Floundering in Fairmont

Our next stop on the way to Kalispell was Fairmont RV Park.

It was conveniently located right next to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort (see Internet photo below) where we had dinner our first night in the park.  Unfortunately we never made it to the Hot Springs pools at the resort and you'll find out why later. 

 

This was really a lovely resort with beautiful outdoor hot springs pools and a nice looking golf course.  All this in the middle of (really) nowhere.  But, it is a "hot spot" (yes, that's a pun) and there were a lot of people at the resort taking advantage of its many amenities.

Here's the rig in our spot at the RV park.  As you can see it isn't loaded with trees, but we did have some beautiful views.  Wish I had pictures of them!

We took a drive over to the town of Philipsburg after church on Sunday (we attended a small church in the small town of Anaconda).  Philipsburg is a charming 19th century mining town that was once voted among the Prettiest Painted Places in America.  The restored buildings are just the beginning of what this town has to offer.  The town has antique stores and charming gift shops, and there was one place in town where you could "mine" for valuable Montana sapphires. 

 

Here are a couple of shots of the main drag.

 

These three sculptures were on a corner of the street and they do have a story!  In July 1878 a band of Nez Perce Indians returning south from Canada after eluding the U.S. Calvary crossed into what is now Granite County.  While passing through they attacked a small mining camp located on a tributary of Rock Creek at McKay Gulch.  Three miners were killed.  A fourth miner, James Jones, escaped in a hail of gunfire.  Although wounded, Jones managed to out maneuver his pursuers by climbing Mt. Emerine (8,629 ft. elevation). He then struggled cross country for 25 miles back to Philipsburg to alert the town about the Indian danger. From that day forward Jones was known as "Nez Perce" Jones. He died in 1926 at the age of 82.  It's hard to see, but there's a second Indian sculpture right behind Jones in the "V" of the tree.

 This was one of the historic, restored buildings.

 Loved the way this restaurant decorated their shutters!

The town of Philipsburg was named after the famous mining engineer Philip Deidesheimer, who designed and supervised the ore smelter around which the town was originally formed.  The surrounding hills still show the scars of mountains that have produced vast deposits of silver, manganese, sapphires, and to a lesser extent gold.  Granite, Tower, Rumsey, Black Pine and other local mines were considered home to thousands of hard working men in the late 19th and early 20th century glory days.  Philipsburg is also home to Granite Ghost Town which we visited.

It was a long, windy dirt road up to Granite Ghost Town, but we were not deterred.  Partway up, we stopped at the ruins of the Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway.  The tramway was constructed in 1889 to carry ore from the Blaine Shaft in Granite to the Bi-Metallic Mill in Kirkville, near Philipsburg.  The tramway was 9,750 feet long with a vertical drop of 1,225 feet, and was the longest aerial tramway in the United States at that time.  The tramline consisted of wooden towers with rollers and guides on the ends of both arms.  These rollers supported a very large moving cable that the tram cars were attached to.  Here are its remains.

 

 

 

 

 

We saw at least three animal skeletons on this trip.  Here's Sadie contemplating the set of bones at the aerial tramway site.

 

 These next two shots were taken on the road to Granite ... not quite there yet!

 

Granite Ghost Town State Park showcases remnants of this once thriving 1890s silver boomtown that bears stark witness to Montana's boom-and-bust mining history. Hector Horton first discovered silver in the general area in 1865. In the autumn of 1872 the Granite mine was discovered by a prospector named Holland. The mine was relocated in 1875. This was the richest silver mine on the earth, and it might never have been discovered if a telegram from the east hadn't been delayed. The miner's backers thought the venture was hopeless and ordered an end to its operation, but since that message was delayed the miners worked on and the last blast on the last shift uncovered a bonanza, which yielded $40,000,000.

In the silver panic of 1893, word came to shut the mine down. The mine was deserted for three years, never again would it reach the population it once had of 3,000 miners.

 This was the Hyde & Freychlag Bank ... the only bank in Granite.  Notice the snow on the ground?

 All these houses below were on "Main Street" as was the Miner's Union Hall and the rocky jumbles.

Today there is no one living in the camp. The state park preserves the Granite Mine Superintendent's house and ruins of the old miners' Union Hall (below) which have been included in the Historic American Buildings Survey

The three-story Miners Union Hall was built in 1890 and was at one time the social center of the bustling mining town.  The second floor housed union offices, a library and a large hall with an 18' ceiling, wallpaper, and a special maple spring floor for dancing.

 Here's another animal skeleton in Granite.

 The rest of the ruins we saw were basically rock jumbles like these.

 

We had a car calamity while we were up on the mountain in Granite.  The Jeep blew its thermostat and it was hotter than a hot tamale.  I wish I had gotten a picture of the steam coming out of the radiator when Gary removed the radiator cap.  We looked like we were burning up ... and indeed we were burning up.  Muy caliente!  We got it cooled down, added some water and headed back down the mountain.  We had to stop a few more times to cool 'er down and add more water but we finally made it back.  Whew!  The most annoying part of all of this was the fact that we just replaced the thermostat 1-1/2 years ago!

We decided to say goodbye to Fairmont RV Park and drag the Jeep to our next city (Missoula) where we felt we would have a better chance at getting the Jeep fixed.  Because, of course, this happened on a Sunday when everything was closed!  So, THANK YOU.  We're done floundering in Fairmont and we're off to the next town and most likely we won't see you again.

Isaiah 45:7

The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.