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......
Both sky & mountain wearing the same coat today Faces lost in breath Yellow leaves drifting on soon to be frozen pond Ships at sea of clouds Slipping on the ice Old man wonders: Is this my last time hearing birds? Snow-deepened night sky Each......
Matt Pavelich has done something wondrous in The Harrows: A Novel of the American Century (Bar R Books, $24.95). This five-generation story of the Harrow family rolls off the pages with such liquid grace and poetic clarity that one feels a new Montana classic has......
Lisa Simon, owner of Radius Gallery in Missoula, Montana, still remembers her earliest encounters with Stella Nall, whose Native name is Bisháakinnesh. “She had such clarity of who she was and what kind of art she was creating,” Simon recalls. “Even though she is so......
In the late 1970s, when Mike Papke was 5 years old, his older brothers took him to Bridger Bowl Ski Area just outside of Bozeman, Montana and went straight to the top of the Bronco run — an area notorious for large, knee-bashing moguls. They......
Each February, Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his burrow in small-town Pennsylvania to tell the American public whether they can look forward to six more weeks of winter. In Montana, cold-weather conditions can last for eight months, and the rule of thumb is to not plant......
In October 1973, I traveled to Butte, Montana for The New York Times to photograph its copper miners. Known as “the richest hill on earth,” Butte once supplied over a third of the world’s copper. Miners — Old Stock Americans, Finns, Cornish, Welsh, Chinese, Italians,......
Few images evoke the despair of the Great Depression more poignantly than photographs of the enormous dust storms that defined the Dust Bowl era. Frequently described as “black blizzards,” these airborne tsunamis were primarily caused by successive droughts, the most significant of which occurred in......
ARCHITECTURE | KA ARCHITECTURE CONSTRUCTION | LOHSS CONSTRUCTION LANDSCAPING | SOLSTICE LANDSCAPING Vicki Podberesky and Peter Lauzon’s home is nestled into an aspen forest like a proverbial fairy tale — a cozy cabin, whose lighted interiors beckon visitors to come in out of the cold,......
For anyone walking into Feast, the first impression might be grace and style, with a dash of comfort and a contemporary twist. The decor is upscale but not uppity. You can still wear jeans, but you don’t have to. The restaurant’s name itself conjures the......
This winter, Big Sky Resort unveils Kircliff, an alpine summit observatory perched at 11,166 feet on Lone Peak. The enclosure is cantilevered off the mountain’s edge, offering sweeping 360-degree views across three states and two national parks so viewers can truly appreciate the grandeur of......
Something magical happens every winter in Ketchum, Idaho, and it’s not the world-class skiing on Bald Mountain. Every winter for over 20 years, as skiers are making hero turns on the corduroy slopes, another winter attraction has been gaining momentum. Welcome to Atkinson Park, home......
It’s not necessarily the diminutive intimacy of the venue. And it isn’t always about the presence on the stage. While the melodic storytelling matters, it’s not the entire picture either. Live From The Divide (LFTD) in Bozeman, Montana is a testament to the transformative power......
Editor’s Note: Barbara Rowley, writer and longtime resident of Big Sky, Montana, explores the story of a place deeply rooted in outdoor splendor in her 2024 title, Big Sky: Montana (Assouline). The book delves into the history of Big Sky Resort, revealing how the ski......
White Bear Moccasins Shauna White Bear’s moccasins blend traditional Indigenous craftsmanship with contemporary flair. The durable mocs are crafted from bison leather and customized based on the wearer’s taste with fur, decorative rivets, and lace. White Bear, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, is an enrolled......
Outdoor winter pastimes have a way of looking a lot like a love of suffering: the cold of melted snow on icy fingertips; the sting of subzero air on delicate nostrils; the muscle burn of trudging through deep, heavy snow. I think about winter fly......
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......
Guardians on a hill Ever a watchful eye. Spraying branches to fill An ever-enveloping sky. What history have they seen with many a passers-by? Cruelness of the white sheen Finally releasing buds of spring. Industrious inhabitants of fur Stocking up in hidden holes. The giants......
Some themes may be too big for one story. Love, the overarching theme of Shann Ray’s Where Blackbirds Fly (University of Nebraska Press, $27.95), is explored throughout the five novellas that make this novel. This is because love, in Ray’s handling of it, contains much......
Let’s face it, Old Faithful, Great Fountain Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin, and the various Yellowstone fumaroles don’t get a lot of attention when they’re in the steam phase, which comes after all the “oohs” and “ahhs” and visual thrills of an eruption. Sitting by myself,......
