Range Riders Museum

After leaving Medora, North Dakota, we headed into Montana with our first official stop in Miles City, Montana, for a visit to the Ranger Riders Museum, which is billed as a "celebration of Eastern Montana history."

Both Clare and Conor begged not to have to tour the museum, but I insisted, hoping that they would glean from the exhibits a rough sampling of the life lived by homesteaders and inhabitants of eastern Montana in late 19th century and early 20th century. The museum was full of interesting and not-so-interesting artifacts and exhibits, such as dioramas of ranches and forts, thorough collections of barbed wire, assorted cattle branding irons, lots of photos of rodeo stars, rifles and pistols, knives, tools, old saddlery, and mock rooms made up like they were in the olden days. There was even an iron lung! For what it's worth, Clare and Conor ranked the museum just slightly above the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Here's some photos, you decide.