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

Montana Quarterly: Counting our blessings

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Editor’s note: This has been updated to cover a lamentable oversight. Dear readers, consider this a public service announcement. If you are not a subscriber to the Montana Quarterly, or if, God forbid, you have never even looked at a copy of that fine magazine, here’s what you should do: run out right now and buy the winter edition. It’s available at a lot of stores, including all the Albertsons stores, as far as I know. The Montana Quarterly is always good, but this winter edition is uncommonly good, showcasing some of the MQ’s best writers doing what they do best. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Craig Lancaster, John Clayton, John Warner, Montana Quarterly, Scott McMillion, Sid Gustafson

Robert Staffanson: The most interesting man in Montana?

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Tie

I have never met Robert Staffanson, but I am prepared to answer “yes” to the question in the headline above. I base my opinion on having just read his autobiography, “Witness to Spirit: My Life with Cowboys, Mozart & Indians.” His story follows an arc that seems almost unbelievable.  (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Montana, Aaron Copland, American Indian Institute, Arthur Fiedler, Billings Symphony, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Staffanson

Tip of the day: Lee stocks rated a ‘strong sell’

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is yet more bad news for Lee Enterprises, the newspaper chain that owns the Billings Gazette and papers in Missoula, Butte, Helena and Hamilton. InvestorPlace.com has a story today headlined “9 Media Stocks to Sell Now.” Each of the nine rates a “D” (“sell”) or “F” (“strong sell”). Seven of the stocks were downgraded to “D” this week from “C” last week. Lee Enterprises is one of the two downgraded from a D to an F. Here’s the paragraph on Lee: “Lee Enterprises, Incorporated’s (LEE) rating weakens this week, dropping to a F versus last week’s D. Lee Enterprises, Incorporated owns various daily newspapers and a joint interest in several others. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Billings Gazette, InvestorPlace, Lee Enterprises

Watch the old Corette plant smokestack coming down

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Stack

The 350-foot smokestack on the old J.E. Corette coal-fired power plant in Billings came down Friday morning. As part of the demolition of the plant, which PPL Montana closed last spring because it could not meet new mercury pollution standards, the smokestack was brought down by explosives about 8 a.m. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Corette plant, Gary Helmbrecht, PPL Montana, Talen Energy

Study puts huge price tag on abandoned-mine cleanup

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Mine site

Editor’s note: The American Lands Council, a Utah-based group that supports the transfer of federal public lands in the West to willing states, was asked on Thursday to comment on the study that is the subject of this story. A statement from its board chairman came in too late for initial inclusion, but it has been added to the article. A new study estimates that there are as many as 100,000 abandoned mines on federal lands in 13 Western states, and that cleaning them up could cost as much as $21 billion. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Montana, News, Animas River, Center for Western Priorities, Environmental Protection Agency, Gold King Mine, Jessica Goad, U.S. Forest Service. Bureau of Land Management

South Side charity group doing good, staying put

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Basye

Driving around the South Side of Billings with Eric Basye, you can hardly go a block or two before he points out a project his organization has been involved in. Near South Park are three of its duplexes, all rental units. A few blocks away is a dilapidated house, recently purchased and ready for renovation. He points out a few more rental units, and then a house that was moved into the neighborhood from the medical corridor. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Billings, News, Community Leadership and Development Inc., Dave Hagstrom, Eric Basye, John Geiger, Koinonia, South Side

Stella Fong charts Billings’ culinary history in new book

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Book

In earlier times, apparently, restaurant-goers in Billings were big on flesh, as well as variety. On the menu of the St. Louis Café, formerly located at 2507 Montana Ave., there were more than 30 items under the heading of “Meats.” Offerings included fried kidney, weiner wurst, beef liver with bacon, brains scrambled with eggs, chipped beef in cream, veal chops and half a spring chicken. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Billings, Culture, Addison Bragg, Bill Honaker, James Honaker, Joanie Swords, Laurent Zirotti, Marie Halone

A fine farewell from a first-class journalist

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Sherry

Sherry Devlin put in her last day at the Missoulian yesterday, ending a remarkable 36-year run there as a reporter and editor. Her farewell column, posted this morning, is as well-crafted, gracious and heartfelt as one would expect. Much of it is devoted to recounting some of the really important stories she and her colleagues worked on over the decades, reminding us how vital, how irreplaceable, newspapers are. But my favorite part of the whole column was its shortest, simplest paragraph: “The work, and all the rigors it entails, has been a joy.” What a tremendous privilege to be able to say such a thing—and in the case of Sherry to mean it absolutely—about such a long career. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Ginny Merriam, Lee Enterprises, Missoulian, Sherry Devlin

A good friend gone, a magical canyon close to home

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Overhang

For years, I’ve wanted to write about Cottonwood Canyon, a strangely beautiful high-desert hideaway about 15 miles south of Bridger. I never did, though, because I had considered it as somehow belonging to my good friend, Tim Arneson, who first showed it to me more than 30 years ago. I suppose Cottonwood Canyon is his forever now. His children scattered his ashes there in October. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Montana, Belfry, Bridger, Cottonwood Canyon, Tim Arneson, University of Montana, Valley of the Chiefs