, and lived his entire life in the same house in the District. Despite traveling throughout North America with me, on his own, or with Katherine, and despite having travelled relatively extensively in Europe - Ireland and the Netherlands in particular - he's always had a home at Fessenden Street. Now, he's somewhat a person without a home. He's got no one he's met in Seattle yet, though he knows friends from school who live somewhat near in Portland. He's not really "lived" in the Seattle house yet, only visiting for the holidays. He won't really "live" here this summer since he'll be staying in DC with Leif. Come this Fall he'll probably go to the University of Washington and either live at home or find some place nearer the school. Ah, to be twenty again and have one's life in such a transition.
Tyler, another friend, Adam, and I get all his stuff and pack it in the car - huge quantities of stuff - computer, camping gear, clothes, books, boom box, case after case of music, all his digital toys, a beach ball (??), winter coats and heavy comforters, pillows, an electric guitar and speaker-amp, incredible amounts of stuff all fit neatly into the Volvo trunk and back seat area. That's another reason I continue to buy Volvos - if one has any sense of three-dimensional space or volume at all, an entire life can be packed into a Volvo.
Once we're done we all pitch in and help move some furniture and other stuff into Tyler and Brandon's apartment and Adam and I then walk to a nearby favorite grill on Main Street to have dinner. Afterward, Adam is going to hang with his friends for the night and I figured I'd have one more chance to walk around Bozeman and head back to my motel. It's just after the sun has set, it's Saturday night of Graduation Day for Montana State University students, and I figured it'd be the last time on a regular basis that I could go stroll along Main Street and maybe capture some photographic impressions of Bozeman.
I've been driving to and through Montana since the early 1970s and I've gotten to know the state and its towns. It's a huge state. Texas has more square miles and there are certainly stretches of Texas which can vie with Montana for sheer distance. But Texas is way far South in the North American landscape and much of Texas is barren - the same landscape repeated ad infinitum for three or four hundred miles. I say this dearly loving elements and areas of that state - the Big Bend, the mountainous areas of way west Texas around McDonald Observatory and Alpine, the Gulf - from Beaumont all the way to Corpus Christi, the Guadalupe River area and New Braunfels, the Texas Hill Country, even the high plains basin and Amarillo. But, truth be known, Montana is an even more wondrous place. It has huge high plains in the east which it shares with the western sections of the Dakotas and northern Wyoming and it has geology to beat the band. But, more than any other state, Montana has the mountains. It has so many ranges of mountains that even after three dozen trips across the state I still have to look at maps to remember which ranges are which. It has the Continental Divide and it has the huge pit of Butte. It has the Sapphire and Bitterroot Ranges, it has the Beartooth and shares with Idaho the Sawtooth Ranges. It has two of the most wonderful places in the country - Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.
Yes, yes, I know that most of Yellowstone is in Wyoming. But, three of the five entrances to the park are from Montana, the Northeast entrance at Crooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, the North and original entrance at Gardiner, Montana, and the West entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana. Wyoming has the East entrance slightly west of Cody, Wyoming and the South entrance which is within the National Parkway connecting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, with Jackson, Wyoming just south of the southern entrance to Teton park. For a great set of maps covering Yellowstone, see <http://www.nps.gov/hfc/carto/YELL.html>. Most visitors come to Yellowstone from either the highways along Montana or through Bozeman's Gallatin Field International Airport. It's true that there are thousands of millionaires who call Jackson, Wyoming, home, but they don't live there because of Yellowstone, they live there because of the skiing around Jackson and the wilderness south of the Grand Tetons. I have no particular issue with Montana calling Yellowstone theirs - Idaho also has a slice of Yellowstone park. The way I view it, most folks get TO Yellowstone by going THROUGH Montana and it's a park filled with great geologic sights and fantastic mountains so it belongs equally to Wyoming and Montana and Idaho.
Montana has these great highways which go east-west from mountain range through mountain range to high plains and it has these even greater north-south highways which follow either the valleys up through the mountain ranges or skirt along some of the ridges with pass after pass. Montana also has some of the greatest settings in the country for its cities and towns. Even Butte has its charm - to me anyway. But the truly beautiful Montana towns are Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Great Falls. Each of them is set in a mountainous area with one, two or more different mountain ranges around them and one, two or an entire valley's worth of rivers and streams coursing through them. You want wild life, visit these towns and then venture away toward the mountains or streams. You want civilization, visit these towns and take in a show, concert, artist exposition, reading, or play. See history and see living history. See architecture from last century and see architecture from this century and even the next. You want pure air to breath - just take a breath anywhere in these towns or around them.
