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

Last Best News welcomes new ad rep

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Camilla

We are pleased to announce that Last Best News has a new ad salesperson, Camilla McCullough. Just about a year ago, I introduced readers to Dan Berry, who retired as an ad rep for the Billings Gazette not long before I quit working for the paper in 2013. Dan wasn’t looking for work but came out of retirement to lend Last Best News a hand, for which we are forever grateful. Now he’s ready really to retire, and he helped persuade Camilla, who also worked for the Gazette, to join Last Best News. I knew Camilla as the exceedingly friendly ad rep with the beautiful accent, but I didn’t know her all that well, so I asked her to tell our readers something about herself. Continue Reading →

Filed under: News, Camilla McCullough, Dan Berry

At Your Service: Staying seated with the uncertain

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Super

Faith Evangelical Church, 3145 Sweetwater Drive
Service: 11 a.m., Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015
Length of service: 1 hour, 5 minutes. Length of sermon: 31 minutes

There were two surprises at Faith Evangelical this morning. For one, the band was playing bluegrass instruments. Pastor Brent Nymeyer said it was a special treat. Continue Reading →

Filed under: At Your Service, Brent Nymeyer, Faith Evangelical, Hank Williams Jr., Siper Bow, Steve Strutz

Prairie Lights: Taking pride in tax money well spent

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School

I never attended McKinley Elementary School, but I learned plenty there. I learned that a good school becomes not just the center of children’s lives, but of their parents’ lives, too. For the 13 years that our three girls attended McKinley, our lives revolved around that old school in so many ways. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Broadwater Elementary School, McKinley Elementary School

More evidence in the Grateful Dead tossed-object mystery

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Pitcxher

Almost a year and a half ago, I wrote about the one and only time the Grateful Dead played in Montana—May 14, 1974, at the Adams Field House on the University of Montana campus. In that piece, I touched on the enduring mystery of what exactly it was that was thrown by a concert-goer and hit Bob Weir in the head. A bit later, I wrote a follow-up story in which I came down fairly strongly in favor of the hypothesis that the object in question was an Aber Day pitcher. I have now received the most compelling evidence yet regarding the pitcher hypothesis. Tom Cockrell, a Billings native who has lived in the Bay Area since 1989 (the year I moved back to Montana), said he recently stumbled on my stories and he “had no idea it was such a Montana mystery.” Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Aber Day, Adams Field House, Bob Weir, Ed Beaudette, Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, Tom Cockrell

Painter chosen to celebrate Missouri River Breaks area

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Killdeer

When you think of an “artist-in-residence,” you probably picture an artist spending a certain amount of time at a museum, school or some other institution. For Livingston watercolorist Paul Tunkis, an upcoming artist-in-residence program will mean spending a little more than two weeks in a canoe on the Missouri River. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Montana, Bureau of Land Management, Fort Benton, Paul Tunkis, Sara Meloy, Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument

Dennison, cut loose by Lee, to report for television network

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Dennison

Mike Dennison, one of the experienced state bureau reporters let go by the Lee Newspapers of Montana three months ago, has been hired by the Montana Television Network. Starting Monday, Dennison will be the chief political reporter for the network, which has television stations in seven Montana cities, including KTVQ in Billings. The hiring was announced on MTN websites Thursday afternoon and is scheduled to be reported on the stations’ evening news shows. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Montana, Charles Johnson, Greg Tuttle, John Emeigh, Jon Saunders, Jon Stepanek, KTVQ, Mike Dennison

Medicine Rocks hold eerie beauty, countless inscriptions

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Glow

MEDICINE ROCKS STATE PARK — There is a double allure at this remote 330-acre park in the southeast corner of Montana. One—the obvious one that would seem to comport with the traditional notion of a state park—has to do with the rocks themselves. They are beautiful and majestic, in some cases haunting, wind-sculpted spires of sandstone or great hulking blocks full of arches, tunnels, caves and deep pockmarks. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Montana, Ekalaka, Kirsten Johnson, Medicine Rocks State Park, MSU Billings, Nathan Carroll, Tim Urbaniak

Dinosaur researcher hunts for ancient amber near Ekalaka

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Nathan

EKALAKA — In muddy badlands off Powderville Road southwest of Ekalaka, Nathan Carroll is on the hunt for amber. Don’t picture large chunks of bright, translucent amber. Most of what he finds is very small, not much bigger than a ladybug, and they are almost the color of a blood orange, nearly opaque. He and some volunteers have been filling little plastic jars with pieces of amber all summer, and he’s not even sure what he’s got yet. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Bureau of Land Management, Carter County Museum, Ekalaka, Jack Horner, Kirsten Johnson, Luis Chiappe, Nathan Carroll

Trial opens over house wrecked by sandstone slab

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Stacey

Opening arguments Monday in a case involving a Billings couple whose house was destroyed when an enormous slab of sandstone calved off the Rims five years ago sounded at times like a college-level science seminar. And that was just the attorneys. They told the seven-man, five-women jury that it would be hearing from a battery of geologists, hydrologists, engineers and other expert witnesses during a trial that is expected to last seven days. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Billings, Cal Stacey, Department of Transportation, District Court, Jane Deschner, Jon Lodge, Ken Tolliver, Michael Moses