Chapter 1: In the Beginning

How I got Started Down the Slippery Slope of Archaeology Addiction.

After three years, I finally got out of the hospital ... YEA! 1985. Well, not exactly ... I had to participate in group once a month, but that’s a story all by itself.

I took the bus from Sheridan, Wyoming, home to Lewistown, Montana, and discovered my wife had managed to get me out of the house for the summer. She volunteered me to work for the Federal entity responsible for unoccupied Federal Lands not part of the National Forests or National Parks ... depending on the map, the land they oversee is yellow or orange ... most of it is west of the Mississippi.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Management for you city folks ... and ‘Them dirty bastids wanting to tie up our land’ for you ranchers who want to graze cattle on it, you loggers who want to cut it down or you miners wanting to dig it up.) took me on as an excavator and general bottle washer at an archaeological site called “Lost Terrace” on the Wild and Scenic Missouri River.

There’s “way to hell and gone”, “out in the sticks”, “35 miles past the middle of nowhere”, “holy shit!” and “you cain’t get there from here” when you’re trying to describe where “Lost Terrace” is located ... they don’t even come close!

I loaded my camp gear on the BLM owned 2 wheel drive oversized Suburban and three of us, the Lewistown BLM Archaeologist ... whose name I don’t recall, but should ... and Jim Brown, driver ... whose name shall forevermore strike terror in my heart ... loaded up and headed out from the BLM office at the airport. Turning left at US 87, the adventure began.

After the 3 hour drive west on US 87 from Lewistown, Montana to Great Falls, Montana, we turned right ... on US 87 ... then we drove nearly 2 hours northeast to Big Sandy and turned south east on State Highway 236, a gravel road.

I kept thinking, ‘The wife is gonna have these guys dump my body in the river or a gully someplace.’

After an hour or a little more, we turned back west on an even worse gravel road with the dubious name of Five Corner, past the missile silo and eventually turned back south because there wasn’t any other choice ... then Five Corner turned right. We took it to Hogg road turned left on Hogg (South again) then west on Eagle Butte and south again ... to a dirt path then west a little bit and south a lot along a wheat field ... where we were met by a Land Rover pickup belonging to the University.

We transferred all my poles, (I took my tipi, they said I’d have to camp) me and my camp outfit to the pickup. I said goodbye to the original driver and hello to the crazy man who looked at the poles and then at me and back at the poles, shook his head and mentioned he’d taken the Paleontologists to their digs and my itty bitty tipi probably won’t be a whole lot of trouble, probably.

“We had the National Guard take the Archaeologists in by Huey but your guys have got an almost road in there now,” he grinned. “We’ll make it.” And before I could jump out we were off. I’d thought the roads were pretty awful before ... but THIS one ... mules ain’t in it!!

When we got to the cliff above where we were heading I’d been “orienteering” in my head ... Lewistown, (remember Lewistown? Lewistown was where we started.) was about 60 miles due south.

When you’re out in the back of beyond there just isn’t an easy way to get to “here” from “there.”

Looking down on the site I could see a little army tent and several little bubbles that were colored nylon pot tents. They were a long way down. If you Google map Montana, cycle in until you can pick out Lewistown, Great Falls, Big Sandy and Judith Landing. Today, there’s a bridge from the north side of the Missouri River at Judith Landing to the south side of the River ... that’s NEW.

There used to be a free ferry there, until it had an engine failure, got blown down river and sank ... with the pilot and the little tug and two or three cars ... and some people. Lost Terrace dig was during the time between the dead ferry and the present bridge.

Chapter 2 »