GREAT FALLS, Mont. — There are places to stay and then there are places to stay.
On a driving trip across the plains of northern Montana, in the towns that dot the far-reaching horizons, we found accommodations that are hardly the cookie-cutter kind. They are so intriguing that we remembered them fondly long after we returned to the familiarity of our own bed.
To reach these accommodations, we followed roads less traveled. But, as Robert Frost once said, taking the road less traveled can make all the difference.
Virgelle Mercantile B&B
Description: This little outpost near the Missouri River is more than just a place to stay. It's a quirky combination of antiques store, adventure outfitter and bed and breakfast. The three elements combine to focus on the past. For accommodations, you have a choice between rooms in the Mercantile, which was built in 1912, or homesteader cabins out back that were brought in from Montana farms and ranches and restored. The main advantage of staying in a cabin is the front porch, where you can enjoy the view of the meadow and the Missouri River rippling by.
The food is hearty and delicious. When we stopped for lunch, we couldn't get enough of the curried chicken salad.
The river, however, is the marquee attraction. From the town of Fort Benton upstream from Virgelle to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge downstream, the Missouri has a Wild and Scenic designation. It remains unspoiled and probably looks much like it did when explorers Lewis and Clark passed through 200 years ago. The Missouri River Canoe Company, the outfitting arm of the Virgelle Merc, takes advantage of its location along this stretch of river to offer guided canoe trips or supply independent groups.
Co-owner Don Sorensen grew up on a nearby farm. For him Virgelle is home. "I have fond memories of coming to the river from the farm, camping, fishing and recreating." Now he's helping visitors enjoy what the area offers. "I want to show other people what's outside our back door."
Getting to Virgelle is half the fun. The most interesting route involves crossing the Missouri River on the Virgelle Ferry. Ring a buzzer at river's edge and the ferry operator will meet you there. The service is free but you use it at your own risk. We suggest calling ahead for directions (406-378-3194), although signs have been improved since we were there, so you can probably find it on your own from U.S. 87. Hours of operation are limited: 7 a.m.-7 p.m., except Sundays, when the hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. It's closed in winter.
Location: 7485 Virgelle Ferry Road, northeast of Loma
Phone: 800-426-2926
Advice: Call for directions
What we liked the most: Location, this is truly getting away from it all.
What we liked the least: Bathrooms are "down the hall."
Stone School Inn B&B
Description: A three-story school built in 1911 in the town of Valier has been beautifully repurposed into a bed and breakfast. Instead of classrooms and a principal's office, you'll find five guest rooms, each with a private bath. Two of the rooms are palatial, each occupying what had been an entire classroom. The other three are more human in scale, although they still have ample room for a queen bed and all the luggage visitors typically bring.
The frosting on the cake when we were there, however, was breakfast. It was a meal that never stopped. It was so delicious and plentiful that we pretty much filled up for the day. The place has since changed hands. Current owner Susan Northfisher said she is following the precedent by serving "a traditional, bountiful meal filled with fresh and healthy foods. I work hard to fix hearty, good-to-eat sunrise meals without using too much fat or sugar. I also put a lot of effort into detail to create a formal dining experience for guests (fresh flowers, linen places settings, etc.)," she wrote in an e-mail.
Behind the school is a setting worthy of landscape painters. First there is Lake Frances, said to offer great fishing. Beyond the lake is the backdrop of mountains referred to by locals as the Rocky Mountain Front.
Valier may be off the beaten path, but it's on your way if you're headed to Glacier National Park.
Book learning may be a thing of the past at the Stone School. But we're glad it has found another calling.
Location: 820 3rd Street, Valier
Phone: 406-279-3796
What we liked the most: Breakfast
What we liked the least: Noise from the hallway filtered into our room. We were glad everyone turned in early that night.
Grand Union Hotel
Description: Fort Benton can rightfully claim a place in history. It bills itself as the birthplace of Montana, having been established in 1846 as a fur trading post. It was also the end of the line for steamboats headed up the Missouri River, making it a hub for passengers and freight and facilitating the settlement of the West. The people who disembarked at Fort Benton included fur traders, settlers and gold hunters. Another historic feather in its cap: Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery passed through the area.
As luminous as the town's history is, the story of a mongrel dog that came to be known as Shep illustrates its true character.
The story, which exemplifies the loyalty and patience of a dog and the caring hearts of people, goes something like this.
In 1936, a sheep dog followed his sick master to a hospital in Fort Benton. He kept vigil outside the hospital, fed by a nun, until his master died a few days later. When the man's casket was loaded onto the train to be shipped to his home back East, the dog whined at the door of the train. The dog followed the train down the tracks as it pulled out of the station. Thus began a 5 1/2-year vigil of meeting every train that came into the station. Railroad attendants provided food, water and shelter. Shep, old and hard of hearing, died on a winter morning, having failed to hear a train as it pulled into the station and slipping on the icy tracks when the engine was just about on top of him. The townspeople held a funeral and buried the dog on a bluff overlooking the station.
