| DAY TRIPS
DAY TRIPS IN THE AREA
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Enjoy all Montana has to offer. You’ll experience beautiful scenery, historical sites and a little culture. BELGRADE Incorporated in 1906, this important wheat shipping and milling center and one-time home of the famed Belgrade bucking bull, was established. A Serbian who purchased land in the vicinity is thought to have named Belgrade after the capital of his country. The first steel grain elevator in Montana was built here in the summer of 1904 by the Gallatin Milling Company. Belgrade Chamber of Commerce 406-388-1616 | www.belgradechamber.org
MANHATTAN A far cry from its New York cousin, Manhattan’s claim to fame is its annual Manhattan Potato Festival, featuring potato products from local farmers. Initially called Moreland, families from the Netherlands moved in to grow barley from malters near the new little town of Manhattan-renamed in January 1891 by a group of New York City investors who operated the Manhattan Malting Company. Incorporated in 1911, it was established in 1884 on the new railroad line. Manhattan Chamber of Commerce 406-284-4162 | www.manhattanmontana.com
THREE FORKS & MISSOURI HEADWATERS STATE PARK The town of Three Forks is situated at the headwaters of the Missouri River. This area is the geographical point where the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison rivers join to form the Missouri River and has some of the most colorful early history in Montana. It was significant to Lewis & Clark on their epic journey, to fur trade, and to the early Montana settlement. In addition, Three Forks was the crossroads of Indian trails. It was here that, just west of town, Sacagawea as a child was abducted from her tribe, the Shoshoni. Later, as an adult, she famously guided the Lewis & Clark Expedition through the area. The Lewis & Clark party arrived at the headwaters of the Missouri River in July 1805 and camped a week along the Jefferson River just above the headwaters, while Clark recovered from a fever. In 1806, Clark was guided by Sacagawea across the valley from the three forks to the pass leading directly into the Yellowstone.
Visit the Headwater State Park or the Headwaters Heritage Museum in downtown Three Forks for more history on the Three Forks area. On your visit you can enjoy camping, hiking, wildlife viewing, picnicking and historical interpretive sties. The Missouri Headwaters State Park is located four miles north of Three Forks just off Interstate 90 and is open year-round. Parks fee charged. Three Forks Chamber of Commerce 406-285-6743 | www.threeforksmontana.com
VIRGINIA & NEVADA CITIES Once a booming gold mining town, Virginia City was also the original capital of the Montana territory. Located 14 miles from Ennis, on Highway 287, Virginia City offers visitors the opportunity to walk along boardwalks and relive a part of the past. Both historic and architecturally significant, the past comes alive and your imagination will take over when you visit the restored buildings in this city frozen in time. Virginia City’s Opera House offers summer stock theater, providing night after night of authentic Victorian theater and a rollicking vaudeville variety show. This is Montana’s oldest professional theater, and not to be missed. Once a lawless town, Virginia City’s darker history includes many tales of vigilantism, widely considered to be a blight on the history of Montana. Visitors to Boot Hill will find the graves of five road agents that were hung in 1864. Virginia City Chamber of Commerce 800-829-2969 | www.virginiacity.com
LEWIS & CLARK CAVERNS Located about 1 hour from Bozeman, these spectacular underground caverns offer visitors a chance to take a guided tour through the cave. Discovered in the early 1840s by local ranchers, the caves have been toured by visitors since the early 1900s. Proclaimed the Lewis and Clark Caverns by Theodore Roosevelt, the caverns offer visitors a unique look at nature’s underground beauty. The park also offers an information center, fireside programs, a café, gift shop, and shady picnic areas. The park is open year round for camping and hiking and the caverns are open for tours May 1- September 30. Call for admission fees. Lewis & Clark Caverns 406-287-3541
LIVINGSTON Just over the Bozeman Pass is a taste of the Wild West in Livingston, home of Calamity Jane and many more characters. Jimmy Buffet sings about it in Livingston Saturday night — “A rockin’ and a rollin’ on a Livingston Saturday night.” You’ll find delicious restaurants, exquisite fare, unique clothing and gifts as well as The Sleeping Giant resting in the Absaroka Mountain Range, visible just down 2nd Street and from most places in Livingston. Be entertained by the Blue Slipper Theatre and Firehouse Five Playhouse featuring musicals, drama and comedy. Visit The Livingston Depot Center that captures the spirit and history of the West through a variety of media, artifacts, photography, art and costumes. More than 500 objects and photos are exhibited. Livingston Chamber of Commerce 406-22-0850 | www.livingston-chamber.com
GARDINER Gardiner is located at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park which features the famous Roosevelt Arch as well as numerous restaurants and shops. Founded in 1880, Gardiner became a center of activity for visitors to the region, serving as the original, and only year-round entrance to the park. This frontier town fed and sheltered miners and entertained the early soldiers who operated Yellowstone National Park. Elk regularly roam around town, while bighorn sheep come down from the mountain to graze within view. Gardiner Chamber of Commerce 406-848-7971 | www.gardinerchamber.com
GALLATIN GATEWAY The agricultural and cattle shipping center was originally named Salesville for Zachariah Sales who settled there in 1865 and operated a saw mill for logs floated down the West Gallatin. Its name was changed in 1927, when it became home to the Milwaukee Railroad’s 42,000 square-foot Spanishstyle building, the Gallatin Gateway Inn, and the starting point for trips by bus through Yellowstone National Park. After extensive restoration, the Inn is once again a gracious, full service hotel, offering superb dining and accommodations steeped in history.