There is a place in Montana 641 miles from Calgary, 1892 miles from New York City, 526 miles from Cheyenne, 1392 miles from Los Angeles, 1531 miles from Houston, and 686 miles from me.
This place is Miles City. There is not much to Miles City. They have a couple of cheap motels and casinos off the interstate. They have a Wally World and a Murdoch’s. They have a stockyard, a park and they even have a fairgrounds and a community college. This is the biggest town in Northeastern Montana. But there still isn’t much to it.
People still keep horses in town. You can still get a good breakfast for $4.00.
For the last 59 years this town has been the original accidental host to one of the very few bucking horse sales held in the world. Accidental because it started with some people creatively trying to move some horses they didn’t know what else to do with.Now, rodeo stock contractors and breeders from all over the US come to trade their horses and bulls and they’ve nicknamed it the “Cowboy Mardi Gras.”
They always bring in a big name band for one of the evenings, do a street dance Friday and Saturday nights, have a parade, a craft/bake/flea market type sale and auction in the park and in the last 4 years they have started adding a matched bronc ride with NFR qualifying cowboys on NFR proven horses.
This is the event for people who like rodeo or people that like people watching. It is also a big big party. People are in the bars and hitting the whisky at 8:00 in the morning. Country music blaring including all the yee haws and whistles that go with. Dancing dancing dancing.
Then everyone goes to the sale to watch people get bucked off of horses. After that it’s dancing dancing dancing again with a little bit of fighting. This is cow town.
Everyone is a cowboy for the weekend. People wear boots and hats that never do another day the whole year. Real ranch cowboys come out of the country too. Tons of college kids from Bozeman come out as well. It’s really rowdy.
If you go to Miles City (sale time or no) here are some places I recommend or don’t recommend…
Motel 6
Okay I really really hate this Motel. I stay at it every year because I have a standing room there and everyone else is filled up. It is never completely clean, they change their manager every year so no one knows what’s going on with reservations for the sale, the towels suck, they told me I’d have a microwave and a fridge and I didn’t, half the time there is no remote for the tv, the bed linens suck, two years we had no air conditioning and probably the only thing I can say good is that they remodeled some rooms this year so bathroom fixtures are new. The Olive, right on main street, is where I would like to try but the waiting list is over five years. Also I did hear that it is dirty and I wouldn’t like it.
4B’s Restaurant
Right of the interstate and next to Motel 6 is the 4B’s. Great place for breakfast, I’ve never eaten anything else there. In my opinion this is the best place to get breakfast in town.
The Hole in the Wall/600 Café
There is a name for each side of this place, but they share the same kitchen and menus. One side is an old fashioned café and the other is a dinner place. The service is really good, the people are super friendly, the prices are very reasonable and the food is good for what it is. Don’t take that the wrong way, this is a great place to eat. I love their steak and my friends come all the way from Canada “just for the cheesy hamburger soup.” No smoking in this place which is nice too (Montana still allows smoking inside).KOA Campground
I have never stayed here but I’ve visited. It’s very clean, very affordable, very well groomed and the only negative I can say is that they don’t have fire pits. It IS Northeastern Montana and it is very dry there and they have problems with fires so I can understand the no fire pit thing.
The Cattle-ac
Okay I don’t think you can visit Miles City without having dinner at the Cattle-ac. Just to say you ate dinner at a place called the Cattle-ac. One side is a more upscale steakhouse and the other side is a peanut bar. The steakhouse is okay, I’ve never been wowed there unless I was already drinking. The peanut bar has a stage, is smoky and has live poker. It is actually a good place to have a “nice” dinner and then go have drinks.The Bison Bar
There are many bars on main street but this is the one we always go to. It is very basic, a juke box and a bar. They do not serve food. When the sale isn’t happening, they have a pool table. It’s just a big long bar. Cowboy memorabilia here and there and basics behind the bar. Beer, whisky, vodka, Malibu, tequila. Maybe rum, maybe gin. Basic mixers. Anyway, nothing fancy about it. But I love it.There were some college kids up from Bozeman that had t-shirts made that said, “If found, please bring me back to the Bison Bar.” Pretty much sums it up.
Trip talk to be continued...
