Tom had his alarm set for 6:00am on Friday September 15, 2023, but he was up a half-hour earlier to drop the Cosby kids off at the pool. It was a bittersweet morning for me. I was sad to leave Glacier National Park behind, as we saw some amazing scenery and emersed ourselves in some of the historic Blackfoot tribal culture. But at the same time, I couldn’t wait to leave the area – that UFO sighting and the unexplained creature in the bushes gave me the heebie-jeebies all night long.
My companions had the van packed and we were on the road by 7:20am. Technically, we were on our way back to Michigan. However, Tom’s well-planned agenda had us taking a less-than-direct route home; a route that would take us though southern Montana, into the northeast corner of Wyoming, and then completely across the center of South Dakota before we needed to decide which way around Lake Michigan we would go.
That Friday was slated to be a day of travel; but my photographer kept our total driving mileage down to roughly 420 miles for the entire day. In an effort to break up the monotony of the seemingly endless number of highway miles, Tom also broke the day’s trip nearly in half with a stop at Montana’s State Capitol Building in Helena. I had to admit, the drive south from Browning to Helena wasn’t as bad as the trip across the northern part of Montana as I was able to see the distant Rocky Mountains on the western horizon for most of the 175-mile drive. Plus, there were also some plateaus and beautiful buttes along our route that were very scenic in their own right.
A little over three hours after we left the Glacier Peaks Hotel in Browning, Montana, we arrived in Helena, which was the sixth smallest populated state capital in the country with only 34,690 residents. The five smaller capital cities by population were Juneau, Alaska (31,534), Frankfort, Kentucky (28,523), Augusta, Maine (19,058), Pierre, South Dakota (13,954), and Montpelier, Vermont (7,988).
During our ride from the expressway into downtown Helena, the capital city seemed low-key, with no tall office buildings or other noticeable structures – with the exception of the Capitol Building, which we saw rising above the rest of the city. Once we arrived at our destination, Vicki found a parking lot adjacent to the south side of the 165-foot-tall Capitol – from there, Tom carried me around to the more scenic northern side where I posed for a bunch of photos.
I’ve been to a lot of the State Capitol Buildings throughout our great nation and the building in Helena was one of my favorites. Completed and opened in 1902, the structure in front of us was the 17th shortest State Capitol Building in the country – even with the 12-foot-tall statue called ‘The Goddess of Liberty’ standing at the top of the dome. But what the building lacked in height; it gained in simplistic beauty – inside and out. The biggest disappointment for me was the flower bed, designed in the shape of the state of Montana, was barren – likely due to the time of year.
As gorgeous as the exterior was, at least in my eyes, I was stunned when my photographer carried me inside the building. Perhaps the highlight for me, besides the fact there was no security screening at the entrance, was the massive rotunda, which featured four huge circular paintings. Each of the impressive works of art depicted representations of people from Montana’s early history, including a Native American; an explorer/fur trapper; a gold miner; and a cowboy. After I posed for a few photos in and around the rotunda, we finished our visit on the building’s second floor, where Tom brought me to the area just outside of Governor Greg Gianforte’s office.
We made it back to the van at 11:30am after we spent nearly an hour walking the grounds and touring the interior of the Montana State Capitol Building. I had to admit, it seemed nice to relax and take our time at the capitol, but that was only made possible because we had the rest of the day to complete the 240-mile drive to Billings where we already had hotel reservations.
In the van, I was surprised when I heard my photographer say to his wife, “Since we have some extra time, let’s do a little freestyling. Let’s try and find an antique mall in Helena before we head for Billings. I need to find some historic artifacts to add to my collection.” Vicki replied, “Historic artifacts? Don’t you mean you need to buy more junk?”
It took just five minutes for us to complete the short drive to the Golden Girls Antique Mall, which was located on a street called Last Chance Gulch. After browsing the store for about twenty minutes, Tom left the building with two baseball cards in hand and a bad impression of the woman who was running the store. The old woman’s sour attitude reminded the two of us of Miss Almira Gulch from the Wizard of Oz. I wondered whether or not the street outside the store was named in honor of her.
