Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/178/)
I was planning to ride off into the sunset today, but if I may appropriate an observation by Benjamin Franklin, it looks as though I might be heading in the direction of the rising sun.
In the week since I announced that Last Best News would cease publication today, I have heard so many expressions of interest in reviving it in some shape or form, with or without my continued involvement, that it appears likely that this independent online newspaper will live on.
HUNTLEY—The Yellowstone River will soon have a study worthy of its stature.
A summary of the study, still in draft form, was delivered at a public meeting in Huntley on Wednesday night, and the final report is scheduled to be released during a two-day conference in Billings next March. Continue Reading →
As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gathers public comment this week on a huge study of the Yellowstone River, this is a good time to be reminded of the impressive progress that has been made in cooperatively managing another Montana river.
That would be the Musselshell, which rises near Martinsdale and flows about 350 miles before joining the Missouri River north of Mosby. Like so many other high plains rivers, the Musselshell seems perpetually to have been either rampaging in times of flood or barely trickling along in times of drought. Continue Reading →
For some of us, the approach of fall—with its distinct smells, light and colors—is indistinguishable from the approach of cross-country running season. Many of these folks in Montana’s running community will gather on Saturday, Oct. 31, for one of the most unusual footraces in the state—a cross-country race known as the Montana Cup.
Patrick Judge, president of the Helena Vigilante Runners and race director for this year’s edition of the cup, describes the event as “a team cross-country running event similar to a high-school or collegiate race, but open to everyone.” Continue Reading →
It doesn’t have quite the immediate appeal of Old Faithful, but there is a notable geological feature in the Beartooth Mountains that Auzie Blevins and John Boehmke believe more people should know about.
The feature is an immense heap of rock, the result of a gigantic rockslide that formed a natural dam and created Deep Lake, one of the largest bodies of water in the Beartooths. Continue Reading →
When the Billings Gazette hired me as a night editor in 1989, I was thrilled at the prospect of working alongside Roger Clawson.
I had known of him since the mid-1970s, when I first started visiting Billings in the company of the Missoula Flying Mules, a gang of bar hounds masquerading as a hockey team. Continue Reading →
A press release that came in last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration alerted me that this week, Oct. 5-9, had been designated “Winter Weather Awareness Week in Montana.”
The second sentence of the press release read: Continue Reading →
When I was a teenager, I was embarrassed about wearing glasses, and taking years of piano lessons. But when I was 16, an album came out by a guy who looked nothing like a rock star. He was pudgy. He wore glasses. He had a gap between his teeth. Continue Reading →
RED LODGE—Main street merchants in this mountain town, already steamed over a seemingly endless state construction project in the heart of downtown, got more bad news Thursday meeting.
At a community meeting called by Mayor Ed Williams, they were told that the Montana Department of Transportation, responding to complaints over how sidewalks were rebuilt, would like all “obstructions” removed from downtown sidewalks. Continue Reading →
Sitting in my office just north of Seattle Wednesday morning, I read the news of Roger Clawson’s passing back in my hometown. Though our orbits intersected briefly, I didn’t know the man. Still, I found all manner of emotions dripping into my coffee. Lament, gratitude, nostalgia. Continue Reading →
