A GRIZZLY STRIDES ACROSS A STREAM WHILE THE SUN SPARKLES on the tawny highlights in its chocolate-brown fur. Against a background of craggy peaks, a pack of gray wolves stands on alert, ears perked. Hindquarters stretched in full spring, front paws bent, eyes scanning the ground...
Backcountry excursions in Yellowstone National Park From our perch on a hillside overlooking the upper Lamar River Valley, my friend Mariann and I watched the sun set behind Parker Peak. The sky burned in reds and oranges, made more beautiful by the wildfire smoke in the...
The Montana Conservation Corps takes a new direction, impacting the land, communities, and a generation of young leaders Even with all the eroded gullies and stumps, the Mount Haggin area south of Anaconda, Montana, is staggeringly beautiful. In the fall of 2018, I joined a Montana...
On the lower Yellowstone River, the precious eggs of a living dinosaur are converted into an international delicacy that helps pay for playgrounds and museums Barbara Garrison lifts her shirt to reveal a squall of angry red welts on her abdomen. She blushes, but also beams with pride...
The legacy of an obsessive and brilliant mountaineer In 1972, the summer after doug McCarty graduated from high school in Bozeman, Montana, he and a friend hopped a freight train to Seattle. Another friend was something of a climber there and knew Fred Beckey: a Seattle-based...
Championing Shelby, Montana’s world heavyweight fight As the final bell rang out, a crowd of thousands erupted in cheers for the two great heavyweight boxers who had battled for 15 rounds in the scorching sun. The referee quickly passed his judgement, raising the hand of the...
The allure of life and death in the wild It was early morning and I was traveling through Yellowstone National Park with graduate students who were taking my course on writing about the West, when our host, a representative of the Yellowstone Association, got a call. “Wolves,”...
A home near Helena, Montana, takes on history in a modern form High in the hills above Canyon Ferry Reservoir, outside of Helena, Montana, Danielle and Chris Fowler’s house represents the spirit of homecoming in more ways than one. Danielle’s great-great-grandfather homesteaded along what was...
A Northwest Montana lake house takes on a timeless rustic elegance Tucked away in the far northwestern corner of Montana, a rustic home is perched on the shore of a remote lake. At first glance — say, if you were approaching from across the water by canoe...
A Billings, Montana, home and creative haven floats on the horizon [caption id="attachment_13875" align="alignleft" width="200"] Metalsmith Craig Whitely, of the Laurel, Montana-based Arm & Anvil, fabricated facades for the home’s two fireplaces.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_13874" align="alignright" width="196"] Blake Laughlin and Eric Staples, of Laughlin Construction, handcrafted this concrete...