Sunday May 28, 2000 - Helena and Three Forks

We got up about 6 AM and showered in our individual cubicles. After having a continental breakfast we went off to the Montana Historical Society in Helena. We saw the outside of the capitol building, which is being redone back to its original look. Then we went in the MHS building and saw a wonderful Charlie Russell exhibit - his paintings have so much detail.

Another interesting art exhibit was the one by Karl Bodmer depicting the expedition of Prince Maximillian of Wied and his servant Dreidopple. There were also exhibits on Indians, miners, ranchers etc. We saw a smoothing plane dated 1875 which looked just like the one from Grandpa Frey.

After that we boarded the bus and came back for a marvelous champagne brunch on the train. The train proceded upstream along the Missouri, providing views of pelicans, osprey, and other waterfowl from the observation car. We traveled by train as far as Trident, near Three Forks. This is the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin rivers which define the headwaters of the Missouri. We got on the bus at Trident and went to Missouri Headwaters State Park, where we not only saw the other rivers, but also watched our train roll past us to Manhattan, our next pick up point. From here we travelled by bus to the old mining towns of Virginia City & Nevada City.