Seniors gone wild - Day 5

That's a big sky for sure!

When you're a flatlander, it's always so awesome to see this in the distance. We always forget how much we LOVE the mountains. We can't wait to get there!

We really loved Montana. It's so pretty and spread out. Some of it is old some of it is new. And even the big cities are small in comparison to Indy. Our original plan was to go north and visit Glacier National Park, but their website said that they didn't expect the roads to open until mid June. Other than that, we didn't really have a plan for Montana. So, on a whim, we decided to go to the World Mining Museum in Butte. Butte is a fascinating city. You can read about it in Wiki.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte,_Montana

 Anyway, surrounding the museum is an old mining town. There are probably a couple dozen buildings, 17 of them original to the area. A few were from other old towns and a few were recreated. 

This is in the old original church. I love these old stoves. I don't imagine that the church got a lot of use in a mining town though...

...because the biggest "business" in town was the brothel!

And of course, the bank.

These things are spread out ALL OVER Butte! Easily 50 or so. Some of them are just right in the middle of neighborhoods. There are only a couple still in use though. 

They offer a tour of one of the old silver mines. Of course we signed up! It was only 100 feet down but it was a pretty steep walk in places. 

 They have a nice Memorial for all the miners that have died doing their jobs.

Butte has an incredibly toxic history. We drove around the old part of downtown and the homes are all 100+ years old, beautiful, unique, quirky for sure. Half of them are just abandoned and/or boarded up but a lot of them are being renovated now. People are starting to come back to Butte. Really interesting city. 
We spent the night in Butte and had dinner at a the local diner/casino :-)