Day Fifteen
Four Corners, Silver City
Finally we have a day where there isn't too much to do! We have two days when we can get caught up on loose ends, and maybe finally fix our problems with the digital camera. We get caught up on laundry, cleaning up the car, and just plain resting.
We did want to do something, or else it would feel that something was wrong, so we visited the Four Corners Cultural Museum located in Ontario, Oregon (only 30 miles away!). This museum has to be one of the finest museums I've seen located in a small community. They did a fabulous job showing the different cultures that make up the region and how the region came to be. There is a 15 minute video that gives you a multimedia presentation, and then you can move on to a hands on type museum taking you from the regions early history to today. By the time you leave, you really get a sense of how not only this region, but how America changed over time. Its easy to see that the history of this one reagion is the history of America. For anyone travelling in this area, whether through it as you follow the Oregon Trail, going further west or east, this is a must see! Its right off the highway (o.k., you have to drive into town, but there are clearly marked signs helping you out), and makes for a much better rest than a highway rest stop. The museum gift shop has many unique gifts, and a visitor center has more brochures than I've ever seen at a welcome center! Besides, instead of just seeing what's around you, you understand it!
We left the museum after 3 hours (you can spend as much or as little time as you want, we just wanted to spend some more time there), and drove back into Idaho and south to visit Silver City. We even passed by an running drive-in movie theater! Sliver City is located about 20 miles off of a paved state route. Anyone passing through would have to say 'why would anyone want to drive on a dirt road across that terrain and into those mountains?'. Entering this terrain, you have to be prepared. It will take you almost an hour (maybe more!) to drive those 20 miles, but the views, environment, and the town at the end of the road make it worth it. If you want to visit an actual running town today, that is straight out of the late 1800's. You won't find any electricty here, but there is telephone service and a public outhouse. You'll also find a community made up of people seeking to restore their historic town. Their is a beatiful Catholic Church in resoration and a working hotel complete with a full service cafe and offering lodgings in this town. While here, the Silver City hotel can provide you with refreshments and a bite to eat. If you want to spend the night, you can do that too in full restored rooms taking you back to the 1800s. One thing you should also know, is that despite the fact that as you drive to this town you are crossing a treeless desert plain that is often hot and dry, you'll climb up more than 4,000' to this town that is surrounded by trees and is much cooler that you would think. Don't be fooled and turn around when you reach the turnoff from the state road! Just keep plodding along. Silver City is located in the heart of the Owyhee Mountains, named so after a group of islands that the expedition leader that named them had just visted: Hawaii. He misspelled it, but the pronunciation is similar.
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