Stories Archive

SOUTHWEST MONTANA’S CENTENNIAL VALLEY
By Chris Montgomery with Rick and Susie Graetz
"Montana is a state of the Union. And here, in a lovely valley surrounded by high mountains, are the Red Rock Lakes, which nature has designed especially for swans. - E.B. White, "The Trumpet of the Swan"
Just...

Photo courtesy of Sam Beebe/Ecotrust
The Beginnings of Montana’s Cattle Industry
by Patrick Shea
 
For travelers looking for a less-than-typical destination in the treasure state, an excursion through the Deer Lodge Valley is a tour through time to some of Montana's most formative moments.
 
An...

Johnny Grant, Conrad Kohrs, and the Grant Kohrs Ranch

Johnny Grant, Conrad Kohrs, and the Grant Kohrs Ranch
by Patrick Shea
In 1857, open-range cattle began to roam the Deer Lodge Valley in modern-day Powell County. With the discovery of gold, hungry prospectors needed sustenance, and the herds became an essential food source. The region's lush...

Gold Creek – A Montana Original

By Ruth Little with Rick & Susie Graetz
Sixty miles east of Missoula on Interstate 90, at milepost 166, a highway marker shows an exit for Gold Creek. In the absence of signs designating this as a significant spot in Montana's chronicles, motorists zip by at 80mph without a thought of stopping.
 
A...

Sculptures in the Wild: Lincoln, Montana

So, an Irishman and a logger walk into a Seattle bar. Imbibing spirits, they bond over their interest in knives, solve the world’s problems, and by the end of the night the two new BFFs think that with no source of funding, building a massive 26-acre outdoor art gallery in the middle of woods in...

The Big Belt Mountains – Helena’s and Townsend’s Home Ranges

By Rick and Susie Graetz of the University of Montana’s Office of Research & Creative Scholarship
Looking out from the rise of the town of Helena, across the Prickly Pear Valley, the northeast and eastern horizon is dominated by most of the 80-mile length of the Big Belt Mountains. Survey this...

Gates of the Mountains Wilderness

Looking toward Helena's northern horizon, foothills and mountains seem to blend in a continuously forested belt separating the valley from the prairie farther north. This distant view is deceiving. Out there in those hills, the legendary Missouri has carved its path through soft limestone,...

From Philipsburg to Clinton: Riding Rock Creek Road

Winter 2020 melted into a stir-crazy spring. Homebound and remotely engaged at best, I had never been more eager for warm weather and long bike rides. The forecast of a balmy June weekend in the Sapphire Mountains was a grounding reminder of how fortunate I am to be in Montana.
 
After a long...

Philipsburg and the Flint Creek Valley

In the 1860s, as large deposits of gold, silver, copper, and other valuable minerals were discovered in Granite County, many mining settlements sprung up along creek beds and mountainsides. As a reminder of that frenzied search for prosperity, today, 24 ghost towns are left scattered throughout...

A Visual History: Visiting the Big Hole National Battlefield

Descending from the Continental Divide at Chief Joseph Pass, Montana Hwy 43 weaves through a forest of Douglas Fir and cuts through walls of sedimentary and metamorphic rock before following Trail Creek in a narrow canyon. A bend in the road reveals a lush, green valley where the nickname “Big...

Jewels of the Sky: Hummingbirds of Western Montana

Hummingbirds are stunning creatures: not only for their jewel-like beauty and gravity-defying aerial acrobatics but also for their sheer fortitude. Every fall, they migrate thousands of miles to Mexico or Central America. Their wings thrum at up to 80 beats per second. When they sleep, their...

Ranching Agreements Help Conserve Arctic Grayling

When the Corps of Discovery passed through Montana in 1805 Capt. Meriwether Lewis described a “new kind of white or silvery trout,”—the Arctic grayling, a member of the salmon family that depends on clean, cold-water streams. Montana is now the only place in the lower 48 states with native...

Beyond Doom and Gloom: Science Communication at Glacier National Park

When it comes to communication about climate change, there’s a lot of complexity to consider, said USGS scientist Dan Fagre. 
“The problem is that to really understand it, people need to understand the process,” he explained. “It’s sort of analogous to a lot of ideas out there about nutrition:...

Disappearing Glaciers Give Scientists New Insights

There is perhaps no feature more prominent in the discussion of climate science than the disappearance of glaciers. In Glacier National Park, this rings especially true. 
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research ecologist Dan Fagre has traveled the world conducting research on glaciers and mountain...

Avalanches and Climate Change in Glacier National Park

In the high reaches of Glacier National Park, the captivating beauty of the mountains holds a powerful wintertime phenomenon: snow avalanches.
Avalanches are often dramatized as extremely dangerous, freak events, but they are a natural part of the Glacier National Park ecosystem. U.S. Geological...

Glacier Park Scientist Talks Climate Change in Mountain Ecosystems

Over his 29 years working in Glacier National Park, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research ecologist Dan Fagre has seen a lot of changes. Even as the pressures of climate change encroach upon this mountain region, Fagre and other scientists see boundless opportunities for research and...

