June 23 - 26, 2009
Unknown nm/Unknown sm
Start: Denver, CO
Terminus: Atlantic, IA
Check the weather at each stop along the route
Registration opens in January!
Miles City, MT (KMLS)
Miles City, population 8,000, is a real frontier town founded in the 1870s as a military outpost by Colonel (soon to be General) Nelson A. Miles. Nestled on the bank of the Yellowstone River in southeastern Montana, the town became a convenient stop for cowboys on long cattle drives from Texas. And when the first railroad came through in 1881, Miles City became a regional transportation hub – a position it still occupies today.
One of its early notable residents was Marthy Cannary Burk, also known as Calamity Jane, who had battled Indians on the Plains alongside Gen. Miles. In 1882, she moved to Miles City to raise cattle on a ranch on the Yellowstone River. She also ran an inn there. In an interesting aviation-related coincidence, the town's first electric light was demonstrated in 1886 by municipal designer Dr. Chester Lebscher in his Wright Bros. Drug Store. Famous visitors included Theodore Roosevelt, who stayed at the exclusive Miles City Club.
Thanks to its designation as a historic district, much of the turn-of-the-century downtown has been preserved as it was in frontier days. Miles City is home to The Custer County Art & Heritage Center, featuring two large art galleries, an alcove gallery with changing exhibitions and a picnic area in a 1910 waterworks next to the Yellowstone River. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the arts center earned a Montana Governor's Historic Preservation Award for the best adaptive reuse of a historic structure. Also in Miles City is the Ranger Riders Museum, with an extensive collection of western artifacts, including more than 400 guns, vintage cars, wagons and farm equipment, cavalry, Indian memorabilia, and pioneer family pictures and costumes.
Serving Miles City is Frank Wiley Field, KMLS, two miles northwest of town. This nontowered field has two asphalt runways: 4-22, 5680x75 feet, and 12-30, 5624x100 feet. Field elevation is 2,630 feet, pattern altitude 3,428. The FBO is LonAire Flying Service, 406 232 1354.
Chamber of Commerce
http://www.mcchamber.com/tiki-index.php
FBOs
LonAire Flying Service, 406 232 1354
Other Connections of Interest:
Custer County Art & Heritage Center http://www.ccac.milescity.org/
Calamity Jane http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-CalamityJane.html
Range Riders Museum http://visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=3126&SiteID=1
One of its early notable residents was Marthy Cannary Burk, also known as Calamity Jane, who had battled Indians on the Plains alongside Gen. Miles. In 1882, she moved to Miles City to raise cattle on a ranch on the Yellowstone River. She also ran an inn there. In an interesting aviation-related coincidence, the town's first electric light was demonstrated in 1886 by municipal designer Dr. Chester Lebscher in his Wright Bros. Drug Store. Famous visitors included Theodore Roosevelt, who stayed at the exclusive Miles City Club.
Thanks to its designation as a historic district, much of the turn-of-the-century downtown has been preserved as it was in frontier days. Miles City is home to The Custer County Art & Heritage Center, featuring two large art galleries, an alcove gallery with changing exhibitions and a picnic area in a 1910 waterworks next to the Yellowstone River. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the arts center earned a Montana Governor's Historic Preservation Award for the best adaptive reuse of a historic structure. Also in Miles City is the Ranger Riders Museum, with an extensive collection of western artifacts, including more than 400 guns, vintage cars, wagons and farm equipment, cavalry, Indian memorabilia, and pioneer family pictures and costumes.
Serving Miles City is Frank Wiley Field, KMLS, two miles northwest of town. This nontowered field has two asphalt runways: 4-22, 5680x75 feet, and 12-30, 5624x100 feet. Field elevation is 2,630 feet, pattern altitude 3,428. The FBO is LonAire Flying Service, 406 232 1354.
Chamber of Commerce
http://www.mcchamber.com/tiki-index.php
FBOs
LonAire Flying Service, 406 232 1354
Other Connections of Interest:
Custer County Art & Heritage Center http://www.ccac.milescity.org/
Calamity Jane http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-CalamityJane.html
Range Riders Museum http://visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=3126&SiteID=1