December 2023
Ken Walcheck
Christmas morning, 1947. Something about the shape of that package under the Yule tree caught my eye. Call it intuition if you wish, but I had a feeling this gift was going to be a little bit special. Even though I was nearly sixteen, I unwrapped it…
November 2023
Steve McGann
Before I lived in Montana, the most vivid recurring image I had of what it would be like involved driving. My mind-picture was of an old bench seat pickup, slowly moving up a long hill on a gravel road through a grassy meadow. There were a couple of…
October 2023
Ken Walcheck
A warm October sun bathes my face as I sit in a seasoned wicker chair on my patio, sipping hot apple cider, admiring Montana’s brilliant fall colors, displayed by the maple, willow, mountain ash and cottonwood trees in my backyard. The…
September 2023
Lewis and Clark's Encounters with Montana's Pit Viper, The Prairie Rattlesnake
Ken Walcheck
Prairie Rattlesnake, Beartrap Canyon, MT. Photo courtesy of Adrianna Frankland
As the thirty-three members of the Lewis and Clark expedition crossed the 104th meridian into present-day Montana with their flotilla of six canoes and two pirogues…
August 2023
Kelly Nicholson
Imagine you’re a kid with time travel abilities, sent to Yellowstone National Park to solve a mystery. You’ve got a secret code to decipher, a trail through history to follow, and a powerful relic to protect… and time is running…
August 2023
Ken Walcheck
To Meriwether Lewis, Esquire…. “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principle streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan (sic)…
August 2023
Peter Brancaccio
Driving down the Taylor Fork on a cold morning can be a rutted-road, chassis-twisting, teeth-jarring, worn-out denim, old-Montana type experience. Real cowboys with dented hats and dusty jeans will be moving horse herds up and down this dirt road to…
July 2023
Ken Walcheck
More than a past number of decades that I can remember, I was bamboozled by some slick-talking older cousins into a venture, a snipe hunt, “guaranteed” to earn me a few dollars and an exciting event to store away in my memory banks.
They…
July 2023
Peter Brancaccio
White knuckles of billowing clouds were draped up and down the mountain valley contours. Sitting just above those valleys, the lower elevations were layered in paper thin ribbons of gauze, as I drove past the turnoff to Big Sky. When I pulled into…
July 2023
Olivia Mitchell
There’s something so fun about hiking up to a gorgeous alpine lake. Whether you enjoy fishing, swimming or simply taking in the views, everyone enjoys a nice lake day. So here are the best hikes to lakes in Southwest Montana in order of…
