Editor’s Note: We all have our secret spots — those undiscovered special places that offer a full and intimate experience. And as more and more recreationists venture into the outdoors, some places inevitably feel the pressure. While crowds risk changing the character of a place,......
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......
It took some time to learn this lesson, but as a writer-photographer team, Audrey Hall and I have embraced the idea that it’s important to leave space — in your mind, in your schedule — because that’s when the magic happens. This particular magic took......
Deep in the oral history archive of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), a 1977 recording captured the words of Pend d’Oreille elder Mitch Smallsalmon. He recalled the abundance of the landscape that now encompasses western Montana, and the good fortune of the Salish......
A day shy of the summer solstice, Travis Taylor launches our skiff into the spring-fed pond on Jemas Ranch. It is already 7:30 p.m. But this time of year, the days are so long you can fish a hatch up until 9:30 p.m. and still......
A foundational focus at Montana State University (MSU), the language of sustainability inspired architecture master’s student Elena Silverman to submit a project that earned her an international award. Last fall, shortly after she discarded her model into a recycling bin at MSU’s Cheever Hall, she......
Creating a home is a deeply personal journey, one that reflects the individuality and lifestyle of each unique person who will dwell within it. The structure becomes a facilitator of memories that come to define a life. And for those who abide in the Northern......
With more than 50 years of combined experience, Domaine Interiors in Bozeman provides inspired solutions for effortless living. Through their timeless approach to interior vernaculars and deep respect for craftsmanship, Domaine curates spaces that feel both elevated and livable. Helming collaborative relationships with clients, contractors,......
This Must Be the Place: Homes with Atmosphere Written by Chloe Redmond Warner, Foreword by Heidi Caillier Designer Chloe Redmond Warner — originally from Missoula and founder of Redmond Aldrich Design — makes her literary debut with This Must Be the Place: Homes with Atmosphere,......
Whether you’re contemplating a remodel, considering a new build in the Rocky Mountain West, or searching for particular decor, art and home shows offer essential inspiration, advice, and products from some of the best regional artisans and designers, with wares specifically suited to the ethos......
Adirondack Chair by ORCA Studio ORCA Studio’s take on the Adirondack is a modern twist on a classic. Crafted with aromatic cedar, the chair is simple yet substantial, featuring thick planks and metal framing. Its enduring construction means it will withstand the weather of the......
Just as the Gallatin Range will forever define the landscape in and around Bozeman, so, too, do the houses designed by Locati Architects that occupy sites throughout the Gallatin Valley. The stone, steel, timber, and glass that the firm regularly employs in their residences reflect......
In Bozeman, where long winters insist on still attention and summer light stretches days like opportunity, MFGR has humbly built a design practice shaped by patience, materiality, utility, and purpose. The studio’s work — spanning everything from Adirondacks to carefully articulated homes — resists spectacle.......
Whether you’ve been in Bozeman for a few days or several decades, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve noticed Old Main Gallery & Framing while walking around downtown. Situated on East Main Street, between Black and Bozeman avenues in a quaint two-story brick building, Old......
It’s a rare business story that starts this way: Two boys meet in kindergarten, find plenty of mischief together — including building extraordinary tree forts 25 feet off the ground in the woods behind their tiny Pleasantville, New York neighborhood — go their separate ways......
District Loom in Bozeman is not your typical rug store. Step inside and the bespoke atmosphere invites you into a highly individualized experience. Preferences, chosen online before the visit, are ready for immediate viewing. The design of the space itself is highly considered: Curved sofas......
As the climate shifts — as we face more and more wildfires, floods, and changing weather patterns — landscape architecture is responding with designs that not only amplify the visual impact and livability of the homes they embrace but also help protect homes and environments......
Architecture | Faure Halvorsen Architects Construction | Duncan Robb Construction Interior Design | Elizabeth Robb Interiors Landscape Architecture | Outdoor Design Studios When her new home was finally complete, homeowner and real estate agent Bessie Hudgens leaned on a tradition she adopted from her time......
Architecture | Miller Roodell Architects Construction | Denman Construction Interior Design | Cravotta Interiors Landscape Architecture | Design Workshop At the quiet end of Whitefish Lake, where a town of about 10,000 residents feels far but trailheads into the Flathead National Forest abound, a year-round......
Architecture | CLB Architects Construction | OSM Construction Interior Design | WRJ Design Landscape Architecture | HDL The concept of prospect and refuge is a crucial one that is expressed in architecture the world over, from urban homes organized around quiet private courtyards to those......
Architecture and Interior Design | Pearson Design Group Construction | North Fork Builders Specialty Wood Products | Montana Reclaimed Lumber Co. Set amid the rolling grasslands of central Montana, a new family retreat looks completely at ease in the environs, perfectly positioned to embrace the......
Architecture | Reid Smith Architects Construction | Avant Building Group Interior Design | Hive Home Specialty Wood Products | Montana Reclaimed Lumber Co. When the owners of a home in Montana’s Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky approached Reid Smith, founder of Bozeman-based Reid Smith Architects, the......
Architecture | Reid Smith Architects Construction | Blue Ribbon Builders Interior Design | Envi Interior Design Studio When the design team responsible for a new home in Big Sky describes the finished retreat, they reference several regional aesthetics: Nordic, Scandinavian, Northern European, and Northern Californian.......
Architecture | Faure Halvorsen Architects Construction | Yellowstone Traditions Interior Design | Laura Fedro Interiors A passionate fly fisherman, the owner of a new home in Montana had long dreamt of owning a place in the West. As he prepared to sell his business in......
