Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/lay-of-the-land/)
LAY OF THE LAND: An occasional series on the spirit of Montana
Things change, and whether we like it or not, people change. I’ve changed. I’ve moved from a scared college student to a confident mother. From a budding journalist to a genuine teacher. From a mere thinker to a published author. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: When this Lay of the Land series started, I explained how it came into being by accident, after several people sent me unsolicited essays. Now, having published 16 of these pieces, all of them looking at life in Montana, we have come to the end of the twice-a-month series. (more…) Continue Reading →
LAY OF THE LAND: A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON THE SPIRIT OF MONTANA
I could start this story atop the Bozeman Pass, at 10:30 on a snowy March night in the year 2000, big wet flakes swarming in front of my headlights with increasing fury. I could describe my hands clenched on the steering wheel of my tiny car, trying to keep my balding tires in the ankle-deep ruts ahead of me. I could describe my eyes squeezing shut as a passing truck sprayed gallons of slush on my windshield. I could describe my tires making tiny adjustments on the slushpack, momentarily losing their grip and searching for it again, and my whole body clenching up as if the force of my muscles could keep me on the road. I could describe my eyes becoming mesmerized by the flakes, then finally finding the orange light of a plow to follow behind. Continue Reading →
LAY OF THE LAND: A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON THE SPIRIT OF MONTANA
I pulled over along with the four or five cars in front of our van. We were outside of Billings and it was clear something was very wrong up ahead. There were newspaper pages blowing all over the westbound lanes of the highway. There was part of a horse trailer askew in the highway median. There was a pickup truck against a fence 50 feet off to the right of the roadway, smoke or steam billowing out of the front end. Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
On Oct. 23, acclaimed American Indian author Sherman Alexie came to a packed Rocky Mountain College Fortin Center gymnasium and gave what was reported to be a hilariously entertaining speech that had the crowd laughing until their stomachs hurt. I had written several in-depth articles about the controversy his young-adult book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” had caused in School District 2 last year at this time. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
I hope we all don’t brag too much about our October 2014 weather. I have already warned the Fishtail coffee klatch on this, because we might regret it. Instead, in our out-of-state conversations, we should emphasize the depths to which the thermometer drops come winter, and we need to mention how many seasonal jobs we all have to work in order to live here. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
I can’t remember when I first came to Billings, but the safe money would put it sometime in the first half of 1970, when I would have been mere weeks or months old. My parents lived in Casper, Wyo., at the time, and we had kin in Billings and Great Falls who were eager to meet me. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
I don’t know what to do in the wilderness and I seldom go to it. I live in Missoula, Montana, perhaps one of the best cities in America for easily accessing world-class wilderness areas, and yet I am an infrequent visitor to the hills surrounding town. Sometimes, when I am feeling lazy, I blame this on the fact that I have neither a car nor a driver’s license, but then I remember a 20-minute bike ride will do, because I live in Missoula, Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
Ruth, my Grandpa Daniel’s sister, acquired a camera and started shooting home videos on eight-millimeter film sometime during the early 1950s. I watched the reels with my Grandma Francine earlier this year; the movies are subject to overexposure, but they offer a unique and colorful glimpse into a time and place that I have only ever heard about and imagined (oddly enough) in black-and-white. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
The Big Hole Valley is inextricably part of the family heritage — a distant relative ran his horses in its upper reaches; grandparents raised cattle on its lower stretches for decades. A high, wide riff that drains the snowpack from the peaks separating Montana and Idaho, it sources the longest river system in the United States. Although east of the divide geographically, the Big Hole River is nowhere close to Eastern Montana until the Missouri River meets the Musselshell at the Garfield County line on its way to filling Fort Peck Lake. Hunting waterfowl on the Big Hole River, one had to check the bag limits and season dates for the Central Flyway before shooting. (more…) Continue Reading →
