Off to the capital city of Helena, Montana.

The photos are: 1) an elevated view of Helena; 2) the Montana State Capitol Building; 3) Park Avenue in downtown Helena; 4) Canyon Ferry Lake; 5) Mt. Helena and Spring Meadow Lake; 6) the St. Helena Cathedral; 7) the Helena Civic Center; 8) the Barrister Bed & Breakfast; and 9) sunset in Helena.

Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The population was 25,780 at the 2000 census, and had been estimated to rise to 27,885 by 2006. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The local weekly (and independent) newspaper is the Queen City News. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball team call the city home. The city is served by Helena Regional Airport.
Helena is the principal city of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Lewis and Clark and Jefferson counties; its population was estimated at 71,119 on July 1, 2007.

The town was established on October 30, 1864, following the discovery of gold along Last Chance Creek by the "Four Georgians". Helena's main street is named Last Chance Gulch and follows the winding path of the original creek through the historic downtown district.
The town was originally named "Crabtown", after John Crab, one of the "Four Georgians". As other miners arrived and the town expanded, the name was changed to a more appealing title. After many suggestions, John Sommerville suggested the name of his home town, Saint Helena, Minnesota, but the pronunciation (Hel-E-na) did not suit the miners, who preferred HELL-en-a. Dropping "Saint" from the name as unnecessary, the new name Helena was adopted (defeating the name "Tomah" by only two votes).
The townsite was first surveyed in 1865 by Captain John Wood. However, most streets follow the chaotic paths of the miners, going around claims and following the winding stream. As a result, few city blocks match the ideal of 30 x 60, rather they have an irregular variety of shapes and size causing many major streets to end abruptly.

By 1888, about 50 millionaires lived in Helena, more millionaires per capita than any city in the world. About $3.6 billion (in today's dollars) of gold was taken from Last Chance Gulch over a 20-year period. The Last Chance Placer is one of the most famous placers in the western United States. Most of the production occurred before 1868. Much of the placer is now under the streets and buildings of Helena (but even as late as the 1970s, when repairs were being made to a Bank, a vein of placer gold was found under the Bank's foundation). This large concentration of wealth made for a large amount of culture, much of which still exists and is also evidenced in the varied architecture of the city and its Victorian neighborhoods.
The official symbol of Helena is a drawing of "The Guardian of the Gulch", a wooden fire watch tower built in 1886, that still stands on "Tower Hill" overlooking the historic downtown district. This fire tower replaced a series of observation buildings, the original being a flimsy lookout stand built in 1870 on the same site, built in response to a series of devastating fires: April 1869, November 1869, October 1871, August 1872 and January 1874 that swept through the early mining camp.

In 1889, railroad magnate Charles Arthur Broadwater opened his fabled Hotel Broadwater and Natatorium west of Helena. The Natatorium was home to the world's first indoor swimming pool. Damaged in the earthquake of 1935, it was closed in 1941. The many buildings on the property were demolished in 1976. Today, the Broadwater Fitness Center stands just west of the Hotel & Natatorium's original location, complete with an outdoor pool heated by natural spring water running underneath it.
In 1902, the Montana State Capitol was completed. Helena has been the capital of Montana Territory (since 1875) and the state of Montana (since 1889). A large portion of the conflict between Marcus Daly and William Andrews Clark (the Copper Kings) was over the location of the state capital.
The Civic Center and the Saint Helena Cathedral[1] are two of many unique historic buildings in Helena.
Helena High School and Capital High School are both public high schools located in the Helena School District No. 1. Being the state capital, a large number of Helenans work for the state government. When in Helena, most people visit the local walking mall (built in the early 1980s after Urban Renewal and the Model Cities Program in the early 1970s had virtually gutted the downtown district, leaving little more than unpaved parking lots and unfinished projects behind for over a decade), a three block long strip of stores following the original Last Chance Gulch. There is a stream in a concrete bed running the length of the walking mall, simulating Last Chance Creek.
The Archie Bray Foundation, an internationally-renowned ceramics center founded in 1952, is located just northwest of Helena, near Spring Meadow Lake.
Helena also has a local ski area, Great Divide Ski Area, northwest of town near the ghost town of Marysville, Montana.

Today's Jumble (01/09/09):
RAWGE = WAGER; SOITH = HOIST; KOVINE = INVOKE; WOTOWK = KOWTOW
CIRCLED LETTERS = WESTOEKW
What she lost on the 14-day diet.
"TWO WEEKS"

Today is Play God Day. On this day we are encouraged to try and solve someone's problem or make their day better and brighter. It is also National Apricot Day and National Static Electricity Day.

Other things on this day in history:

475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. 1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, were rounded up and incinerated. 1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government. 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat. 1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London. 1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States. 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States. 1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon. 1806 - Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral. 1816 - Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery. 1822 - The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process. 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process. 1857 - The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9. 1858 - Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide. 1861 - American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War". 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War. 1863 - American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman occurs in Arkansas. 1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy. 1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow. 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia. 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905. 1916 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula. 1917 - World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine. 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight. 1941 - World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster. 1941 - World War II: The Greek Triton (S.112) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto. 1945 - World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines. 1947 - Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive. 1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City. 1964 - Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians. 1968 - The only known snowfall in Mexico City occurs; additional snow falls on January 10 and 11. 1972 - The RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. 1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak must give up its instant camera business. 1990 - Space Shuttle program: Columbia lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-32. 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence. 1997 - A Comair Embraer EMB 120 crashes during approach into Detroit Metro Airport, killing 29 people. 2001 - Shenzhou 2, an unmanned Chinese spacecraft, is launched. 2005 - The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, commonly known as the Naivasha Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group in Naivasha, Kenya. 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.