Her eyes were piercing and her hands were weathered from standing in the freezing cold to paint or feed cattle.

What the late Montana artist Isabelle Johnson saw with those intense eyes were not the lush green fields of the Midwest. Rather, Johnson saw the harshness of Montana winters and the rugged landscape near her family’s ranch outside Absarokee. So that’s what she painted in colors that fit the natural palette of the Northern Plains.

Former director of the Yellowstone Art Museum Donna Forbes remembers Johnson as a good friend and mentor. Johnson was a strong woman who was a gifted teacher and role model.

“Her great statement was, ‘You have to learn to look and see, not just look,’” Forbes said. “The depth of your seeing has to grow and hers did constantly.”

The Yellowstone Art Museum holds 827 Johnson-related works in its permanent collection, most of which were

donated to the museum by Johnson. One painting, “Pilot and Index Peaks, Wyoming,” was donated to the YAM in 1995 by Carol L. Cooper Ferguson, David L. Cooper and Joanne L. Morrill in memory of their parents, Lyle and Connie Cooper. The 1952 oil painting on canvas is on display in the “Boundless Visions” exhibit in the Scott Gallery.

The YAM is hosting a solo exhibit of Johnson’s works in November and December of 2015. The oil and watercolor paintings were completed by Johnson between the 1940s up until just a few years before her death in 1992 at the age of 91.

MORE>>>Billings Gazette

Brian D'Ambrosio is a writer/editor living in Missoula, Montana. D'Ambrosio is the author of more than 300 articles and five books related to Montana history, people, and travel.

In the Golden Age of boxing, Marvin Camel—a mixed blood from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana—defied all obstacles of race, poverty, and geographical isolation to become the first Native American to win a world boxing title.

Complex and wildly charismatic, Camel combined tremendous physical talent with staggering self-discipline—forged by the sting of his father’s belt—to claw his way to the top, twice winning world titles in the newly minted cruiserweight division and fighting on the same cards as boxing icons Roberto Duran, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Bob Foster.

Camel’s journey was an amazing example of gritty determination: punishing runs on Montana’s back roads, relentless training in make-shift gyms, sleeping in beat-up cars before fights in glittering Las Vegas, and even training and fighting for a world championship in a foreign country, alone.


Always, Camel willingly represented his state and his people, proudly wearing his eagle-feather headdress into the ring. Yet with success came sacrifice and pain, both physical and personal, but in life as in the boxing ring, Camel emerged bloody but unbowed.

With irresistible detail gleaned from years of frank interviews with Camel, his family and friends, his former opponents, and seasoned boxing insiders, Brian D’Ambrosio’s gripping biography captures the drama, danger, beauty, and ugliness of boxing, of Indian life on reservations, and especially, of the life of a stereotype-shattering man who inspired his people and boxing fans everywhere with his courage, achievements, and great warrior heart.

Bill Muhlenfeld is owner and publisher of Distinctly Montana magazine and other publications. He lives in Bozeman with his wife and co-owner, Anthea George, and always finds time to enjoy the great outdoors, when he is not writing about it....

As we watch the evening news or tap away online nowadays, we can’t help but notice that weather has become one of the major news items on a fairly regular basis. Floods, tornados, hurricanes, heat, dust storms; and now winter snowstorms, icing and temperature drops--all reported as disasters, near-disasters, or first-degree nuisances. There is no question that climate change and unruly winter weather can complicate things; but it is a rare blizzard or 30 below day that causes consternation among Montanans.  Mostly, we just wonder what all the darn fuss is about. It is winter...what’s the problem?

No question, our blasé attitude toward this season has a lot to do with the fact that winter pretty much runs from November through at least May, when spring finally wins the tussle and quickly gives way to summer (except for that occasional mid-June snowstorm).  No one in Montana plants her garden before Memorial Day.

We celebrate winter here in almost too many ways to count.  From snowshoeing to ski-joring (ask us), ice fishing to cross-country or downhill skiing, sleigh rides to hot spring soaks, fire pits to polar swims, snow-kiting to ice-climbing, we embrace winter as Montana’s iconic season, just as other states seem to abhor it.

If you’re reading this and you’re from Montana, we’re not telling you anything you don’t know; and if you are one of our very welcome visitors we invite you to our winter with a knowing smile. 

Winter is Montana. Embrace it and enjoy it.

Four legislators are having separate bills drafted for the 2015 session to raise the daytime speed limit on Montana interstate highways from 75 mph to 80 mph, and in one case, 85 mph.