My two companions knew they had a long ride ahead of them, and thankfully some of the landscape in the south-central section of Montana remained fairly scenic. About an hour after we left Helena, I looked out of the passenger-side window and saw a herd of wild horses standing on a hillside. It was an impressive sight – there must have been thirty or more of the stallions grazing on the grassy hill. I watched as Tom snapped an image of the herd – and then I laughed when he viewed the image through his camera’s monitor. My photographer said to his wife, who first noticed the grazing herd because she loves wild horses: “Those aren’t wild horses – they’re metal statues of horses. They sure looked real, but now I feel like an idiot for taking that picture of a string of metal hay burners. I wonder why we never see a metal Sasquatch standing next to a hillside tree. A Bigfoot would sure in the heck-fire be more intriguing than a bunch of damned horses.”
Those “metal hay burners” turned out to be called the Bleu Horses, and they were located on a hillside about six or seven miles north of Three Forks, Montana along Highway 287. The steel sculptures, created by artist Jim Dolan, totaled 39 horses in all and were completed and put in place on September 13, 2013. Unfortunately, we had missed their tenth anniversary by just two days. It’s highly unlikely we would have stopped for a ‘closer look’ anyway, unless Seth Meyers had been riding along with us.
At 3:45pm, after what felt like an endless ride across the southern part of Montana, we arrived at the Kelly Inn – our hotel for the night, which was located about four miles southwest of downtown Billings. For the first time on the trip, with the exception of our time in the western part of Glacier National Park, traffic and road construction was horrible. As luck would have it, however, my companions didn’t have to drive anymore that day unless they wanted to – which was exactly what my photographer wanted or “needed” to do.
Once Tom and Vicki had their belongings unpacked and into the room, the three of us headed on foot to the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, which was situated next to the hotel’s parking lot. I watched in horror as my photographer “put a hurtin'” on a southern fried chicken dinner, while his wife dined on the fine cuisine of fish and chips. As Tom brushed some wayward crumbs off his shirt, I heard him say to his wife: “I hope the traffic has calmed down a bit because I need to go to the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds to visit the spot where JFK delivered a speech in 1963. Since there’s still plenty of daylight left, I’d like to go there now, rather than take the time in the morning. This is one site I really don’t know what to expect – in fact, I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to access the fairgrounds where Kennedy gave his speech. I won’t know until I get there.” I was somewhat shocked when Tom’s wife took the news in stride and even more surprised when she agreed to drive us – even though my photographer suggested Vic stay at the hotel if she didn’t feel like making the six-mile trek across town.
Throughout the twenty-minute drive to the fairgrounds, Tom looked for the distinct plateau he saw in a photo of President Kennedy from 1963. My photographer told Vicki the nearly five-hundred-foot Four Dances Plateau overlooked the Yellowstone River and was very distinguishable behind the President in the picture.
Guided by our Siri GPS, we arrived at our destination – however, the Four Dances Plateau was nowhere in sight, and neither was the fairgrounds. Vicki drove the van into a nearly filled parking lot, while Tom approached a nearby security guard, who my camera guy hoped would provide some information.
After my photographer had a chit-chat with the guard and showed him the photo of JFK from ’63, the elderly man said we were in the parking lot for the MetroPark – First Interstate Arena, which was situated on the north side of the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds. He also said the reason for all of the congestion in the parking lot was because the arena was hosting the Goo Goo Dolls that evening. Tom explained we weren’t there for the concert, but instead he wanted to find the location of the actual fairgrounds where we’d have a view of the distinct plateau seen in the picture. The guy still seemed confused. After saying he didn’t recognize the plateau in the image, nor did he realize Kennedy had visited the area, the guard said we could gain access to the fairgrounds via a nearby entrance gate – which he claimed should be open.
Luckily, after the painful exchange between Tom and the guard had finished, the man was right. Vicki drove through an open gate on the west side of the huge complex and we found ourselves on the fairgrounds – and thankfully, no one else was there.
