Last week a few of us attended the Montana Economic Development Summit in Butte, Montana. Winding down the first night with a drink at the Cavalier Lounge, we asked the bartender where we should go for breakfast the next morning. He couldn’t say Bob & Sandy’s (B&S) Café fast enough.

Always a group to take a local’s suggestion, we made the trek to the breakfast joint the next morning, and not only did we enjoy a very delightful breakfast (which included homemade sausage served by Bob himself), we learned about the Street Straddling Elk of 1916.

Sitting on the ledge next to our table was a photo of the 62-foot long, 44-foot tall elk (which had 24-foot tall legs so streetcars could drive under it). Even better than the photo of this elk was the story that was written on the back of the photo, which describing how the Elks Lodge of Butte created the (very real looking) elk as an arch for a parade, complete “without plastics and computers.” The elk removed shortly after the parade, as the town concluded that it would block traffic, in this, the age of the autos. Even without plastics and computers, the elk was equipped with 10-inch, 75-watt nitrogen light bulbs that were lit each night. Bob saw us looking at the photo, and let us in on a local conspiracy: since the elk has been disassembled, no one knows where it is stored. How do you hide the parts of one of the biggest man-made structures of the 1900’s? Well, I guess if anyone can do it, it’s the people of Butte, Montana.