Deer Lodge,
MT : Overview & Guide.gif)
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| Downtown
Deer Lodge, Montana |
Deer
Lodge is a nice town located on the Clark
Fork, in-between Missoula and Butte.
Deer Lodge, like other western Montana towns, is surrounded
by mountains. To the
west of town is the beautiful Flint Creek Range, with Mt.
Powell dominating the landscape. To the east are the somewhat
smaller Boulder Mountains. Getting to Deer Lodge is easy,
as it sits right on Interstate 90.
Deer
Lodge, owing to its location near Anaconda and Butte, really
started out as a mining town. The first discovery
of gold in Montana was near Deer Lodge. And by the 1880’s
massive copper mines were located upstream on the Clark Fork
in and around Anaconda.
Yet, Deer Lodge has also always been an agricultural town,
too. Numerous ranches and farms have long existed around
Deer Lodge, taking advantage of the regions grasses and decent
water supply (all the mountains feed water down into the
valley).
Today, downtown Deer Lodge has been nicely restored. The
downtown area is clean, and only a few buildings on main
street are empty. Numerous specialty stores also are found
downtown, taking advantage of the increasing amount of tourists
that visit Deer Lodge each year.
In Montana,
Deer Lodge is known for one thing in particular - prisons.
Today, Deer Lodge is home to the main prison in
MT. Additionally, Deer Lodge is also home to the Old
Montana State Prison, which has been turned into a museum
and is probably the town’s biggest tourist attraction.
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| Downtown
Deer Lodge, Montana |
Yet,
Deer Lodge has far more than prisons. Deer Lodge is in
an excellent location for anyone who enjoys outdoor activities.
The skier will like Deer Lodge since an excellent ski area,
Discovery
Ski Area, is located about an hour away up in the
Flint Creek Range near Georgetown
Lake. Montana
Snowbowl,
down in Missoula, is also located relatively close (about
a 90 minute drive).
Deer
Lodge also has excellent places to fish. The Clark
Fork, once an environmental disaster, is quickly recovering
and is home to some decent populations of trout. The Little
Blackfoot River is also located not too far outside of
town and provides for some excellent fly fishing throughout
the
entire year. And the Anaconda
Settling Ponds in the Warm
Springs Wildlife Management Area can provide some trophy
trout during
the short fishing season the sanctuary has.
The hunter and hiker will also like Deer Lodge. The Flint
Creek Range has an extesive network of hiking trails and
numerous small, alpine lakes. The excellent trail network,
combined with an extensive network of logging roads, also
allows for some excellent access to the high country by hunters.
The area around Deer Lodge has excellent hunting for whitetail
deer, mule deer and elk.
Overall,
for anyone passing through Montana on I-90, a stop in Deer
Lodge – if only for an hour – is something
that everyone should do. The downtown area in Deer Lodge
is neat, clean and tidy – and a nice place to just
wander around. And, for the person who has some time on their
hands, a trip through the Old Montana State Prison is also
a highly recommended activity.
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