Editor’s Note: The Winter 2023 issue closes Big Sky Journal’s 30th anniversary. In recognition of this passage of time, the editors turned back to stories published in the magazine’s first issue, reflecting on historic themes and storytelling in the West. Award-winning author William Kittredge [1932...
The Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation has long been renowned for its spectacular beadwork and horsemanship. On June 25, 1805, two Canadian fur traders, François-Antoine Larocque and Charles McKenzie, witnessed the equestrian parade of more than 2,000 Crow people, including some 645 warriors, who filed through Hidatsa...
When 18-year-old Canadian freeskier Marcus Goguen stood in the starting gate at last year’s Freeride World Tour stop in Kicking Horse, British Columbia, many spectators held their breaths. The reigning Freeride Junior World Tour champion was coming off a ninth-place finish at his professional debut...
Who made your shirt? I’m not asking about its brand or the country where it was manufactured. Who was the actual person who put in work to make your shirt? I don’t know who made mine, not to mention any of the other shirts I...
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...