Heritage Trip - Going Back in Time

Downtown Red Lodge

Third day out.  Small little patches of snow along the road between Butte and Billings.  Yikes!!  We are suppose to be way down South when this happens.  We passed over the continental divide today at 6,939 feet above sea level.  We parked the motorhome, disconnected the dingy (also known as the Jeep) ate a quick bite, then headed due South 50 miles to Red Lodge Montana.  Over 100 years ago, my grandparents Matt and Marya Marsyla were married there.  My grandfather came over from Finland as a 19 year old, without any family.  He got a job mining coal in Red Lodge.  My grandmother came over from Finland a few years later and was working in a boarding house when  they met.

Court House where they got their marriage license

We went to the Chamber of Commerce and the Carbon County Museum and found out the Finnish
Luthern Church where my grandparents probably got married was burned down by an arson along with the Finnish Hall in 1973.  The story in town is it was the assistant fire chief!!  I guess there were not enough
fires to put out for him.  Anyway this private home was built on the site of the church.  Red Lodge is a quint little town, with some wonderful old restored homes.  The population in the winter is around 2,000 but swells to 4,000 in the summer.

I looked in the local phone book for any distance relatives that might still be in the area.  There was one
Marsyla listed as living in Billings.  The nice lady in the museum was very helpful and will be doing some
research this winter.  She wants me to get in contact with her when we get home.  She will be on the lookout for any Marsyla's listed in any of the records she will be working with.

We are preparing to go to the Billings LDS Temple tomorrow at the early morning session.  Then we will be on the road again!!