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SUMMER 2021

Outbound Gallery: VOICES OF THE WEST

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BOZEMAN’S SOULFUL NORTHEAST SIDE TO S AV E G R E AT E R YELLOWSTONE

Insider’s Guide

GLENN CLOSE F I N D S H O M E I N M O N TA N A

HELENA’S BREWERY SCENE

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In August 2019, Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready assembled the greatest all-star rock and roll team to ever play in Big Sky, Montana, at an epic music event called Peak to Sky. Here, Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters joins McCready on the mic while Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith shred along. Read about McCready’s historic family connection to Montana on page 106. PHOTO BY KENE SPERRY

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F E AT U R E S

52 BOZEMAN’S NORTHEAST SIDE: THE DISTRICT WITH GRIT By Mira Brody In the northeast corner of the flourishing town of Bozeman, Montana, a historically working-class neighborhood is defined by its idiosyncrasies and a blossoming culture. Mira Brody pulls at the threads of connection that bind the area’s weathered history and its colorful modernity in her exploration of The District with Grit.

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REGAINING LIFT By Bella Butler When a paragliding accident stripped Lane Lamoreaux of his right leg and the sense of self he once knew, the former smokejumper spent nine weeks in a coma and several years coming to terms with his own ability to reinvent his life. Bella Butler chronicles Lamoreaux’s resilient journey in Regaining Lift.

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FEATURED OUTLAW GLENN CLOSE FINDS HOME IN MONTANA By Todd Wilkinson Glenn Close, the eminent actress who’s graced big Hollywood screens since the 1980s, fits just as well in a pair of blue jeans these days as she does in red-carpet gowns. The award-winning star takes root under big Western skies, family and citizenship. From her home in Bozeman, Montana, Todd Wilkinson dives in to discover in what ways Glenn Close Finds Home in Montana.

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D E PA RT M E N T S TRAILHEAD 22 REEL: Pioneering women’s basketball, family drama in old Great Falls 22 CAUSE: Greater Yellowstone Coalition protects treasured land, water and wildlife 23 VISIT: Waterfalls, landmark hotels and copper smelter golf courses 24 READ: Anecdotes of Dead Reckoning, gritty Western adventure 24 LISTEN: The evolving role of fire, a local folk band’s emergence 25 TRENDING: Virtual workouts, minimalism and more

CONTENT by location

OUTBOUND GALLERY 32 Voices of the West: Authentic reflections of relationship to place NOW 52 Bozeman’s northeast neighborhood melds past and present 66 Outlook Vertical Harvest nourishes a mountain town in hardship Protecting communities from wildfire Salvation for Greater Yellowstone wapiti 82 Reports McCoy: From bull rider to bull steward A landscape fragmented by fences meets conservation efforts CULTURE 94 Art A range rider’s pursuit emotes through watercolors 104 Humor The (Old) Boys of Summer: Trials of a middle-aged softball player 106 History Mike McCready’s Montana roots 112 Guide The hoppy taste of Helena ADVENTURE 120 Profile A paraglider’s pursuit of healing and identity 126 Travel Irish fish on the fly 136 Gear Smartest watches for mountain athletes 138 Explore Adapting to adversity on Idaho’s Fall River EXPLORE YELLOWSTONE 148 Gallery Yellowstone in motion 156 Map Your guide to the nation’s first national park 158 Explore Yellowstone’s devilish reputation 162 Flora and Fauna Animal guide: Identifying the park’s wildlife FEATURED OUTLAW 168 Glenn Close on the Montana stage

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ARIZONA PHOENIX – P. 120

BROWNING – P. 33

MISSOULA – P. 44, 71, 105 HELMVILLE – P. 43 CASCADE – P. 38

M O N TA N A

HELENA – P. 112

BUTTE - P. 106 TWIN BRIDGES – P. 41 PONY – P. 106

ROUNDUP - P. 106

WILSALL – P. 37 SHIELDS VALLEY– P. 36 BIG TIMBER – P. 40 BOZEMAN P. 52, 70, 168

LIVINGSTON P. 42

HARDIN – P. 46

CENTENNIAL VALLEY P. 35, 95

IDAHO

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK P. 148, 158 GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

FALL RIVER – P. 138 JACKSON HOLE – P. 67, 89

W YO M I N G PINEDALE – P. 88

IRELAND CASTLETOWNROCHE, COUNTY CORK, LOUGH MASK - P. 126

GRANBY P. 71

OKLAHOMA

COLORADO ATOKA P. 84

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VP EVENTS Ennion Williams

EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, VP MEDIA Joseph T. O’Connor

VP MARKETING Blythe Beaubien

CONTRIBUTORS

MEDIA AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Ersin Ozer

SENIOR EDITOR Bella Butler

VIDEO DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER Seth Dahl

NEW MEDIA LEAD Mira Brody ASSISTANT EDITOR Gabrielle Gasser

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEAD Sam Brooks

COPY EDITOR Claire Cella

EXECUTIVE COORDINATOR Tucker Harris

CREATIVE ART DIRECTOR Marisa Opheim

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Sara Sipe

GRAPHIC DESIGNER ME Brown

PROJECT MANAGER Eli Kretzmann

SALES AND OPERATIONS CEO Megan Paulson

VIDEOGRAPHER Chris Kamman

COO, VP FINANCE Treston Wold

EVENTS COORDINATOR, RETAIL MANAGER Connor Clemens

VP SALES E.J. Daws

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER, LOCAL SALES Patrick Mahoney

BRIAN HURLBUT

LOUISE JOHNS

(Mining History, p. 106)

(Voices of the West p. 32)

Brian Hurlbut has lived in Montana for more than half his life and is the author of the Insider’s Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and Montana: Skiing the Last Best Place. His writing has appeared in Montana Quarterly, Montana Magazine, Big Sky Journal, Western Art and Architecture, Outside Bozeman and more. He lives in Big Sky, Montana.

Louise Johns is a documentary photographer and journalist based in Montana. She has a master’s degree in Environmental Science Journalism, and her work examines the relationships between people, place and animals, with a particular focus on rural, agricultural and indigenous communities. Her work has appeared in a variety of outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, High Country News and National Geographic.

B R I A N D ’ A M B RO S I O

SEONAID B. CAMPBELL

(The Emotional Space of Melissa DiNino, p. 95)

(Glenn Close Finds Home in Montana, p. 168)

Brian D’Ambrosio is a writer and media consultant based in Helena, Montana, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. A licensed private investigator, D’Ambrosio is at work on a second volume of stories about notorious and unsolved crimes in the state. His most recent book, Montana Murders: Notorious and Unsolved, was released in December 2020.

