homeward bound...

...but not before taking a leaf out of the prospectors 'handbook' of the 19th century West and following the trails that took some to great wealth and many others no doubt to great frustration.

Not only is Montana known as Big Sky Country but also 'The Treasure State' because of it's mineral wealth. Gold, silver and copper a trifecta of riches and others including platinum and precious stones...the State's motto 'Oro y Plata' Spanish for silver and gold.
On the trail are remnants of a portion of a mining town at Reader's Alley at the aptly named Last Chance Gulch where in July 1864 four miners took a last chance and found 'colour' in their pans and then onwards to  Butte.
Once the 'richest hill on earth' Butte began life as a gold mining town but by 1902 20% of all the Copper production in the US came from Butte.
Open pits and mineshafts are located within and around the city and high on a Rocky Mountain ridge of the Continental Divide  stands 'Our Lady of the Rockies' a 90' (30m) statue dedicated to the Virgin Mary (extra, yes the tiny dot on the mountaintop). Originally planned as a 5' statue by a local resident in thanks for the recovery of his ill wife, the project grew like topsy and she now stands some 8000ft above sea level and 3500 ' above the town of Butte .

But we are on a mission to find our own 'lady', this one not as fancy as Madge of the Mountains but naming a burrow of tunnels into rocks near the town of Basin.
I worked with radon gas in Namibia as an exploration tool in the search for Uranium and when researching and reading before coming on this magical mystery tour of Montana and was surprised to read of its supposed curative properties.
Old and now defunct mines around Basin and Boulder have a new life as  thousands of visitors (many coming back annually for decades) visit the mines and sit in the burrows for an hour at a time absorbing the mild radiation said to ease arthritis amongst many ailments.
Courtesy of Kim at the petrol station's directions we head off to the Earth Angel 'Arthritic Mine' down a dusty road and hidden away in a hillside guarded by a shamble of cabins and six boisterous dogs.
We believe we are the only three sitting in a cool, damp and tight little chamber soaking up the rays ( very strange after last year's episode with radiation!) Not so as down a dark corridor come bear like sounds...yikes!! And the bear spray is in the car!
Not so a bear as it turns out but a bear of a man who wanders out of his dark alcove just after we do and no doubt a tad miffed by the trio of chattering women spoiling his retreat.
The walls are covered with messages from folk who have visited the mine and many leave inscribed stones and tokens in nooks and crannies(extra) and we leave our monikers on a bench autographed by many others.

Chirpy and creakless! the trail takes us home via Trader Dave's for THE best barbecue ribs and beer and so endeth 'The Loop'.