A view through a Bannack window.
Wallpaper inside the Bannack State Park visitor center.
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Bannack, Montana was founded in 1862 after a major gold discovery. It served as the capital of Montana Territory briefly during the civil war. The last residents left in the 1970s.
“Images from Bannack” are from July 30, 2010, our third visit to Bannack.
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A Sundancer Class C motorhome at Bannack State Park, Montana.
A view from the Bannack State Park visitor parking lot.
The State Park visitor center building, below, was once owned and occupied by carpenter George French.
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Bannack, Montana was founded in 1862 after a major gold discovery. It served as the capital of Montana Territory briefly during the civil war. The last residents left in the 1970s.
“Images from Bannack” are from July 30, 2010, our third visit to Bannack.
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On July 26, we moved from Arco, Idaho to Bull Trout Campground, about 26 miles down the road west of Stanley. The campground is next to two lakes, Bull Trout Lake and Martin Lake. Our campsite was in the newer section of the campground and was just a short walk from the smaller of the two lakes.
We didn’t get over to the larger lake – Bull Trout – other than driving the loops to see what the other campsites looked like. We walked the short distance to Martin Lake and hiked all the way around it.
The campground was 1.9 miles down a very dry dirt road whose surface was like powder. Fortunately, it rained that night. The rain washed the worst of the dust off the car and there was very little road dust for the rest of our stay.
The campground elevation is 6900 ft in a mixed growth forest of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine. Wildflowers are plentiful.
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July 25, 2010, Arco, Idaho
After a day trip with crystal clear skies for most of the day, it turned cloudy and very blustery as we were getting back to the campground. 
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We own a modern motorhome – a class C – and had two other recreational vehicles previously. We bought the first one in the late 1980s, a small, used travel trailer. The second was a fifth wheel trailer that we bought new. We’ve had our motorhome for a little over two years.
I’ve been a bit curious about the history of recreational vehicles in America and, last weekend, came across an article from the early days of vehicle camping, “Luxury Trailers create new army of Modern Gypsies,” published in the April 1936 issue of Popular Science.
I’ve republished the article , Modern Gypsies, as part of a reference library of vintage articles and articles I’ve written related to recreational vehicles. At this point, though, the library is rather sparse, with only three articles.
Needless to say, the campers of 1936 differed greatly from many that we see today. There are a lot of similarities, though, and a lot of innovation. There are also “interesting” snippets:
Jack Bartlett, Tucson, Ariz., showman, recently purchased a trailer for $395, loaded into it a trained donkey weighing 800 pounds and a trunk containing fifty horned toads. With these as his performers, Bartlett tours the southwestern United States staging toad races and exhibitions of animal intelligence in hotel lobbies and schools.
An itinerant minister, traveling through sparsely settled sections of the West, has converted a house-type trailer into a portable church. He seats a dozen people, preaching from a small chapel and pulpit at one end. A woman evangelist, Mrs. Julia A. Locke, tours the country in her trailer, preaching from a platform while music is provided by a bungalow-type piano carried within.
The early days of work campers, I guess.
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Last week we took a short trip to eastern Arkansas and, after that, over to northeast Kentucky.
Our first campground was at Village Creek State Park. The park is located on Crowley’s Ridge, a geologic anomaly of rolling hills in eastern Arkansas’s Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
With five trails totaling 7 miles, we had hoped to spend one day in the park doing some hiking.
Unfortunately, there was some kind of gnats hatching out. After taking one walk the first evening where we couldn’t get away from them, we decided to alter our plans and check out some of the other parks in the area.
The first day, we went to Parkin State Archeological Park and Jacksonport State Park. The next day, we drove over to Memphis and spent a few hours at Mud Island. I’ll be posting more on these as I get the photo gallery set up for each one.
The last evening that we were there and the next morning before we left, we didn’t have much problem with insects at all.
Our next destination was Paducah, Kentucky, so that Karen could go to the annual Paducah Quilt Show. Karen has several posts on her blog from the quilt show:
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Canton Lake’s Sandy Cove Recreation Area was our first camping stop on our 4 week western trip in 2009. It was an early enough stop for some leisurely relaxation. It also provided a wonderful setting for a glorious sunset – and plenty of photos!
(click on image for larger version)
See more of our Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
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Financial woes of another state budget could result in more park closures. An Associated Press report in Business Week says funding proposed in Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s budget recommendations could prevent a new state park from opening as scheduled and force the closing of other parks.
"We’re going to have to make some tough decisions because we don’t want to thin the soup any more," Johnson said. "It will mean shutting down the parks that don’t have as high visitation so we have the resources to maintain those parks that have higher visitation."
Johnson said the cut would mean the state parks won’t be able to hire maintenance workers, rangers, workers for fee collection stations and other employees needed to run all the parks. Johnson said his office would look at park closures and more limited hours, but he said it was too early to say which parks would be shuttered.
Read the Buisness Week article: Parks chief: La. gov’s budget would force closures.
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September 15, 2009 – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
On our last full day in Colorado, we toured the six-mile Mesa Top Loop Drive, visiting most of the archeological exhibits and overlooks.
Square Tower House cliff dwelling is named for the four-story-high structure standing against the curved back wall of the alcove. About 60 of the original 80 rooms of Square Tower House remain.
All of the cliff dwellings, including Square Tower House, were part of the final Mesa Verde building phase. People lived here between AD 1200 and 1300.
Small lizard on a ruin wall
After spending the morning among the ruins, we took a drive in the afternoon. At one point, we found ourselves on open range, with the road blocked by a herd of horses. As I very slowly eased the car forward, the horses parted and let us through.
image and information from September 15, 2009
This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About
Pithouse – For thousands of years, native peoples were living in the surrounding areas before coming to Mesa Verde. As with people all over the Southwest, Ancestral Puebloans lived in modest dwellings — shallow pits dug into the ground, covered with pole and mud roofs and walls, with entrances through the roofs.
In this excavation (above), what appears to be one pithouse is actually two. The larger one, built first, around AD 700, was destroyed by fire. The smaller one, which looks like an antechamber to a larger room, is actually a second pithouse built soon after the first one burned. It contains a new feature, a verticle ventilator shaft in one side, which appears in pithouses from then on — innovation!
Above is an Ancestral Puebloan kiva – an undeground religious room. The small circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld – the Pueblo place of origin. This early kiva design was continued in the Mesa Verde villages and cliff dwellings.
Many fires have swept across Mesa Verde over time. Recent fires have exposed previously undiscovered Puebloan sites.
At our campsite on our final afternoon in
Colorado, 2009.
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Update: Arizona State Parks to Close
January 16, 2010
According to major news sources, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, major budget shortfalls in Arizona will result in the closure of 13 state parks by June. Eight others have already been closed.
The Los Angeles Times:
The New York Times:
The Washington Post:
In a Huffington Post editorial, Chad Campbell, the House Democratic Whip in the Arizona State Legislature, describes the reappropriation of a quarter of a million dollars meant for state parks:
It’s ironic that, in today’s rough economic times, state parks are being closed. During the Great Depression, construction of state parks provided need work for thousands of young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
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