Seonaid “Sho” B. Campbell is a writer, documentary filmmaker and photographer who moonlights as a climate change consultant at her company, Studio Lynx. A woman of the Rocky Mountain West and Scottish Highlands, Campbell has an abiding reverence for nature and thus a personal mission to protect Earth’s remaining wild species and ecosystems. Glenn Close is her aunt. PHOTO BY LYNN DONALDSON

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS/EDITORS Bailey Beltramo, Brian D’Ambrosio, Brian Hurlbut, Louise Johns, Amanda Loudin, Brigid Mander, Bay Stephens, Ednor Therriault, Todd Wilkinson, Maria Wyllie CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS/ARTISTS Bailey Beltramo, Christin Breuker, Fred Brimeyer, Carlee Brown, Seonaid Campbell, Daniel J. Cox, Hazel Cramer, Megan Crawford, Andrea Dinino, Nathan Dumlao, Jacob W. Frank, Mark Gocke, Neal Herbert, Louise Johns, David Lambroughton, Lane Lamoreaux, John Layshock, Andrej Lisakov, Kyle Macvean, Markus Muller, Schelly Olson, Jim Peaco, Dave Pecunies, Holly Pippel, Micah Robin, Eli Ridgeway, Kari Shea, Blair Speed, Kene Sperry, Matt Suess, Tom Doc Sullivan, Quinn Taubman-Harper, Emma Walker, Andy Watson, Amanda Wilson Subscribe now at mtoutlaw.com/subscriptions. Mountain Outlaw magazine is distributed to subscribers in all 50 states, including contracted placement in resorts across the West. Core distribution in the Northern Rockies includes Big Sky and Bozeman, Montana, as well as Jackson, Wyoming, and the four corners of Yellowstone National Park. To advertise, contact Sam Brooks at sam@theoutlawpartners.com. Outlaw Partners & Mountain Outlaw P.O. Box 160250, Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2055 • media@outlaw.partners © 2021 Mountain Outlaw Unauthorized reproduction prohibited CHECK OUT THESE OTHER OUTLAW PUBLICATIONS:

explorebigsky.com ON THE COVER: Glenn Close graces the cover of Mountain Outlaw in the red Oscar de la Renta gown she wore at the 2021 SAG Awards, her Havanese, Sir Pippin of Beanfield, at her side. PHOTO BY SEONAID B. CAMPBELL

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F RO M T H E E D I T O R

THE LAST BEST PLACE Life in Montana keeps you guessing. It’s mysterious, aweinspiring, challenging. As I write this letter, six inches of fresh, wet snow weighs down the lodgepole pine branches outside the window, threatening to leave winter in place. It’s almost June. But wonder exists deeper than the new-fallen snow and the Treasure State’s bizarre weather patterns. The raw beauty of the landscape is breathtaking, its sweeping vistas and craggy peaks. And the people are unlike any I’ve encountered anywhere else. When photographer Louise Johns and I discussed the Outbound Gallery (p. 32) and drawing out voices of those living in the West and working the land, a theme emerged: resilience. It’s a concept you’ll find throughout the pages of this summer’s edition of Mountain Outlaw magazine. As range rider Bree Morrison says in Johns’ photo essay, “The people I’ve worked for in Montana and Idaho are of the highest standards of what it is to be a human being: asking hard questions and striving for excellence and knowing mistakes are part of the learning.” We touch on the resolve and fortitude we all need in Greater Yellowstone (p. 76), the responsibility each of us has— whether native Montanans or visitors—to protect this one-of-akind landscape that gives so much.

You’ll find resilience in Bella Butler’s story of paraglider Lane Lamoreaux (p. 120) as he reaches deep to overcome a life-altering event that nearly killed him. This theme shines through as well in Mira Brody’s article on how Bozeman’s soulful northeast neighborhood (p. 52) is standing tall to meld its storied past with a promising future. And in our cover story by Todd Wilkinson, Featured Outlaw Glenn Close (p. 168) finds strength and a sense of place in Montana, surrounded by the family and landscape inspiring what may be her greatest role yet: that of an introspective advocate and conservationist. A magazine, as art, is a reflection of the times. It contains analysis and imagery brought together in words and design that move a reader. One hopes. On your best days, that’s what happens; it sings. On the worst, you’re hoping the attorney you can’t afford isn’t on vacation. I feel lucky to have an incredible team working alongside me. The Outlaws are as resilient as they come. I’ve been at this for some years now, crafting, soliciting, pitching. And I love it. It’s an honor to help give a voice to the people and the landscape and the wildlife that make Montana the last best place. Thanks for picking up Mountain Outlaw. Enjoy the ride.

Joseph T. O’Connor Editor-in-Chief

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REEL The House that Rob Built A fresh take on the classic basketball documentary, The House That Rob Built, released in February, follows the career of Robin Selvig, the pioneering women’s basketball coach for University of Montana. Selvig was honored with a Spirit of Montana Commendation in May 2021 by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte. During a time when women’s sports weren’t prioritized or even well-funded, Selvig built a winning basketball program recruiting women from farms, small towns and reservations across Montana. The film, codirected by former Griz point guard Megan Harrington, highlights the heartwarming stories of perseverance, grit and the strong bonds between athletes and their coach. Watch the film: thehousethatrobbuiltmovie.com

Wildlife If family drama and raging forest fires sound like the essential building blocks for an entertaining movie night, then the poignant film Wildlife is for you. Set in Great Falls, Montana, in the 1960s, the feature details the lives of a husband and wife and their son through financial turmoil and a turbulent affair. Wildlife premiered in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix.

CAUSE Greater Yellowstone Coalition With offices in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition engages in local, regional and national efforts to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s land, water and wildlife. Since 1983 GYC has been working hard to protect the landscape by engaging stakeholders and continuing to innovate new conservation efforts. GYC continues to work hard to protect the ecosystem through campaigns like opposing the Kilgore Mining Project proposed in eastern Idaho, starting a native fish conservation project to protect cutthroat trout and protecting bison in Yellowstone by advocating for their room to roam outside of the park. greateryellowstone.org

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The Greater Yellowstone Coalition team works hard to protect the lands, waters and wildlife found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: THE HOUSE THAT ROB BUILT, IFC FILMS GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION

