Recently, Outside Bozeman ran an article in which they compared “Old Bozeman…when people were few, traffic was nonexistent, and real estate was available to folks without hedge funds.” To the Bozeman of today. In doing so, they stepped right into the middle of what I call the Norman Maclean Paradox. A quintessential Montanan, Maclean … Read more
Designated in 1910 as the nation’s 10th National Park, the grandeur of Glacier has attracted visitors for centuries. The Blackfeet Indian tribe that dominated the plains east of the mountains frequently wintered in the wooded valleys of what is now Glacier National Park, and considered the area around Two Medicine sacred. The Kootenai, who made … Read more
My favorite thing to do in fort Benton is to stroll along the levee eating ice cream from the Freeze. Unfortunately, weather doesn’t always cooperate. The weekend we went was muggy, windless and clinging on the verge of 90 degrees. On such days, the best policy is to visit one of the town’s five museums. … Read more
For years I have gone to the park in Fort Benton, and for years the fort failed to materialize. All that remained was an adobe blockhouse that you couldn’t enter and two fenced-off bits of walls, little more than mud heaps. This time however, the Fort Museum was finally open and somewhere deep inside me, … Read more
Helena’s architecture defies classification. To begin with it was a gold rush town—filled with saloons and brothels and dirt covered prospectors. Some of this remains in the tangled skein of roads that follow old footpaths, and in many buildings’ false-fronted western flair. In just a few short years, however, the town had become the epicenter … Read more
It is sometimes hard to imagine prospectors and cowboys playing baseball, but, in fact, Montanans have enjoyed baseball from the early days of the state (you can read more about Montana’s baseball history here). Today, four of the eight members of Pioneer League call Montana home. The Pioneer League is a rookie league–most of the … Read more