Some Montanans claim that their state is giving everything away just to scrape a living but there's such a huge amount of the state that even if this statement were true - which it may indeed be - the state will still be there. Alaska is grander, no question. The spaces in Alaska are just so vast as to be almost undefinable. Montana is just about the limit of comprehension and perhaps that's what makes it all work. Just when you thought you couldn't climb another mountain, there's a huge valley. Just when you thought you couldn't take another mile of high plains, there's this bizarre mountain range in the middle of nowhere. Just when you thought it was too arid for too long, here comes a forested hillside with a river. Just when you thought you were in the middle of nowhere along comes a town with a symphony. Montanans also seem to understand education and culture in a way which belies their cowboy image. There is a university in every town of note in the state, all well attended and all with large out-of-state populations. True, there's a better university somewhere else, but the point is that Montana understands its environment and its intelligence in a way which is fairly unique for states, the only other place where I sense this same native ethic is Pennsylvania - another state with vast natural resources and fantastic geologic features. Perhaps the two go hand-in-hand. I've thought that the environment plays a powerful role in positioning one's self and making one reflect upon things. Reflection may bring forth the curiosity required for education and culture. Just a notion to ponder.
Of all the cities in Montana, my truly favorite is Bozeman. Not just because Adam has been going to school there, though that's part of it, for sure. But beyond that, Bozeman is a place which thinks about itself. It's a town which sees its past, sees its present and senses its future. It knows its roots well and has tried to maintain, nourish and help grow those roots in a sustainable manner. It's still an agricultural and ranging town with all the right industries and support factions. That element of the community has a strong voice and a good ear in the community. The arts and cultural component which have grown up with and alongside the University's presence also have a strong voice and a good ear from the community. There is an independent cultural component, though, which has grown up in the Gallatin Valley. This is a valley ringed by seven different ranges or sets of mountains with thousands of stream-miles and the source waters of the Missouri River. It's a place with huge blue skies and fierce winter snows. It's a valley which sees the sunrise over the eastern mountains and which sees the sun set behind the distant western mountains. It's a place which one enters and exits through passes through these mountains and yet it's a huge valley, rich with soil and water and livestock and crops. It's a path on the way through Montana and has been ever since its founding - which was made because of one of the passes nearby. It's a town with a Main Street which continues to grow and evolve rather than shrink and die. It's a town with a commitment to its own future and which has made good on its investments in the past decade.
Not surprisingly it's also Montana's fastest growing and wealthiest county. And, not surprisingly, its airport is one of Montana's big league airports.
What's so surprising is that this is a town of roughly 30,000 with a metro area of roughly 70,000. Montana itself only has about 910,000 residents. One out of every 13 Montanans can claim to be "from" Bozeman. Is there the same excitement and diversity there as here in Seattle? Well, no! But, walking along Main Street on Saturday evening, I passed one coffee house and two clubs, each of which had a local band which was extremely good - really good. One jazz, one pure rock and roll, and one alternative rock-rhythm-and-blues. They were damned good. House bands in a college and arts and cowboy town, with the Intermountain Opera about to stage a major production here as well. Were there cowboys whooping it up in their trucks cruising Main Street? Sure. Were there fancy dudes and their ladies walking down the avenue looking in the windows? Sure. Was there an air of civility in the evening's chill? Yes. Was there an air of anticipation and excitement lingering in the night mist? Absolutely.
Some small towns in some places have a better fate than others. Bozeman is one of these places. They'll do the right thing because the place seems to attract individuals who care where they live and how they live. There are growth issues and big-box stores but they are aligned in areas which the town and town council have decided make sense and fit in with the pattern of the city's evolution. It's a place where satellite communication has created a huge set of information choices which still believes in its local paper, which publishes on Sundays. It's a town with local radio and television stations which still have local talent even though some of them are owned by out-of-towners.
