6-11-2023 Billings, MT

I’m not sure what’s wrong with the people in Montana.  It’s freezing outside.  Raining and freezing, like in the 60s!  And they are wandering around in tiny little skimpy running shorts, spaghetti strap tiny undershirts and flip-flops.  What is WRONG with these people?!  My toes are blue!  Oh!  And they are all frolicking and swimming in the pool.  As for me, Thank God I have a down jacket with me.

 

Today was an administrative day.  By now, we all know this one.  Vacuuming, laundry, changing the sheets, paying bills, cleaning and lubing the towbar, washing bug guts off and so on.  Even people on vacation have to do the laundry.  Still, we found a great restaurant this evening which began with Kyle mixing an excellent ice cold martini at the bar at the Montana Club.  Then, Rob had a big Montana ribeye steak and Lindy had salmon, halibut and shrimp.  We deserved it after working all day and freezing our asses off.  Tomorrow is play day.

 

Preston Boyd Moss (PB) was born in Paris, MO in 1863.  He was a high-energy man, an innovator, a dreamer and entrepreneur extraordinaire.  He was born into a family of some wealth as was his wife, Martha (Mattie).  PB wanted to own a bank.  (Don’t we all?)  He learned of 2 that were for sale in Billings, MT, and in 1922, the family moved to Billings.  PB was more than a finance guy, though.  He organized the first dial telephone company, founded a newspaper that today is called the Billings Gazette, created a central heating plant and a utilities company, built and ran a hotel, partnered with his neighbor I.D. O’Donnell to develop irrigation systems for the farm land and create a sugar factory (from beets), built a toothpaste factory and a meat packing plant.  In his spare time, he ran for Congress in 1922 but he didn’t win.  He is known as “The Man Who Built Billings.”

 

The Moss Mansion decades ago

The Mansion and Museum today

The family lived in rentals for a short time and then decided to build a “home.”  And a home it is, indeed, all 14,000 sq. ft. of it.  Whereas the average cost to build a home in 1900 was roughly $5,000, the final bill for the Moss Mansion rang in at $105,000.  The construction project was completed in 1903 and Mattie busied herself with the interior décor and furnishings that she acquired from around the world.  That’s when she wasn’t raising six kids.  The family lived in the mansion all their lives until the last surviving daughter died in 1984.  Being in a state of ill-repair by that time, it was sold to the city of Billings for $450,000 and restored, a never-ending work of art in progress.  Everything in the mansion/museum is the original private belongings and furniture of the Moss family, right down to the Persian rugs and silk wall paper.  The enterprising PB also had a state-of-the-art (at the time) intercom system and dial telephone installed, both still there.  They lived the dream.

Solarium and tea room

PB's office

Humble dining room and bar

 

I. D. O'Donnell was PB's neighbor
and lived in this crappy little house

There she blows!  Lewis and Clark walked
right by here.

Hiking up the steps to see Clark's
autograph

Lewis and Clark and the crew, continuing on the expedition westward, paddled the canoes along the Yellowstone River right through this area.  They happened upon what is now a landmark national monument named, “Pompeys Pillar.”  (Pronounced like, “poppy,” only with an, “m.”)  Clark originally named it Pompy’s Tower, Pomp being the nickname he had given to Sacajawea’s baby, Jean Baptiste.  An editor of Lewis and Clark’s journals changed the name to Pompeys Pillar.  It is a massive rock that was left behind when the wind and water blew the dirt and sand away over millions of years.  Or, if you believe the Indians, one of the great spirits rolled it across the river, given that there are lots of these on one side of the river and just Pompeys Pillar on the other.  Could be.  The great spirits don’t have much else to do.  Clark was so taken with the rock that he climbed halfway up and chiseled his name and the date into one flat surface, “W. Clark July 25, 1806,” a 217 year old artifact.  This piece of history is now protected from today’s vandals by a thick Plexiglas shield. 

 

Clark's signature is on the right
with the brown frame behind Plexiglas

"W. Clark July 25, 1806"

Several hundred steps up.  We made it!

Today, the back roads took us to Spearfish, SD where we hope to get in some pickleball with friends Gary and Connie.  But first, a repairman will come to fix a chip in Noobee’s windshield.  It’s always somethin,’ Jane.