To WESTERN U.S.!
Sep. 7-10 2022
PART 6
As we continue to clean up the failures of the early 2020s, this is I-90 near Whitehall, Mont.
A sign on the bridge marks the Continental Divide.
I-90 enters Butte.
Overlooking Butte from I-15/90.
I-90 in Butte or Anaconda.
Probably I-90 near Drummond (like Mr. Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes).
I-90 at the famous Orange Street exit in Missoula. This exit is where the Great Conoco Dump occurred during my 2010 trip.
Probably I-90 near Frenchtown.
This exemplifies the changing biomes up here - though I don't really know what a biome is. In 6th grade science class, we had a unit on biomes, and it was generally agreed to be the most boring topic. Important perhaps. But boring.
The mountains here may be part of the Bitterroot Range.
It would have pibbed mightily to get a more fi photo of this, but you gotta be quick! Most prominent here is a rail bridge over the Clark Fork River. Look closely, and you'll see that it goes over the old US 10 bridge over the river.
I-90 goes under a rail bridge near Superior.
The old US 10 bridge over the Clark Fork River in St. Regis.
A video of I-90 crossing from Montana into Idaho! We enter that supposedly kooky Idaho panhandle. In the 2020s, however, it's less kooky than some college towns, large cities, or Silicon Valley. Anyone who fell asleep in 2019 would have been shocked to see that those are the areas that turned America into the bio-juche police state that it's become.
I-90 goes under Willow Creek Road near Mullan, Idaho.
Yet another construction obstacle course as we go under Mill Road past Mullan. I-90 here overlays the old US 10.
Some of the exits around here are labeled as a "district." This one is for Compressor District. I always thought the compressor was the part of a refrigerator that always makes noise and breaks.
I-90 goes under Compressor Road.
The stretch of I-90 in Idaho wasn't even completed until the early 1990s. As you can see, the terrain was a factor. I-90 follows the old Mullan Road that was built by the Army in 1859-60 and named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1977. Floods ruined Mullan Road just after its completion, forcing it to be quickly rerouted. This photo is about where we enter Wallace, where I-90 is elevated on a 1991 viaduct across the town. There's a bike trail directly under I-90 through much of the town.
I-90 in Wallace, population about 800. The town's early days were marred by disputes involving lost scrip being used to buy lots. Labor disputes prompted months-long periods of martial law. It was like having the 2020s in the 1890s. Also, for over 100 years, brothels operated in Wallace in plain sight. This lasted as late as 1991.
A view of Wallace from I-90.
This 1902 bridge over the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River used to be for rail but is now a pedestrian span.