Flathead Lake Biological Station Part 2: The Sentinel of Flathead Lake

From the beginning, Flathead Lake Biological Station has had a wide-ranging approach to science. FLBS Assistant Director Tom Bansak explained the three parts of the bio station’s mission: research, education, and outreach.
RESEARCH AND MONITORING
 Research has always been the station’s main...

Flathead Lake Biological Station Part 1

The enormity and beauty of Flathead Lake has captured the imagination of Montana residents for generations. As the largest freshwater lake in the western U.S. (outside of Alaska), it’s no surprise that people have been asking and trying to answer questions about this body of water for a very...

Rockies Today Brings Regional Context to Montana News

Montana is a big place, but there’s an easy way to get comprehensive news from across the furthest reaches up and down the Rockies. 
Rockies Today is the name of the daily newsletter that shows up in the inbox of more than 3,000 subscribers interested in stories related to public lands, energy,...

Montana's Lonesome Highway

From the center of the state at Lewistown, it is 262 miles to Sidney and just a few miles further to the Dakota line. At night you can drive 50 miles or more and never see another vehicle. Fly over it at after dark and you rarely notice a light. This far-flung portion of Hwy 200 traverses...

Southwest Montana: A Profile (1 of 4)

Defining a province is subjective. The words to follow course through landscape surrounded by an imaginary line which commences at Lolo Pass west of Missoula moving east along Interstate 90 and the Clark Fork River to Garrison Junction then follows Hwy 12 over McDonald Pass to Helena. From...

Southwest Montana: A Profile (2 of 4)

An important portion of The Corps of Discovery's journey occurred in southwest Montana. On July 19, 1805, Lewis and his men were struggling up the Missouri between present-day Upper and Lower Holter lakes. "from the singular appearance of this place I called it the gates of the rocky mountains."...

Southwest Montana: A Profile (3 of 4)

Fur trappers, followed quickly on the heels of Lewis and Clark into the new frontier. Searching for beaver to satisfy the latest fashion demands of Europeans, they wandered to what would become Montana Territory and particularly to the southwest sector of the state. But they were not settlers,...

Southwest Montana: A Profile (4 of 4)

For the most part, the physical and social geography of southwest Montana has changed little with the passage of time. Ranching and agriculture are the major lifestyles and the Bitterroot and Gallatin valleys still draw the most folks. Water, which played a significant role in the past, is still...

Granite Peak: Montana's Highest

It is all a mountain should be...remote and majestic. Sheer walls on all sides and crevassed glaciers flowing from its upper reaches present an awesome sight. At 12,799 feet, Montana’s Granite Peak stands out as the patriarch of “the roof of Montana,” the Beartooth Range of the south-central...

Fort Benton: Montana's Birthplace (1 of 2)

Photo description and photographer’s note: Just around this corner of the Missouri River sits Fort Benton, the oldest town in Montana, founded in 1846. Over the next century, Fort Benton would become the springboard for trade as goods would be offloaded at the navigable end of the Missouri River...

Fort Benton: Montana's Birthplace (2 of 2)

Photo: Chris Groeling
 
In September 1887, the railroad arrived signaling the end of the era of river trade; it seemed Fort Benton would die. But a Canadian trade boom opened resulting in the establishment of the 240-mile-long Whoop Up Trail pointing north to Fort Macleod, Alberta. Although plenty of...

Beargrass and Yucca

Two particular flowering plants are the toast of late spring and summer in Montana. In the mountain forests and openings of northwestern Montana, Beargrass - the official flower of Glacier National Park - struts its stuff along roads and highways as well as throughout the wilderness areas in...

Old West Beef Empires Launched Town of Malta (Part 1 of 2)

U.S. Highway 191 climbs a steep grade out of the Missouri River bottoms north of the bridge at the James Kipp Recreation Area. As it gains the upper extent of the river breaks, a far-reaching, high plains landscape sprawls toward Canada 125 miles to the north. The Little Rockies rise directly...

Modern Malta Offers Much to Explore (Part 2 of 2)

Malta has an appealing downtown that includes a state-of-the-art movie theater with surround sound joined by a healthy, self-sufficient variety of other businesses. You can find two lumberyards, a hardware store, three banks, a pharmacy, a new brewery and a farm store, currently under...

Missouri Headwaters are Central to Montana History (Part 1 of 2)

A labyrinth of channels, willow bottoms, islands and a general mix of wetlands interact to piece together the headwaters of the Missouri River.
 
The point where the three forks – the Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison rivers – join as one, the great Missouri River begins an odyssey, heading out as...

Missouri Headwaters are Central to Montana History (Part 2 of 2)

When the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis in September 1806, fur trappers already were on their way to the new country. In North Dakota, after meeting a group of trappers heading upriver, the Corps’ John Colter left the expedition and returned to the country he fondly recalled. In 1808,...

