Filmmaking Twins Strive to Capture Authentic Montana BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO 02/06/16 Grandiose mountains, rolling plains covered with fields of wheat and barley, the romantic mystique of the West—these images are what people envision when thinking of Montana. Few people immediately think of the hardship of winter, isolation, or cold variables understood only through the … [Read more...]
Killing Them to Save Them
FWP Allows Hunters to Cull an Entire Herd of Bighorns BY TOM DICKSON 01/08/15 Within just 48 hours of exposure to the pathogens that cause pneumonia, most bighorn sheep respond the same way people do. Their nose begins to drip. Breathing becomes difficult. They develop a hacking cough. Soon the animals become feverish and lethargic. But unlike humans, who … [Read more...]
The Other Yellowstone
Up in the Missouri River Territory, This Is How She Rolls BY RICK & SUSIE GRAETZ Rolling along for nearly 335 miles in Montana's Missouri River Country, the Missouri River takes top billing, but the Yellowstone River is far more than a bit player. The 670-mile long waterway's claim to fame is that it remains the nation's longest undammed river. While it only logs 50 … [Read more...]
Missing in the Crazies
The Mysterious Disappearance of Aaron Hedges BY PETER J. RYAN 10/03/15 The rugged and unforgiving Crazy Mountains have always held their share of secrets. Take the name, for instance. According to the most popular legend - and the one that is perhaps least politically correct—the mountains were anointed in memory of a woman whose family of homesteaders were … [Read more...]
It’s About Time
What Is It, Anything at All? BY DAVID S. LEWIS Do you understand Time? I mean really. —Ever give it much thought? (Yes, I do this for a living.) And here’s the thing—what is it? Seriously. Do me a favor, indulge me. Think about the present moment, nothing else. Take ten seconds, but don’t count. Think about it until you feel in touch with it… Take your time. … [Read more...]
Duran Caferro, Ringside
Native Boxer Faces the Challenges of a Champion BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO 09/03/15 Twenty-seven year old Duran Caferro contrasts his aggressive boxing skills with an unassuming personality. Even Caferro's tall, lean physical appearance comes across as deceptively modest. When he stepped into the arena at the Three Forks Rodeo Grounds on Saturday, August 22, to exchange grunts … [Read more...]
Looting at Fort Ellis
Who’s Accountable for Protecting Historic Artifacts? BY PAT HILL 01/08/16 Livingston, Montana-based archaeologist Larry Lahren first heard about the looting at Fort Ellis in December, during morning coffee with some of his colleagues. The activity reportedly came to a head in October, and Lahren wondered what had been done in the wake of the illegal digging on this state … [Read more...]
Gold Mining Proposed Near Yellowstone
BY PAT HILL 01/08/16 Another proposal to explore for gold in Park County has surfaced, this time near Jardine, Montana, not far from Gardiner. It’s even closer to Yellowstone Park than the proposed Emigrant Peak gold exploration that was scaled back by Lucky Minerals late last year after widespread public comment against the plan. The Crevice Mining Group, headed up by … [Read more...]
Governor Bullock OK With Montana Taking Syrian Refugees
But a Governor Can’t Make That Call BY BOB BROWN 12/15/15 Governor Steve Bullock says he will look favorably on Middle Eastern refugees settling in Montana unless there are concerns about them posing a threat to our safety. Other Governors have also made their opinions known regarding Middle Eastern refugees in their states. The reality, though, is that state Governors … [Read more...]
Carbon Mandates Will Cut Montana Incomes Half as Much as 2009 Recession
EPA Carbon Mandates Generate Bad Economic Forecast 12/15/15 The University of Montana recently released an analysis, an economic impact statement, if you will, commissioned by NorthWestern Energy, of the economic costs Montanans will incur as a result of Obama Administration carbon dioxide mandates imposed on the state through the Clean Power Plan, the authority for … [Read more...]
