what's becoming an annual trip
Sep. 18th, 2007 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraI just got back from what is becoming my annual research (really!) trip to Montana and Yellowstone, this time to get material for the sequel to Charley's story.
It was a flying trip (nine days, 1 1/2 days traveling each way). I spent my first night in Missoula (about 500 miles from here) as I usually do, then on the second day got to Helena about noon. I spent my first afternoon at the public library there, which has a lot of material in their Montana collection about early days in the park, and then the next day I spent the entire day at the Montana Historical Society library, reading old newspapers and going through manuscript collections. Found quite a few goodies about the time in question (1903-04), and made photocopies and took copious notes. The next day I drove down to Bozeman (a morning's drive) and spent the afternoon at the Gallatin County Historical Society, where among other things I found a book on a subject that I'd had a heck of a time finding anything about and never expected to find a whole book about [g]. Which will enrich the heroine's background exceedingly.
The next day, I spent the morning in the Montana State University Library's Special Collections. Not as useful as I'd hoped, but I did have a good long talk with the librarian there, who had a few insights I hadn't thought of. I spent the afternoon at the Museum of the Rockies, which is mostly famous for its dinosaur exhibits (Jack Horner, the man Alan Grant from Jurassic Park was based on, is headquartered there), but which also has a very good Montana history exhibit.
That night I drove on over to Livingston, and the next morning I drove down to Gardiner, where the Yellowstone National Park Heritage Center (library and archives) is, and spent an exceedingly fascinating few hours reading the logbooks of the Old Faithful Soldier Station for 1903-04. I have no idea how many pages of notes I took, but I took plenty.
And thus I finally made it to the Park. After the Heritage Center closed on me, I drove down to the Norris Geyser Basin and walked the trails there, then went on to West Yellowstone where I stayed at the hostel (the one where I had a rather ghostly experience a number of years ago -- nothing this time, however [g]).
The next day I spent in the Upper Geyser Basin, taking pictures of the Old Faithful Inn and other pertinent locations, and just missing an eruption of Grand Geyser. I did see Daisy and Old Faithful, however, and since Grand was due to go off the next morning, I decided I'd drive back in before I headed home and see if I could catch it. Which I did. In spades [g].
I left for home about one in the afternoon, got to Missoula that evening, and drove on home yesterday.
And that was what's becoming my annual research (and fun, of course) trip to Montana and Yellowstone. The next one will probably be on my way to WorldCon next August [g].
It was a flying trip (nine days, 1 1/2 days traveling each way). I spent my first night in Missoula (about 500 miles from here) as I usually do, then on the second day got to Helena about noon. I spent my first afternoon at the public library there, which has a lot of material in their Montana collection about early days in the park, and then the next day I spent the entire day at the Montana Historical Society library, reading old newspapers and going through manuscript collections. Found quite a few goodies about the time in question (1903-04), and made photocopies and took copious notes. The next day I drove down to Bozeman (a morning's drive) and spent the afternoon at the Gallatin County Historical Society, where among other things I found a book on a subject that I'd had a heck of a time finding anything about and never expected to find a whole book about [g]. Which will enrich the heroine's background exceedingly.
The next day, I spent the morning in the Montana State University Library's Special Collections. Not as useful as I'd hoped, but I did have a good long talk with the librarian there, who had a few insights I hadn't thought of. I spent the afternoon at the Museum of the Rockies, which is mostly famous for its dinosaur exhibits (Jack Horner, the man Alan Grant from Jurassic Park was based on, is headquartered there), but which also has a very good Montana history exhibit.
That night I drove on over to Livingston, and the next morning I drove down to Gardiner, where the Yellowstone National Park Heritage Center (library and archives) is, and spent an exceedingly fascinating few hours reading the logbooks of the Old Faithful Soldier Station for 1903-04. I have no idea how many pages of notes I took, but I took plenty.
And thus I finally made it to the Park. After the Heritage Center closed on me, I drove down to the Norris Geyser Basin and walked the trails there, then went on to West Yellowstone where I stayed at the hostel (the one where I had a rather ghostly experience a number of years ago -- nothing this time, however [g]).
The next day I spent in the Upper Geyser Basin, taking pictures of the Old Faithful Inn and other pertinent locations, and just missing an eruption of Grand Geyser. I did see Daisy and Old Faithful, however, and since Grand was due to go off the next morning, I decided I'd drive back in before I headed home and see if I could catch it. Which I did. In spades [g].
I left for home about one in the afternoon, got to Missoula that evening, and drove on home yesterday.
And that was what's becoming my annual research (and fun, of course) trip to Montana and Yellowstone. The next one will probably be on my way to WorldCon next August [g].