TRAILHEAD VISIT Lake Yellowstone Hotel, Yellowstone National Park The Lake Yellowstone Hotel, a designated National Historic Landmark, embraces modern luxury while retaining the charm you’d expect from Yellowstone’s oldest lodge. To explore the lodge’s bygone times, splurge for a suite and enjoy views of Yellowstone Lake, the largest high-elevation lake in North America. During the day, find guided fishing trips, boat rentals and other adventures just steps away. yellowstonenationalparklodges.com Fairy Falls Overnight, Yellowstone National Park Sure, you can opt for the “road less traveled,” but why not reimagine an adventure down a well-trodden path? Fairy Falls in Yellowstone is a tourist hotspot, and for good reason: The 200-foot cascade is as mystical as its name suggests. While the trail—either .6 miles or 1.2 depending on where you start—is crowded during the day, try hiking or cycling in and setting up a backcountry camp in one of the designated nearby spots. Don’t forget to obtain a permit. nps.gov/yell Old Works Golf Course, Anaconda, Montana Anaconda, Montana, is famous not only for its rich mining history but also its beautiful golf course, designed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus. The glistening furnace slag heaps and old flue structures, incorporated in Nicklaus’s design, are a nod to the past life of the Old Works Golf Course, which was originally the site of Anaconda’s first copper smelter. In 1983, the area was classified as a Superfund site and underwent an exhaustive revival. Now, it’s one of the region’s premier daily-fee courses. playoldworks.com

Lake Yellowstone Hotel

Old Works Golf Course, Anaconda, Montana

PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: JIM PEACO, OLD WORKS GOLF COURSE, BELLA BUTLER

Fairy Falls Overnight, Yellowstone National Park

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READ Dead Reckoning by Emma Walker (2021) “If you’re using dead reckoning, things have gone terribly wrong,” writes Emma Walker in the introduction of her narrative nonfiction collection of catastrophes and close calls. Walker’s book, which was released in June 2021, offers a grim yet enthralling look at all the ways you can possibly die while recreating out West based on her personal stories and wellresearched vignettes from others. The takeaway, other than the lessons to be learned from each story: “It’s easier to stay alive if you know what’s out there.” rowman.com

The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. (1947) This epic adventure novel takes readers on a journey from St. Louis to the Rockies following young Boone Caudill, the story’s anti-hero. Boone leaves his family in Kentucky for adventure in the American West and becomes a fur trapper while learning to navigate the rough-and-tumble life he finds out West. The novel is Guthrie’s grittier and more true-to-life portrayal of the American West than what had been written up to that point. hmhbooks.com

LISTEN Record: Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs, Through the Smoke If Laney Lou and the Bird Dog’s 2019 album was an ode to breakups, the band’s vocalist and guitarist Lena Marie Schiffer says their 2021 album, Through the Smoke, is redemptive. As the title suggests, the Bozeman band’s newest record is an emergence from hardship. With 11 songs, including the title track, that breathe life through the group’s maturing Americana-Folk sound, Through the Smoke is the perfect summer listen to bring you back to life after a year of dormancy. laneylouandthebirddogs.com

Podcast: Montana Public Radio, Fire Line Wildfires are lighting up the West like never before, and climate patterns only promise more blazing summers will go up in smoke. Fire Line, Montana Public Radio’s six-part series released in February, examines wildfire’s complicated paradox of beauty and destruction, and brings listeners diverse voices and stories to reconcile the region’s disparate new reality. Hosted by University of Montana professor Justin Angle, the series brings broadscale perspective to what fire means for us, and what we should do about it. mtpr.org

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PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: COVER BY EMMA WALKER AND AMANDA WILSON, MARINER BOOKS MEGAN CRAWFORD, MONTANA PUBLIC RADIO

TRENDING Grow your own mushrooms There’s something tantalizing about watching a colony of mushroom spores grow into woodland wonder—on your kitchen counter. Commercial mushroom farms like SporeAttic in Bozeman, Montana, have sprouted up around the country and sell grow kits, bags of compressed waste implanted with mycelium, ready to yield exotic looking mushrooms. Talk about farm to table. sporeattic.com

Meal sidekicks For those who love to eat but don’t know where to start in the kitchen, meal kits have become a popular sous chef for many home cooks. Kits like Hello Fresh are personalized packages of ingredients and instructions to help even the most novice of culinary creators put together a meal to be proud of. hellofresh.com

Apples, fermented! While beer and wine are well-loved staples, hard seltzers and now ciders are ever-increasing in popularity. Cider is a diverse category of alcohol with some concoctions akin to beer and others to fine wine. For a taste of this chameleon-esque drink, check out Missoula, Montana’s Western Cider, which offers flavors like Whiskey Peach, the award-winning McIntosh brew or the hoppy El Dorado. westerncider.com

Minimalize it There are so many ways to be a minimalist, from mindful meditation to decluttering space and simplifying your wardrobe. The Great Home Purge inspired by the pandemic certainly brought more attention to the concept of minimalism. If you’re feeling inspired, check out the 30-day Minimalism Game, which asks players to jettison one possession the first day of the month, two the second day, and so on until the end of the month. theminimalists.com/game

Sweat into virtual pixels Whether you hopped on the Peloton bandwagon or simply enjoy the plethora of YouTube yoga class options, fitness has gone digital. What excuse do you have left when the gym is your living room? Active companies like Nike have pushed the trend with social apps like Training Club, and local gyms have followed suit with digital classes, too. nike.com/ntc-app

PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: BELLA BUTLER, NATHAN DUMLAO, BELLA BUTLER, ANDREJ LISAKOV, KARI SHEA

M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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OU T BOU N D

G A L L E RY Voices of the West Photos by Louise Johns Reflections are in their own words.

The American West captures the hearts and minds of people across the world. The wide-open, remote landscapes resonate, inviting a sense of freedom, introspection and soulfulness. But the American West has also been a place of great despair, and it carries the trauma of one of the greatest American tragedies: the mass herds of buffalo that once roamed the continent were systematically slaughtered in the name of progress, and in an attempt to decimate Native American tribes. For as long as humans have lived here we have shaped the land, and the land has shaped us. Today, we often do so in ways that fit our own needs, and we risk destroying the essence of the places we love. With new waves of people moving West, this essay seeks to honor those who have been working and shaping this land for the better. We chose 11 people and asked them to answer the question, “What does the West mean to you?” As the Greater Yellowstone shifts before our eyes, it is critical to surface the voices of those with a close relationship to the land, and who set examples for new ways of knowing and respecting the landscape. – Louise Johns

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Alia Heavyrunner: Blackfeet tribal member, named ‘Miss Blackfeet’ in 2019, Browning, Montana. My people, the Blackfeet Natives, share with all the animals a pristine environment of the Great West. We haven’t changed our concepts of respect for water, trees, grass and all living things. This comes from the elders still retaining and sharing the knowledge. At night in the West the cosmos are in full view: The Wolf Trail (Milky Way), Seven Brothers (Big Dipper) and many more. The Big Sky (Montana) is a beautiful place to live.

