46 FOREST OUTINGS 



picking up scattered belongings. Slowly the dust settled in the twilight. 

 Smoke rose from supper fires where some had decided to stay longer. Some- 

 one built a fire in the council ring. They sat around it and sang in the gather- 

 ing darkness. 



ANACONDA, the copper town, lies in a burnt, sweltering valley. The rows of 

 paintless little houses that creep up the hill to the mill belie the bright 

 activity of the main street. Towering over the city stands the giant smelter 

 smokestack, belching yellow smoke over the bare, brown hills nearby. 

 Saturday afternoon the streets are full of cars and people streaming down 

 the hill from the mill. The air is hot and smells of acrid fumes from the 

 plant. 



Twenty miles to the west lies the Deerlodge National Forest, with 

 Echo Lake and the cool recesses of the forest to which these people can 

 escape. Many families drive out for picnicking and camping, but the 

 majority of users are the young people who run up there for some fun and 

 privacy in the out of doors. 



The campground road makes a loop on the hill, circled by camp sites. 

 There are more than a dozen sites here and they were almost filled. Sun- 

 light was caught in the treetops, throwing green into the water. At one 

 of the camp sites two girls, both young, had a fire going and some cooking 

 pans standing by. They wore bathing suits. Their names, they said, were 

 Jen and Sue. They were getting supper for "a coupla fellows," Jim and 

 Bill, who were going to drive up to Deerlodge after their day's work in 

 Anaconda. A third girl, named Bett, had brought Jen and Sue up in her 

 car and was swimming. But Bett would be back. Harry, her fellow, was 

 coming too. 



"That's them," said Jen. A very old car, minus fenders, top, and 

 rear seat, stalled at the bottom of the hill, by the lake. Two of the men got 

 out and "rocked" her. "You have to do that; the starter just gets on dead 

 center, or something, Jim says," said Jen. 



The old car roared into life. The two men who had rocked her as 

 one would rock a cradle if the cradle were big as a car and had rusty 

 springs piled in. Youth came roaring and snorting into camp to join the 