Then I saw it – the distant Four Dances Plateau came into view as Vic maneuvered the van around a pavilion and just east of a well-landscaped small pond. Once she parked our vehicle, Tom set out on foot with me in tow – he was on a mission to find the precise spot where President Kennedy stood 60 years earlier. My photographer used his ’63 photo of JFK and did his best to align the background, even though there was no way to know for sure if we were on the exact spot or not. There wasn’t a historic marker, or a plaque, or an ‘X’ marks the spot sign, or anything else which designated the location where President Kennedy had given his speech.
On September 25, 1963, President John F. Kennedy came to the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds in Billings where he delivered a speech in support of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which had been approved by the United States Senate just two days earlier. Kennedy gave praise to Montana Senator Mike Mansfield for helping lead the charge in securing the treaty, which would “end nuclear testing in the atmosphere, hopefully for all time.”
In the speech, which was attended by Montana Governor Tim Babcock, a Republican, and Democratic Senators Mansfield and Lee Metcalf, both from Montana, as well as Wyoming Democrat Senator Gale McGee, President Kennedy spoke to a crowd of over 1,500 people at the fairgrounds. During his fifteen-minute address, JFK pulled no punches as to what the test ban treaty meant to our nation. “We know that the struggles between the Communist system and ourselves will go on. We know it will go on in economics, and productivity, and ideology. But what we hope to do is lessen the chance of a military collision between these two great nuclear powers – which together, have the power to kill three hundred million people in the short space of a day. That’s what we’re seeking to avoid – that’s why I support the test ban treaty.”
As I stood in the gravel lot near the historic Montana Fair Racetrack, I thought about President Kennedy’s visit to Billings on September 25, 1963. Had our visit been ten days later, Tom and I could’ve marked the 60-year anniversary of the event. But during that moment, I also wondered if anyone in that town even cared about what happened six decades earlier. Would the city of Billings pay tribute to JFK on September 25, 2023, or would the fairgrounds site be as desolate as it was during our visit?
For a brief moment, I looked out and saw the distant Four Dances Plateau. While I figured the plateau wouldn’t have changed much in 60 years, I was surprised to see some of the other landmarks in the 1963 photo hadn’t changed much either. On that Friday afternoon at the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds, President Kennedy came to life in front of my eyes. I watched his thick, reddish-brown hair blow in the slight breeze as I listened to him speak in his thick, New England accent. As he looked in my direction and smiled, likely surprised by seeing a bobble head, it dawned on me JFK had only eight weeks to live. I wanted to shout out and beg him to not visit Dallas in November, but the President suddenly vanished before my painted eyes. I was alone, with my photographer by my side, as we stood in the empty lot – left wondering how our nation’s history would’ve been written had Kennedy not been cutdown by the CIA in the prime of his life.
We rendezvoused with Vicki, who waited for us in the van. I laughed to myself when I saw my photographer’s wife roll her eyes as Tom explained what it felt like standing where JFK delivered his speech. But she just doesn’t get it – and likely never will. To her, that site was only an empty section of the fairgrounds that looked like its better days had long faded away. To Tom and me, history came to life in front of our eyes, and we could feel Kennedy’s presence on that very ground.
The three of us made it back to our room at the Kelly Inn at 6:50pm where Tom placed me alongside the television set. For the next few hours, while Vicki watched videos on her phone, my photographer and I indulged in a couple of episodes of ‘Ancient Aliens’ on the History Channel. About two hours later, Tom shut off the lights in the room and was fast asleep shortly after.
As I stood alone in the darkness, I thought about extraterrestrial aliens; especially the encounter we had while riding in the van the previous night. In ufology terms, my companions and I had a close encounter of the first kind just outside of Glacier National Park. I wondered what the next day would bring – after all, we were headed for one of the most famous alien encounter sites in history, albeit movie history. That’s right – we were headed for Devil’s Tower. My photographer and I believe we are not alone in the universe. On Saturday afternoon, hopefully Tom will be able to prove it.
