The Empire Builder

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part A: Getting There IIIa2

Montana -- The Big Sky Country

We were traveling on what folks in this part of the country call "the High Line," which is to say, we were traveling across Northern Montana, often within 50 miles or so of the US Canadian border. We were also traveling along the Missouri River Valley, paralleling the route of Lewis and Clark.


It is an area of large grain operations. And we passed many fields of wheat and other grains, some of the already harvested, others of them in the process of being harvested. And along with the fields and the harvesters at work, we also saw the other part of the production process: the grain elevators, spaced at regular intervals along our route.


And we passed the farmsteads, many of them well kept up and obviouly still part of a going operation.



There were also many reminders, such as this stockyard, of the fact that this was not only grain country, this was livestock country.



Ah, but this was not just one large "Garden of Eden" we were passing through at 89 MPH. People who live in this part of the world have to work to produce food for our tables. The country has many rock formations that break up the fertile fields.


It also is a place where when the spring ponds dry up in the heat of the summer sun, they leave Alkalai deposits around as a calling card.


And ultimately, we knew there was an end to all these fields of grain, and herds of cattle. There was coming, and very soon, the looming of the mountains, the Rocky Mountains, into this land of sky and grain and cattle.


But more on our entrance into that part of our journey on the next posting.