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Bree Morrison: Range rider, ranch hand, Centennial Valley, Montana. I find that the land, animals and people keep me honest and humble. I’m engaging in the basic meaning of life: helping what is living live and meeting death and then seeing life grow from its stillness. The people I’ve worked for in Montana and Idaho are of the highest standards of what it is to be a human being: asking hard questions and striving for excellence and knowing mistakes are part of the learning. The traditional story of the West was all about bending the land to your will, forcing it to grant you sustenance, otherwise you died. Now it’s the land we have to protect, and the planet which might not survive. Shift the mindset.

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Matt Skoglund: Owner, North Bridger Bison, Shields Valley, Montana. Montana is a place of great contrasts for me. It makes me feel small and insignificant. It also makes me feel like anything is possible. I am wildly in love with this place.

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Sadie Collins: Farmer, Highland Harmony Farm, Wilsall, Montana. I used to want to move East to be part of bigger thinking. But as an adult I see how living in the wide-open West gave me room to think and experiment. I’ve always been partial to soil conservation, and now regenerative agriculture has my full attention. It admits nature knows what she’s doing. The switch to regenerative agriculture is not for the faint of heart, but in the end it benefits the farmer, her precious soil and the whole earth.

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Whit Hibbard: Cattle rancher, Low Stress Stockmanship expert, Sieben Ranch, Cascade, Montana. As a fourth-generation cattle rancher, I feel a deep sense of history and heritage that goes back to 1864 in Montana Territory. Montana and the American West represent an ethic of individualism, selfreliance, honesty, integrity and responsibility. In the rural West I grew up in there was a traditional ideology of small government, living close to the land in communion with family and neighbors. You made eye contact with everyone you passed—friend or stranger—and your word was your bond, your handshake a contract.

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Abby Nelson: Wildlife biologist, ranch hand, Big Timber, Montana. As a species most people tend to see themselves as civilized or separate from nature. But as a biologist I don’t think it is possible to untangle our species from the environment. Animals in the West like elk, like grizzly bears, like wolves, all have a different combination of strengths, whether endurance, brawn, or wily intelligence. Just like us. We are intellectual carnivores and we dominate territories. We too have a niche we occupy and there are wild animals that compete with our interests. But it’s not the differences between all of us that get us in trouble, it is the excesses that do: excess time, money, power, violence, and disconnection from the blood and soil that makes this place (and us) wild.

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Steve Becklund: Cowboy, ranch hand, J Bar L Ranch, Twin Bridges, Montana. When you’re working on the land you are, in a way, more free. Being out there alone in nature you get a better feel for the land and the animals you’re with, whether horses, cows, dogs, or antelope and deer fawns. You get to watch them grow. Your kids grow up knowing where their food comes from because they’re around it and can see it. There’s something about living out here and those relationships with animals. I wouldn’t trade that feeling of peace for anything.

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Kyle Turner: Hunter, fisherman, Livingston, Montana. The West to me is where I recreate, find passion and connect with my past. As long as humans have been here, we have been able to live off the land. For me this includes hunting and fishing. Western public land is what we all have, partly mine and partly yours. I don’t have to own any part of the land but I strive to protect it as if it’s mine. Western public lands encourage a sort of wanderlust in me. I don’t have to ask permission. I can just go.

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Katie Geary-Applegate: Sixth-generation rancher, Geary Ranch and cafe owner, Helmville, Montana. As a kid growing up in a rural Montana town, everyday life seemed so natural and easy. Chores, all seasons of weather, hours of outdoor play and recreating, and groceries bought to last a month instead of days. Not until leaving Montana did I realize there’s a general sense that it’s still wild, uninhibited, cowboys and Indians, and endless mountains. Everyone owns a rifle, there are no speed limits, and a horse could still be a mode of transportation. Now, I think the West is perceived less wild, more as a place of safety and simplicity.

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Smoke Elser: Horse packing outfitter, Missoula, Montana. The West is a wild, open space where a person can breathe clean air and drink clear, cold water; where a human can let his mind relax and get away from the fast-moving electronic world. It’s a place to regain sanity and look at mountains with snow, walk in deserts with cactus blooming, and through meadows with wild grass knee high; where he can float wild rivers and from the bank cast a line and catch native fish. He doesn’t have to go to a manmade zoo to observe native wildlife. Humans can look up at the big, blue sky and refresh their souls.

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Peggy White Well Known Buffalo: Crow Tribe Elder, owner, Center Pole wellness center, Hardin, Montana. As an original people, the West means being part of the land and being part of survival. We had everything we needed for survival here. And we still do: oxygen, fresh air, healing plants, open spaces. Now we ask ourselves how we can make more use of this today, given our situation. The original people, the Crow people, were left conquered and put on reservations by the U.S. government. The sweat lodge is the most important for our survival. As soon as we’re born, we know what it is. It has been in our lives for thousands of years. The sweat lodge is a cleansing, a healing place to take care of my body, to rest, say prayers, appreciate. As Crow people, it is very close to our hearts.

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Bozeman’s northeast side, a historically workingclass neighborhood, has become a safe haven for contemporary art. “Sick of Winning,” a temporary sculpture by artist group Paintallica, consisted of two custom inflatables—an astronaut and a bottle of Corona beer—that reached 30 feet in height. PHOTO BY BLAIR SPEED

N OW OUTLOOK / 66 R E P O RT S / 8 2

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THE DISTR ICT W ITH

G R

PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN

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NOW: BOZEMAN’S NE NEIGHBORHOOD

I T

Bozeman’s work i ng-class neighborhood is becom i ng a cu ltu ral haven, balanci ng r ich h istor y w ith creative new g row th BY MIRA BRODY

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TOP: An old M&O Cigar advertisement faces the rail line, a nod to the former M&O Cigar warehouse, which has been, like many buildings in the area, adaptively reused as retail or residential space. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN

SECTION: SUBHEAD

MIDDLE: Julius Lehrkind made a name for himself and his family in Bozeman, operating the town’s largest building for decades and earning it the moniker, the Brewery District. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GALLATIN HISTORY MUSEUM BOTTOM: The old Lehrkind Brewery was the largest building in Bozeman until the construction of Montana State University’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GALLATIN HISTORY MUSEUM

Walking through Bozeman, Montana’s northeast neighborhood, you’ll first notice its peculiarities. There’s a log cabin, a purple bungalow, a metal seagull weathervane pointed toward the Bridger Mountains to the north. As the city’s surrounding subdivisions sprawl at breakneck speed, the historically working-class neighborhood, nestled between the Bridger Foothills and downtown proper, has become a unique cultural safe haven. The community takes a hands-on approach to growth that honors history and supports small, creative endeavors. The residents take pride in their zesty exteriors, overgrown alleyways and roaming chickens, and those quirks are why they call this railroad-side enclave home. The air is often punctuated by a train horn and the metal screech of wheels on rails, the melodic clang of the crossing signs lowering, red lights flashing. The unsubtly of the train’s presence is fitting; it plays a vital role in the area’s history.

