Easter in Montana, Post 2: Elkhorn ghost town

Continuing on from Post 1...

On Sunday, we had the meeting at Keith and Myrtle's home and then headed into Dixie's place for a lunch of leftovers with the relatives who were still in town. It had been a fun stay with Keith and Myrtle - they were great!

Us with John and Susy

Keith and Myrtle

After lunch, three carloads of us set off for an afternoon of exploring a ghost town and soaking in some hot springs!

Originally Ben and I had hoped to visit a particular ghost town that had been recommended to us by Chantelle and Bree, but that one was 3 hours from Helena. Once we found out that the others were planning a trip to the hot springs, we said we'd do that instead, in order to maximise our time with the rellies. However, they then suggested a different ghost town that was on the way to the hot springs, and they all came with us! It was a great solution, and fun to have others to go with.

Elkhorn is a ghost town that dates back to 1868, when the Elkhorn mine started producing silver, gold and lead. Up to 2500 people lived in Elkhorn in the 1880s. The boom ended in 1892, and the population of Elkhorn dwindled to the handful of people who live there today. As the town is surrounded by mountains and situated at the end of a dirt road a half hour drive from the highway, it really did feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was very quiet and peaceful.

Most of the old wooden buildings were deserted and dilapidated, but there seemed to be at least four inhabited houses. We got talking to one man who had moved from Los Angeles back to his family's home in Elkhorn in 2001. He's pictured below, and so is his three-legged, part-wolf dog!

The town hall - love this façade!

An Elkhorn resident

Three-legged dog

2500 people lived in this town and there was only one bath!

Ken and Liesl

Some of the group walked up around the mountain to the Elkhorn cemetery, but Ben and I turned back halfway as I didn't have the right shoes for walking in snow. We played a card game and ate some chocolate with Ken and Liesl while we waited for the others to get back to the parking lot.

Then, we all drove to the Boulder Hot Springs, where we soaked in the pools for an hour or two.

From there we said our goodbyes to most of the crew before driving to John and Susy's home for our final night in Montana. John and Susy live in a gorgeous A-frame house, surrounded by snowy mountains, near the town of Silver Star (population 30). We loved visiting their home and having the opportunity to get to know them a little.

After breakfast the next morning (Easter Monday), it was time for the 13-hour drive back to Vancouver. As we drove across Montana, the mountain scenery was simply stunning. We're looking forward to getting back to Montana soon!

Easter in Montana, Post 1: Juanita's 100th

For the Easter long weekend, we drove to Montana for Ben's great aunt Juanita's 100th birthday party! We finished work at lunchtime on Thursday and drove as far as Leavenworth, WA (330 kms) that afternoon.

Leavenworth is a Bavarian-themed town in eastern Washington. We'd visited it once 3 years ago. This time we stayed at a nice motel called the Linderhof Inn, and spent a while wandering through the town, looking in shop windows and enjoying hot chocolate and cheese fondue at Pavz Creperie.

Downtown Leavenworth

Pavz Creperie

On Friday morning, we had breakfast at our motel and then caught the twice-daily alphorn serenade on the balcony of the motel next door! It had been nearly 6 years since we last heard one of these (when we were in Austria for Matt and Kat's wedding), so it brought back fond memories of that.

Then we hit the road and drove the rest of the way (780 kms) to Helena, MT. It was snowing as we went over the last mountain pass, making the road ahead look like this...

We arrived at Dixie's place (Juanita lives with her) around 6pm, just in time to have a Mexican dinner with a large collection of relatives. There were so many of them that there were some of Ben's second cousins that we didn't even meet during the course of the weekend! However, it was great to catch up with the ones we already knew - Juanita, Dixie, Ken and Liesl, John and Susy, Lindi and her kids Emrick and Hannah, Connie, Merle, etc.

(A quick explanation of the family tree: Juanita's daughter is Dixie, and Dixie's daughters are Liesl, Susy and Lindi, who are Ben's second cousins. Ben's paternal grandfather, Jack, was Juanita's brother.)

After we ate dinner and heard various relatives and friends share their favourite memories of Juanita, we headed to our accommodation for the night: the home of Keith and Myrtle, whom we'd never met before. John and Susy had organised it and were staying there too. We sat up talking for a while before retiring in anticipation of the big birthday party at 1pm the next day.

On Saturday morning we met some of the relatives at Hub Coffee in downtown Helena, and then wandered the streets for a couple of hours.

Liesl and me

Hannah, Liesl, me, Connie

Liesl and Ken

Lindi, Hannah and Emrick

Me and Liesl

Sensible...

...and silly!

Around noon we headed to the party venue - a nice local retirement home - to help set up. Then, it was party time!

Over the next 3 hours, many relatives and friends came by to share in the celebrations and wish Juanita a happy 100th birthday. We think there were probably 200+ people there! Great aunt Juanita sat in a comfy chair over against the wall, and nearly everyone spent some time sitting with her and talking to her. Ben had our camera set up on the tripod and operated it by remote control to take photos of people visiting with Juanita, so we didn't get many other photos at the party.

We also enjoyed some singing by a local a cappella group, a song from two of Juanita's great-granddaughters, and of course some birthday cake!

Timeline of a 100 year life

Juanita with her three children - Merle, Dixie and Tim

Juanita and Merle

Juanita and Liesl

Juanita and Connie

Having a chuckle

Girl talk

Dixie

After the party, a professional photographer took various configurations of family photos in the entrance lobby. Again Juanita sat in a comfy chair and the groups changed around her.

It was approaching dinner time for the retirement home residents, so a small crowd gathered to watch the proceedings with the attentiveness usually reserved for riveting live theatre! As Juanita doesn't live at the home, no one recognised her, so we overheard many curious discussions about what could possibly be going on (we did fill them in after a while!).  One of the nurses told me they have four residents over 100!

Next on the itinerary was an Italian dinner in a local church function room. It happened to be Dixie's 60th birthday that day (Juanita's actual birthday had been 2 days earlier), so there was a surprise lavender cake for her. The dinner provided us a slightly quieter time to chat with relatives, so it was a lovely end to the day.

As we left to head back to Keith and Myrtle's, Juanita was still going strong. I was very impressed: she was the centre of attention, either talking or smiling nearly all day (and she's a little hard of hearing, which can't have helped)... but I called it a night before she did!!

Liesl

Dixie

To be continued...

Halloween in Montana

After Ken and Liesl's wedding, that night they hosted a Halloween party at the B&B. There were all sorts of strange sights coming and going...

























Ken and Liesl themselves didn't dress up, but they did show us what happens to people after they get married... ;)





And this scarecrow (i.e. Ben) spent a couple of hours standing motionless on the front porch, waiting for trick-or-treaters to come knocking so he could jump out at them (which generally had more effect on adults than children!)...







The next morning (Sunday), after an early meeting, we drove the 13 hours home. And that was our very quick visit to Montana!