Montana and Idaho

We drove through Montana on our way to Yellowstone and stayed the night at Billings. I had hoped we would see more of Montana but our holiday time was limited and this was all we could do to visit Montana. It was nice to drive through Montana and enjoy the mountains and wide open spaces. I would like to return to Montana and go North to see the Glacier National Park. Maybe we can do this next year as part of our Alaska trip.

We also drove through the bottom corner of Idaho and stayed the night in Idaho Falls after the Grand Tetons. The change in scenery was dramatic, from beautiful mountains to flat, cliff like landscape. The small towns were, small, and all were all agricultural towns. Idaho Falls was very rural with huge farms, maybe potatoes being Idaho? Wiki tells me that Idaho Falls serves as a regional hub for health care, travel and business in eastern Idaho.

While I was reading about Idaho Falls, I found this on wiki. In 1949, a National Reactor Testing Station was opened in the desert west of the city, and on Dec. 20, 1951, a nuclear reactor produced useful electricity for the first time in history. There have been more than 50 unique nuclear reactors built at the facility for testing. All but three are shut down now. The site was the scene of the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in U.S. history on the night of January 3, 1961. The event occurred at an experimental U.S. Army reactor plant known as the Argonne Low Power Reactor. Due to poor design and maintenance procedures, a single control rod was manually pulled out too far from the reactor, causing the reactor to become ‘prompt critical’ and leading to a destructive power excursion. Three military, trained men had been working inside the reactor room when a mistake was made while reattaching a control rod to its motor assembly. Long story short, the explosion was so severe that the reactor vessel was propelled 9 feet into the air, striking the ceiling before settling back into its original position. One man was killed instantly as he was impaled by a shield plug and lodged into the ceiling. The other men died from their injuries within hours. The three men were buried in lead coffins, and that entire section of the site was buried. The core meltdown caused no damage to the area, although some radioactive fission products were released to the atmosphere. While nuclear reactors like this were predicted to have lower total costs than conventional systems, the Army program to build and use reactors of this kind was scrapped due to the higher initial procurement costs of nuclear reactors.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), as it is now known, remains a major economic engine for the city of Idaho Falls, employing more than 8,000 people and functioning as an internationally renowned research center. INL operates and manages the world-famous Advanced Test Reactor (ATR).

We checked out this 'things to see' sculpture in the city. The fountain and sculpture of nesting eagles on Utah Street in Idaho Falls, was named roundabout of the year in 2014.

I can't find out what it's meant to mean but I"m guessing it's because Idaho Falls used to be called Eagle Rock in the old days. It was named this because of an isolated island up the Snake River that was the nesting site for approximately 20 eagles. The town name was later changed to Idaho Falls in reference to the rapids that exist below the main bridge. I think I prefer Eagle Rock - maybe it's because it's a classic Aussie song!!

The drive through Idaho to Salt Lake City in Utah was uneventful but it's nice to see this part of the West. The weather was certainly hotter than yesterday and we have no idea what to see in Salt Lake City. That's our research for the night time.