December 2024
Embracing the Quiet of Winter
Steve McGann
To overstate the obvious, winter contains two basic things – dark, and cold. One momentous early human discovery dealt with both of these obstacles to life. That was fire. This advance brought on more than light and warmth. Soon there was…
December 2024
Jeff Beyl
I was writing about autumn in Montana. Specifically, about fly-fishing the Yellowstone River in autumn. I added the cottonwood leaves turning bright orange and yellow and they would let loose from the branches as a breeze came by and they fluttered…
November 2024
Jeff Beyl
Why don’t you describe the sound of the river to the students,” the teacher prompted from the back of the classroom.When I was young, I always dreaded having to stand up and talk in front of the class. But this time I was not a student. I…
November 2024
Steve McGann
The saying, “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt” mildly pokes fun at people who did stuff and, even before they could brag about it you knew about their exploits, because their t-shirt advertised it. They had been to parks, climbed…
October 2024
Ken Walcheck
On a sandstone bluff just west of the town of Miles City, a gnarled Mountain Rocky Juniper patriarch stands firmly entrenched in the rocky soil. The juniper has been standing for more than three centuries. To the unperceptive eye, the juniper equates…
October 2024
Peter Brancaccio
Cold. The calendar said August, but up at the Specimen Creek Trailhead, 21 miles south of Big Sky, it felt more like late October. The heavy sweater I was pulling over my head at 6:45 a.m. was the fifth layer, and I was not entirely sure it…
October 2024
Jessica Cairoli, photos by Lindsey Hove
Everyone knows it’s impossible not to fall in love with Montana; whether you’re just passing through or have called the beautiful state home for years, its stunning mountains, expansive skies, and friendly inhabitants are guaranteed to…
September 2024
Steve McGann
Yellowstone Park forms a rectangle of land in northwest Wyoming. Mostly. The Congressional Act that set aside Yellowstone as a National park listed the boundaries in miles from certain landmarks, then stipulated the meridians thus encountered. The…
September 2024
Fall is right around the corner, and our streams and lakes will cool off in time for some shoulder-season fishing. This time of year will be fitting for the Montana State University Library to showcase its 2024 Trout Lecture. This year’s…
August 2024
Peter Brancaccio
I grew up in the shadow of NYC and, somehow, I’d never been to the Statue of Liberty. Some things we just take for granted I suppose. I’ve been passing the turn-off on 191 for the Deer Lake Trailhead for 10 years now. I’ve never…