I like these kinds of towns. I've found dozens of places like Bozeman in my travels around North America. Not every state has a set of great towns or cities but I've found at least one great town in every state and province - some states and provinces have several or even dozens of great towns. One of the things which defines a great town or city to me is not how many sports teams it has, or how many restaurants or clubs, or even natural attractions. But, rather, does the town and its population and its resources and its talent and creativity and history and evolution "make sense." Does it have a perspective on itself that creates an entity which is whole? Is there a "there" there? Is there something about the place which is definable in a way which makes it "that place." If the answer is "yes," no matter how miniscule the dimensions, then that place and its people have created something worthwhile, some place worth visiting and lingering about. A place worth coming back to, if only to see how they're doing.
So I walked up and down Main Street, taking pictures of places and things and people I've seen lots of times before but may not see for a while in the future. I did the same thing Sunday morning, Main Street at night and Main Street in the daylight. I figured that I knew the place pretty well. Knew what it was that I liked about Bozeman and its people and what it was that I wanted to capture. A series of snapshots to show off the place and a series of snapshots which I could use later - who knows how much later - to look back and see how things have changed and where they're heading.
It was a beautiful Saturday in the Gallatin Valley and a beautiful Sunday. The weather was perfect for an evening stroll in a single long-sleeve shirt and the next morning was perfect for short sleeves. Adam finished with his Red Cross lifeguard and CPR refresher course Sunday about 11:00 am and we were off, heading back home to Seattle. Along the way we passed the guy who's been walking across America to raise money and consciousness about diabetes. He was walking along the shoulder on I-90 with his support van barely moving behind him. See <http://www.defeatdiabetes.org/wakeuplocalmap.htm> for information and details about "Mr. Diabetes."
From the drive east to Bozeman, I knew that if we left by noon heading west, we'd reach West Seattle in time to still catch the evening's twilight. We rolled across the West Seattle Bridge at 9:45 pm, with twilight still slightly aglow over the Sound and decided to unload the next day - Monday. We snuck a quick cappuccino and marionberry pie at Caffe Ladro - I really love coffee houses which are open every night until 11:00 pm. We then went home again and crashed after a wonderful, scenic and easy 750-mile, ten-hour cruise along a mostly isolated I-90. The best parts were the passes through Montana and coming back home through the Cascades. Adam had never come home this way - driving down from Snoqualmie Pass and crossing Lake Washington and going through the Mercer Island tunnels or the Mt. Baker tunnel or even the I-90 to I-5 merge and then merging to the West Seattle Bridge. That's a really great entrance to a city, by the way. All the geography was highlighted by the setting sun and twilight and the city lights and harbor lights were a welcoming beacon. This is a great town.
Monday morning we unpacked the car and Adam set about to put some things away and get things set up for his trip next week to DC. He'll have to pack for both a summer's living in DC and a week's reunion at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. I'll drive east in mid August and pick Leif and Adam up on the way to the beach and then drop Leif off in DC and drive back across the US of A with Adam. Another great set of road trips a mere three months away. One would think I did nothing but drive, but in reality I drive to explore. To see roads I've not seen before. To find those great small towns that I know are out there. To put more of this planet into my mind in a most personal way.
The drywall guys got nearly the entire house done today - Monday. By Tuesday, tomorrow, all the sheet rock will be in place and half the siding will be up. I'll focus on some house photos later in the week.
There are two photo essays - Bozeman at night, and Bozeman in the daylight, below. Enjoy, there's some great sights on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana, and I've tried to capture a few of them.
Chas
Inside the upstairs foyer looking west just after the sun set last Thursday evening.
Same view from the corner windows in what is shaping up as my multimedia studio.
And, just to complete the experience, the same view from the third-floor tower aerie. These
will be a standard element of our days out here in a few weeks when the additions are
finished, the carpeting installed and all the boxes unpacked and moved into their new rooms.
The completely retro gas-fired furnace in my Ranch House Motel room.
It is probably part of the original outfitting for the motel, which looks like
it was built in the late 1940's.
Main Steet Bozeman, Saturday night of the Class of 2004's Graduation Day at Montana State University. Image on the left
is of one of the local casinos at the north end of Main, the two adjacent are side and front views of the Montana Ale Works, a
local "brew pub" and MSU hangout.
