Rodeos, art walks, fiddle contests and Christmas strolls from Glacier Country to the Missouri Breaks. Our new events calendar gathers them up, and a free email brings your corner of the state to you every Wednesday.
Pondera County has fourteen census-designated places and other unincorporated communities, few of which have more than 100 residents. Heart Butte, on the Blackfeet Reservation, is the largest with a 2020 population of 621. Five of these census-designated places are Hutterite Colonies with a combined population over 700.
The goal, in the words of Travis Kabalin, project manager for Martel Construction on the East Terminal Expansion Project and the man whose task it is to keep it all running, is "essentially allowing the airport to continue to function with minimal owner and passenger disruption."
Both being part Native themselves, it was easy for Ovila and Marie to integrate into both the Native and white cultures of their day. In addition to their native French, which was not an uncommon second language on the Reservation at that time, they learned the Pend d'Oreille (Salish) language of their local friends, as well as English.
It was the ideal location from which to measure the vast land that twenty-two years later, in 1889, would become Montana, the Big Sky State. The confusion Vince and I had felt when we first hiked to that point now made absolute sense.
Gold attracted people to the region, and Helena’s “main street” is a memorial to the early prospectors. Much of Last Chance Gulch is a pedestrian mall, and the turn-of-the-century architecture lining the sidewalks attracts the eye, just as the various window displays attract shoppers.
Draft horses fall into two categories. The first is the working class. Any horse, from a pony to your saddle horse used to pull things, is in this sense a draft horse. Draft means "to pull."
At nearly 11,000 feet, the sprawling alpine tundra at the height of the Beartooth Pass has been referred to by many as the “Top of the World.” What better way to experience the harrowing thrill of driving one of the highest-elevation roadways in the United States than from the back of a motorcycle?
The Bozeman boom is a named phenomenon, frequently discussed on social media, where posts track the sounds and folks all over town report where they heard them. There was a boom on June 5, 2022, at nearly 6 pm. A loud, cacophonous noise was heard in Bozeman, Belgrade, Four Corners, West Yellowstone, and Livingston, with no official cause ever discovered.
They say freezing to death can be quite pleasant once delirium starts to set in. That is, pleasant enough at least when stacked up against nastier alternatives. We’re talking the real doozies. And since Montanans need little impetus to brag about the peculiarities of our state, the editorial staff of Distinctly Montana have prepared a very short list of the absolute worst ways to die here.
There is an interesting rock formation located a little ways outside of Whitehall, Montana, jutting out of the earth in a way that resembles nothing so much as a prehistoric wall—appearing to be made of cyclopean slabs piled on top of each other with startling exactitude. In places, you couldn't slip a credit card in between.
Over in Glendive, GiGi’s Café makes the list. So does Shellie's Country Café in Helena, open 24 hours. Jordan has its Summit Corral. Even tiny Lima, Montana has Jan’s Café. And though there is not a tree anywhere nearby, Denton boasts its Shade Tree Café.
"My wife told me that I needed a project to stay busy, and I think she meant for me to paint the bathroom or fix the railings on the back porch," he said. "But instead, I began restoring a full-size steam locomotive."
Awakening at 3 a.m. to jingling keys and the unmistakable ripping of Velcro from the unfastening of a bullet-resistant vest was always a peaceful predawn ritual for me. It was so much better than the silence that prevailed through the darkest part of the night.
The war between the Thunder Birds and the Water Monsters involved ranged warfare; they fired missiles at one another which the Sioux called kangi tame, or the blackened remains of lightning bolts.
Joe was raised along Post Creek, north of Saint Ignatius, bordering historic Fort Connah on the Flathead Reservation. He was the great-grandson of Angus McDonald, a Scottish fur trapper who settled in the Mission Valley and established Fort Connah in 1846
Over breakfast, we chatted about the days of Lewis and Clark, and although he didn’t have any wild stories like Frank, he told of how he enjoys living off the beaten path and giving guests a glimpse into the life of Montana in the early 1900s.
Topographically, Wibaux County is mostly prairie, but not plain in the dull sense. The land rolls, breaks, drops, and cuts into coulees and badlands formations. The website Peak Visor lists eleven "mountains" in Wibaux County. Note that the tallest of these "mountains" is less than 3,100 feet, and the most prominent rises only 443 feet above the valley floor.
The bustle of city life hasn’t yet knocked at the door of this community. Harnessed to its past, Willow Creek’s main purpose is denoted by its roads leading out of town through the pastureland—to ranches and farms.
