My visit to the Montana State Capitol

During our visit to our parents in Montana, Ryan and I dropped in on Helena for, among other things, a self-guided tour of the State Capitol. Here are some pictures from that. This brings the total number of State Capitols I've toured to five, counting Minnesota (where my grandma took me several times when I was a boy), Missouri (which I visited multiple times while living in the state, particularly during Missouri Press Association Day at the Capitol during a couple years of my early reporting career), and the three that I visited during this year's double-barreled vacation. I've also, for the record, been outside, in bare-eyeball range of, the Capitols of Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin and Indiana. For what it's worth.

The Centennial Bell (1889-1989), on the third-floor gallery in the central rotunda.

One of many paintings I shot pictures of in the Capitol. Eventually I stopped downloading them to add to this post.

I can't recall who this statue depicts, nor can I read the plaque at the base, but he apparently represents some Montanans who fought in the military. Behind him, of course, you might be able to make out the name "Montana" on the front of the building. It's a pity the dome was surrounded by scaffolding when I visited the place.

A wider shot of the Capitol building, from a bit farther away. The grounds were lovely and I could almost have shot a picture of a mountain within sight of it, but for the smoky haze and intervening trees through which I couldn't find a good angle.

A view from the third-floor gallery in the rotunda. I think the second-floor hallway at center leads to the governor's office.

A view from a fourth-floor gallery, as high as you can go.

Back down on the second floor, what one of those galleries looks like from below, and some of the art around it.

The governor's office. It was a Wednesday, I believe, so the open-door policy was in force, unlike at the North Dakota capitol where we happened to stop on a Saturday.

A lounge at the entrance to the House of Representatives, full of comfy benches and more art than you want to see at this time. Oddly – again, compared to the expected location of the two chambers on opposite sides of the central rotunda – both legislative chambers are in the same wing, with the Senate closer to center and the House further down, and a kind of concession stand/snack bar in between.

The House chamber itself.

The Old Supreme Court chamber, viewed from the fourth-floor gallery.

The Old Supreme Court chamber, shot through the glass of the door on the third floor, just off the rotunda on the side opposite to the Senate chamber. What else is in that wing, you ask? Pretty much government offices.

A painting depicting, I presume, the completion of an important railroad through Montana, at the top of the main staircase off the rotunda from the second to the third floor.

The floor of that main rotunda.

The central dome with some of the surrounding art.

The Senate chamber, again shot through the glass of a closed and locked door. The windows along the sides provide a view from adjacent hallways leading back toward the House of Representatives and whatnot.

The big staircase from the second-floor rotunda to the third floor.

Another one of those paintings on the third floor, this one apparently focusing on the roles of women in settling Montana.

My visit to the North Dakota State Capitol

Last Saturday, Aug. 1, my brother, Ryan (the guy in the red "Dad-Pool" cap), and I stopped in Bismarck, N.D. around lunchtime during a two-day drive to see our parents in the Great Falls, Montana area. Here in no particular order are some shots from our guided tour of the North Dakota State Capitol.

"The Hon. John Burke of North Dakota: Legislator – Governor – Supreme Court Justice – Treasurer of the United States of America"

This is the House of Representatives chamber. The Legislature meets only during odd-numbered years and the legislators have no offices except their desks in the chamber. Contrary to the expected location of the two chambers on opposite sides of the central tower, both are in the same wing, to the left as seen facing the front steps, with the House at the front (with windows) and the Senate at the rear. The House ceiling, I was told, was designed to represent the moon and the stars.

The art deco design of the Capitol prominently features this tall tower, which (except for the second-floor memorial hall and the 18th-floor observation deck) is pretty much government offices. The House chamber is at the left with the Senate behind it, facing the rear of the building.

These portraits of N.D.'s governors are on the observation deck. The tour guide pointed out one guy, "Wild Bill" Langer, who's on there twice. He was impeached and removed from office, only to be re-elected later.

