Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/diversions/page/17/)
When the Pub Station opened inside the old downtown bus depot on the day before Thanksgiving in 2014, Sean Lynch hoped to be able to expand into the larger, rear portion of the depot within five years. The Pub Station has been so well received that he and his wife and business partner, Ann Kosempa, are planning to put on their first show in the venue’s new ballroom in early January. (more…) Continue Reading →
JOLIET — Dave Engel has been making and restoring wagons, coaches and other horse-drawn conveyances for almost 40 years, but the commissioned project he’s working on now is likely to be seen by far more people than anything else he’s done. Working out of Engel’s Coach Shop on Joliet’s Main Street, just off Highway 212, Engel and one employee have been laboring since last February to build replicas of two of the wagons once used to haul borax in California’s Death Valley. (more…) Continue Reading →
The landscapes of the West, some of them at least, remain powerfully evocative. The Upper Missouri River Breaks is one of those landscapes, offering a procession of historical events that capture the imagination. (more…) Continue Reading →
The artist stepped back to study the imprint of her hands on the grainy sandstone surface above her head. She was satisfied and added nothing else. The red berry dye reflected her slender hands well. As she had lifted her fingers, she trailed them slightly upward, elongating each finger—reflecting the radiation outward of her personal power. She thought the simplicity elegant. Continue Reading →
With just a few details left to attend to, the Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill is almost ready to open on Montana Avenue, in what must be one of the more spectacular indoor spaces in Billings. The new business, which is leasing the old United Glass building at 2203 Montana Ave., is being developed by Sam Hoffmann, owner of Red Lodge Ales. It will be serving a variety of hard ciders made on the premises, as well as some guest ciders, wine on tap and all the beers made at the Red Lodge brewery. (more…) Continue Reading →
The 16th annual Magic City Music Awards on Sunday drew big crowds, threw off waves of youthful energy and included a sad, shocking announcement from Jared Stewart, the guitar master who has won more of the awards than anyone else. The evening also included a tribute to Norrine “The Outlaw Queen” Linderman, who has been singing, yodeling and playing guitar in these parts since the late 1940s. She was this year’s recipient of the Freeman Lacy Award, established to recognize musicians with a long history of contributing to the Billings music scene. (more…) Continue Reading →
There’s a place north of the Heights—maybe the latter is called North Billings now—that is the last bastion of prairie rimrocks and pines, an outlander piece of land. About a half mile west of the Roundup Road, the area has remained off-track, probably because of its location in the middle of someone’s active horse pasture. I’ve always thought it would be a great place for a homesite if other homes could be kept away, and even dreamed of purchasing it somehow and placing it in a non-development conservation easement—except for my house, of course. (more…) Continue Reading →
It can be hard to describe or quantify what makes Billings, with its vast and varied interests, so great. That’s why, in June of 2015, my co-host Dianne Parker and I were excited to help Community 7 Television launch a new television program that explores several of the Magic City’s unique characteristics. (more…) Continue Reading →
Like a lot of other people, I was impressed with “Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana,” which was published in 2012 by the Montana Historical Society Press. It is full of superb photos by Tom Ferris and great stories by Christine Brown and Chere Jiusto and it features an amazing variety of barn styles from all over the state. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This is the third piece in a three-day series looking what has been lost as Billings has grown steadily in recent decades. Over the past two days, Phoebe Tollefson wrote about the South Side and the West End. Today she takes a look at the Heights. The apartment complexes, strip malls, big box stores and houses in the Heights cover some of the most fertile soil in the Yellowstone River valley. And they have transformed one Billings native’s favorite boyhood camping spots. Continue Reading →
