03 Apr WESTERN FOCUS: THE TIMELESS GETAWAY
The quintessential Montana cabin symbolizes relaxation, respite, and a life lived close to the wilderness and its inhabitants. Perhaps a trout stream tumbles through the property, past a porch that demands quiet morning rituals and a warming whiskey when clear nights descend. Cabins offer a...
25 Sep Trailblazer
When Laura Orvidas took the reins of onX in 2018, the Missoula, Montana-based company had about 70 employees and did most of its business shipping state-specific digital maps stored on physical chips that users plugged into their handheld GPS units. If that description of the...
25 Sep A Soft-Winged World
What do moths have to do with owls? Just ask Mat Seidensticker. After nearly a decade spent studying owls across Montana and Alaska, Seidensticker focused his research on the flammulated owl, one of Montana’s smallest and most cryptic species. Soon, it became impossible for him...
25 Sep Happy Animals, Healthy Land
On a sunny afternoon in late May, Dillon Kouf stands at the heart of Double K, his family’s ranch outside Darby, Montana, surrounded by barns and outbuildings and the vibrant green of spring. Around him, the endless bustle of chores continues: a couple of men...
25 Sep Outside: Christmas Morning
At 4 a.m., the first alarm sounds — not your typical electronic buzz or ringtone, but the vigorous shaking of collars belonging to two pointing dogs. Within seconds, there’s a cold muzzle nudging me to leave my warm bed to get dressed. This is really...
25 Sep History: Thomas Wolfe’s West
The giant entered Yellowstone National Park squeezed into the back seat of a white Ford Model 81A DeLuxe sedan, arms akimbo, knees spread wide. It was June 27, 1938. The man was 6 feet, 6 inches tall, with medium-length unruly black hair pulled back from...
30 May A Life and Journey Such as This
He was the quintessential Montanan, I think. That is to say, the landscape shaped him, as it shapes all of us fortunate enough to be here in this eyeblink of time. Sometimes his music sounded like the first crack in an ice dam — that...
30 May The Lookout Cat
U.S. Forest Service fire lookouts have one of the loneliest occupations on earth. Perched atop remote peaks across the West, we spend summer days in monk-like observation, eyes roaming timbered landscapes, watching the horizon for impending storms and wisps of smoke. When I was 24,...