Montana: One State with Three Changing Regions (Part 1 of 3)

Montana is a single state. But in reality, there are many Montanas – some defined by variations in terrain and vegetation, others by climate and still others by land use and population density. Area economies also vary considerably from one part of Montana to the next.
   
From east to west, the...

Montana: One State with Three Changing Regions (Part 2 of 3)

Most Montanans view their state as being largely rural in character because of its many open, sparsely populated spaces and the lack of any truly large cities. However, in reality Montana is steadily becoming a largely urban state, at least in terms of where most of the state’s residents live...

Montana: One State with Three Changing Regions (Part 3 of 3)

As described in the second article in this series examining growth and change in Montana, while many if not most Montanans view their state as being largely rural, most of the state’s residents now live within 50 miles of the state’s seven largest cities – Billings, Missoula, Kalispell, Bozeman,...

City Bands Embodied Early Montana Communities (Part 1 of 3)

The history of the Missoula City Band in many ways mirrors the history of Missoula, Montana. Since Missoula’s virtual beginning – the time Montana was only a territory and not yet a state – the Missoula City Band played.
Through two world wars and the Great Depression, through a surge of pioneers...

City Bands Embodied Early Montana Communities (Part 2 of 3)

Note: This is excerpted from “The Missoula City Band: Stories in Time.”  
By the mid-1890s, the City Band had emerged as the default ‘go-to’ organization in town for civic events. By 1894, it played at virtually every public function. On Oct. 17, 1894, Republicans opened their campaign at the new...

City Bands Embodied Early Montana Communities (Part 3 of 3)

Note: This is excerpted from “The Missoula City Band: Stories in Time.”
 
By the end of the 19th century, the Garden City Band had improved enough to perform evening concerts regularly. They also found themselves accompanying fraternal organizations like the Modern Woodmen of America to...

UM Geography's "This is Montana" Celebrates 100 Columns (Part 1 of 2)

Photo: A kayaker enjoys Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park. Courtesy of Rick and Susie Graetz
It’s the height of Montana summer – early August – and a serene Flathead Lake framed by cedar, ponderosa and spruce confronts us. It’s 6 p.m., and the sun is still high in its arc but low enough...

UM Geography's "This is Montana" Celebrates 100 Columns (Part 2 of 2)

Photo: The Chinese Wall rises above the unspoiled Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana. Courtesy of Rick and Susie Graetz.
Although Montana’s history may be young, it certainly is deep, and much of its evidence is written on the land.
 
Knowing that an old trail – the Mullan Wagon Road –...

Montana's Greatest Wonder: The Missouri River (Part 1 of 5)

Photo: The Madison River flows past autumn foliage upstream from Ennis. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
On Aug. 12, 1805, Meriwether Lewis penned in his journals, “the road was still plain, I therefore did not dispare of shortly finding a passage over the mountains and of tasting the waters of...

Montana's Greatest Wonder: The Missouri River (Part 2 of 5)

Photo: Lewis and Clark wrote of the Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri River, “... this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen.” (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Almost immediately upon departing the Three Forks area, the newly formed Missouri is neatly...

Montana's Greatest Wonder: The Missouri River (Part 3 of 5)

Photo: The Missouri River meanders through Montana farmland above Fort Benton. (Photo by Rick & Susie Graetz)
When the Missouri River puts Cascade behind, it looks out toward the sunset and the distant Rocky Mountain Front, the range of mountains that gave Montana its label “Land of the Shining...

Montana's Greatest Wonder: The Missouri River (Part 4 of 5)

Photo: The Missouri River carves its way through a portionof the White Cliffs region. (Photo by Rick & Susie Graetz)
On June 16, 1805, Captain Clark of the Corps of Discovery – with an extremely ill Sacajawea accompanying him – halted below the confluence of Belt Creek and the Missouri River...

Montana's Greatest Wonder: The Missouri River (Part 5 of 5)

Photo: The Missouri River flows near its confluence with the Yellowstone. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
“… by every rule of nomenclature, the Missouri being the main stream and the upper Mississippi the tributary, the name of the former should have been given precedence, and the great-river...

Rocky Mountain Front's First Ranger (Part 1 of 3)

Clyde Fickes, in the early 1900s, with horses near Hannan Gulch Ranger Station.
Authors’ Note: This piece is excerpted from a report Clyde Fickes wrote in May 1944. It appeared in “Volume 1 – Early Days In The Forest Service.” His words are excerpted with light editing. Fickes retired from the...

Rocky Mountain Front's First Ranger (Part 2 of 3)

Winter snow blankets the Rocky Mountain Front north of Augusta. (Rick & Susie Graetz photo)
Authors’ Note: This piece is excerpted from a report Clyde Fickes wrote in May 1944. It appeared in “Volume 1 – Early Days In The Forest Service.” His words are excerpted with light editing. Fickes...

Rocky Mountain Front's First Ranger (Part 3 of 3)

Authors’ note: This piece is excerpted from a report Clyde Fickes wrote in May 1944. It appeared in Volume 1- Early Days In The Forest Service. His words excerpted but are unedited. Fickes retired from the Forest Service in 1947. He died on Dec. 29, 1987, at age 103, from an accident on the...

