Ed Kemmick

Ed Kemmick has been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist since 1980. Except for four years in his home state of Minnesota, he has spent his entire journalism career in Montana, working in Missoula, Anaconda, Butte and Billings. "The Big Sky, By and By," a collection of some of his newspaper stories and columns, plus a few essays and one short story, was published in 2011.

Recent Posts

More details released on major downtown project

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Plans

This story has been updated. Developers of a $120 million-plus project in downtown Billings—including a skyscraper that would be the tallest building in Montana—unveiled their plans Monday afternoon. At a press conference in Meadowlark Gallery, 118 N. 29th St., attended by nearly 80 people, the developers and local people who’ve been working with them outlined plans to build the One Big Sky Center, which would take up two-thirds of a two-block-square area on the 2900 and 3000 blocks of First Avenue North. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Billings, News, Big Sky Economic Development, CTA Architects Engineers, Downtown Billings Alliance, MontDevCo, One Big Sky Center

Prairie Lights: A perfectly bad fix for a nonexistent problem

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Mixed

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking my dogs through the downtown skate park and I had just cleaned up after one of them. A city parks worker, who was there to empty the trash bins, saw me picking up after my dog and went out of his way to thank me. As a token of his thanks, I guess, he also handed me a couple of dog-waste bags. At the time I considered it a pleasant exchange, one that made me feel good about city government. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Billings City Council, city parks, Dogs, skate park

Noodles O’Brien aims at ‘fast food made healthy’

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Noodles

Paul O’Brien was nearing the completion of his doctorate in physical therapy when he had a life-changing thought. He liked doing physical therapy, but he realized he didn’t really love it. Talking to his then-girlfriend, he wondered aloud what he could throw himself into that he was truly passionate about. As O’Brien recalled it, she looked at him and said, “It’s food. Are you kidding me? Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, Cherry Tree Inn, Lilac, Paul O'Brien, Thirsty Street Brewing, University of Montana, YMCA

Laurel geologist (oh, and Billings) featured in magazine

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Outside

For now, at least, Laurel resident Chase Brownlee is the face of Billings. The 26-year-old Stillwater Mine geologist is on the cover of the September issue of Outside magazine, which just hit the newsstands today. Another photo of Brownlee dominates the Contents page and there’s a two-page spread of him standing atop the cliffs of the Four Dances Recreation Area (also known as Sacrifice Cliff) overlooking the Yellowstone River. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, Chase Brownlee, Fieldhouse, Outside magazine, Shay Bjordahl, Spoke Shop, Zimmerman Park

New book mixes stunning photos, geographic info

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Canyon

Over the Christmas holidays last year, Jon Switzer was exhausted. Exhausted, he said, “by my dumb ‘smart’ phone and the constant distractions it brought me.”

So he sat down with an old magazine full of photographs of Montana. He was captivated, he said, but also frustrated because he wanted to go the places pictured in the photos but found little or no guidance on how to find any of them. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, AlphaGraphics, Andy Austin, Dan Rickman, Dave Shumway, Jason Maehl, Jon Switzer

Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery offers sneak peek

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Sneak

This story has been updated to include a correction. Friends and family got a sneak peek at the Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery on Monday evening. The new business is connected to the Fieldhouse restaurant, owned by Ben and Krystal Harman, at 2601 Minnesota Ave. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery, Ben and Krystal Harman, Fieldhouse, First Interstate Bank, Harper & Madison, MoAve Coffee House

High-rise penthouse: ‘There’s no place like it in Billings’

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Bold

Last year, a 2,000-square-foot space on the top floor of a six-story apartment building in the heart of downtown Billings went on the market. The penthouse property, at 300 N. 25th St., across Third Avenue North from the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office and the downtown bus transfer station, had once been the law offices of the late Charles “Timer” Moses. But it had been used for storage for many years, so it was basically an empty shell. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, downtown living, Jay Lansing, Michael Moses, Tana Hergenraeder, the Terrwce, Timer Moses

A fine portrait of arts patron Corby Skinner

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Corby

Corby Skinner, who has probably done as much to promote the arts and culture as anybody in the history of Billings, is the subject of a justly laudatory article in the new issue of Big Sky Journal. Written by Stella Fong, with photographs by Anna Paige (both of them contributors to Last Best News), the article paints a well-rounded portrait of Skinner. Here’s the gist of it:

“He helped raise the curtains at the landmark Alberta Bair Theater in Billings, gave writers a venue with the Writer’s Voice, and honored authors through the High Plains BookFest and High Plains Book Awards. For his efforts in these various arenas of arts, he received the 2009 Governor’s Humanities Award. These days he is promoting the nascent music venue Tippet Rise in Fishtail, Montana.” Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Anna Paige, Big Sky Journal, Corby Skinner, Stella Fong, Steve Corning

Prairie Lights: Lancaster at his best in ‘Edward’ books

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When Craig Lancaster was still working on his first novel, which would eventually bear the title “600 Hours of Edward,” I went to hear him do a reading at Off the Leaf coffee shop. He was there as part of a writers group, with each of the writers taking a turn to read from his or her work. It was a tough setting. The place was crowded, mostly with teenage girls, and the din of conversation nearly drowned out the readings. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Billings Gazette, Craig Lancaster, Edward Stanton