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48 Hours in Billings
August 18, 2010
Virginia Bryan
 Billings at night. Kevin Brooke photo
From Black Otter Trail atop the Billings’ Rimrocks, cast your eye to the Yellowstone River and the Big Horn and Pryor mountains to the south, to the Absaroka Beartooth range to the west, and to Pompey’s Pillar to the east. Soak in the expansive eastern Montana sky above. You’re in the Yellowstone Valley, described by Crow Chief Arapooish as good country, with its temperate climate, clear water, and ample game. “While you are here,” Chief Arapooish said, “you will fare well.”
Below you lays Billings, Montana’s largest city,
To explore Billings, go right to its heart – where the city began - historic Montana Avenue. Here, Billings earned its nickname the Magic City, springing up in 1882 with livery stables, Chinese groceries, hotels and railroaders. Today, Montana Avenue is home to antique dealers, design studios, loft apartments, upscale eateries, and Billings’ original library. The library was erected in 1910 as a memorial to Parmly Billings, early resident and son of railroad magnate and city namesake, Frederick Billings, Sr.
The building narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in the 1970s and now houses the Western Heritage Center, a museum dedicated to preserving and interpreting Yellowstone River valley life.
Other downtown treasures include the Alberta Bair Theatre, home to the Billings Symphony and host to world-class talent; the Moss Mansion, designed in 1899 by Henry Hardenburg, architect of New York’s famed Waldorf Astoria hotel; and the Yellowstone Art Museum, the region’s finest art museum, where you can see an array of exhibits from Andy Warhol and Willem DeKoonig to C.M. Russell and Deborah Butterfield.
Brew pubs and independent retailers thrive alongside professional offices in the downtown’s tree-lined streetscape. On summer Saturdays, workdays give way to the Farmer’s Market, a colorful cacophony of music, flowers, Hutterite peas, Laotian eggrolls, old friends, and pickled beets. Downtown is where you’ll find Billings’ finest restaurants: juicy steaks at The Rex, exquisite crème brulee at Walker’s Grill, and Juliano’s fresh seafood (often flown in from Chef Kurokawa’s native Hawaii). If a “hole is the wall” is more your style, try Mamacita’s homemade Mexican fare or wrangle a ribeye at Pay’s Stockyard Café.
To get away from it all, the cottonwoods and aspens along the Yellowstone River in Riverfront Park are hard to beat. This is Billings’ backyard, where kayakers, joggers, and families share the water and open space with beaver, blue heron, and red-wing blackbirds. You can also access the river from a bike path near the Metra, Billings’ venue for big name stars like Cher and George Strait, antique shows, and professional sports.
From her early days as a dusty, raucous railroad town, Billings has grown into a fine city — big enough for urban amenities, small enough for family comfort, with a multi-faceted economy and state-of-the-art medical facilities. Opportunities for exceptional fishing, hiking, skiing and hunting are minutes away.
While rapid development expands the city’s perimeter into prime agricultural areas, and box stores and national chains pressure local merchants, most residents agree with Crow Chief Arapooish. Billings is a good place to earn a living, raise a family, and be a part of a healthy community in a beautiful setting – all cornerstones of the good life in Montana.
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