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| The Babcock Theater, in The Babcock Building, Billings |
Melvin and I were in Billings on Monday, August 10, having driven from Grand Junction, the first stop on our third itinerary of the year. We arrived in town just in time to see the Billings Mustangs beat the Idaho Chukars, 6-1.
Melvin and I headed downtown after the game for supper and to see the sights, including the 1907 Babcock Theater. And before? What about after? I will get to that. You knew I would and I know you knew. That's what makes this relationship special.
When I saw the Babcock marquee, I asked Melvin, "Suicide Girls? As in...," I wasn't sure what to say. "Branded tattooed soft-porn models" is a phenomena like other phenomena, but how often does someone utter such a phrase?
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| Riae Suicide, "Only for the Dreamers" |
Is it to Melvin's credit that he had no idea what I was referring to? Melvin is quite culturally intelligent but he is also married. Brands of pornography, perhaps even pornography in general, do not appear to be a part of his vast knowledge. Conversely, since my divorce a decade ago, my romantic and sexual lives have been fragmentary, with consequences that need not be verbalized.
"SuicideGirls is a website that features pin-up photography and profiles of alternative female models [that] functions as an online community with member profiles, member blogs, and the option to join networking groups based upon interests," according to Wikipedia [retrieved September 19, 2015].
Wikipedia explains further, "As of March 2015 the website features over 2,700 Suicide Girls, each billed simply under a first name or nickname. Most of the models have nontraditional appearance modifications...." (Those three words are even more wonderful than "Branded tattooed et cetera.) In addition to the pay site, there is also a tumblr blog and as a result, images of the models are reposted elsewhere.
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| Blackheart Burlesque |
And yes, I have since learned, some Suicide Girls perform as Blackheart Burlesque. At the Babcock Theater, the show cost patrons $27.00-112.00, before fees and other charges.
Other than our stroll past the Babcock, our short visit to Billings consisted of the already mentioned Pioneer League baseball game, a perfectly fine but fairly standard supper at the Montana Brewing Company, much pondering about Skypoint, the "punctuation mark for the city core" and breakfast at Stella's.
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| Skypoint (detail, with obstructions) |
When we got to Billings, a local resident confirmed that it is okay to park for free in the lot of the Billings Clinic Hospital. During the game, he circled back a couple times to chat. Melvin posed the question, "If we can only do one thing in Billings, what should it be?" Answer: Stella's. I ordered two of the Monster Pancakes and left half of one on my plate. Melvin had "some kind of omelet." I would not say we were steered wrong, even if that wasn't Melvin's question.
Before Billings
With a 10 hour drive between Grand Junction and Billings, Melvin had decided to get a head-start after the Rockies game. Before we hit the road, we shared a couple of tasty platters and spam musabi at Tropix Hawaiian BBQ. The strip mall storefront restaurant doesn't look like much but we are glad we reconsidered.
We spent the night at the Gateway Lodge, in Rifle, Colorado, an hour northeast of Grand Junction. Specifically, we stayed in Room 3, which had three beds and thus "a triple"—something of a private joke after a visit last year to Bowie, Maryland.
We were also reminded of the (then?) shopworn Dunes Motel in Bend, Oregon, where we stayed in 2009. The room at the Gateway Lodge opened with a key! Old school! Melvin and I had breakfast at the Base Camp Café, which we liked more than some. Taxidermy, and peach cobbler for breakfast.
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| nice kitty, which I imagine the Suicide Girls of having, imagination being the power behind pornography |
About one-third of the way to Billings, we toured the Wyoming State Penitentiary (1901-1988), operated now as the Wyoming Frontier Prison, with the irrepressible Sarah Trapp as our guide. Magpies! Thank you, Sarah. Most of my photos are predictable; prison tiers, a cell with antiquated plumbing fixtures, a concrete wall and guard tower.
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| gas chamber, Wyoming State Penitentiary |
I have seen several electric chairs but this was my first opportunity to witness a gas chamber. Some folks on the tour had their picture taken sitting inside the metal tank. Only Melvin and I took pictures of the recliner near the prison library, where no one sat.