Architecture and Interior Design | SHM Architects Construction | Big Sky Build Specialty Wood Products | Montana Reclaimed Lumber Co. “I was blown away by the view,” says SHM Architects’ Mark Hoesterey of his first impression of the lot his clients had purchased in Montana’s......
Architecture and Interior Design | MMW Architects Construction | Jeremy Seifert Construction For decades, a family with Big Sky roots enjoyed natural beauty and quietude from their secluded parcel occupying a rocky, tree-covered slope on a cove at the southern edge of Flathead Lake. But......
Architecture and Interior Design | Pearson Design Group Construction | Highline Partners Specialty Wood Products | Montana Reclaimed Lumber Co. When skiing first became popular in Montana over a century ago, the typical ski cabin was a relatively small, one-room, rough-hewn log structure, simply furnished......
Architecture | Centre Sky Architecture Construction | Teton Heritage Builders Interior Design | The Varda Group Specialty Wood Products | Montana Reclaimed Lumber Co. Sky Lodge, a house of rugged heights and airy lights, is literally and figuratively on the cutting edge of the Gallatin......
Architecture | Miller Roodell Architects Construction | Yellowstone Traditions Interior Design | Peace Design Katherine Reay loves a good story. As an accomplished author, she knows how to craft a riveting narrative. So it was no surprise that when she and her husband, Mason, decided......
Undervaluing creeks seems a perennially popular ailment among fly fishers. Leave ’em to their losses, I say: All the more water and fish for me. Clearly, I don’t suffer from their dysfunction of insight. My first fly-caught fish, a subcompact coastal cutthroat trout, happened on......
Standing at my window on New Year’s Day — holding a steaming cup and watching the snow in the sliver of light cut by a streetlight across the way — I feel like I’m in one of those holiday coffee commercials. Christmas has come and......
In the fall of 1991, I received a call from Robert Redford’s personal assistant: “Bob is extremely grateful for what you did for him yesterday and asked if he could return the favor,” she said. Seriously? I thought. Robert Redford is granting me a favor?......
Tucked into the cozy down sleeping bag in my vintage 1977 Toyota Chinook micro-camper, I yawned, rolled over, and pondered morning coffee. My awakening consciousness was startled by loud clawing outside the camper. I looked out the open window. A grizzly bear’s moist snout was......
It’s a cold, rainy off-season night in Jackson, Wyoming. There aren’t many tourists around town, and a lot of businesses are closed for a few-week break, but when I walk into the Silver Dollar Bar & Grill at The Wort Hotel, I’m enveloped by warmth......
Although it was late June, the thermometer in my brother’s truck read 32 degrees Fahrenheit when we reached the trailhead around 8 o’clock in the morning. Such cold on a summer day could have dampened our spirits, but we were excited to see no other......
If there were ever a flavor that could define a place, Missoula, Montana might be best captured in a cup of tea — specifically, a cup of Evening in Missoula. Add hot water to the herbal blend from Montana Tea & Spice Trading, and the......
On the coldest of winter days, when the Montana sky is at its crispiest, palest blue, there’s nothing better than setting out for a morning of cross-country skiing. Maybe that sentiment doesn’t immediately resonate with you. At face value, strapping on a pair of skinny......
If you’ve driven many of Montana’s 13,000 highway miles, you’ve experienced the pit-of-the-stomach dread that one of those mule deer grazing the shoulder will lunge into your lane or that an unseen elk or moose will sprint across the road, forcing you into a dangerous......
On July 25, 1877, a band of weary Nez Perce began to descend the Bitterroot Mountains into Montana. As the subtitle of this piece suggests, I’ve chosen to focus on the Montana leg of the Nez Perce flight toward Canada for several reasons: I live......
At 14 months old, Harpy makes her way over upended picnic tables, through tires, and across a wooden ladder suspended 8 feet in the air. Her blond jackrabbit legs slip out from underneath her, first one, then the other. She freezes long enough for the......
In Montana, ice climbing has a bit of a medieval-cult feel. Those who belong are fiendishly devoted; those who’ve never tried it wonder why anyone would fall into its grip. Hanging off frozen icicles, with razor-sharp daggers that might bite more than the ice if......
Nestled between the Snowy Range and the Sierra Madre Mountains, the hamlet of Saratoga, Wyoming is full of historical nods. Hotel Wolf, which opened in 1893, anchors downtown. Guide shops, restaurants, and art galleries line Bridge Avenue. The North Platte River divides the town, whose......
We should bother with keeping sage grouse in the West because they are a measure of how the environment is doing,” says Martin Townsend, the conservation director for the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance. “If sage grouse go downhill, we have a large-scale problem.” Less than a......
John Colter [c. 1775–1812] is among Montana’s most legendary mountain men. His iconic status is predicated on extraordinary feats of fortitude that occurred between the summer of 1806 and the spring of 1810, marking the beginning and end of his career as a trapper in......
My angling career began when I was a kid in rural Upstate New York, catching pan-sized native brook trout. (As a measuring tool, the pan didn’t have to be very big.) Around the time I was 9 years old, I began transitioning from worms to......
Like many of his grain-growing neighbors on northern Montana’s Hi-Line, Ryan Lankford has fully integrated computers and satellite connectivity into his farming operation. His John Deere tractors are guided by GPS waypoints, and his newest combine has forward-facing cameras that detect the amount of stubble......
When I was stationed as a medical officer on the Fort Peck Reservation 50 years ago, I fell in love with the prairie but missed trout fishing. I found a few farm ponds with stocked rainbows, but that didn’t satisfy my need for dry flies......
On a Thursday night in early May, there is hardly an empty seat at Bozeman, Montana’s Tune Up Bar. The bustling crowd is largely on the younger side — a snapshot of the growing city’s hipster population — and eagerly awaiting the night’s performers. The......