Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/diversions/page/9/)
Driving home from witnessing the total solar eclipse in Casper, Wyo., on Monday, I saw my chance to take a backroad-drive I’d been thinking about for months. When I went down to Wyola last spring, to write a story about the school there (it ran first in the Montana Quarterly, then on Last Best News), I brought along my trusty DeLorme Montana Atlas & Gazetteer, 2013 edition. (more…) Continue Reading →
Organizers of Richard Dreyfest V are calling the event a big success, and they are already laying plans for Dreyfest VI. “All in all, we were really stoked about how it turned out,” said musician and writer Phillip Griffin, one of the main organizers of the punk-inspired music and arts festival. “The event got off without any major hitches, which was something of a surprise because no one in this year’s organizational core had done it before.” (more…) Continue Reading →
CASPER, Wyo. — Shortly after the total eclipse ended, my brother’s 9-year-old niece, Lily Litman, said, “That was literally the coolest thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”
I’ve got a few years on Lily, but I would have to agree. For pure awe and wonder, I can’t imagine what might compete with seeing a total eclipse in near-perfect conditions, which is what we had in Casper on Monday. (more…) Continue Reading →
SHEEP MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT, Wyo. — Ninety-seven percent totality was just fine for the Morrisons. Brian Morrison and his wife, Robin, live in Casper, where thousands of totality-seeking visitors flocked to see Monday’s solar eclipse. Brian said they don’t much like crowds, so they chose to experience the rare event atop a 9,600-foot peak in the Bighorn Mountains, where they spend lots of time each year getting away from it all. “It is pretty crazy in Casper,” he said before the eclipse started. Continue Reading →
CASPER, Wyo. — Here on the front lines, things are running pretty smoothly. After reading all about the total eclipse for days on end, and hearing stories about how people from all over the world could be converging on Casper for front-row seats, we didn’t know what to expect. (more…) Continue Reading →
Bill Reichert has been collecting 45-rpm records for just shy of 60 years, carefully curating and tending a collection that has grown to nearly 20,000 of the little vinyl discs. At the age of 73, he said, “I’m at the point now with my collection—there’s no way I could sit down and listen to all these in my lifetime.” (more…) Continue Reading →
A family with deep roots in Montana met last Saturday on the land their ancestors homesteaded almost 140 years ago. “In Montana,” said Stan Stevens, at 93 the oldest of the clan at the family reunion, “we go back forever.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Executive Chef Ian Anderson took the reins of the historic Northern Hotel kitchen more than a month ago, and already there is a new pulse. Some time had passed since I’d stepped into Bernie’s Diner, the Northern’s breakfast-and-lunch cafe, and it was quieter back then. On this Wednesday morning, behind the counter, staff busily filled cups of coffee and gathered plates of food for the customers who filled the seating by the west-side windows. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Goodridge kids have grown up with the blues. The Magic City Blues, to be precise. Their parents, Tim and Pam Goodridge, have been putting on the annual music festival in downtown Billings since 2002. One way or another, their three children—Henry, 21, Will, 18, and Jane, 16—have part of the festival for most of their lives. (more…) Continue Reading →
On her family farm in Rosebud County, about seven miles east of Forsyth, Jean Lemire Dahlman and her husband, Floyd, raise wheat and cattle. They also have a big vegetable garden and a pond stocked with bass, and because they are hunters, they eat a lot of venison. (more…) Continue Reading →