That Time Montana Hit 70 Below ... And Maybe Colder

A thirty below zero day on the Rocky Mountain Front forces a herd of cattle into a huddle while a new storm blows in, dropping the temperature even further. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Snow had been falling almost continuously for a week, and it was very cold. The temperature had only risen...

The Night the Mountain Fell in Yellowstone

Springtime snow collects on the slide scar in from the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake. (Annie Jehle photo)
One late summer night, thousands awoke to a horrific nightmare: an enormous force rattling the ground beneath them. At 11:37 p.m. on Aug. 17, 1959, the 7.5-magnitude Hebgen Lake Earthquake hit...

Swan Mountains a Gateway to Montana Adventure (Part 1 of 2)

Larch trees fade to yellow as fall approaches under the Swan Range near Condon, Montana. Photo by John Lambing. (Rick & Suzie Graetz photo)
They are what mountains should look like, this Swan Range of western Montana. A formidable barrier, their sheer west face climbs above the Swan Valley, dense...

Swan Mountains a Gateway to Montana Adventure (Part 2 of 2)

The Swan Range rises several thousand feet into high mountain country. (Rick & Suzie Graetz photo)
South of Swan Peak, Lion Creek Pass offers another important route into the Bob Marshall Wilderness by way of Palisades and Little Salmon creeks. The route up the Swan-face side travels through...

The Bitterroot River Runs Through Montana History (Part 1 of 2)

A red barn stands along the foothills of the upper Bitterroot Range as autumn leaves begin to turn color. (Rick & Suzie Graetz photo)
Though its length is short in comparison to other major Montana rivers, the landscape the Bitterroot River flows through is long in beauty and historical...

The Bitterroot River Runs Through Montana History (Part 2 of 2)

Cottonwood trees bask in the summer sun along the lower Bitterroot River just above Lolo. (Rick & Suzie Graetz photo)
The Lewis and Clark expedition returned to the Bitterroot Valley on June 30, 1806, after spending the winter at rainy “Fort Clatsop” on the Oregon Coast. It was at “Traveler rest”...

Get Out and Explore the Bob Marshall Wilderness

Dusty Crary and mule train: Dustry Crary leads a mule train down Route Creek Pass in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)                  
This column is a bit different in that we are sharing the foreword of revised 2004 edition of our book “Montana’s Bob Marshall...

Montana's Marias River Provided a Puzzle for Lewis and Clark

Captains Lewis and Clark stood on this point, where the Marias meets the Missouri near Loma at Decision Point, to make a determination as to which river was the Missouri. It flows in on the left. (Rick & Susie Graetz photo)
In any dissertation about Montana’s rivers, the Marias deserves coverage...

Montana's Bull River Country Offers Giant Trees, Stunning Vistas

 
Dusk blankets the peaks above Horseshoe Lake in Montana’s sector of the Scotchman Peaks Proposed Wilderness Area. (Photo by Aaron Theisen, courtesy of Idaho Conservation League)
Mapped in 1809 by famed explorer, merchant and geographer David Thompson, this is the traditional land of the Kootenai...

Gold Gives Birth to Western Montana

Aspen leaves turn gold along Grasshopper Creek below present day Bannack, the location of Montana’s first major gold strike. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Following quickly on the heels of Lewis and Clark, fur trappers flocked to what would later become Montana Territory. Canadians came within...

Events Reveal Crown of the Continent Timeline

Water reflects Piegan Glacier in Glacier National Park.
It took more than 60 years to create Glacier National Park, which is the foundation of the much larger natural system called the Crown of the Continent that we study and celebrate today. The events that led to the formation of the park and...

Mount Everest Discovery and the First Ascent 64 Years Ago

The Everest Summit from Bellsouth Side (Rick & Susie Graetz photo)
This week we make another departure from our columns that portray Montana. We give a nod to another mountainous landscape, where climbers are taking advantage of a roughly two-month window of favorable weather to stake their claim...

Glacier National Park Works to Save Bull Trout (Part 1 of 2)

Juvenile Bull Trout (photo credit USGS)
Immersed in a cathedral-like forest of tall trees in the cool quiet of morning, my thoughts are interrupted upon hearing an unfamiliar sound behind me – horse hooves. I am hiking the trail to Quartz Lake, where I’ll interview Glacier National Park’s...

Glacier National Park Works to Save Bull Trout (Part 2 of 2)

Gill netting for lake trout began in Quartz Lake in 2009. (Photo by Jacob Frank)
Logging Lake was historically home to one of the most robust bull trout populations in Glacier National Park. But when lake trout showed up, the population crashed. Translocating, or moving, bull trout upstream to...

Native Officials Will Help Manage Utah National Monument

The Bears Ears, seen from the west, loom in the distance. (Rick & Susie Graetz photo)
This week we make a departure from our columns that portray Montana. Bears Ears National Monument is constantly in the news, yet very few Montanans know much about it.
On Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, President Obama...

