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4. Choteau
Montananshaveanexpressionforthekindofsunlightthatbreaksthroughtheclouds,cast-
ing luminous beams on the prairie below: God Light, they call it. Inspired as much by
Montana's broad horizons as by its often celestial light, novelist A. B. Guthrie, Jr., who
lived in Choteau, titled his best-known work The Big Sky.
Alternatingbandsofyellowandblack(grainandfallowsoil)marktherhythmofplant-
ing around Choteau, known for its abundant wheat and barley harvests. The rough quarry
stones of the old courthouse reflect the town's pioneer pride, but Choteau also looks to
even earlier times. The Old Trail Museum on Main Street displays the fossilized bones of
the duck-billed Maisaura dinosaurs, which thrived here long ago. Nearby Egg Mountain, a
Maisauranestingarea,yieldedthefirstdinosaureggfoundintheWesternHemisphere.Hu-
manhistoryisancientheretoo:WindingacrosstheprairiejustwestoftheSawtoothRange
liesatrailsaidtohavebeenblazedthousandsofyearsagobyMongol“proto-Indians”who
crossed the land bridge from Asia during the Pleistocene ice age.
5. Freezeout Lake
About10milessouthofChoteau,themarshesofFreezeoutLakeappeartothewest.During
waterfowl migrations in spring and fall, you'll find more birds here than anywhere else
in Montana. Well over a million descend upon the 12,000-acre sanctuary, including some
300,000 snow geese and legions of other birds as lovely as their names: long-billed cur-
lews, marbled godwits, black-crowned night herons, white-faced ibises, sandhill cranes,
tundra swans, cinnamon teal—even shorebirds from California and gulls from Peru.
6. Great Falls
When Meriwether Lewis first viewed the Great Falls of the Missouri in 1805, he pro-
nounced them the grandest sight he'd ever seen. They were grand, those lovely cas-
cades—until the Missouri was fattened up here by hydroelectric dams, stopping up many
of the original falls. Today Great Falls is the second-largest city in Montana, and its civic
pride is based more on commerce and kilowatts than on natural beauty.
The city and its environs are, however, the heart of Charlie Russell country. The
renowned artist lived in Great Falls for much of his life, drawing inspiration from its
cow-punching past. The C. M. Russell Museum on 13th Street North showcases his
work—you'll find oil paintings, watercolors, sketches, sculptures in wood and
bronze—along with many illustrated letters and Russell memorabilia. Included in its col-
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