Touring Billings Montana - zoo and Moss Mansion

We finally were able to get our Wal-Mart fix yesterday, we even got in a Sam's Club visit after our great lunch at the Valentino's Grand Italian Buffet in Fargo. That gives us an opportunity to catch up on our blogging, this time about our touring of Billings Montana.


Whenever we can we like to go to zoos so we went to Zoo Montana in Billings. Unfortunately we caught it at a time when a few exhibits were closed for remodeling. They are working on enhancing the zoo and when it gets done it looks like it will be really neat but that means sometimes exhibits are closed.


We did see some injured in the wild Bald Eagles and got a good picture of them.

We like big cats because their posing and movements remind us of our cats. Here is a big cat ignoring us just like our cats do.

Next we visited Moss Mansion. We think we remember seeing Moss Mansion on an episode of "America's Castles" on AandE. Here is the exterior of the red sandstone mansion.

What we liked about the one hour guided tour is that this house has a lot of furnishings owned by the Moss family so you are stepping back in time to 1903 when the house was built. Having original furnishing means that there are no pictures allowed so go to the Moss Mansion website if you would like to see more. While waiting for the introductory movie in the basement area Bob took this picture of the display case, before we might add they said no photos allowed.

The same guy that designed the Waldorf Astoria in New York, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, designed the Moss Mansion. The dining room of the Moss Mansion is a duplicate of the smoking room in the Waldorf Astoria. The home has modern features like indoor bathrooms and hot water running throughout the house. 


P. B. Moss was a prominent banker in Billings, originally from Missouri, who help start a lot of the utilities in the area like a dial telephone company, Billings Light and Power, Billings Utility Company. He also founded a newspaper, a hotel and other things in the Billings area. Mattie, his wife, was a pretty good artist and her painted china (in the display case that should not have been photographed) and watercolors are featured on the tour. It was neat seeing how people lived in the early 1900s and we are glad we took the tour.


Once outside the camera came out and we took a picture of the beautiful grounds.

If you are ever in Billings be sure and visit the Moss Mansion. Also be sure to have breakfast at Stella's Kitchen and Bakery, it is real good. Photos from Zoo Montana and the Moss Mansion have been uploaded to Flickr.com in the Billings Montana set.


Till next time,


Bob and Jo










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