A work i ng class home

In 1882, the Northern Pacific Railroad reached a deal with Bozeman rancher Nelson Story to lay rail line through his property on the northeastern edge of town. This line was integral to Bozeman’s agricultural future—indeed, by 1885, Story Mill was known as the largest flour mill in Montana with a nearly 1-million-bale capacity, exporting to much of the state. It was also the reason many business owners settled there, including brewer Julius Lehrkind who arrived in 1895. A German immigrant who didn’t speak English, Lehrkind came to America a stowaway. He learned the trade of brewing and made a name for himself and his family, operating the 54

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town’s largest building for decades and earning it the moniker, the Brewery District. Between the mill and brewery, the northeast side employed and housed the highest population of bluecollar workers in the region. Today, the spur line and adjacent station sit quiet, the towering Story Mill grain silos empty and the remaining brewery wall demolished after it was deemed unsalvageable. Around them remain relics of the past—the Lehrkind Mansion, brick and evergreen spires in a grove of pine; Misco Mill, yellow, peeling paint and aslant silhouette; the abandoned station, a scrawl of colorful graffiti on its boarded windows—now coexisting with a bounty of new features, parks and trails, businesses and art galleries in symbiotic harmony. “It’s got kind of an edgy vibe to it that keeps it a little bit away from the mainstream Western art that is typically found in Bozeman,” said Kelley Sullivan, owner of Rapscallion Gallery on East Cottonwood Street. “That kind of grit that this neighborhood has lends itself to the contemporary style [of art].” Sullivan has called the neighborhood her business’s

On any given morning, rain or shine, passersby will notice a line snaking its way down North Wallace Avenue, leading to the doors of Wild Crumb Bakery. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN

home for a year and a half, but her parents met and lived there during the early years of their relationship. Back then, she says, people referred to it as the “wrong side of the tracks” when the disparities between the working-class cottages and the four-story colonials across Main Street were more apparent. Since then, the neighborhood has undergone stages of revitalization, both in the form of largescale development projects and individual homeowner renovations, but it’s managed to maintain its individuality. “It has changed the entire vibe of this side of town while maintaining that sort of funkiness,” Sullivan said. “I do like that even though people are coming in and are putting money into things, you can see that they’re still keeping that gritty architectural aspect of it.” The iterations through the years, however, have kept business and homeowners in mind. On any given morning, rain or shine, passersby will notice a line snaking its way down North Wallace Avenue, leading to the doors of Wild Crumb Bakery. The neighborhood has fostered the success of many small businesses; co-

owner Caroline Schweitzer, who opened the bakery eight years ago alongside her sister Lauren Heemstra, says she chose this side because of the community feel and area’s support of local ownership. “Wild Crumb was embraced really well over here,” said Schweitzer, whose husband Jonathan Finkenauer owns neighboring, and equally popular, Fink’s Delicatessen. “I feel like that’s sort of what’s going on in this neighborhood—people really want to support small business and artists … there’s a good feeling of support for each other.” Tinworks Art, a nonprofit named for the vibrant blue-tin building on North Ida Avenue, provides artist grants and commissions immersive art experiences in nontraditional spaces, and sees the neighborhood as the perfect canvas on which to host many of their installations and events. Eli Ridgeway owns Ridgeway Gallery on North Wallace Avenue and sits on the Tinworks steering committee. He says that in one installation’s request for proposal, Tinworks included a photo of the abandoned Tinworks building. Artists from as far as France applied.

TOP: Over the years, the Lehrkind Mansion has served as a bed and breakfast twice over, an apartment building, antique shop, motorcycle repair shop and rental space for bands. PHOTO BY MIRA BRODY MIDDLE: Residents take pride in their unique exteriors, using the lack of homeowners associations to express their individuality and independence. PHOTO BY QUINN TAUBMAN-HARPER BOTTOM: The old Misco Mill overlooks new art studios, bakeries, breweries and residents of the northeast side. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN

The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad was integral to Bozeman’s northeast side and spurred the city’s agricultural and economic growth in the 1800s. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN

“I DO LI K E TH AT EV EN THOUGH PEOPLE A R E COM I NG I N A N D A R E PUTTI NG MON EY I NTO TH I NGS, YOU CA N SEE TH AT TH EY’R E STI LL K EEPI NG TH AT GR ITTY A RCH ITECTU R A L ASPECT OF IT.” Kelley Sullivan, owner of Rapscallion Gallery

“People had all of these great ideas about how to use this space and it was really inspiring,” Ridgeway said. And that inspiration translates to the exhibit’s patrons as well. “One of the most inspiring parts of doing Tinworks [projects] in the northeast neighborhood is the huge amount of enthusiasm,” Ridgeway said of one street art exhibition. “Often they were just stumbling upon it, and they’d come and were blown away. And a couple hours later you’d see that person come back with their friends.” There’s something about the area, and the art, that feeds people’s craving for culture. “It feels like it has a soul,” Ridgeway said.

A r u lebook for g row th

The coalescence of the neighborhood’s past and present isn’t without effort. NENA, or the Northeast Neighborhood Association, provides the community with a voice that helps guide the neighborhood’s preservation and growth through town hall meetings and community events. The group works alongside the city, developers, architecture students, business owners and artists to ensure the area grows mindfully. In August of 2019, Tinworks hosted an exhibit called PhotoVoicesNE, a series of photo and text submissions of residents’ values. “Add your voice…” the art display headline read. As part of a project, Montana State University’s School of Architecture in November 2020 collected data with similar sentiments through an online survey and on-site observation that involved notating everything from alleyways, front porches, tree inventories, greenhouses and outbuildings. In 2005, the City of Bozeman designated the northeast neighborhood an Urban Renewal District as part of a plan for capturing city taxes to fund neighborhood improvements. At the time, former mayor and then-City Commissioner Jeff Krauss called the efforts toward this designation a “dedication to community.” Through these efforts and others, NENA is carefully documenting its journey through growth and hopes to set an example for other neighborhoods, old and new. Some echoing values were the sense of community, business and residential balance, diversity, bike- and walkability, affordability, mountain views and historic preservation. ThinkTank Design Group, the architecture and land planning firm behind the revitalization of the Lark Hotel and the Rialto Theater, is working on a variety of projects that ensure affordability and historic preservation, including one in partnership with Tinworks Art that will provide residence and commercial space where the old Lehrkind Brewery building once stood. “Historic preservation kind of has a start point that says … ‘to respect those who came before us,’” said ThinkTank owner Erik Nelson. “There’s a gravity to the place and it’s relative to each moment in time.” Nelson was born at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital and grew up in Bridger Canyon before graduating in 1999 from Montana State University with a degree in architecture. Although he left a few times over the years, he ended up back in Bozeman and opened an office in 2009 on North Black Avenue. “Right now, you look at downtown Bozeman and you’re 58

