Saint Ignatius, Montana, United States
In the jumbled Montana geography of mountains, plains, and
valleys, the Mission Valley is the southern part of the large valley through
which the Flathead River runs, generally the area south of Flathead Lake, most
of which is in the Flathead Indian Reservation, current home of several tribes.
The area gets its name from the Saint Ignatius Mission to the Indians
established buy Flemish Belgian priest Pierre-Jean DeSmet in 1854. The current mission church is still an
attraction in the small town in the valley, but the interior was unfortunately
closed to the public at the time of my visit because of the Covid plague.
Same story for the National Bison Range, technically a
national wildlife refuge but consisting of a big hill surrounded by the
Flathead Reservation. I’ve been past the
area several times and have intended to drive in. I didn’t realize that it was like the eastern
entrances to Glacier National Park, the federal government deferring to the
tribal leaders who want to keep things closed and tourists mostly out during
the pandemic.
It will have to wait for
another time when I’m in the northwest part of the state.
One of the more unusual sites in the valley is located on
the south side outside a small town named Arlee. The Garden of 1,000 Buddhas is a Tibetan Buddhist
religious site laid out in the shape of a massive Tibetan Wheel of Dharma with
a huge statue at its center, 1,000 statues of Buddha, and prayer flags on the
hill beyond. Although supposedly a spiritual
site, I didn’t see any actual worshippers when I was there, just a few curious
tourist types like myself. I will say,
though, that it’s location and layout reminds me completely of places I saw in
Mongolia and Tibet.
Instead of taking U.S. 93 north to Flathead Lake, I took a
more westerly road through the Camas Prairie and the town of Hot Springs. I tend to think of northwest Montana as being
a land of dense forests, but this area is a mostly a huge dry plain. True to its name, the small village of Hot
Springs contains several hot springs with small resorts around them, although
the word resort is a bit of a stretch for these small mom and pop operations
with some cabins or motel rooms. Hmmmm,
do I want to go in for a soak? Normally
I would, but my enthusiasm was minimal on an evening when the temperature was still
hovering in the low 90s.
2025-05-22