Diversions

Before it’s too late, a paean to a remnant of pine and rimrock

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Just north

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. Continue Reading →

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Montana

Bull breeders team up to produce, market seedstock

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Barn

Fifteen years ago, nobody thought it would work.

Six ranchers were proposing to start their own bull-breeding business, bypassing the big artificial insemination outfits to gain more control over the process and to keep more of the profits in their own pockets.

Their business, ORIgen, was designed from the start to be a breeder-to-breeder service, giving the power of numbers to breeders of beef bulls. Continue Reading →

Billings

Something lost: Memories of an earlier, freer Heights

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Sartorie

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 →

Opinion

Pulling final lever on 2016 election

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DC

The 2016 election has set many new precedents. Here’s one for me: I will vote a straight Democratic ticket. Never thought that would happen. Even in the yellow dog Democrat days in Texas, my argument never varied: elect the best candidates, regardless of party, and they will find a way to figure out the way forward. Elect some Democrats to get the horses to a gallop, and throw in a few Republicans to pull on the reins. Continue Reading →

Billings

Something lost: Expansion changes life on the West End

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Gabel

Editor’s note: This is the second piece in a three-day series looking what has been lost as Billings has grown steadily in recent decades. Yesterday Phoebe Tollefson wrote about the South Side. Today she takes a look at the West End.

In 1953, Veda Hentz moved into her new home on Rosewyn Lane, a few blocks east of Rehberg Lane. The area was mostly open countryside, and she and her husband were eager to settle in, having kept a close eye on the construction of the house.

“We watched it day by day,” she said, adding, “Seems like now it takes a week and you’ve got a house up.” Continue Reading →