Homestead Act Launches a New Era in Montana (Part 1 of 3)

Fall colors surround the Parker Homestead in Montana. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
"As I looked across the rolling expanse of prairie, filled with the beauty of a Montana sunset, I sent up a little prayer of thanksgiving from my heart for this our very first home. Only a rectangle of prairie...

Homestead Act Launches a New Era in Montana (Part 2 of 3)

Seven children were raised in this homestead cabin north of Circle. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Several short-term trends helped trigger Montana’s remarkable homestead boom. The most significant was the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, which doubled the free land available to settlers to 320...

Homestead Act Launches a New Era in Montana (Part 3 of 3)

Pioneer town in Scobey, a gathering of many otherwise doomed homestead-era buildings, is a must-see in northeast Montana. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
The future seemed especially promising – so much so, in fact, that most Montana homesteaders readily heeded the calls by government officials...

Bits of Montana Wisdom (Part 1 of 5)

At the start of winter, horses brave a ground blizzard on the Rocky Mountain Front. (photo by Gene Sentz)
With winter gripping Montana, let us point out that the national record for cold in the lower 48 states – 70 degrees below zero – was documented right here in Montana at 2 a.m. on Jan. 20,...

Bits of Montana Wisdom (Part 2 of 5)

The Dauphin Rapids on the Missouri River (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Have you ever wondered how certain Montana places, rivers and towns got their unusual or just plain unfathomable names?
Thanks to the incoming railroad across the top of the state, towns along the Hi-Line were named by the...

Bits of Montana Wisdom (Part 3 of 5)

Main street of the small town of Augusta, Montana (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Do you sometimes think the state is being inundated with new ways, and we are losing the real Montana? In some places perhaps yes, but most of the state is still the Montana we have always known and perceived. It...

Bits of Montana Wisdom (Part 4 of 5)

The Yellowstone River winds near Big Timber. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Call it 670 miles – or perhaps more precisely 674 miles – but either way, the Yellowstone River remains the nation’s longest undammed waterway. It’s a great river that meanders through some of the finest mountain and...

Bits of Montana Wisdom (Part 5 of 5)

Flathead cherry trees dressed in their autumn finest (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
At a recent book signing, a gentleman who knew quite a bit about the Judith Basin country explained how Utica, a small town in the basin on the road into the Little Belt Mountains, received its name. He...

Montana Remains "High, Wide, and Handsome"

Big sky views from prairie country
“Colorado is high, having more peaks within its borders than any other state. Wyoming is wide, with the breadth of the plains between the Bighorns and the Grand Tetons. California is handsome, with a splendor of success. It takes all three adjectives to describe...

Montana Winters Aren't for Wimps

Winter blankets the Gallatin River headwaters. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
It seems that this year much of Montana is experiencing a tough winter, but it’s actually not. We are just getting back to winter after last year’s weird spell. Temperature readings haven’t gone wild – yet. No...

Montana's Pryor Mountains Offer Diverse Landscapes

 Wildflowers bloom in the Pryor Mountains. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Red desert, ice caves and wild horses are symbols of a most unique piece of Montana’s mountain country – the island-like Pryor Mountains of south-central Montana.
From the Yellowstone River Valley and the big-little town...

The Salish and Corps of Discovery Meet at Ross's Hole

Ross’s Hole in the Upper Bitterroot (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
A quiet place now but once used by generations of indigenous peoples, Ross’s Hole, on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail sprawls out from the junction of Camp Creek and the East Fork of the Bitterroot River. A...

Big Snowy Mountains Offer Wonders in Central Montana

The Big Snowy Mountains (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Colors filled the entire sky and painted the many distant mountains in all manners of red, orange and purple. Arriving at the summit of Greathouse Peak in time to experience a prolonged and glorious sunset, Dave Byerly, then publisher of...

Robert Marshall: A Forester and Crusader

Rugged woodsman Bob Marshall (photo courtesy of wilderness.net)
No man ever rode the crest of the wave or life with higher purpose or more joyousness than Bob Marshall. In electing his way of life, Bob chose mainly those activities that would help to make life better for those who need a hand or...

Central Montana Offers Spectacular, Diverse Landscapes (Part 1 of 2)

Looking north from the crest of the Big Snowy Mountains offers stunning views of Lewistown and the Judith and North and South Mockisin mountains. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
The center of Big Sky Country defines its northern flank with the Missouri River Breaks, then points south to the...

Central Montana Offers Spectacular, Diverse Landscapes (Part 2 of 2)

The Musselshell River flows below Rygate. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Old trails traversed central Montana. First there was the Musselshell, leading from the confluence of the Musselshell and Missouri rivers to the south and then westward. Arriving on steamboats, passengers and freight were...

Ekalaka: A Beautiful Outpost in Far Eastern Montana

A view of the Long Pines area southeast of Ekalaka (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
A historical sign on the edge of town states Ekalaka was established in 1885 by a bison hunter who set out to erect an “edifice for the eradication of ennui.” His wagon became stuck in the snow, and that’s the...

