Robbie Magnan sweeps his tattooed arm over the landscape in front of us, where miles of shortgrass prairie rolls out toward a flat horizon obscured by smoke from a distant wildfire. There’s a pumpjack of a working oil well and a herd of about 200...
Rudy Autio helped start the residency program at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, in the 1950s. In doing so, he helped to launch one of the most well-respected ceramics institutions in the U.S., while also establishing his legacy in...
Fish Fisher is a man of the West; one whose drive, authenticity, and passion are clearly visible in his craft, and also in his personality. When he talks, Fisher’s voice is clear and cadenced. He has an air of confidence, but also of humility, and...
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a long way from Chicago, and different in just about every way. But when an Illinois-based family of four set foot in this Rocky Mountain town on previous visits, they always felt like they were home — so much so, that...
We are surrounded by beauty. It’s everywhere in our world — a constant reminder of the complexity and power of the incredible place we call home. [caption id="attachment_18987" align="aligncenter" width="400"] STOIC BISONLamar Valley, Montana Gelatin-silver photograph[/caption] Beauty may be as fleeting and indescribable as the moment a...
The atmosphere of 1889 encourages variety: On any given night, you’ll see everything from steak-and-wine dates to boisterous gatherings of sun-kissed river rats sipping microbrews. The steakhouse on the corner of Higgins Avenue and Front Street in downtown Missoula is housed in the historic Mercantile...
I came to the river to write: not a fishing story exaggerating about a trout the size of a fat dachshund, but to capture the very soul of the river. But I couldn’t. It was strange to acknowledge that realization, considering that I grew up around...
A tapestry of tribulations is woven, thread by thread, by the masterful hand of Deirdre McNamer in her newest novel Aviary (Milkweed Editions, $24). The list of demons she confronts is daunting: environmental degradation, elder neglect, child abuse, school bullying, predatory capitalism, mental health, housing,...
Which streaks the woods road at noon — Shade or sun, Across the nature of the other one? Do shadows, shapes of leaves and limbs, Take all the light And leave, except for minor errors, night? Or, is black the habit of summer sky? And flawing his blindness, Only shooting stars Behind the walker’s...
When Angie Lipski was a child, she spent every summer weekend, along with her parents and brother, at her grandmother’s house on the shores of Flathead Lake in northwest Montana. As a result, she says, life at the lake “embodies a lot of my happiest...