Further south along Main, the Heeb's grocery store, American Bank and two-story architect's offices which front both sides of
Main in the older section of the street, closer to the railroad yards and original brewery.
An older apartment building on the left, looking south along Main and one of the westside-of-the-street original
turn-of-the-century shops, now a knick-knack and head shop.
The eagle neon sign over the Fraternal Order of the Eagles lodge, a shop window in the center, and a work of art looking into
one of the galleries which line Main Street. Bozeman is home to nearly a hundred local visual artists, and has over a dozen
well-stocked galleries sited along Main Street and some of the adjacent cross streets. The area has become home to a huge
array of artists - visual, musical, kinetic, dance, and more.
Getting toward the more concentrated center strip along Main Street, the image on the right is inside the window of one of the
local architects and shows a nearby river valley and a variety of homes and developments the firm is working on.
More scenes along Main near Rouse Street with bar/club on the left, antique toy shop in the middle and restaurant on the right.
More Main Street sights - corner shop on the left, wine bar in the middle and clothing shop and restaurant on the right.
Main Street right near Grand Street, the cross street which previously was the location of many of the town's turn-of-the-century
well-dressed set and a street which is esplanaded and lined on both sides with mature trees. On the left a local sign shop with
some samples of the different neon tubes one can use and a local book store using a goodly number of those same tubes.
More images taken inside a local gallery (left) and book store (center) and along Main Street (right).
More visual art, painting on the left, and sculpture with painting behind (center) and across the street at a club and shop.
Across the street from one of the old hotels, now restored, with three restaurants right next to each other on the main floor (left),
inside a local clothing store (center) and looking into one of the late-night coffee shops along Main Street (right).
Left and center images are inside the showroom windows of the "Thirsty Ear," a local very-high-end stereo shop. The image
on the right is in the window of one of the many local outfitting and tour firms. The Gallatin Valley is a huge tourist destination
for fishers, canoeists, backpackers, and horse-back riders as well as day-trippers.
A fishing rod-and-reel shop on the left and close-ups of one of the mechanical wonders in one of the clock shops along Main.
More clock shop photos with some of their local work on display. Inside are antique clocks, watches, designer watches and
clocks and custom-made timepieces.
Clock shop windows have always fascinated me, hence, even more photos inside the clock shop's nighttime windows.
One of Main Street's dozens of intersections on the left, a "Western" furniture and handmade object d'art store (center),
and another local work of art as seen through a gallery window on the right.
A far and near shot inside yet another gallery window on the left and center, and the fronts of two shops along Main on the right.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles neon eagle from the other side of the street on the left, a boutique in the center and a kitchen
and cooking store on the right, featuring modern variations of the old frontier cook stove.
The front of one of the offices housing architects and planners on the left, a fanciful window display for a clothing store in the
center, and Rocky Mountain Roaster's coffee shop at the north end of Main. They have two others in town, including a very busy
shop at the intersection of Main and Seventh Street right in the center of town. They roast their own and make their own
blends and happen to make a really good cup of coffee too! Also, for $2.50, one can have a 96-fluid-ounce carafe filled for the road.
Main Street in the daytime. On the left the Community Coop building. These guys can teach Puget Consumer Cooperative
a few tricks as they go many steps further in the organic food and recycling arena than does PCC. They also have a slightly
better set of choices for their bulk grains and spices. PCC needs to continue working to improve things. In the center, the
Lewis & Clark Motel with a "congratulations MSU grads" sign and on the right the Rocky Mountain Roasters coffee shop at
7th Street and Main.
A surf shop on the left, the overhead sign at 7th Street and Main in the center, and the former Bozeman High School building,
which is now the home to the town's arts and sciences private high school. Bozeman High is in a new modern facility a few
blocks south on Main.
The Gallatin Pioneer Museum on the left. The museum is in the former Bozeman and Gallatin County Jail, which has been
kept in its turn-of-the-century condition as a backdrop for a fascinating array of historical artifacts and dioramas which the
museum now has. In the center, the Gallatin County Court House building, right across the street from the city's largest
Catholic church.
It was Mother's Day so everyone going to church this Sunday was wearing their brightest and finest garments. Center and
right views are looking north along Main Street from just past the church.