The Blackfeet Nation Has Long, Epic History

A scene from North American Indian Days Pow Wow on the Blackfeet Reservation (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
At one time, they were feared Plains warriors. Historians believe the Blackfeet, forced out of their ancestral grounds in today’s upper Great Lakes region by white advancement, were...

A Journey with the Yellowstone in Missouri River Territory (Part 1 of 2)

The Yellowstone River near Sidney (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
Rolling along for nearly 335 miles in Montana’s Missouri River Country, the Missouri River takes top billing, but the Yellowstone River is far more than a bit player. The 670-mile long waterway’s claim to fame is that it...

A Journey with the Yellowstone in Missouri River Territory (Part 2 of 2)

The Yellowstone and Missouri rivers merge near the Montana-North Dakota border. (Photo by Larry Mayer)
Agates are another lower Yellowstone River attraction. Millions of years ago, volcanoes ruled Montana east of the mountains. Powerful eruptions of molten lava and ash covered and destroyed...

Montana's Milk River a Major Hi-Line Feature

This image shows the confluence Montana’s Milk and Missouri Rivers. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
When discussing the waterways of Montana, it is important to include the internationally flavored, 538-mile long Milk River. It pulls its waters from the front range of the Rockies by way of three...

Virginia City: Montana’s first Incorporated town (Part 1 of 2)

The Madison County Courthouse in Virginia City (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
Returning home to Bannack from a gold-searching trip in the Yellowstone Valley, six tired prospectors were captured by the Crow Indians. Had it not been for the quick thinking of one of them, their consequent good...

Virginia City: Montana’s first Incorporated town (Part 2 of 2)

The Virginia City Cemetary overlooks its namesake town below. (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
As with the other mining camps, the placer gold didn’t last forever and Virginia City began its decline. By the late 1860s, the population had dropped to about 2,000, and by 1890 only 600 people...

The Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge Offers Remote Beauty

A view of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge from the south shore of Fort Peck Lake (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
It is an uncommon landscape – at once stark, beautiful, imposing and inviting – this Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Time has left most of it with the...

Sapphire Mountains Are One of Montana's Gems

A fisherman tries his luck on Rock Creek – a blue ribbon trout stream and popular recreation area in the Sapphire Mountains. (Photo by the Rick and Susie Graetz)
Seemingly towering above the University of Montana campus, Mount Sentinel’s actual rise is only 5,158 feet. To the folks in Missoula,...

ABCs and 123s of Montana’s Historic Rural Schoolhouses

Hill School, recently rehabilitated with a Preserve Montana Fund grant, proudly shines against the Montana landscape. (Photo by the Montana Preservation Alliance)
Montana is well known for its breathtaking mountain views, majestic lakes and vast expanses of open prairie, but one new study is...

Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness: An Excellent Choice for Adventure

The Maloney Basin in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Butte and Anaconda folks consider this wilderness mountain range and the surrounding forestlands straddling the Great Divide to be their own. They hunt, fish, hike, climb, horse pack and enjoy the numerous roads...

How Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness was Created

looking out on the Bob Marshall Complex with Red Buttes Wall directly bellow 
In 1897, President Grover Cleveland established the Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve under the provisions of the Forest Reserve Act. At that time the reserves were administered by the Department of the Interior. In 1905,...

Flathead Lake: Our Local Ocean in Motion

Sunset over Flathead Lake (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)  
Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the western U.S. (excluding Alaska). Because of its size it is often more like an ocean than a lake. Those of you who have been out on its rough waters during a major wind storm...

Steamboats at Kipp Landing Helped Settle Montana

Kipp Landing and the Fred Robinson Bridge (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Few names are more prominent in Missouri River history than James Kipp. Born in Montréal in 1788, he was a fur trader, fort builder and steamboat captain. In 1831, he established Fort Piegan, 128 river miles above Kipp...

Find Adventures in "Confluence Country"

Fort Union (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Some of Montana’s earliest recorded history played out on the eastern fringes of our state. Through Fort Union, this “Confluence Country” held supremacy over the fur trade business of the Upper Missouri from about 1830 until the 1850s.
On April 27, 1805,...

Montana Followed Meandering Path Toward Statehood (Part 1 of 2)

When Montana became a territory on May 26, 1864, Bannack, now a state park, became the first territorial capital. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Each of the United States of America – except the original 13, Texas and California – was first organized as a territory before achieving admittance...

Montana Followed Meandering Path Toward Statehood (Part 2 of 2)

The view from Boot Hill, Virginia City (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Arriving in Washington, D.C., Judge Sidney Edgerton consulted with President Lincoln and found him agreeable to the idea of a new territory in the Rockies. More important, Edgerton discovered that his friend and fellow...

Public Invited to Participate in Wildlife Research as Citizen Scientists

Bird Woman Falls in Glacier National Park (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Many Research Learning Centers across the country provide opportunities for the public to actively participate in scientific data collection in an increasingly popular pastime known as citizen science. Citizen science...

