Coeur d'Alene to Cardwell, Montana

We were back on I-90 by 7:30 a.m. heading to Cardwell, Montana 315 miles east. John had tried to get a reservation in Butte, Montana, but there is a National Folk Festival going on this week-end and the campgrounds are full. Cardwell was the next one east he found in his Trailer Life campground program.



In my mind, the thought of an entire day on the freeway and not using “blue roads” was depressing. But I-90 in Idaho and Montana is certainly not I-5 in California. We kept exclaiming about how beautiful it was. I took a photo at a rest stop of the green mountains. Maggie enjoyed the ride, too.

We passed a very large billboard for the Old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge and John indicated an interest in stopping. Since I’m usually the one who goes through all the tourist literature and says “Let’s go here or let’s go there” I was more than willing to do something he suggested.

The Montana State Prison was established in Deer Lodge in 1871 and constructed primarily with convict labor. It was an active prison until 1979. The Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation owns it now and offers self-guided tours. Frank Conley, the warden from 1890 to 1921 instituted a program of convict labor for projects at the prison, and outside the prison. He contracted inmates for construction projects throughout the state, and for labor on local farms and ranches. In 1916 50% of all inmates lived and worked outside the prison. This photo is of one of the guard towers.

There is also a huge car collection in an adjoining building where John spent more time in than I did. I went across the street to their toy museum. Speaking of cars, we have seen quite a number of Corvettes on the road. We started noticing them in Washington. But there aren’t many Priuses.



John had planned to have ice cream at the little ice cream shop next door when we finished touring the museums, but it had started sprinkling while we were still in the prison yard and it was starting to get serious when we left. And it’s getting too cold to eat ice cream so we drove on.

When we finally arrived at our destination in Cardwell, we found the campground to be a circle of sites behind the Cardwell store. The rain stopped just in time for a huge cloud of mosquitoes to greet us. I pulled out a can of mosquito fog that is supposed to keep mosquitoes out of an area for 6 hours. Well, 6 minutes maybe. John only hooked up the water and electricity. It was a pull-through site so we didn’t have to unhook the car. Quite a few mosquitoes got inside the trailer while we were going in and out. But we have a fly swatter that can double as a mosquito swatter.