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TOP: “Color & I Love You” features nine photographs on dibond by artist Lee Materazzi. They can be found along the spur trail on the north side of the Tinworks complex. PHOTO BY ELI RIDGEWAY BOTTOM: Live from the Divide has made a home in the city’s old cold-storage facility through the help of building owner Olie Nelson and business owner Jason Wickens. PHOTO BY SETH DAHL

glad they didn’t tear any of these buildings down,” Nelson said, referencing the 1860s when old, wooden and sod structures occupied Main Street. “Had those people been just as passionate about preserving what came before, there would be nothing but sod buildings downtown. It’s not as easy as saying, ‘It’s old, let’s save it.’” One such building is the city’s former cold storage facility, a nondescript one-story brick building on East Peach Street. Fourth-generation rancher Jason Wickens knew when he left the family trade and came to Bozeman in 2009 that he wanted to work in the place that today houses Live from the Divide. Wickens says the intimate, 50-seat music venue, which has hosted nearly 700 various folk and American roots artists

plant, warehouse, Kessler Creamery and aSECTION: recording SUBHEAD studio. After multiple failed development projects, the brewery building lost some limbs and for years its remaining four-story wall loomed over the neighborhood until it was demolished in 2014. “Preserving the character of what’s here is of the utmost importance, and it’s not that the character can’t evolve, but it’s important that there’s an inherent respect for those that came before us—to value the very things of why someone wants to be here,” said ThinkTank’s Nelson. “Those things are contributing to what people love about this neighborhood; it’s what identifies it.”

P reser v i ng com mu n ity

including Tyler Childers, John Fullbright and Nikki Lane, provides artists and audiences with the unique opportunity to not only enjoy great tunes, but also to experience a taste of the neighborhood’s history and the culture that makes it so special. “I was drawn to this side of town, as I think many artists were, because it’s kind of the eclectic, weird part of town,” said Olie Nelson, who has owned the building since 2000. “Back then, there really wasn’t any development in this area yet.” Nelson says much of the original building, which he has spent the better portion of two decades renovating, is still intact. The craft was in paying homage to those existing features through the structure’s evolutions, which continue to this day. “Olie really believed in this,” Wickens said. “He believed in this space and how the public was interacting with it, and artists too … You could do this somewhere else but I don’t think it could work in the same way. There’s energy in here and history that I think people have a lot of appreciation for, before they even walk into this room. He was a huge reason … that Live from the Divide was able to take shape. That and the community’s support.” Among the brick warehouses and working-class bungalows, the Lehrkind Mansion stands out, its Queen Anne-style turret watching over the maturing neighborhood. It’s believed that the family, with their German roots, preferred to live close to where they worked, choosing the northeast side against the trendy south side. The brewery itself was a success for generations, churning out 40,000 barrels annually. Lehrkind’s brew was considered the “Montana bud” of the region, according to a Bozeman Daily Chronicle news article from March 30, 1983, and was famously delivered locally by Clydesdale-drawn carriage until Prohibition shut down the operation in 1920. Even after reopening, sugar rationing during World War II shuttered the doors permanently and the building cycled through a plethora of uses, including an ice

While history, buildings and art studios provide much of the area’s character, NENA President Reno Walsh says the heart of the northeast side is in its occupants. Free from homeowners associations and set on a foundation of eclectic history, he says the neighborhood provides residents a sense of identity, independence and pride. “These developments come in and the rumors start to spread and everyone’s an expert and everyone has an opinion,” Walsh said. “That’s fine and natural but I think what’s healthier is if we can actually have an opportunity to speak with the developer, so we can all be working with the same set of data and not data based on opinions. That’s what we’re trying to do and I think we’re doing OK at it.” Walsh is perhaps best positioned to straddle the line between growth and preservation—he’s spent his life on different career paths that he categorizes as “evils.” He moved to the area from northcentral Wisconsin in the fall of 1995, working in both the regional and international tourism industry, managed local vacation rentals, and is currently looking to become a real estate agent. He’s perfectly at peace with the juxtaposition—growth and change, he says, are inevitable. Acting as a guide and providing people with the power to influence that growth is the important distinction. “I don’t think you can preserve everything,” Walsh said, though he maintains that you can preserve a sense of community. “That’s what creates pride in the neighborhood.” From his home on North Bozeman Avenue, Walsh takes comfort in the familiar faces of his locale—the ones he sees at NENA’s neighborhood gatherings, who pick up trash on their walks, who shovel one another’s sidewalk when they’re recovering from surgery, who trade baked goods and six packs of beer and stop to check in on each other when the winters get long. “It’s the community,” Walsh said. “It’s my 85-year-old neighbor Gonnie and her dog Sita who walk by every day. These people are all characters.” A westbound cargo train rumbles by, gaining momentum from its journey down Bozeman Pass. The ground shakes and the horn bellows but the residents and businesses, some within feet of the tracks, are unalarmed. The musical velocity is all part of living here in the northeast side, and the reason so many before settled in this valley, worked and earned a living. And it’s why they continue to do so today. M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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ADVENTUROUS

The Vikings Begin MAY 29 – SEPTEMBER 19 Included with admission

To understand the story of how the Vikings began, the exhibition looks at their spiritual and magical beliefs, the role of warfare, and the importance of water, waterways, and trade routes. With Viking helmets and swords, as well as jewelry, glass vessels, and bowls, the artifacts tell stories both about the society and the people buried with them. The exhibit is produced by Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum. Presenting Sponsor:

Sheehy Family Foundation museumoftherockies.org | 406.994.2251 | 600 W. Kagy Blvd.

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TO THE LIGHT JACKSON’S VERTICAL HARVEST OFFERS HOPE IN SUSTENANCE

STORY BY BELLA BUTLER, PHOTOS BY HAZEL CRAMER

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A carousel system rotates lettuces from floor to ceiling of Vertical Harvest’s urban farm in downtown Jackson, Wyoming. Glass floorto-ceiling windows allow southern sun to drench the produce in nourishing natural light.

