September 1-3rd ~ Missoula, Montana
Yogi welcomes us to Jellystone Park
It was Labor Day weekend, and many of the parks were already booked for the end-of-summer holiday. It is normally quite easy for Tim and I to find places to stay with our tiny rig, but traveling with others that have larger rigs makes it more of a challenge. The long spaces are more limited in number.
Thankfully my sister had done the research and found Jellystone Park in Missoula. I think her comment was something along the lines of, “come on, who would not want to stay there…”. So of course it was added to our itinerary.
But I am getting a little ahead of myself, as the drive from Polson to Missoula offered up a few photo ops.
St. Ignatius Mission
This Roman Catholic Mission church was built in the late 1800’s, and is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation. It is best known for the 58 paintings done by Brother Joseph Carignano, an untrained artist, who worked as a cook at the mission. The inside of the church was currently undergoing some restoration and scaffolding can be seen in the photos.
The mission was declared a National Historic Site in 1973.
There is a small museum and gift shop next door as well as the original log home where the Sisters lived.
Museum and log cabin
This picture inside the museum stood out to me, as both beautiful and I was amazed that everyone had been identified.
Names of those pictured above
Continuing on toward Missoula, the farms, quaint old buildings and natural scenic beauty made the drive very enjoyable.
I wanted to stop at this farm. Looks so inviting.
Old schoolhouse, now appears to be a meeting hall
Long straight patches of highway with gentle hills in the background
Bridge exclusively for animals to protect them in crossing over the highway
Located in Western Montana, along the Clark Fork River, this is the second largest city in Montana (after Billings).
The city is also home to both Montana’s largest and its oldest active breweries which Jan and Mark were looking forward to visiting. Tim and I joined them for moral support 🙂
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF)
“Since 1984, the RMEF helped to conserve more than 6.7 million acres (26,700 km²) of habitat. RMEF also helped to restore long-absent elk populations, with herds being reestablished in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ontario, Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin.” ~ Wikipedia
Although I applaud them for their conservation efforts, I had a hard time with the hunting aspect they support. They believe that “hunting is conservation, that every citizen is entitled to hunt and fish, and that science-based, state-regulated hunting drives wildlife conservation and management”.
Pronghorn
I am certainly no export in this area, so don’t want to condemn, it just goes against my love of life, animals and nature. Probably need to get off my soapbox, as I feel like a hypocrite by eating fish and still occasionally eating meat, and understand people who hunt to put food on their table.
It is the “trophy” aspect that hurts and eludes me.
Be forewarned, the walls were covered in hunting trophies
Now what about that petition to save Yogi Bear?
My brother-in-law suggested this, and I had to agree. Somehow this just seems wrong…
Free Yogi!
Coming Next: Back into Idaho
GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I am grateful that there are organizations who care about and are trying to protect our wildlife, whether through conservation groups, legislation, education, rescue and rehabilitation centers, or constructing bridges over busy highways. I see more and more of our Millennials leading the way in education us “more mature” members of society in how to care for and protect all God’s creatures. Our son is vegan and keeps encouraging Tim and I to learn more. As we inch slowly in that direction, I applaud all those who have already made that step toward being vegetarian, vegan or plant based.
A Note From Abroad 
I don’t support hunting but simply because it is a violation of Jewish law to hunt when domesticated animals are available to be slaughtered. The thought is the domesticated animals have exchanged freedom for security and safety and therefore lack the same level of self awareness and joy in life as a wild and free thing. However I do 100% support hunter and fishermen for the very simple reason that I know many of them and as a group there is no bunch more dedicated to habitat preservation and no group with a keener sense of awareness of what nature really is or how fragile and fleeting one life is. Even an apex predator like a cougar can be killed or injured. One kick or their prey and their jaw is broken and they die. Many animal lovers seems to think nature is all about strolling about in a park nibbling grass without an awareness of how each and every second of each and every day a wild animal can die in a split second because its all about predators killing prey. Their lack of understanding about the cycle of life and the true nature of ecosystems leads them to support stupid mistakes and idiotic policies that often make the lives of animals worse not better. They cry over an individual instead of thinking of the ecosystem as a whole with multiple parts. White tail deer are not native to the west and their invasion has resulted in great damage to the ecosystem as a whole such as the spread of disease carrying ticks that have led to moose getting into serious trouble in much of Canada. This is directly related to the loss of hunters in the west. Hunters are part of that life and death struggle when they hunt and so they understand the ecosystem in a way those who don’t hunt can’t. If the deer population is not controlled by hunting, many deer will die slowly by starving to death over the winter in a far worse way than the sudden death by a bullet. There are stupid yahoos who abuse the privilege and don’t respect the rules of the hunt but they are by far the exception not the rule. I have learned more about nature from hunters than any animal lovers group. So I have decided far more good comes out of hunting than bad. As for the trophy, I think of it as a hunters way of paying ones respects to a magnificent animal. That’s my opinion. I say it not to try to make you feel bad or contradict you, but rather to try to make you feel better about what you saw, perhaps offer an alternate perspective.
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Thank you very much for your well-written and thought provoking comments. You bring up some valid points about habitat preservation and how fragile the balance is in nature. Not sure that I can ever get comfortable with the head of a magnificent animal hanging on the wall, but certainly appreciate your point of view and input.
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I can’t say I like it either but it is something with the hunter mentality and these trophies almost always eventually end up donated to a museum or education centre. Such places are often the only way city children can see one of these animals up close. The kids will actually wear the fur off a trophy stroking it and then it’s discarded and replaced with another donation.
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What she said. When I first moved to Colorado, I felt the same way as you do. Little by little I became aware of it’s importance like it or not. The locals are accustomed to and look forward to the meat, which is “hormone free”. Colorado has “lottery system” which allows only a certain number to be hunted. I and other locals despise trophy hunters.
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I know that a good argument can be made for allowing Mother Nature to balance herself out. A fabulous and fascinating study was done about that when wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park.
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Unfortunately man’s interference has thrown her off balance for sure.
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Love the gorgeous old school house, and also the bridge for the animals. Do they use it, I wonder?
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I think they do use it.
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Sadly I voted,’No’, because of the reason stated in the question … humans, eh? A strange species.
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Yep, Yogi might just be too tempting for some if he is set free 😁
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Since Missoula is a college town and all the partying and pranking that entails, if Yogi wasn’t chained down, he would be fair game and might possibly go for a cruise in the Clark Fork River, or parasailing from the “M” or any of many unfortunate adventures. In fact, he probably has been on one or two or more, which is why he is now chained…
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That makes a lot of sense. Poor Yogi!
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I agree it’s sad to have Yogi chained, but in this world I’m afraid I vote he has to stay that way if we’d all like to see him remain at all.
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That seems to be winning the vote. 😩
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I like the way Yogi’s chains are painted to blend in. At first glance, one doesn’t notice the chains. And, isn’t that the way it is for most of us? So many of us are bound by chains we don’t see. Sometimes we see them and pretend not to. Sometimes we’re even proud of our chains. OK. Just had to say that. I’ll put my chains back on now and shut up. 🙂
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Very interesting and astute observation. Thank you.
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