This first-floor portrait gallery of the winners of N.D.'s annual "Rough Rider Award," starting with Teddy Roosevelt himself, includes such North Dakota residents as Roger Maris and Angie Dickinson.

Here's the memorial wall in the Memorial Hall, with black marble representing North Dakotans who died serving the country. And, of course, the state seal. The Art Deco decor includes a variety of types of marble and woods, many of them rare and irreplaceable today, including one room (not pictured) called the "monkey room" because a child thought the burls in the wood resembled monkeys' eyes. The tour guide pointed out a pattern resembling Garfield (the cat).

This is the Senate chamber, which the tour guide said is affectionately called "the dark side" because of its lack of windows, though the ceiling is designed to represent the sun.

On this lawn, viewed from the observation deck, 900-some people set a Guinness world record for the number of snow angels in one place. I think you can see the Missouri River in this picture, in the upper right.

Here's that Memorial Hall again, with brass-accented rotary doors (no longer used) decorated with reliefs representing North Dakota's farmers and miners. We were told North Dakota is the number one producer of canola, honey, winter wheat and sunflowers in the nation, and it also produces a lot of coal that's mined in such a way that the land is restored to its previous condition afterward. The light fixtures are designed to represent ears of wheat.

Elevator doors on the bottom two floors are also in brass, as are the pillars in the Memorial Hall. The reliefs on them include a depiction of a settler and an Indian clubbing each other(!) with their rifles.

This hallway runs between the House and Senate chambers. More of that rare, irreplaceable wood, accented with lights designed around an Egyptian motif (typical of Art Deco). The benches along the corridor are overhung by slanted canopies that I'm told serve some acoustic function, muffling the sound of conversation beneath, so you can have a relatively private conversation.

My visit to the Iowa State Capitol

So, I was stopping in Des Moines to break a trip from Minnesota to Missouri last week, and this happened. Enjoy!

I wished I could have photographed the smell of this library.

A detail from the House of Representatives chamber, which I was able to enter because a tour guide was leading a group through it.

Legislators apparently have mailboxes in this little post office inside the Capitol.

The Supreme Court.

The House of Representatives. Sorry, I couldn't get inside the Senate.

The U.S.S. Iowa, scale replica.

What's It Called In Your State?

This has been building up for a while. Watching a lot of true crime videos, I've noticed that different U.S. states call their criminal investigation agencies different things, and I thought it would be interesting to see how many different variants there are. And that led to other ideas ... there will probably be more installments of this kind of thing.

So, here are the names of state police agencies, by U.S. state:

• Alabama: State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and the Highway Patrol (AHP)
• Alaska: Bureau of Investigation (ABI) and Alaska State Troopers (AST)
• Arizona: Highway Patrol (AHP) and Criminal Investigations Division (CID)
• Arkansas: Arkansas State Police (ASP) and the Arkansas Highway Police (AHP) (under two separate departments!)
• California: Bureau of Investigation (CBI), among other agencies.
• Colorado: Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Connecticut: Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) Delaware: State Police (DSP) Florida: Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence (BCII) and Highway Patrol (FHP)
• Georgia: Bureau of Investigation (GBI)
• Hawaii: Department of Law Enforcement, which has a Criminal Investigation Division (CID)
• Idaho: State Police (ISP)
• Illinois: Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)
• Indiana: Criminal Investigation Division (CID)
• Iowa: Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)
• Kentucky: Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI)
• Louisiana: State Police (LSP), a.k.a. Police d’Etat de Louisiane
• Maine: State Police (MSP)
• Maryland: State Police (MSP)
• Massachusetts: State Police (MSP)
• Michigan: State Police (MSP)
• Minnesota: Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCI) and State Patrol (MSP)
• Mississippi: Bureau of Investigation (MBI)
• Missouri: State Highway Patrol (MSHP), which has a CID
• Montana: Division of Criminal Investigations (DCI)
• Nebraska: State Patrol (NSP), also with an Investigative Services division
• Nevada: Investigation Division (NID)
• New Hampshire: Investigative Services Bureau (ISB)
• New Jersey: Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) and State Detectives (NJSD)
• New Mexico: State Police (NMSP) Investigations Bureau (IB)
• New York: State Police (NYSP) Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI)
• North Carolina: State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)
• North Dakota: Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI)
• Ohio: Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI)
• Oklahoma: State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)
• Oregon: Criminal Justice Division (under the Department of Justice)
• Pennsylvania: State Police (PSP) Bureau of Criminal Investigation
• Puerto Rico: Special Investigations Bureau (SIB, or Negociado de Investigaciones Especiales, NIE)
• Rhode Island: State Police (RHSP) Detective Bureau
• South Carolina: Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and Highway Patrol (SCHP)
• South Dakota: Division of Criminal Investigation (SDCI)
• Tennessee: Bureau of Investigation (TBI)
• Texas: Rangers and Criminal Investigations Division (CID)
• Utah: State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)
• Vermont: Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI)
• Virginia: Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI)
• Washington: State Patrol (WSP) Criminal Investigations Division (CID)
• West Virginia: State Police (WVSP) Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI)
• Wisconsin: Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)
• Wyoming: Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)

