It was a climb the first 10 miles out of Lewistown, then fairly flat, long straight roads to Winnett Montana. Randy would entertain himself by whooping to stampede the cattle we passed. Finally even the cattle weren’t around to whoop.
Winnett was 53 miles from Lewistown. It is the county seat and only town, population 185, in Petroleum County Montana. After checking in at the Winnett Hotel we had dinner at the Winnett Bar. The only other cafe is closed for a week for vacation. Talking to the bar owner we found out the public school here is about 100 students from K to grade 12, and when we asked about the library she said it was closed but maybe Blanche, the librarian would let us look at it, so she called her. Blanche Weigum was obviously very proud of the library. It’s attached to the school which is the biggest structure in town. If it’s true that communities largest buildings are monuments to that which is most important to the community, then Winnett has built a monument to it’s children. Blanche showed us the library and showed us a replica of the largest dinosaur skull fossil ever discovered. It was discovered near here about 10 years ago. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the general store to buy drinking water, the water here is salty. We were informed that our sales person was the mayor of Winnett.
This area was booming about 90 years ago when they thought there was oil. The town back then had a population of over 2000. Randy and I have really enjoyed this charming little Montana town.
Greg