OUTLOOK: VERTICAL HARVEST

From the moment a tomato plant pokes its green sprout from the ground it will reach for sunshine, the stem climbing upward until it’s strong enough to bear a plump fruit. But in a dark room, the plant takes a different path, twisting and bending until it finds a light source. The tomato is rooted in resilience, genetically programed to grow however it must in order to find nourishment: toward the light. In a time of global upheaval, a pandemic, climate change and social unrest have come together to brew an unruly storm whose clouds have shrouded the world in darkness. But despite hardship, a new kind of farm is growing toward the light as well. On one-tenth of an acre in downtown Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the three-story glass Vertical Harvest facility does not reflect the conventional picture of an American farm. The bones of the building—concrete, metal and glass—are more mechanical than organic, and the structure looks especially futuristic amid the old Western theatrics of Jackson. Upstairs, young plants called microgreens grow under fluorescent lights and neighboring rooms are filled with a wild tangle of tomato vines. The center of the operation is a towering carousel, a vertical conveyor belt that climbs and descends all three stories. The belt is loaded with rows of lettuce burgeoning from a gutter of water. When the COVID-19 virus infiltrated the United States, consequences quickly emerged in food systems. The virus’s transmission across worker assembly lines effectively shut down food processing facilities, and pandemic doomsdayers exacerbated production shortcomings by swiping the last remaining groceries from store shelves. But when the industrial food system blundered, Vertical Harvest’s carousel never stopped turning, and the grow lights never flickered off. “For a long time, there was no other lettuce competitor on the shelves than Vertical Harvest, and it didn’t last long but it was there, and it was noted,” says Nona Yehia, Vertical Harvest’s CEO. Yehia asserts that part of what allowed the business to adapt to a disrupted market is the same value that planted the seed for the unconventional farm a decade ago: the belief that humans can empower one another to solve problems. In 2008, long before the pandemic dismantled food supply chains, Yehia and co-founder Caroline Croft Estay sought to mend disrepair on a global scale that had seeped into the Jackson community. In a town that can receive more than 80 inches of snow in winter, they aimed to establish a reliable source of food that could be accessed even if the main arteries into town were blocked. And they’re on to something: The greenhouse, which opened in 2016, can grow produce 12 months out of the year in a mountain town where the growing season is a mere four months. This means that the journey of a Vertical Harvest tomato remains the same in the dead of winter, when the looming Tetons are heavy with snow and the rest of Wyoming’s crops have long been put to bed by fall frosts. >>

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Croft Estay has a background as an independent provider for people with disabilities, and Yehia, a trained architect, has a brother with a disability. The founding pair wanted to create meaningful, consistent employment for a segment of the population that lack those opportunities through washing dishes and bagging groceries for minimal hours a week. “As of now with COVID, we currently have 31 employees total, 14 of whom have a disability,” Taylor Eckerson, a Vertical Harvest employee, recently reported. Sustainability and tackling some of the world’s most pressing concerns was at the heart of what shaped Vertical Harvest. “We have a math problem of epic proportions,” Yehia says. With an exploding population and withering land and resources, how do we feed the world? “We’re never going to replace traditional agriculture, but how can we use technology and innovation and this social contract that we have with one another, this connectiveness, to reimagine our food systems?” Yehia asks. Vertical Harvest certainly isn’t feeding the world, but the tenth-of-an-acre farm is capable of producing what a ten-acre farm produces annually. Right now, the greenhouse building, which circulates 95 percent of its water, outputs almost 100,000 pounds of produce per year. Capped in hairnets, Vertical Harvest employees end their workday plucking vine-ripened tomatoes that began as seeds in the greenhouse. It’s a Monday, and according to staff these tomatoes will be available on Tuesday in local restaurants or at family dinner tables. Not all tomatoes share the same fate. In 2018, the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center reported that Florida and California claim two-thirds of the country’s fresh tomato acreage. In order to reach the same venues in Jackson where Vertical Harvest tomatoes are sold, these out-of-state products are then transported hundreds of miles from the ground they grew in. While Vertical Harvest forged a new path through pandemic challenges, they were still forced through a period of adaptation. According to Croft Estay, their staff shriveled down to a skeleton crew and they plunged 100-plus hours into designing new safety protocols in order to stay open. They partnered with local businesses to provide variety packages of local products, launched a new microgreen blend, and started selling directly to consumers. While global food supply chains fractured along extended routes to consumers, Vertical Harvest found a way to deliver food directly from the hands of a harvester to local dinner tables. “People want to support their local economies,” Yehia says. “They want to know where their food is coming from and they want to know their farmer, but we’ve totally divorced the city from the farm. So, our model brings it back into the center of the city.” Vertical Harvest plans to bring more than just fresh food to town. In July 2021, Yehia and Croft Estay will break ground on their second location in Westbrook, Maine,

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Lyndsay Rowan, director of community engagement at Vertical Harvest, looks up at the strings of curling tomato vines.

RIGHT NOW, THE GREENHOUSE BUILDING, WHICH CIRCULATES 95 PERCENT OF ITS WATER, OUTPUTS ALMOST 100,000 POUNDS OF PRODUCE PER YEAR.

TOP: Microgreens grow under purple lights in one of the darker rooms of Vertical Harvest. These plants will make up a portion of the 100,000 pounds of produce the farm provides to the community every year. BOTTOM: Michele Dennis, a senior farm associate at Vertical Harvest, helps to clean the floors of the farm to prepare for a Good Agricultural Practice audit. Inside, employees wear gloves, hairnets and other protective gear.

Pedestrians walk past the narrow side of the farm in downtown Jackson. The Vertical Harvest founders say transparency is important to them, and they enjoy offering the passersby a view into their operations.

followed by a third location in Philadelphia’s Tioga District, a food, health and wellness desert where 42 percent of the largely Black population lives in poverty. Each facility will co-locate with affordable housing and expect to bring 50 full-time equivalent jobs to each community. Vertical Harvest Philly is estimated to output 1 million pounds of produce per year. The company has set a goal to build 10 vertical greenhouses in five years to address food and job insecurity. Yehia says large-scale food systems expose consumers to a mixed bag of volatility, from price to variability. Localizing food systems, she says, insulates consumers from these inconsistencies. “By decreasing our dependence on those volatile systems, we breed resiliency,” she said. Yehia says resiliency was always an intention, with a more specific interest in “being prepared for what might break down our connectivity.” Connectivity to food, health and community. In America, with its inarguably divisive culture where a virus has forced communities apart, a craving for closeness is omnipresent. Food, Yehia says, is a unifier. From Simpson Avenue in Jackson, look through the glass wall into the urban farm. While the shadows of hardship frame reality from every direction, southern sun shines through the glass, illuminating a network of “unexpected farmers,” greeting each other and the occasional sidewalk spectator with a smile. The sun embraces the plants that will soon be food for a nearby neighbor. It’s a picture of hope; like tomato vines weaving a cradle of what could be as they reach for a promise of community, connection and better days, ever growing toward the light.

