Built To Last - 1901 Cornerstone, Butte, Montana

Strolling downtown Butte, Montana allowed new perspective on this Masonic architectural icon, in perfect conjunction with Monday’s devotional cornerstone analogy. (Thank you, Jennie Allen.)

Also stirs grateful rememberings of turning life corners out of darker trails. (Although I do have a penchant for alley meandering…perhaps more pondering to be had on this one!) 

Route 66 House On The Hill - Butte, Montana

As a whippersnapper, The Best Husband Ever watched the TV show Route 66, admiring the cool cats who travelled the USA in their cool Corvette.  A few months back, we stumbled across the series on Prime and watched a couple episodes for nostalgia sake, including Season 2, Episode 1 filmed in Butte, Montana. On our jaunt to Butte last weekend, we found the episode’s iconic boarding house still in good shape and just up the hill from the Mother Lode Theatre. Travellers to Butte can stay there and enjoy the Big Sky hilltop views of  Continental Divide mountains and the graduated hues of Butte’s historic open pit copper mine. 

Stage Set Up - Mother Lode Theatre, Butte, Montana

Balcony view of the band stage setup for 406 shows off some of the many gorgeous lines and 1923 design details in Butte, Montana’s historic Mother Lode Theatre. (Click here to see ceiling detail at top of photo.)

Looking Up - Mother Lode Theatre, Butte, Montana

Unexpected beauty found looking up in the top balcony of the Butte, Montana historic Mother Lode Theatre. Great Made In Montana show in progress with Butte’s own Ken Rich opening for 406 and The Tomcats.

Doorways - Butte, Montana

“Our time is our life, and our attention is the doorway to our hearts.”

-John Mark Comer in The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World 

Narrow Doorway - B'Nai Israel Temple, Butte, Montana

“Every doorway, every intersection has a story.”

-Katherine Dunn (1945-2016)

(This pictured classic doorway is a side entrance to the B'nai Israel Temple in Butte, Montana. Read some of its story here.)

Star Light Star Bright - Missoula, Montana

The Kootenai Forest in the great State of Montana is providing the 79-foot tall 2017 Capitol Christmas Tree, and Missoula, Montana's very own Washington Corporations is responsible for the creation of a new star to top this year's tree. Astonishingly, this is the first new star since 1972, which also happens to be the first star from any state supplying a tree.

Close up and personal, the star is gorgeous, with extra shine from copper framing each point. The featured copper is a nod to Montana's illustrious copper mining history centred in Butte, America, as it used to be known. Standing 5 feet tall and weighing in the neighborhood of 40 pounds, the star meets size restrictions instructed by the office of the Architect of the Capitol.

Click here for real-time tracking of the 2018 Capitol Christmas Tree and here for photos as it journeys east. (Perhaps it should follow the star?)

Or you could stop in at Paducah, KY, next Wednesday, November 22, to see the tree en route and join in the city's multiple related festivities.  (And visit the gorgeous National Quilt Museum - I kid you not! - while you're there!)

Before the homegrown star begins its big journey, you can see it live at Missoula's Southgate Mall this Wednesday, November 15, from 6-8:00 PM Mountain Time.

To watch the lighting ceremony, tune in to a major TV station or internet livestream on Wednesday, December 5, 2017, at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. 
(Apparently, Wednesdays are a good day for starlight!)

In any case, I hope you're inspired to let your very own little light shine!

793F Haul Truck: Action Shot - Montana Resources, Butte, Montana

"The tendency of philosophers who know nothing of machinery is to talk of man as a mere mechanism, intending by this to imply that he is without purpose. This shows a lack of understanding of machines as well as of man."

- Arthur Young (1741-1820)

Authentic Ambience - Lydia's Supper Club, Butte, Montana

Nothing croons 'supper club' quite like velvet upholstery - red on these pictured  dining room chairs, deeper wine red on the main room's curved banquettes, and raised floral patterned in the curtain valances and on the swivel chairs in the bar - and all original from Lydia's Supper Club's 1964 expansion. (Caveat: 'original' as determined by our deeply pondering dinner conversation segment on this topic.)

