We have just returned from a trip to northcentral Montana. It was time to cross the Missouri on the three ferries that still exist for this purpose. We were able to cross at Carter and Virgelle, but the McClelland ferry was closed on the day we tried to go there.
We opted instead for the Bear Paw Battlefield, a National Historic place that reaches inside your soul and tears a piece of it away. This is the location of the final six-day seige prior to Chief Joseph's capitulation and surrender. I don't know if I have ever been in a more haunted place. It has been kept in as pristine condition as possible, so you can really understand what the Nez Perce people were seeing and feeling. The little stream and springs still supply water and the grasses still move in the breeze the same way they probably did in that fateful period of 1877. There is good interpretive literature there, and trimmed and mowed trails allow you to walk in the footsteps of those who were there. It might be a little out of the way, but every Montanan should see it!
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