Knife maker Will Hutchinson — known to most as “Hutch” — has spent a lot of time thinking about the marriage of form and function. With an undergraduate degree from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in Ohio and a Master of Fine Arts from the......
When Charles Fritz moved to Montana in the 1980s, he ran into a problem. Up until then, the Iowa-born artist had carved out a niche for himself in the watercolor market, painting sporting still lifes: wooden decoys, hanging mallards, shotguns. “But when I came out......
In the predawn black, I trek up to a saddle off Emigrant Peak’s west flank, nestling into a small thicket of young Douglas fir to watch the day arrive. My back leans against an old rampike, a once-grand whitebark, stripped and bald, but still standing......
ARCHITECTURE | 45 ARCHITECTURE & INTERIORS CONSTRUCTION | ALPENGLOW CUSTOM BUILDERS INTERIOR DESIGN | THISTLE & TWINE STUDIOS Location, location, location — that time-honored but repetitious maxim defining an ideal parcel of real estate — found perfect proof when a couple with an already established......
Editor’s Note: This column is adapted from When Montana Outraced the East: The Reign of Western Thoroughbreds, 1886-1900 by Catharine Melin-Moser (University of Oklahoma Press, April 2025). Nineteenth-century Montana folklore tells of a beautiful chestnut-colored Thoroughbred mare named Oriole. On April 10, 1894, the heavily......
This has never happened to me at a restaurant before. I’m seated at a picnic table. Before me, rows of vegetables and herbs unfurl themselves, pushing into the green foothills of the Gallatin Range. The light is golden and coming in slantwise between steel-gray storm......
In a world where outdoor adventuring often feels intimidating, Shyanne Orvis is redefining the narrative one cast at a time. As a guide, conservationist, and passionate advocate for women in fly fishing, Orvis has built a reputation defined not just by her skill on the......
The Montana 250th Commission, created in 2023 to coordinate statewide efforts to commemorate the United States’ semiquincentennial, recently launched Montana Reads: The Treasure State’s Book Club, a monthly online book discussion group that will cover topics related to United States, Montana, and Indigenous history. Each......
Each autumn, as cooler weather brings color to leaves and deposits dustings of snow in the mountains, a group of cowboys heads into central Montana’s Highwood Mountains on horseback to gather the area ranchers’ cows and bring them home. After spending the summer turned out,......
My home opens broadly to the south with an oversized glass door leading to a covered patio from which a panorama unfolds. Beginning in the east, a distant ridgeline traces the division of our valley from a nearby chain of lakes while foreground hills sprawl......
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MT FWP) biologists are collecting wings from hunter-harvested mountain grouse, including dusky/blue, spruce, and ruffed, across Region 3, which encompasses the southwest portion of the state. The biologists will use the wings to identify birds by species and determine whether......
Rocky Mountain Field Guide: A Trailside Natural History Written by Daniel Mathews In Rocky Mountain Field Guide: A Trailside Natural History, naturalist and writer Daniel Mathews offers a comprehensive guide to the far- ranging flora, fauna, topography, and habitats that define the Rockies, from Glacier National......
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......
As a child, Benjamin Walter didn’t spend much time wondering whether he could be an artist when he grew up. He already knew he was one. “My family — we’re all artists or musicians. I have five siblings, and we all paint, make music, or......
Wyoming landscape painter Jennifer Hoffman watches the light shift across the Jackson Hole Valley each day, waiting for moments that spark her imagination. She moved to the area nearly three decades ago to pursue her interest in landscape painting, and ever since, the region has......
Painter Mike Piggott’s work, like poetry, demands a second look. And even a third. His compressed kinetic energy flattens out across the canvas, conveying calmness, like that before a storm. He kidnaps images, then reunites them like babies switched at birth. In his painting Silence,......
Anyone coming face to face with Charles Young, a recent portrait by Idaho-based artist Aaron Hazel, could not doubt that they’ve encountered a formidable man, painted in a bravura style that sets right the subject’s woefully unsung place in American history. Born a slave in......
Stacey Herries makes her art from a sunlit studio on the east side of downtown Bozeman, Montana. The space is large and airy, just steps from yoga studios, breweries, and restaurants. Simply put, it’s prime real estate. “Though I promise you, it wasn’t anything special......
You know, Josh is just different. He’s not painting things. He’s trying, in his own way, to create poetry,” says Bill Rey, owner of Claggett/Rey Gallery in Edwards, Colorado, who waxes poetic himself when describing the work and philosophy of Montana-based artist Josh Elliott. “In......
Intended or not, it’s often the simple moments that paint pictures on our hearts: a casual exchange between friends, the striking call of a loon across a lake, an old barn at dusk, flowers in a pot by the front door, swelling clouds before a......