HIPSTER ALERT: Come to Butte, Montana - Lydia's Supper Club is your interior design Mecca.

For the rest of you: Come enjoy lingering dinner conversation - Lydia's iconic Butte Italian ambience comes replete with relish tray, ravioli, spaghetti, French fries and spumoni, and unlimited Montana hospitality.

(P.S. Note the stained glass panel on the right wall, one of Lydia's historic collection of 33.)

Return Trip - Montana Resources, Butte, Montana

A CAT 793F 240-ton truck rolls along under the big Montana sky, headed for more to haul. Read a little more about these particular big beauties in this article in Butte's local paper, The Montana Standard.

Gothic Arch Glass At Lydia's - Butte, Montana

Butte, Montana's iconic Lydia's Supper Club features a collection of 33 amazing stained glass windows, framed and backlit, as the primary wall decor. Today's sampling hangs in the bar and is described thus: "No. 20  Gothic arch stained glass with antiqued engraving in the rear. Red and green. From a church in Bath, England. 1798."

Accumulated Cumulus - Near Butte, Montana

"And see those clouds?'

'Hard to miss'
'Those are cumulus clouds. Did you know that?'
'I'm sure I should.'
'They're the best ones.'
'How come?'
'Because they look the way clouds are supposed to look, the way you draw them when you're a kid. Which is nice, you know? ...” - Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

Springtime In The Rockies - Above Butte, Montana

"You know you can't sing and be mean at the same time." - Gene Autry in "Springtime In The Rockies" 1937)

Poured Poetry, Shelby, Montana

"We are not all poets

But God pours poetry
In, above, around us
In everything we see"

 - from "We Are Not All Poets" by Janet Martin

Visit Janet at Another Porch and dive into more lyrical sunshine - or any other strain of thoughtful word weavings she has on offer.

Fort Shaw Splendour, Central Montana

If, during your Montana road trip along Hwy. 200, you pull over to read the historical marker sign at the Fort Shaw, this is the view you might see - or a very gloriously comparable one.
A different angle of how history brings new perspective to our lives.
(Zoom in to read the sign in the second photo.)

Re-Purposed, Harrison Avenue Theatre, Butte, Montana

Butte, Montana’s Harrison Avenue Theatre
opened in 1917. Still a player in the business community, these days it serves up human drama of the barbershop and bread-making varieties.

Post-St.Patrick Picture, Butte, Montana

Given the city’s Irish devotion, Butte’s historic M&M Cigar Store sign seemed a fitting follow-up to St.Patrick’s Day.

The M&M was opened in 1890 and, in the tradition of all-night establishments in Butte, its doors have reportedly never been locked.

Night Lights, Butte, Montana

“Looking down from the mountain, it’s like
someone threw diamonds all over the floor.
But coming into the valley, the lights illumine
what is true, and real.

That‘s what the city‘s like - surreal & dazzling from afar.
But when you get down to touchstone reality,
It‘s pretty much the same as right here…

Because you can‘t leave yourself behind.”

- from Cubic Zirconia by (ahem) Cyndy Hull






I know, I know - what has it come to that I’m quoting my unpublished journals? But descending into the night lights of Butte, America, will forever remind me of reading words fresh from my pen and realizing, “I think I just wrote a country song…”
Not that I have anything against country music; I just never aspired to write a song in that category. For the record, that’s my listening genre of choice on Montana road trips - it just seems right. Hit the radio’s Seek button to find a clear country station, then sing along once you catch the tune. Absorb a little down-home flavour via local news and commercials. Smile at the live and unfettered elation of caller number four when the DJ announces yes! they’re the winner of county fair concert tickets. And on rolling stretches bereft of any station at all, open your eyes wider, take it all in, and let your soul feed on the quiet.

Valentine's Motorcycle Connection, Butte, Montana

Hmmmm... connecting this photo with Valentine's Day....Butte, Montana, LOOOVES Evel Knievel, who LOVED motorcycles, & this one features a skull, which is a symbol of the greatest love ever shown.

(How's that? Not bad, if I say so myself.)

1890, Butte, Montana

This building probably is an established downtown feature in Ivan Doig’s Butte story, “Work Song”.