Montana Leads with Bear Spray Protection

Adult grizzly bear with the distinctively “dished” face and round ears (Courtesy of The Nature Conservancy of Montana)
This piece was penned several years ago for Big Sky’s Lone Peak Lookout newspaper owing to the increase in bear and people encounters in the Madison and Gallatin ranges. What the...

Garnet Offers Montana's Best Preserved Ghost Town

Much of Garnet Ghost Town remains intact. (Photo by J.W. Newton)
 
 
It’s quiet now, especially when heavy snows descend on the Garnet Mountain Range. More than 120 years ago though, Garnet was a boisterous place, going full blast even in the harsh winter months. Its main link to the lower...

Montana Offers Amazingly Diverse Tapestry

Spring comes to Flathead Lake while the Swan Range is still cloaked in winter.
Snow Creek north of Jordan shows off the Missouri River breaks in their spring dress.
Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park mirrors Mount Gould and the Continental Divide
"A mile wide, too thin to plow, too thick...

Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge: A Stunning Prairie Oasis

Medicine Lake Fog: Fog rises above a sleepy Medicine Lake on an early autumn morning. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of Northeast Montana’s most alluring gems. And early spring is a delightful time to explore it.
Mid-May at about 5 a.m., the lifting...

Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge (Part 1 of 2)

Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge: Fog rises from the frozen marshes of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge.  (Photo by Susie Graetz)
It’s one of those gems people sometimes stumble onto by accident. We knew about the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge but never quite found our way to...

Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge (Part 2 of 2)

Lee Metcalf Pond: The moderate winter climate of Bitterroot Valley usually results in pockets of open water on Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge wetlands. (Photo by Bob Danley, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
The waterfowl and wildlife take center stage and offer visitors a variety of...

The Great Burn Shaped by Catastrophic 1910 Fire Season

Bear grass grows in a slice of the Great Burn on the Montana-Idaho border. (Photo courtesy of the Montana Wilderness Association)
“Winds felled trees as if they were blades of grass; darkness covered the land; firewhirls danced across the blackened skies like an aurora borealis from below; the air...

Darby Project Brings the End of the Road

Ed Snook, a hydrologist for the Bitterroot National Forest, demonstrates just how much of the road has washed away in one area where road restoration and decommissioning is set to begin. (Photo by Ed Snook)
From an aerial view, the landscape around the two watersheds looks scarred.
Dirt roads...

Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains Represent the Roof of Montana (Part 1 of 2)

A mountain goat roams the Sky Top drainage below the south face of 12,799-foot Granite Peak – Montana's highest summit located in the Beartooth Mountains. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Heading up the Yellowstone River Valley through breaks and bluffs, a formidable piece of country appearing...

Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains Represent the Roof of Montana (Part 2 of 2)

The Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains loom above the north side from Mission Creek. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Owing to elevation of the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains, this lofty terrain is scoured by wind and at times ferocious wea ther. Summer thunder and lightning storms accompanied by hail...

Fort Missoula Camp Help Italians and Japanese During World War II

A large group of internment prisoners arrive at Fort Missoula.
When full-scale war erupted in Europe in September 1939 as Hitler’s troops marched into Poland, merchant seamen docked in U.S. ports found themselves stranded. Great Britain refused to grant safe passage home to the crews of German...

Lodgepole Pine: Wildfires Create Signature Montana Forests

Morning sun shines through a 60-year-old lodgepole pine forest
Life gets busy for everyone. We all dream about getting away from it all for an hour, a day or perhaps even a week. My favorite is to go for a hike through one of Montana’s lodgepole pine-covered mountainsides and stretch out under...

Bannack: Gold Fuels Montana's First Territorial Capital (Part 1 of 4)

Girls in period dress play before the Bannack Masonic Hall and first school house. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
In early September 1862, freighters from Utah were heading for customers in the Deer Lodge Valley when they heard of this latest gold strike. Realizing they could shorten their trip...

Bannack: Education, Religion, and Justice (Part 2 of 4)

Sunlight illuminates the Bannack Church. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
In mid-September 1863, after traveling for more than three months by wagon from Omaha, Nebraska, a small party of weary travelers reach Bannack. They were newly appointed Idaho Chief Justice Sidney Edgerton (future Montana...

Bannack's Judge Edgerton: A Founding Father of Montana (Part 3 of 4)

Sunlight illuminates a cabin in Bannack. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
The events leading to the creation of Montana as a territory are carefully recounted in “Montana: A History of Two Centuries” by Michael P. Malone, Richard R. Roeder and William L. Lang. They write:
Idaho Territory was a...

Bannack: Mining Makes a Comeback in Old Bannack (Part 4 of 4)

Wagons of a by-gone era stand silent in Bannack (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Bannack placer mining picked up again in the spring of 1866. Because water was needed to flush out the placer deposits, the first miners in the gulch ignored gravel that was too far from the creek. Now, ditches were...

Bowdoin Wildlife Refuge Offers Incredible Haven for Wildlife

A road winds across the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge near Malta. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Fifteen thousand years ago, after leaving its home base in northern Canada, a runaway continental ice sheet passed through these parts, scouring the landscape and moving the Missouri River 50...