On the left is one of the intersecting streets to Main with views off the mountains to the west. Center view is looking north along
Main Street, with mountains in the distance here too. The flags on the right are the US flag, the Montana state flag, and the
City of Bozeman flag in front of the Town Hall building with one of the older hotel buildings behind.
A couple items of local street art, on the left a mural depicting turn-of-the-century life in Bozeman as the backdrop for an
in-city block park. In the center is a fanciful waterfall treatment from the front door of one of the galleries to the street in
the center of the sidewalk. On the right is a historic metal etching reprint of a Bozeman Chronicle photograph of Main
Street in 1897 with the then new streetcar. Bozeman is nearly as old as Seattle. The west was pretty much settled,
it seems, in one fell swoop beginning at the end of the Civil War.
Facades of several of the buildings along Main Street showing off the elaborate window and door treatment so common of
turn-of-the-century brick and masonry structures. The ones in Bozeman have been well-cared for and maintained.
More daytime streetscapes along Main Street. The town two years ago completely refurbished the entire length of sidewalk
for the mile-and-a-half length of Main through the center section of town, installing new light standards and bike racks and
trash cans the entire length, as well as planting new trees to replace many which had died of old age. Pretty typical blue-sky
day for Spring in the Gallatin Valley.
A look south along Main Street near the center of town with the corner outfitter shop featured on the right. Bozeman
maintains the classic American Main Street look and feel along its "Main" Street. Back East, all the "main" streets
would be called "market" street.
Another tri-a-rama view along Main showing off more of the town's main thoroughfare with its cozy look and feel. It's the active
center of town and seems to have street life about 18 hours a day, seven days a week. It's also US Highway 191, which takes
folks south to West Yellowstone, which makes it a showcase avenue for the town since there's so many people passing through.
In addition to several multiplex theatres in local shopping centers on the outskirts of town or up by the University, Bozeman
has two original motion picture theatres - the Ellen being one and Rialto being the other. That's a "star" for Gary Cooper in
the sidewalk in front of the Ellen. He actually showed up here for the release of one of his movies way back when. Cooper
was born in Helena, a mere two hours up the road from Bozeman - maybe a half-day's drive back then, though. Home-made
wood toys are still available in a few stores in Bozeman.
Inside a wood furniture store and another set of shots looking along Main Street in the center and on the right.
Local wood carving art in front of one of the town's historic buildings - in this case the original all-grade school. The County
Courthouse in the center and a sign advertising the Intermountain Opera's latest production on the right. Bozeman has opera,
a symphony, ballet, a very well-used library system and lots of country and rock and alternative live music in the town clubs.
One of the local bike and outback stores in a house-turned-shop along Main Street closer to the University on the left. The
electric meter and explanatory sign in front of the Community Coop building in the center. The Coop has installed electric solar
cells on its roof and sells power back to the local utility as part of their recyling program. The meter shows the output of the solar
cells and converter - in effect the reduction in their electric bill by using self-generating power technology. The Coop is also
the local billboard for anyone wishing to post any notice even close to the alternative life style themes of Fremont. There are
hundreds of these notices, people post and update these items throughout the day so there's always something new here. The
Coop also operates an organic restaurant and grill upstairs along with a pretty good organic coffee shop. They have an upstairs
outdoor balcony for enjoying your lunch or coffee and looking down on Main Street.
The Bozeman Chronicle operates a pretty decent online newspaper as well as publishing a "real" paper seven days a week.
This is the Sunday edition in the paper rack outside the Coop. Center and right images are leaving Bozeman along I-90 and
passing through the Sapphire Mountains between Bozeman and Butte. These are some of the prettiest mountains in the entire
Rocky Mountains and I never tire of riding this or any of the other highways which go east-west through this part of Montana.
More scenes through the Sapphire Mountains heading west.. The skies are a fantastic reminder of what it really means to be in
the Big Sky Country of Montana. If you've never been to Montana, you're in for a treat. If you have, you know why it's probably my
favorite state in the Lower 48. Washington, Oregon and Northern California are all way up there, too. So then are Vermont, New
Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania and western North Carolina. Guess I just like mountains a whole lot.
Posted: Tue - May 11, 2004 at 10:44 AM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM