Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/2014/04/prairie-lights-road-trip-was-worth-the-long-winter-wait/)
Time to pull over — north of Poplar.
A pair of ancient Austins —Antelope, just south of Plentywood.
One brick at a time — Redstone, between Scobey and Plentywood.
Fresh kill, coyotes — 15 miles west of Jordan on Highway 200.
Old schoolhouse — Glentana, west of Scobey.
Ancient earth — Makoshika State Park, Glendive.
St. Marie, the town attached to the now-closed Glasgow Air Force Base. Redevelopment efforts continue to sputter along. In the meantime, it would be a shame if no one ever filmed a zombie apocalypse movie here.
I felt obliged to take this photograph. It shows an old homestead just across Homestead Road from the town of Homestead — between Plentywood and Culbertson.
Two white crosses, very steep dropoff — Makoshika State Park, Glendive.
And watch for pedestrians — Redstone again.
Pickup starter kits — Richland, west of Scobey.
When I launched Last Best News on Feb. 1, one of my publicly stated goals was to get out and about in Eastern Montana as much as possible.
Little did I know that winter, which had been bad enough even until then, would last so long and bring so much snow and cold.
I managed to do some traveling in February and March — Big Timber, Roundup, Harlowton and a few other places — but it was all pretty close to home and didn’t involve any overnighters.
So I was thrilled last week to finally take off for a three-day sortie deep into Eastern Montana. Not even 30 miles from home, in the Bull Mountains, I ran into a wet, thick, wind-driven snowstorm, dashing the rash notion that winter was finally through with us.
Fortunately, that was the last snow I would see on my jaunt, though there were a few patches of rain, none of them serious. I was gathering materials for some stories, which you’ll see in the days ahead, and doing reconnaissance for stories I hope you’ll see later this spring.
I also stumbled on one story just by stopping in at the Daniels County Leader in Scobey. Mostly, I’ll admit, I was just driving around for the joy of driving around, camera at the ready. As part of what I hope might become an occasional feature, I’ve posted a gallery of photos to run with this column.
What else did I see? For starters, a lot of great two-lane roads. With all due respect to former state Sen. Sam Kitzenberg of Glasgow, who never stopped campaigning to make Highway 2 a four-lane road, that ribbon of Hi-Line asphalt suits this traveler just fine the way it is.
Ditto with all the other two-lane roads winding through oceans of beautiful country all over Eastern Montana. On the last leg of my trip, when I spent a couple of hours on I-94, I couldn’t believe how much I hated driving 80 mph in a straight line.
Of course, even the two-lane roads seemed pretty uptown after some of the detours I took on dirt and gravel roads. Two of my favorites were Soo Line Road (identified as Cooline Road in my DeLorme Atlas) between Outlook and Raymond, and Homestead Road south of Plentywood.
On Homestead Road, I kept trying to guess which of the handful of intersecting roads was the one that would take me down to Highway 2. It had been five or six miles since the last turn when the road took a sharp turn north and continued in that direction as far as I could see.
I thought maybe there was a turn ahead I couldn’t see, but I hadn’t gone far before I said to myself, out loud, “Cut your losses,” then turned around and headed back to that last turn. In situations like that it’s good to give yourself advice out loud. It seems to carry more authority that way.
I met good people everywhere I went, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. And though, as always, there was talk of jobs and enticing young people to come back home, I heard more than a few times that many places are blessed by being close enough to benefit from the Bakken boom but far enough away to have avoided most of the ugly side effects.
That’s understandable. Peace and quiet, endless vistas and knowing virtually everybody else in town are the things that keep people living in all those small towns. A Manhattanite might laugh to hear me say it, but I feel like I’m wearing a “City slicker” placard around my neck in most of those places.
I was also heartened to hear how many people still like reading the dead-tree edition of the Billings Gazette. I made the jump to the Web because nobody starts a print newspaper these days, but I like holding a newspaper in my hands, and so do a lot of people in Eastern Montana.
I want people to get on the Web and visit here, too, but I hate to think of the day you can’t find a Gazette in all those towns. In a perfect world maybe it wouldn’t be owned by Lee Enterprises anymore, but still…
And speaking of newspapers, I have to mention the Daniels County Leader again. The most recent issue carried a story about John Driscoll, a Democrat running for the U.S. House.
The actual news story consisted of the usual stuff everybody else reports. What caught my eye was the accompanying series of questions about subjects like hobbies, favorite sports teams and favorite foods. There I learned that Driscoll, asked what he would choose if he could instantly acquire any talent, answered, “blues guitar playing.”
Now that is the most interesting thing I’ve learned yet about Driscoll. Hell, it might be the only interesting thing I’ve heard about a Montana politician this year. Thank you, Daniels County Leader.
