Road Trip to Wisdom!

"The wise man travels to discover himself." ~ James Russell Lowell

Yep, for those of you too impatient to find wisdom the traditional route (age, experience, reading and prayer), just fill up your tank and take a drive up North to Montana. Be sure to bundle up though because this little town of Wisdom, population of 100, is one of the coldest in the country.

Did you know that Wisdom, Montana has been around for awhile?

The town of Wisdom was named for the Wisdom River (now called Big Hole River) that flows through the town. In 1805 Lewis and Clark, at the confluence of the tributaries of the Jefferson River near the present site of Twin Bridges, decided to name the three streams for the three “cardinal virtues”  (Philosophy, Philanthropy, and Wisdom) of President Thomas Jefferson.

However, Philosophy, Philanthropy, and Wisdom proved to be too much for later settlers, so they changed the names to the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby. The town did keep the name Wisdom and later a nearby waterway was named the Wise River. Interestingly the other two virtues seem to have been lost entirely in the renaming process. 

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“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.” ~ Carson McCullers

Map to Wisdom, MT