The temperature gauge in my truck reads 1 degree Fahrenheit as we pass through Roosevelt’s Arch at the northwest entrance to Yellowstone National Park. A full moon hangs low to the west over Electric Peak, opposite the trajectory of the rising sun. The reflected sunlight...
Before a flight, I search the U.S. Forest Service website for the latest fire response and air attack restrictions, scan webcams for measly weather reports from “airports” that seldom report any, and listen carefully to the gems that grizzled backcountry pilots might drop in casual...
As we leave Crow Agency in his Tribal Fish & Game pickup, Benito Morrison hands me a foil-wrapped globe the size and heft of a pool cue ball. “The original trail mix,” Morrison, a Crow game warden, says with a laugh. We’re going to view...
Rubber meets gravel as our four-wheel-drive vehicles rumble up a dusty road. We pull over at a wide bend near a hairpin turn. After gathering supplies, avian researcher Mary Scofield and volunteer Lesley Rolls head downslope through sagebrush, while I accompany avian biologist William Blake...
It’s August and somewhere out beyond Big Sandy, behemoth machines crawl across the landscape. It’s harvest time in Montana. In late summer, the “Golden Triangle” of central Montana is alive with men, women, and machines bringing in the summer’s crop of wheat — the iconic product...
The Seeley-Swan Valley, located in northwest Montana, is nestled between — and populated by — giants, both topographically and botanically. No peak in the region eclipses 10,000 feet in elevation, but the Seeley-Swan is bordered by the Mission Mountains and Swan Range, which collectively encompass...
“The buffalo furnished them meat, robes for bedding, skins for teepee coverings, clothing, foot gear, sinew for sewing, bone splinters for sewing awls, and many other items they required.” — Dominic Michell, Salish Tribal Elder, Circa 1942 While precise numbers are impossible to determine, most authorities estimate...
Residing in the mountains of northwest Montana with her husband and two daughters, Sally Vannoy is living — and painting — her best life. “I live in a place I love, with people I love, doing what I love. What could be better than that?”...
Refining the art of being present, artist Dale Livezey’s palette speaks of Montana through gradient skies and the sentinels of landscape. His paintings offer a mediation on the intangible values of place, a breath of sanctuary, and that transient balance when the world teeters between...
Artist Joe Kronenberg doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on his past, but his studio is a repository for its hallmarks. There’s the Ralph “Tuffy” Berg Award for outstanding emerging artist that he received during the 2009 C.M. Russell Museum Auction; a framed reproduction...