One afternoon while staying in Garrison, Phil and I took a drive around this 100-mile circle on Montana highway 1. We started the loop on the north end at Drummond and our first stop came when we saw a homemade sign saying “museum”. An arrow pointed to a driveway where a life-size steel sculpture of a massive pachyderm was tethered by a chain beside the porch of a modest and rustic looking building. We were met by the artist, a softspoken, modest retired rancher named Bill Ohrmann. He walked over from his small house when we got out of the car and unlocked the front door for us as we delighted in the many life-size sculptures around the yard including a water buffalo, a moose, a huge turtle, a bear and of course, my favorite, the elephant. Frozen in steel, one huge foot is pressing down on the tail of a tiny mouse straining to get away from this behemoth to no avail. The artistry of this man is beautiful beyond description and continues to make an impact when you go inside Bill’s Museum and Gallery which is full of his woodcarvings, bronzes and porcelain sculptures as well as his newest endeavor … oil painting where he strongly expresses his opinions about life in our modern world. For a look at his complete catalog click on the link below or if the link doesn’t work, type or copy and paste the URL into your address line:
http://www.ohrmannmuseum.com/
Next, we went through Hall and a tiny community just off the road called Maxville. Phil, who is a Life Member of the VFW, stopped to use the rest room and he talked to the bartender at the first VFW post we’ve ever seen that’s open to the public. He learned that special dispensation was given because the population in the area is so sparse they couldn’t support a member’s only club. Thinking the road would take us back to the highway we followed it back into the canyon until it turned into an unpaved forest service road where we turned around. All along the road, we were amazed at the beautiful, large homes that were newly built or under construction. It appears that many people with lots of money have discovered this little piece of wilderness in Montana and made the move to a more uncomplicated way of life. With the advent of the Internet, more and more folks are earning a good living working from home and it really doesn’t matter where “home” is. Many of our fellow fulltimers are doing the same thing from their RVs as they criss-cross our beautiful country enjoying the best of these two worlds … self-employment and travel.
More about our trip around the Pintler Scenic Loop in my next post…..
http://www.ohrmannmuseum.com/
Next, we went through Hall and a tiny community just off the road called Maxville. Phil, who is a Life Member of the VFW, stopped to use the rest room and he talked to the bartender at the first VFW post we’ve ever seen that’s open to the public. He learned that special dispensation was given because the population in the area is so sparse they couldn’t support a member’s only club. Thinking the road would take us back to the highway we followed it back into the canyon until it turned into an unpaved forest service road where we turned around. All along the road, we were amazed at the beautiful, large homes that were newly built or under construction. It appears that many people with lots of money have discovered this little piece of wilderness in Montana and made the move to a more uncomplicated way of life. With the advent of the Internet, more and more folks are earning a good living working from home and it really doesn’t matter where “home” is. Many of our fellow fulltimers are doing the same thing from their RVs as they criss-cross our beautiful country enjoying the best of these two worlds … self-employment and travel.
More about our trip around the Pintler Scenic Loop in my next post…..
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