More than 150 years after Nelson Story’s famous Texas-to-Montana cattle drive, cattle rustlers still roam the American West, and traditional ranchers still brand their calves to identify their herd and safeguard their livelihood. The practice of rope-and-drag branding, with irons in an open fire pit...
Mark Davis, the project superintendent for Martel Construction, has built a lot of houses in the past 30 years: as many as 250, he estimates. It’s quite a statement, then, when he says, “Of all the houses I’ve built so far, this one is my...
A thick column of black smoke rose downriver, cooling into a thin layer across the horizon and contrasting starkly against the late October Montana sky; a good metaphor for the splitting headache that was hammering in my otherwise clear head. The smoke distracted me for...
Bows and arrows represent one of mankind’s earliest inventions. Archery artifacts from southern Africa date back as far as 60,000 years, and 10,000 years ago, Neolithic cultures were hunting and waging war with bows in every corner of the world except Australia, a remarkable example...
Surrounded by his recent work — oil paintings finished, in-process, or merely put aside — Kyle Sims focuses on painting a small fox he spotted recently in Canada. His glass palette reflects an orderly approach, a line of select hues along the top and three...
My friend Jane told me about Little Star Diner when it first opened three years ago just one block off Main Street in downtown Bozeman, Montana. We were sharing dinner with a group of foodie friends and talking about our best recent meals. “I had...
Part-time Livingston, Montana, resident and long-time writer about the Western experience, Toby Thompson turns his attention to the tradition of Western art and the artists who have created it in his latest book Fired On: Targeting Western American Art (Bangtail Press, $22.95). Through more than...
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 flesh, grazing knee-deep in fireworks of wildflowers, lift me. Why do I say “play?” Horses I’ve known up close shudder and twitch with nervous alert. Poor brutes, fenced to boredom, plagued with...
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 Geological Survey (USGS) had predicted that these would be gone by 2020. Seeking to capture the fading majesty of the...
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 with the smear of mosquitoes that hover and swarm in sheets and waves. For so many of us...