Montana History and

 Touch The Trail Adventure

Presented By: 

Hitch'n Rail Ranch

and

Virgelle Mercantile-Canoe Company
 

Virgelle Valley Cowboy Cabin Camp and
Canoe Adventure

      Take your students into the twenty first century with a vision of the past. Touch the trail of history with a visit to the Virgelle valley along the famed Lewis and Clark Trail of the Upper Missouri River. The last two centuries have recorded historic events of great and small endeavors to conquer the great Northwest Territory that we now call Montana. Allow your students the opportunity to experience first hand the way of life of early natives, white explorers, and homesteaders in this almost forgotten part of Montana.

Two of the Virgelle valley’s outfitters team up to produce opportunities for young people to experience the ways of natives and settlers at the turn of the twentieth century, while enjoying the comforts and conveniences of modern life. Students will have the chance to see, hear, smell, and live (for a moment) the life of the early native hunters and white settlers of the great Northwest.
 

One Day Experience:

On this adventure students have the opportunity to touch, see, and feel history come to life as they canoe and horseback along the Lewis and Clark trail in the Virgelle valley and touch its hidden treasures.

After an early morning arrival to the Virgelle Mercantile, students are given a brief tour of the old Mercantile, the Bank and some of its later additions. Then, with the help of Missouri River Canoe Company, and some brief introductory canoe lessons, students paddle 4 miles of the Missouri River to the Hitch’n Rail Ranch. This brief canoe trip allows students to experience what Lewis and Clark saw, smelled, touched and heard on their way to the west coast and back.

At the ranch, students embark on a horseback adventure to historic sites including Coal Banks Landing steamboat freight depot, Native American campsites, Charlie Russell vantage point, and remnants of the old bull train road that traversed the prairie from Coal Banks to Fort Assiniboine. Along the way, students enjoy a picnic lunch and stories passed down from local residents.

After the ride, students have the chance to visit with Helen Beeson (owner of the ranch) to see the way of life of that she has passed down to the next generation, and to hear the stories that she has to tell of days gone by. After a last visit to Virgelle, students leave the valley with a new appreciation of the past and the present.