Ooops- Virginia City, MT

Our motel managers and I became good friends.  They gave us a great tip about our trip up to Glacier NP. They suggested we take a little side-trip to Virginia City, MT, the first territorial capital of MT.

This was a town that still contained its original buildings. It was the site of a gold strike in the early 1860's and the city came to be shortly thereafter. The buildings were interesting, and we love history and so seeing these places was a delight. The docents were knowledgeable and friendly.

One of the MOST STRIKING characteristics was that it was NOT at all commercial. No one tried to sell us. There was a bus tour and a horse-drawn carriage tour.  We chose to walk and see things at our own pace.

Here's the VA City barber shop.  My dad was a barber, so this gets close to home, since I spent many hours in his shop as a shoeshine boy.

I took this photo in VA City. If you have ever been in bear country, this has BIG meaning.

Here's a photo that could surprise you. Back in the lat 1970's Brenda and I did a historical architecture tour in Lexington, VA. One of the things I recall from that many years back was that the old time construction supervisors would cut structural beams down, losing a lot of their stenght. They would build structures taller and taller until they got too tall, and had a collapse.  Thank you we have made some advances.

We saw this bad engineering other places on this trip too.

This was a neat little side trip and I would recommend it to anyone.