Proposing higher speed limits are Sens. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, and Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, and Rep. Mike Miller, R-Helmville, and Rep.-elect Art Wittich, R-Bozeman.

They all cited decisions by neighboring and nearby states in recent years to raise their daytime rural interstate speed limits to 80 mph.

“I’m looking at raising it from 75 to 80 where it’s safe to do so,” Miller said. “Utah, Wyoming and Idaho have all done it. Nevada is looking at it, too. I didn’t see any problems in the other states.”

Wittich said his proposal is “really a freedom bill,” adding, “People want to be able to drive faster and they should be able to do that.”

MORE>>>The Missoulian

New research shows Yellowstone wolves pick their prey based on pack size

The saying “safety in numbers” is typically a phrase associated with animals considered prey.

The idea being: More eyes and ears in a group help alert wildlife to approaching predators. And the more animals in a group, the less likely a specific individual will fall during the hunt.

As it turns out, the saying means something very different when it comes to predators and might be changed to “success in numbers,” particularly when applied to the wolves and bison of Yellowstone National Park.

In a research project published on the the peer-reviewed Public Library of Science website Tuesday, Utah State University’s Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center researchers found wolf hunting behavior changes based on pack numbers and terrain.

Elk are the preferred prey of wolves in Yellowstone. And USU wildland resources assistant professor Dan MacNulty says the reintroduced predators will go out of their way to find their favorite food and it may not be a matter of taste, but rather their own safety.

But when a pack of wolves is large enough and the conditions are right, the canines will turn their attention to bison.

MORE>>>Great Falls Tribune

Lacey Middlestead is a Montana native and freelance writer currently living in Helena, Mont. She loves meeting new people and helping share their stories. When she’s not busy writing articles for newspapers like the Independent Record and Helena Vigilante, she can usually be found indulging in her second greatest passion–playing in the Montana wilderness. She loves skiing and snowmobiling in the winter and four wheeling, hiking, boating, and riding dirt bikes in the summer.

Between my day job, blogging and writing articles, planning a wedding and all my adventurous shenanigans in the Montana wilderness, I often lose track of the days. But the fact that Thanksgiving is mere days away has not escaped my attention. The signs of it are everywhere.

The grocery store shelves are stocked fuller than normal. Everywhere you look there’s bags of cubed bread crumbs, cans of pumpkin, gravy mix packets, and rows of spices. Frozen turkeys crowd the freezers and long checkout lines make customers tilt their heads back---eyes closed---as they sigh and try to steady their blood pressure.

Anxious hunters, still hopeful of filling their tags, strategize as to how they can squeeze in another trip to the woods on Thursday before the turkey hits their family dinner table.

Church members scramble in gathering food items to load into Thanksgiving baskets for families in need.

Newspapers bulge more and more each day with Black Friday ads and coupons. Anxious shoppers gather, cut and clip all of the essentials they deem necessary to go to retail battle on that biggest of all shopping days.

Facebook newsfeeds blow up with people listing off things they are thankful for each day in the month of November.

Thanksgiving, like many of our holidays, is rooted in tradition. Some of those traditions we count down the days for each year. Some we don’t even know why we uphold other than it’s the social norm or all we’ve ever known. And some traditions we wish we could do away with all together. On this Thanksgiving, I find myself stuck somewhere in the middle of all those feelings on traditions.

Since getting engaged in May, I have begun daydreaming about the new life and family I am starting to create for myself. I’ve realized that I have a blank slate to build upon. I grew up with certain traditions and expectations within my family, especially during the holidays. In recent years, however, I have felt the desire to try something new and different during those special days of the year. With wedding bells in the air I think I finally have the opportunity to institute some traditions of my own with my husband-to-be, Andy.  

I imagine the house we may someday build together and the dining room table that may host a Thanksgiving dinner one year between both of our families. I wonder about the type of food we would serve----whether it would be traditional turkey and smashed potatoes or a cheesy lasagna pasta dish like I’ve been requesting for years. If we have children, would we follow up dinner with a family game of hockey or a trail ride on some snowmobiles? There are just so many beautiful possibilities!

I am grateful for the holiday traditions I grew up with in my family.  I am excited at the prospect of beginning to grow some new traditions as Andy and I develop our own life together. I am thankful that I live in a country where traditions—whether old, new, borrowed, or used are always valued, encouraged, and shared by many.