Chinook, Montana

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (then every-other-day blog and now a two-or-three-times a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan –  The curse continues with yet another western OSer . . . MT; 112/92; 1/10; 12; 155.1 (highest Score since last December).   It seems like 150 is now months away . . .

I didn’t mess around this time – I landed in the granddaddy of OSers.  Here’s my landing map:

And a broader view:

I landed in the Snake Creek watershed.  This was my 9^th “snake” watershed, meaning that “Snake” has made my list of Common Stream Names (which requires 8 watersheds; Snake should have made the list a while ago – better late than never).  Anyway, I have 4 Snake Creeks; 2 Snake Rivers (the big, famous one along with a smaller NE river) and 3 Rattlesnake Creeks.

So, Snake Creek flows to the Milk R (11^th hit); to the Missouri (353^rd hit); to the MM (750^th hit – congrats to the MM on this milestone!)

Here’s a picture of the Milk just south of Chinook (north of my landing):

Here’s my GE shot, showing a non-agricultural (prairie?) landscape:

I went to the Chinook town website and found the following charming back-in-the-day photos.  In this first shot, I can’t imagine what was going on:

I love the austere lines here:

Here’s some serious turn-of-the-century advertising:

I also found this shot, of a prairie homestead outside Chinook in 1909.  Note the caption “A Western Bachelor’s Home, Wife Wanted” :

Moving closer to my landing, here’s another landing map:

I want to draw your attention to the area east of my landing, where it says “Chief Joseph Battlefield.”  I was floored.  Only three landings ago (Joseph, Oregon) I landed in the Wallowa Valley, Chief Joseph’s home turf.  In that post, I featured the life of Chief Joseph, and discussed his final battle in Montana, where he gave his now-famous speech ending in the words “I will fight no more forever.”

Amazingly, I landed just three miles away from the site of Chief Joseph’s final battle:

Here’s an overview of the battlefield (in a dryer time of the year):

Photographer Howard Noel put together a wonderful photo essay on the “Nez Perce Trail” which documents Chief Joseph’s journey from the Wallowa Valley to his surrender just east of my landing.  I recommend that you click here to see it.

I have lifted his last photo and the caption below the photo:

On October 5, 1877, five inches of snow had fallen on this plain and Joseph, seeing the futility of continuing on, surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles. These two rocks mark the place where the chief stood as he stretched out his arm and relinquished his rifle saying, “It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death….Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. FROM WHERE THE SUN NOW STANDS, I WILL FIGHT NO MORE FOREVER.”

I’ll close with this picture of a plaque at the battlefield site with the words (you guessed it) “I will fight no more forever.”

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2010 A Landing A Day