As an editor, putting each issue of Big Sky Journal together is like working on a puzzle. There are different components that make up the final pictur...

THERE’S NO WALKING BY ONE OF ARTIST Beth Cavener’s sculptures without stopping to look. In each one, there’s an immediate story, and it’s ...

AFTER LIVING IN AND AROUND the Greater Yellowstone area for some time now, I’m used to driving over a rise and being blown away by what I find on th...

THERE’S A CANOE HANGING FROM THE CEILING of Dick Idol’s art studio, and it’s not just any old boat. Purchased from a fur trade museum in Mic...

ATTRACTION, ATTACHMENT, AWE — all come with having a sense of place, a strong resonance to one particular locale on Earth, which speaks to us in a l...

“EVERYONE IN THE WORLD KNOWS WHAT a cowboy is,” says Nikki Todd of Visions West Contemporary in Bozeman, Montana. “You watch people come in ...

CODY, WYOMING-BASED ARTIST MIKE “M.C.” Poulsen remembers the genesis of his epic Yellowstone Waterfall Project. An accomplished painter si...

An avid fly fisherman based in Bozeman, Montana, Stephen Camelio is a former editor for In Style magazine and has written for Fly Rod & Reel, The ...

Part-time Livingston, Montana, resident and long-time writer about the Western experience, Toby Thompson turns his attention to the tradition of Weste...

I’m driving the long way home. Meandering along a backroad meadow where I’ve stalled to breathe and watch the horses play. Let their blood and fle...

At the time of its founding in 1910, Glacier National Park contained more than 150 glaciers. Today, fewer than 25 remain, and the United States Geolog...

I live in an inland rainforest in the northwest corner of Montana, the wild Yaak Valley where — it’s true — in June, one is often bloodstained w...

The artwork of Sara Joyce (1923-2011) embodies her own personal language, a rich organic response to the Idaho landscape that was familiar to her, and...

You might eat the best steak in Montana at the Buffalo Block Prime Steakhouse in Billings. It depends on how you like your meat, but at this establish...

Through her artwork, Meghan Purcell cultivates silence and serenity from her bright and airy studio near downtown Livingston, Montana. Working in what...

“Theodore Waddell writes of his wild reverence for the land and the fellow beings with whom he shares Her as if he’s slapping oils onto colossal c...

Linda William’s affection for the arts started when she was a child. While growing up in Tennessee, her parents were art collectors, and their famil...

A high-mountain breeze sweeps across Tom Miner Basin, whispering across the purple petals of the common shooting star flower and larkspur and dancing ...

Last fall, Simms Fishing Products (the Bozeman, Montana-based manufacturer of waders, outerwear, footwear, and technical apparel), and The River’s E...

“Picture yourself pedaling across the entire country on a safe, seamless, and scenic pathway — or walking a local trail that connects along histor...

Want to figure out what kind of bird is making that sweet sound, navigate a new area, or find out what that constellation is on a starry night? Whatev...

On the east end of Main Street in Bozeman, Montana’s thriving downtown, where boutiques and galleries mingle with hip bars and restaurants, there’...

There exists a word for the way the air smells after a rainstorm, or at least that’s what a friend told me. An amusing piece of data, perhaps, but I...

On a warm summer day a few years ago, my husband and I woke early to explore the 2,160-acre Wild Horse Island, part of Flathead Lake State Park in Nor...

When artist Meagan Blessing was 9 years old, she filled an expedition-style backpack and walked out the front door of her family’s home in Seattle, ...

In the summer of 1910, Idaho and Western Montana suffered one of the most devastating fires in the nation’s history. It was a conflagration that his...

Working as a photojournalist for more than 20 years, Janie Osborne has had the opportunity to travel the state of Montana extensively from her home ba...

All gifts are temporary The sun, the moon, the stars Stripes on the backs of chipmunks Beaver tracks in the mud. This morning It was a troop of robins...

  A regular contributor to Big Sky Journal, John Clayton is the author of Wonderlandscape: Yellowstone National Park and the Evolution of an Amer...

“To write a meaningful memoir, I have been told, you must have interesting people living in interesting times,” writes Jo Anne Salisbury Troxel in...

While researching the possibility of building a sleek and modern home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a retired couple went to lunch at a Chicago restaurant...

THE SUN IS RISING IN THE SMALL TOWN OF DRIGGS, Idaho, and like most summer mornings in the Teton Valley, there’s a distinct chill in the air that wi...

I’VE BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO STAY AT MORE than two dozen Forest Service cabins around Montana since I moved here nearly 30 years ago. And I’ve stayed...

LAST YEAR, WRITER THOMAS MCGUANE UPDATED The Longest Silence — his 1999 collection of essays on trout, tarpon, and bonefish — by adding 15 new cha...

ERNEST THOMPSON SETON’S BIOGRAPHY OF A GRIZZLY  has been a classic illustrated animal book for children since it was first published in 1899. Despi...

ONE AUTUMN DAY, I WAS SITTING ON A RIDGE in the foothills of the Alaska Range glassing for caribou when I spotted a strange, dark form scampering acro...

With life being in lockdown over the last month or so, I have often thought about how lucky we are to live in the Rocky Mountain West where the cows o...

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Flathead Lake Lodge, a family owned and operated guest ranch in Bigfork, Montana. Originally home to the Flath...

Shou sugi ban: If you haven’t heard of this new design trend yet, then rest assured that you will, as it’s turning up everywhere from custom home ...

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