UM Geologist Describes Where the Gold Comes From

The rising sun illuminates Bannack, site of Montana’s first major gold strike on July 28, 1862. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
David Alt, author and a retired professor of geology at the University of Montana, explains why gold was found in Grasshopper Creek and the surrounding gulches.
“At...

This is Montana: Before YouTube

K. Ross Toole
Sometimes we need to be reminded of the fact that not everything is on YouTube.
Rummaging through the shelves of the University of Montana’s Mansfield Library to find materials for a book I’m writing, I recently came across a stack of five DVDs. The makeshift case covers, titled...

Montana Biologist's Musings About College Echo Modern Critiques

Elrod Hall at UM: The Elrod residence hall at the University of Montana is named for esteemed biology Professor Morton J. Elrod.
In 1916-18, Morton J. Elrod, professor of biology at the State University of Montana in Missoula and a prominent Montana naturalist, sounded themes remarkably similar...

Montana Weather, Terrain Offers Land of Extremes

Chinook: A chinook wind roars down the east slopes of the Rocky Mountain Front. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
With winter in its midway point in Montana, let us point out that the national record for cold in the lower 48 states – 70 degrees below zero – was documented right here in Montana at...

Parker Homestead State Park Reveals Bygone Era

Parker Homestead: Autumn gives a golden cast to Parker Homestead State Park near Three Forks. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
“As I looked across the rolling expanse of prairie, filled with the beauty of a Montana sunset, I sent up a little prayer of thanksgiving from my heart for this our very...

Montana Creates University-Dedicated Mill Levy in 1920

UM’s Main Hall: UM’s iconic University (Main) Hall was built in 1898. (Photo by Todd Goodrich)
After 1919 and the end of World War I, Montana state government responded to other pressing needs in the wake of the war and provided little immediate assistance to the multi-campus University of...

Yellowstone and Hellgate: A Discussion of Two Montana Names

Yellowstone River: The Yellowstone River flows through Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Call it 670 miles or perhaps more precisely 674 miles, but either way, the Yellowstone River remains the nation's longest undammed waterway. It’s a great river that...

The Crazies: A Dramatic Island of Mountains in Central Montana

Yellowstone River near Crazy Mountains: Montana’s iconic Crazy Mountains are seen in the background of this Yellowstone River scene. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
“It’s a good country. Where a man can sit in his saddle and see … all across to the west stretch the Crazies, and, swinging in the...

The Promise of the Equinox: A Personal Account

Spring sun reveals the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo by Rick Graetz)
On about Dec. 21, the occasion of the winter solstice, the sun takes a brief respite on the tropic of Capricorn at 23 1/2 degrees south latitude. Then it begins its six-month odyssey north for a rendezvous...

Jordan Country Offers Prairie Magnificence

Powder River: The river breaks and badlands north of Jordan (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
Late 1800s photographer L. A. Huffman called it “The Big Open,” National Geographic termed it “Jordan Country” and others dubbed the sparsely populated landscape south of Fort Peck Lake “The Big Dry.” The...

Powder River Country Offers Picturesque Montana Prairie

The Powder River meanders through prairie and rugged badlands in eastern Montana. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
“A mile wide, an inch deep, too thin to plow and too thick to drink” is as appropriate a portrayal today as it was when the first inhabitants described southeast Montana’s Powder...

Train Trips to Paradise: The Railroad Transformed Montana (Part 1 of 2)

Old Railway Station: A locomotive and wagons parked at the old railway station in Gardiner (Montana Historical Society photo)
Railroads usually connect regions, states, cities and towns. But they also connect time, eras and centuries. In Montana, there is a direct railroad connection between the...

Train Trips to Paradise: Montana in the Railroad, Homestead Eras (Part 2 of 2)

Train west of Drummond: The fully restored Spokane, Portland and Seattle Ry #700 travels west of Drummond in October 2002. (Photo by Jack Dykstra)
After all these non-mechanized years, three railroads in the 1880s! Montanans were, literally, transported. The railroads mark a fundamental turning...

Prairie Badlands: The Natural Masterpieces of Eastern Montana

Badlands near Jordan: Formations such as these near Jordan are fairly common in the badlands of eastern Montana. (Photo by Rick and Susie Graetz)
 
French trappers working the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and their tributaries well before Lewis and Clark made their epic journey, called the dry...

Montana East of the Mountains: An Uncommon Landscape

The Powder River meanders through remote prairie lands southeast of Miles City. (Photo by Rick & Susie Graetz)
The imposing Rocky Mountain Front defines the eastern flank of Montana’s mountainous domain before it flows into open terrain to the east.  On the north, it stretches 460 miles from...

Montana's First Written History

Missouri River above Yellowstone confluence: The Missouri River flows east a few miles upstream from its confluence with the Yellowstone. (Photo by Larry Mayer)
Location: Northeast Montana near today’s Snowden Bridge just west of the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
In the...