Southwest Montana Blog
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Spend five minutes in Montana (or even on this site) and you’ll figure out that rocks are crazy important. The rocks of Montana have shaped the last two centuries of the state’s history. The gold rushes in Bannack, Alder Gulch, and Helena were some of the most important episodes in Montana history. The copper...

With April coming to a close, it is time to start planning your Southwest Montana summer adventures. May I offer two words of advice? State Parks. From popular city-side swimming holes to only-accessible-on-dry-days-with-four-wheel-drive ghost towns, Montana’s more than fifty state parks celebrate the state’s...

Hiking the mountains of Montana, I often feel like my head is in the clouds. But the first time I trekked to Sawtooth Lake I literally wondered if I was dreaming. There amid the soft grass and sun-bleached boulders at the edge of the lake lay the crumpled, rusting metal fuselage of a small plane. …

You may have noticed Southwest Montana’s website has changed quite a bit. It’s a change that has been in the works for a long time, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. For one thing, it is much prettier. Southwest Montana deserves a website as beautiful as the scenery, and it was definitely...

The sun-bleached tipi poles lean shoulder to shoulder, motionless even in a strong wind, stark skeletons of the warm dwellings that once, briefly, stood at the edge of the North Fork Big Hole River. It is a quiet place; even the boggy river makes little sound as it meanders between willowed banks across the...

From up on the ridgeline, if you had brought your binoculars, you could see right down to Reeder’s Alley and Last Chance Gulch, the historic epicenter of a gold mining boom that spawned Montana’s capital city. But you didn’t come all the way to Helena to reflect on history. You’re preoccupied with questions...

Christmas is over. New Years has passed. What do we have to look forward to? Why Butte’s Chinese New Year, of course! The shortest, loudest, coldest Chinese New Year Parade in America kicks is next month: February 13, 2016. The parade usually starts from the Butte-Silverbow Courthouse around 3:00 pm and ends...

“Is that…is there…is there a giant lady on the top of that mountain?” Yes, yes there is. She always startles first-time visitors to Butte. You’re letting your eyes wander along the stark Eastern Ridge, and then you notice that there is something strange about one of the peaks. You look...

“Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River &#...

While exploring Southwest Montana, why not take a step back and focus your energy on an emersion in nature? Birding may be an activity that you have never thought of trying, but why not? Maybe you don’t even know what ‘birding’ entails. Birding is an opportunity to step into the natural world and observe its...

Summer may be wrapping up, but the activities in Southwest Montana are continuing. If you don’t already have plans-or if you are searching for something to do throughout September, take a look at some of the events going on around our region! Don’t miss the variety of Farmer’s and Community...

It takes a long time for a town to give up the ghost. Take Bannack, for example: established in 1862, Montana’s first mining town had run out of gold by the 1880s, and yet the town clung on. Determined, hard-headed prospectors kept the town alive even after it became a state park in the 1950s. …