Roadtrip Around Montana - Whitehall
 | Author:
Brenda Phillips
Brenda Phillips: MT43 News Office Administrator |
Road Trip Around MT – Whitehall, MT
Brenda Phillips
We went for an afternoon drive up the highway to Whitehall to check out the Lost Hawk Rendezvous. It took a little bit to find their rodeo grounds where the encampment was taking place.
There were a lot of large hunting camp type tents, with vendors selling wares of all different sorts, from furs, rocks, handmade knives, jewelry and wooden toys for children. All of the vendors were dressed in frontier period clothing. Several tents had clothing that you could purchase if you were into going to a frontier-type encampment or rendezvous. We even found a full one-piece buffalo robe jumpsuit. I imagine it would keep you really warm if you wanted to go out in the cold winter, if you could tolerate the smell. There was even a tent that sold Scottish kilts, medieval garments, including a chain mail shirt, helmets, swords and other stuff that would be appropriate for a medieval rendezvous. There was a fella in a loincloth by some teepees, explaining the structure of the teepees to a group of people. At one tent, “Ma” was selling Indian Frybread and Indian Tacos.
We also went to the Montana Western Legacy Center Museum, which is just off the highway in an old Town Pump building. They have a lot of really cool antiques and historic items from the local area. They have a display about the horse named Spokane that won the 1889 Kentucky Derby. Spokane was raised/trained in the round red Doncaster barn that is near Twin Bridges. They had a display about top national rodeo stars from Montana, which included national champion saddles that they won at the NFR and a couple bronzes depicting big-name Montana cowboys like Deb Greenough, Dan Mortensen and Benny Reynolds. They have a very big collection of rocks and fossils in their geology room. They have plenty of Montana items in their gift store. The Legacy Center is open all year long and is well worth an afternoon trip to Whitehall to check it out.