Indians, Vigilantes, and Buffalo Women
Recollections of a Cowboy BY TEDDY BLUE ABBOTT (From We Pointed Them North, Oklahoma University Press, originally published in 1939) A night or two before we left town that fall (in 1884), we were all together with the girls, drinking and having a good time, and I got dressed up. Cowboy Annie put her gold chain around my neck, and wound her scarf around the crown of my … [Read more...]
Climate Policy Isn’t the Only Thing Killing Coal
BY ELIZABETH SHOGREN 12/05/15 Arch Coal, the nation's second largest coal company, recently told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may join other coal companies in filing for bankruptcy. The company said it may have to seek Chapter 11 relief because of "extremely challenging current market conditions." The company, which is burdened by $5 billion in debt, … [Read more...]
Peace on Earth—If Not for the News
We've a Good Thing Going In Montana BY DAVID S. LEWIS 12/25/15 The thing about the 24-hour news cycle is that, well, it lasts 24 hours. Short of 9-11 and Watergate, important news quickly gets displaced by the next event, and the cumulative effect resembles a collective Attention Deficit Disorder. A monthly, though, sets a whole other pace. Within these pages more … [Read more...]
Jeff Daniels, Movie Star Makes Music
Has Second Career, Keeps the Day Job BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO 11/10/15 He‘s perhaps best known for playing opposite Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, and has scored major credits in recently released major motion pictures—playing Apple CEO John Sculley in Steve Jobs, and a NASA honcho in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster The Martian. It may seem odd then that a star of Jeff … [Read more...]
Born Barefoot
How Did That Whole Shoe Thing Get Started? BY DAVID S. LEWIS You started out as a child. No doubt. We all did. And correct me if I’m wrong, but even before that, as a baby, that little bundle of humanity that you were didn't come into this world with shoes—no soles, no laces, no Dr. Scholls inserts. You were barefoot. So how did we all get from there to here? And where … [Read more...]
Real Men Don’t Flock Shoot
It’s a Question of Character BY DAVID S. LEWIS 11/05/15 If you own a dog, imagine this nightmare. He somehow gets shot while on the run in a field. And the sudden impact is so painful and intense that he literally does not know what hit him, only that it’s excruciating and horrible, the worst pain that’s ever come upon him. Spooked and terrified he runs fast and far … [Read more...]
Chet Huntley’s Journey, the Hi-Line to the Big Time
A Journey That Began in a One Room Schoolhouse BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO 09/10/15 Saco, Montana—the kind of place where you step off into eternity and wonder if you will ever make it back. Situated along the Hi-Line, the land lays flat and scrubby, never a look to be confused with natural beauty. A roughneck town of only a few hundred, Saco is also home to the Chet Huntley … [Read more...]
The Bee-Pocalypse Myth
Montana’s Bees and the Whole Country’s Are In Good Shape BY SHAWN REGAN 09/05/15 By now, you've probably heard about the plight of the honey-bees. In 2006, beekeepers began reporting above-average losses to their colonies over the winter. Within no time, the media was abuzz over “colony collapse disorder,” a mysterious affliction causing entire hives to die or simply … [Read more...]
Secret Service on the Yellowstone
They Stand Out Like, Well, the Secret Service 09/01/15 BY DAVID S. LEWIS So I’m driving down Hwy 89 in Paradise Valley near Point of Rocks. It’s August, but freakishly cold and wet. I see a small fleet of identical silver SUVs parked at the fishing access. At 80 mph, I fly by, then turn around, drive back to the entrance, and roll down the gravel road to the … [Read more...]
Dances With Bulls
A Rodeo Bullfighter Takes Us Into the Arena BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO 07/15/15 Bullfighters set themselves apart from rodeo clowns. They function with an almost primal sense of principle: serve as a human shield for bull riders who've been chucked or thrown from bulls after their eight-second rides. Call the bullfighter's job a perilous game of tag. Call it the most serious … [Read more...]