Fifty years after Shep's death, the community of Fort Benton commissioned a monument to honor the dog. The bronze sculpture on the river levee was by one of Montana's most famous sculptors, Bob Scriver.
The story seems far afield from the Grand Union Hotel, a short walk from the Shep monument and an elegant reminder of the town's heyday. Built in 1882, the hotel was restored in 1999, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the heart of Fort Benton's Historic District. It provides beautiful accommodations and sophisticated dining in the frontier town with a big heart.
Location: Grand Union Square, Fort Benton
Phone: 888-838-1882
What we liked the most: Location alongside the Missouri River.
What we liked the least: Nothing. We liked everything about this place.
Source: www.fortbenton.com
Viewforth B&B
It's funny sometimes, what we remember. Viewforth Bed & Breakfast is a Craftsman-style bungalow near the intersection of two lonely highways. The wall of mountains known as the Rocky Mountain Front is in the distance. But it was the crisply ironed heirloom napkins and tablecloth and a masterful meal cooked from scratch, using ingredients from the garden, that caught our attention when we stopped to sample the food and get the lay of the B&B.
Here, in this big house on the prairie, you can eat like you were Emeril.
Terese Blanding, who runs the bed and breakfast with her husband, Keith, does the cooking. Her kinship with the land is apparent in what she brings to the table. "We try to be part of sustainable, organic, locally grown agriculture," she said. She uses produce from their garden, too. "The herbs I dry myself." They also grow lettuces, spinach, chards, rhubarb (from which she makes rhubarb tarts and rhubarb syrup), carrots and onions (from which she makes a Sweet Walla Walla Onion Tart).
She has a bountiful breakfast repertoire. It includes homemade English sourdough muffins made with starter that's more than 100 years old (from a Montana ranch, of course). Her Eggs Blanding have a yogurt-based sauce that's less caloric than Hollandaise but still tasty. "Dutch Babies" are giant popovers served with fruits of the season and vanilla yogurt. And then there are the scones. "People tell me consistently they're the best scones they've ever had," said the former owner of a tea room in Portland, Ore.
The table is set with heirloom linens. Blanding's appreciation of fine textiles goes back to her childhood in Missoula. Her family used linen napkins when she was growing up. "The first thing I learned to iron was handkerchiefs. The second was napkins."
Her linens bring a taste of history to the meal. "These things were hand done by someone with nimble fingers and good, aesthetic eyes," she said. "When I iron, I think that the flax was probably hand cut. I think of the people who spun it, the people who rolled it. The end product was probably done by a woman. I'm in such awe of the workmanship and the time and love that went into these things."
Linens, she said, love to be used. They love to be laundered and ironed. They don't love to be stuffed in a closet for years.
Her ironing board, not surprisingly, also has a bit of history. It belonged to her grandmother.
If you stay in one of Viewforth's two guest rooms, you will sleep beneath a comforter with a duvet cover of natural Russian linen that was freshly laundered and meticulously ironed by Blanding.
Location: U.S. Highway 287, 7 miles north of Augusta, on the way to the east entrance of Glacier National Park
Phone: 406-467-3884
Web: www.viewforth.com
What we liked the most: Careful attention to detail in the food and the decor.
What we liked the least: The wind.
Other B&Bs in brief
Inn Dupuyer B&B
This impressed us as an ideal place for families. The original structure, which is 100 years old, is a homestead house made of hand-hewn logs. The floors are the original fir. Each of the five guest rooms has a private bath. Outside is a sheepherder's wagon and a tepee, which is why we think kids would particularly like it here. Full breakfast is included.
Location: 308 Morton Ave., Dupuyer
Phone: 406-472-3241
Collins Mansion B&B
Eating breakfast in the elegant dining room is what we remember most about the Collins. The owners at the time we were there were renowned for their cooking. The B&B has since changed hands. The new owners, Mike and Kris Hengenius, assure us that the breakfasts continue the tradition of gourmet fare established by their predecessors. A recent breakfast, for example, featured baked apples (nicely fanned in a small round dish with raisins sprinkled on top), blueberry quick bread and juice, Dutch Babies (baked puffy pancakes) with whipped cream and strawberries, and mini sausages rolled with bacon in a sweet glaze.
Location: Corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street NW, Great Falls
Phone: 877-452-6798
Charlie Russell Manor
Elegance and sophistication describe this beautiful home turned bed and breakfast in a quiet residential section of Great Falls. We remember doing our bedtime yoga in front of the fireplace in the spacious upstairs bedroom.
Location: 825 4th Ave. North, Great Falls
Phone: 877-207-6131
Web:www.charlie-russell.com/information.html
E-mail: kclayton@desnews.com