By Rick and Susie Graetz | Office of Research and Creative Scholarship | The University of Montana Standing on the summit of 9,860-foot Pioneer Mountain in Montana’s Madison Range, one is presented with a striking 360-degree panorama. Sprawled, in every compass direction, is one of the nation’s most pristine and intact natural systems. A wellspring for … Read more
The Last Chance Stampede and Fair is celebrating its 60th Annual Event this year! It’s annual events like these that bring us, and so many others, coming back for more. The Last Chance Stampede and Fair takes place each year during the last week of July. The event kicks off with a country music concert … Read more
One of my all time favorite Holiday Traditions is spending an entire weekend baking with some of our closest family friends. It’s a tradition we have kept up for nearly a decade and a half. We’re talking 2 families, 56 hours, and dozens (and dozens) of cookies. I clearly remember one year we had company … Read more
I have friends scattered across the US and even a few making their homes in other countries. With the pandemic, our world has been thrown upside down. We are learning how to work remotely, how to function with increased isolation, and even how to maintain community amidst isolation. In Montana … we are lucky. Montana is … Read more
It’s impossible, in a blog post, to even brush the surface of all that a summer in Southwest Montana has to offer. Even this year, when so many events have been cancelled, Montanans are spoiled for choice. Would it be possible to hike all the trails, fish all the streams, float all the rivers of … Read more
Thanksgiving is not about the food. It should be about thankfulness, and family, and friendship. But it is about those things in the context of a feast. A joyful celebration culminating in sitting around a table, and eating food together. It doesn’t have to be lavish or excessive. It can be–if you have twenty-ish people, … Read more
Something about the crisp autumn air beckons exploration. Maybe it is our attempt to hold onto summer, with it being just warm enough to wander without a coat, or the deep colors of fall that beg us to connect, or the roads which are craving use before they become coated in snow and ice. For … Read more
It’s September, and it was an especially dry summer. That means that in the west, there is only one appropriate topic of conversation. Wildfires. They’re kind of hard to miss. Northwestern Montana has some of the worst fires, but Southwest Montana has its fair share. At the moment, there are about nine fires in Southwest Montana. … Read more
“With more small craft breweries per capita than nearly anywhere else in the country, Montana is demonstrating that there’s no limit to what we can accomplish when we combine our world-class work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit with some of the finest grains on the planet.” ~Former U.S. Senator Max Baucus Not surprisingly, breweries in Montana … Read more
Montana’s historic landscape has been colored by a myriad of cultural influences.For instance, as the first settlers in the area, the Native American people have contributed immensely to Montana’s history and laid the foundation for today’s society. With the Homestead Act of 1862, Agriculture became the cornerstone of our economy and remains the largest industry … Read more