The boat launch on the northwest corner of Flathead Lake near Somers, Montana is a relatively quiet place. It’s quieter yet beneath a ceiling of heavy clouds and the kind of stillness that is to be expected once the throngs of lake lovers have turned...
Kat Porco is reminiscent. She describes a warm June evening, the first summer after she and her husband, Mike, opened One Legged Magpie, an upscale restaurant and bar in downtown Red Lodge, Montana. Upstairs, a group of women were rehearsing for the town’s first drag...
Hairpin turns, pristine alpine lakes, abundant wildflowers, and endless views of the rugged Montana and Wyoming wilderness — these are some of the defining features of the Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile stretch of enchanted tarmac that transports travelers into another world. Jaw-dropping awe is all...
It leans a little, tilting north toward the Bridger Range, its cracked, weathered boards wearing their best silver patina. In its uselessness, the west wind refrains from taking it down, only teases the old barn with frequent gusts that rattle loose the rusted tin roof, blowing some of it down the hill &...
Living on the edge of Glacier National Park might seem like a dream. For artist Michael Booth, it’s the reality of a lifetime. The move brought Booth closer to nature, an internal calling that’s led him to some of his most iconic paintings. Having now spent...
Montanans pride themselves on protecting natural wonders, but very few have considered protecting the dark. The dark, after all, scares us. Not the darkness of a room, perhaps, or even a house. But the dark street, the dark wood, and most certainly the dark that...
During a time of hardship, perhaps the lowest point in 20th century Montana history, here was a chance for celebration. It was 1926. Drought had shriveled the state’s agriculture. Banks had failed. Homesteaders had fled. Bankruptcy rates were the highest in the nation. Most roads...
Shannon Waters was living in New York City, training and eventually cheffing in some of the finest restaurants in the world. She was hungry to do everything — from making “perfect pasta and beautiful bread” to butchering pigs, chickens, and goats — and often spent...
Sometimes when you’re painting outdoors, wild animals wander into your field of view. That’s what Andy Taylor has learned as he paints en plein air in locations along the Snake River or in Grand Teton National Park. He’s had moose saunter into the scene and...
The first of a lifetime of Yellowstone River agates was dropped, almost literally, at the feet of young Tom Harmon. When his elementary school playground in Sidney, Montana was graveled, Harmon and his classmates spent recess scrounging for agates in the crushed rock. Over lunch,...