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Destinations
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Darkest Day: the town of Bear Creek and the Smith Mine disaster
It was a bright winter’s day on that Saturday in 1943. It was payday, and the miners were expected to return home with their money. When a plume of smoke billowed out of the mine shaft, the wives and children of the miners likely knew what that meant: death. |
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High Life in the High Country
We rode slowly down the steep mountain trail, letting our horses find their footing in the soft dirt. Our horses stepped gingerly over large rocks and tree roots, and the dense underbrush scratched at our boots and stirrups. The aroma of lush, rich vegetation, piqued by summer heat, filled the air. We rode out of the densely covered trail into an opening, where avalan... |
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Sands of Time: Kehoe's Agate Shop
By DAVE REESE
MONTANA LIVING
The skeleton of the steamship Helena lies rotting in the sand of the Flathead River, the hand-hewn timbers slowing giving way to time and water.
Standing on the banks of the river near Holt, on the outskirts of Bigfork, you can almost hear the whistles of the steamboats and the shouts of lumberjacks working a floating raft of logs. |
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DESTINATION: Seattle by Train
BY DAVID REESE
A cold fog blanketed us as we boarded the Amtrak train in Whitefish.
Stepping into the darkness of the traincar at 9 p.m. we began to leave our home and our worries behind on a ‘get out of town’ trip to Seattle. |
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Destination: Philipsburg
BY DAVID REESE
It’s 9 o’clock on a Friday night in Philipsburg. Two young boys on bicycles ride circles on the main street, and the town’s one traffic light blinks like a sentry over the empty downtown intersection. Music pours onto the street from the open doors of taverns, and on a stage at the White Front Bar, three men – ranch workers, perhaps – attempt a song on the karaoke machine while a disinterested audience sips their cocktails. |
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Ranch Hands: cowboys and cowgirls compete in Custer Ranch Rodeo
BY DAVID REESE
Growing up near the tiny town of Custer, Montana, Tami Jo Blake learned what the word 'cowboy' meant.
Yes, it was a worker who helped her father their 100-year old ranch. But the word cowboy also meant something else: a man of honor, of his word, a gentleman. Those traits might not be readily evident each year at the Custer Ranch Rodeo, but the skills and horsemanship that a cowboy needs surely are. The Custer Ranch Rodeo each year brings cowboys and cowgirls from around Montana and Wyoming to compete in the types of events that many of the ranch hands do in their day jobs. |
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Montana natives restore Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton
By Kim Yablonski
Proving the skeptics wrong, the oldest hotel in Montana re-opened its doors to the public Nov. 2, 1999, on the 117th anniversary of its original launch in 1882. Thanks to the Gagnon family's work, the hotel is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has won various state and national restoration awards. |
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Exploring Montana's Richest City: Butte, Montana
If you’ve ever felt like the traffic, lack of parking and crowds of San Francisco were too much to handle but you love the architecture, cool air and rolling hills – then Butte, Montana, might be just where you belong. In fact, the town looks so much like San Francisco of the early 1900’s that motion picture Director Ron Howard recently scouted the historic “uptown” as a potential location for one of his projects. |
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