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| recliner, Wyoming State Penitentiary |
An hour later, zipping along US 287, I looked south and exclaimed, "What was that?" The rows of abandoned dormitories turned out to be Jeffrey City, a modern-day ghost town (2010 pop., 58). Federal price controls to stimulate "Atomic-Age" uranium production (and the later withdrawal thereof), the OPEC oil embargo and Three Mile Island reactor accident all contributed to a boom-to-bust cycle that lasted only three years, 1977-1980.
See: Amundson, Michael A. "Home on the Range No More: The Boom and Bust of a Wyoming Uranium Mining Town, 1957-1988." Western Historical Quarterly. 26. (Winter 1995) 483-505. Print.
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| abandoned miner dorm, Jeffrey City image courtesy "Pannier People," Matt and Sarah Law |
Rick Landry has 10 haunting images of Jeffrey City taken on August 22, 2012—the first is of the abandoned elementary school, then scroll right—that are worth a detour.
Our detour (and a stop at an impossibly slow Dairy Queen) resulted in Melvin and me having only a half-hour to visit the excellent Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, a museum dedicated to telling the story of the World War II Japanese-American confinement camp. We are indebted to the staff for helping us make the most of our short visit.
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| hospital building (rear) and barrack, Heart Mountain |
The museum foundation has moved the former hospital and two barracks to the hill above the interpretative center. What had once been 450 barracks and other buildings is now farmland.
Please pardon the compounded clichés, but standing alone and derelict, the three buildings give mute testimony to the injustice done to Japanese-Americans in the middle of the last century. (My former father-in-law was interred at Minidoka.)
After another hour-and-a-half, we were in Billings, wondering if it was okay to park in the hospital lot.
And After
Tuesday, August 11, was a more leisurely day. Melvin and I slept in. The aforementioned breakfast at Stella's was unrushed, although that is more a comment on the restaurant than our aspirations. An hour later, we stretched our legs at the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park. Yip! Yip, yip!
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| not much to see at a prairie dog town |
Another hour on the road brought us to the American Computer & Robotics Museum. I think Dr. Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, was being generous when he reportedly said, "Inch for inch, the best museum in the world."
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| Apollo astronaut, Computer & Robotics Museum |
That corrective notwithstanding, it cannot be easy to acquire artifacts on a budget and arrange them into a full and comprehensible story. I think it would be fascinating to randomly select a dozen objects at a thrift store and ask students in a curatorial studies program to create a narrative. A table-top museum.
Continuing west for another 80 minutes, Melvin and I arrived in Butte, home to the Berkeley Pit, a former open pit copper mine and environmental time bomb. Since the 1,780-foot deep mine was closed in 1982 and the pumps shut down, highly acidic water has filled approximately half of the cavity. When—if?—the pit water level reaches the natural water table, in 10 years or less, it will reverse flow back into surrounding groundwater.
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| Berkeley Pit, Butte |
Melvin and I thought the Berkeley Pit would be more perversely beautiful. The tunnel from the gift shop to the viewing platform might be the most interesting feature. We would have gladly paid more to take a boat ride. "Please remember folks, keep your hands in the boat." Superfund is super fun!
From Butte to Helena, it's another hour. Suds Hut Famous Chicken seemed to be famous mostly for being famous. In business since 1969, many patrons must have fond memories of meals at the restaurant but those associations cannot have much to do with the food. Ice cold (32° F.) beer is served in ice-encrusted goblets, ensuring the beverages are entirely flavorless.
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| Helena Brewers at sundown |
Looking back, Tuesday was kind of a bust, but you don't know if you don't go. Our day ended with the Ogden Raptors blanking the Helena Brewers, 9-0. I look at that last image and I am filled with nothing but good feeling. I am sincerely and repeatedly surprised by the photograph's power to evoke that emotion.
The next day, Melvin and I would meet up with Watson in Kennewick, Washington. I mention that not as a segue but because (1) she is wonderful and (2) given the history of this blog, perhaps nothing more will be written about our August trip to Grand Junction, Montana and eastern Washington.
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