That's a lot of SBIs, CDIs, CIDs and BCIs, and (I'm proud to say, as a Minnesotan) only one BCA!

I was also thinking about "What do they call the Department of Motor Vehicles in all 50 states?" Is it called the DMV or something else? So here's that run-down:

• Alabama: Driver License Division and Division of Motor Vehicles (under two separate departments!)
• Alaska: Division of MVs
• Arizona: MV Division
• Arkansas: Office of Motor Vehicle (singular!)
• California: Department of MVs
• Colorado: Division of MVs
• Connecticut: Department of MVs
• Delaware: Division of MVs
• D.C.: Department of MVs
• Florida: Department of Highway Safety and MVs
• Georgia: Department of Driver Services and Motor Vehicle Division (same story, one's public safety and the other is revenue)
• Hawaii: Driver License Division and Motor Vehicle Division (same story)
• Idaho: Division of MVs
• Illinois: Driver Services Department and Vehicle Services Department (same story)
• Indiana: Bureau of Motor Vehicles
• Iowa: MV Division
• Kansas: Division of Vehicles
• Kentucky: Division of Driver Licensing and MV Licensing System
• Louisiana: Office of MVs
• Maine: Bureau of MVs
• Maryland: MV Administration
• Massachusetts: Registry of MVs
• Minnesota: Driver and Vehicle Services
• Mississippi: MV Licensing Division
• Missouri: Department of Revenue
• Montana: MV Division
• Nebraska: Department of MVs
• Nevada: Department of MVs
• New Hampshire: Division of MVs
• New Jersey: MV Commission
• New Mexico: MV Division
• New York: Department of MVs
• North Carolina: Division of MVs
• North Dakota: Driver License Division and MV Division
• Ohio: Bureau of MVs
• Oklahoma: Department of Public Safety and Tax Commission (the same driver license vs. vehicle records split)
• Oregon: Driver and MV Services
• Pennsylvania: Driver and Vehicle Services
• Rhode Island: Division of MVs
• South Carolina: Department of MVs
• South Dakota: Department of Public Safety and Department of Revenue
• Tennessee: Driver License Services and Vehicle Services Division
• Texas: Driver License Division and Department of MVs
• Utah: Driver License Services and Division of MVs
• Vermont: Department of MVs
• Virginia: Department of MVs
• Washington: Department of Licensing
• West Virginia: Division of MVs
• Wisconsin: Division of MVs
• Wyoming: Driver Services Program

... So, a lot of them are DMVs but with some alternation between Departments and Divisions, with a few Offices and Bureaus thrown in. And some MVDs. And a bunch of lousy states where you have to apply to different departments for your driver's license and your car's tags. Washingtonians have the best deal, with a licensing bureau that also handles boat, business and professional licenses. I've personally written checks to several variants of this alphabet soup. It's nice to see at a glance which ones are which!