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FIRE SEASON:

SECTION: SUBHEAD

The Wildland-Urban Collision

Bigger, longer and more devastating than ever, wildfires are leaving charred communities in their wake. Mitigation will take a community effort. BY AMANDA LOUDIN

The Bridger Foothills Fire in Bozeman, Montana, burned more than 8,000 acres and destroyed 68 structures in September 2020. PHOTO BY MATT SUESS

OUTLOOK: FIRE SEASON SECTION: SUBHEAD

Schelly Olson understands well the danger of wildfires to people, public lands and private property. As assistant chief for the Grand Fire Protection District No. 1 in Granby, Colorado, Olson also volunteers as chair for Grand County’s wildfire council. She spent much of her 2020 summer helping disseminate information and educate the public on these topics, not only in Colorado, but in other parts of the West as well. It was some sort of cruel plot twist, then, that in October, Olson lost her home to the East Troublesome Fire. “We had done a good deal of mitigation, clearing dead and downed trees in the area,” she says. “We had a marshy wetland nearby and a lot of open space and green grass.” The Olsons also lived in a home built with fire prevention in mind: the right materials, the right landscaping and the right ignition zone, referring to the 200 feet surrounding a home that can make a property vulnerable to fire. In spite of it all, the Olson home was one of 300 destroyed in Grand Lake by the fire that burned through more than 200,000 acres. “The winds were coming in at over 100 miles per hour,” says Olson. While Olson heard repeatedly that the East Troublesome Fire was unprecedented—and it was in terms of size—she also knew that wildfires in the West are getting bigger, longer and more dangerous. As more people move into the wildland-urban interface—where the forests meet communities— lives and properties are more vulnerable than ever. To stand a fighting chance, an all-hands-ondeck approach is needed, say experts like Olson.

“Partnerships and collaboration are key to all of this,” she says. “We need to use every tool in our toolbox.” Kimiko Barrett, wildfire research and policy lead at Headwaters Economics, in Bozeman, Montana, agrees. “For so long, all of our fire mitigation efforts were focused on wild lands,” she says. “But the last few years have shown us that we cannot rely only on forest management. We now need to look actively at the neighborhood and community level.”

HOW WE GOT HERE

To understand how to get out of a dangerous place, it’s important to first recognize how you arrived there. One piece of the puzzle is the historical approach to wildfire management, says Max Rebholz, wildfire preparedness coordinator with Missoula County in western Montana. “We have a long history of fire suppression dating back to the Great Burn of 1910,” he explains. “That shaped fire policy all the way into the early 2000s.” The result of this approach, says Rebholz, is the growth of more trees, thicker stands of trees and more undesirable species. “In western Montana, we have a lot more Douglas fir than we used to,” he says. “This is a species that is vulnerable to insects and disease, and therefore dies off and becomes more of a fire hazard.” Add in climate change to the mix—longer summers, shorter springs, decreased snowpack and overall precipitation—and you have another part of the recipe. The final contributing factor completes the deadly cocktail: ever-encroaching building practices, >>

Schelly Olson’s home pre- and post-East Troublesome Fire in Grand Lake, Colorado. PHOTOS COURTESTY OF SCHELLY OLSON

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whereby neighborhood and community lines move closer to wild lands. In Montana alone, for instance, the number of homes in moderate- and high-wildfire risk areas has nearly doubled since 1990. This is where coordinated efforts stand to make the biggest impact on fire reduction. But in the West, where rugged individualism has long ruled the day, this can often be the toughest issue to tackle.

ALL HANDS ON DECK

Ali Ulwelling, forestry assistance and fire information specialist at Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, based in Kalispell, Montana, says that she spends time learning from other communities that have suffered devastation from wildfires. From there, she sets out to educate. “California is different from Montana, and even northwest Montana is different from Bozeman,” Ulwelling says. “It’s important to understand the conditions and then set the context.” There is longstanding research, however, that crosses geography lines when it comes to mitigating fire risk at the property level. “It starts by making your home resistant to ignition,” Ulwelling explains. “The roof, gutters, siding, eaves, the size of your vents and metal screening covering them are all a big deal.” Ninety percent of the time, ember showers that fly well ahead of advancing fires are what ultimately burn down structures, according to a 2019 Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety study. Keeping embers from touching ignitable materials is key, says Rebholz, who recommends metal screening with holes as small as one-sixteenth of an inch, rather than one-twenty-fifth of an inch. “The screens should cover any areas of spacing between the home and a deck or porch, or the spacing between the porch and the ground,” he says. “You don’t want the embers to have enough heat content in them to ignite whatever is on the other side of the screen.” Deck materials matter, too, and should be a composite rather than wood, but one critical component of fire safety on

property is the home ignition zone, a concept developed in the late 1990s by retired U.S. Forest Service fire scientist Jack Cohen. The zones break out into three radiuses: The immediate zone of 5 feet around your house; the intermediate zone of 5 to 30 feet; and the extended zone of 30 to 100 feet. “Many people focus on the home and immediate zone but overlook the importance of the outer two zones,” Rebholz says. Although Olson had checked all of the above boxes, the East Troublesome Fire was proof positive that protecting property and mitigating wildfire spread goes beyond these measures and into the community. “In my role, I get a lot of calls from people saying, ‘I’ve done everything to protect my property, but my neighbor hasn’t,’” Olson says. “They want to know if there’s anything we can do about that. Unless there are regulations and codes to follow, our hands are tied.” This is where the battle often lies: Finding a way to get everyone to work together, from clearing lands to supporting elected officials and policies that lead to stricter rules on building. Ulwelling supports the idea that, as a community, groups ensure they coordinate. “On a small scale, this can look like getting together with neighbors to clear dead trees and then burn the piles,” she says. “On a broader scale, it means having a community mindset for fire adaptation. Work within the community and understand that the dream five acres you just purchased comes with responsibility.” There’s also the role of insurance companies, which some fire prevention specialists would like to see take a bigger role in education and policy setting. Education can be essential in getting communities up to speed and supportive of such efforts. In Montana, for instance, there are plenty of resources for informing communities, from the state and federal DNRs to Headwaters to websites like Fire Safe Montana and the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise. All, however, require leading individual homeowners to water. “There’s definitely an element of social science involved,” says Ulwelling. “How do you motivate people to engage and work together?”

HOME IGNITION ZONE

The ignition zone divides into three radiuses: The immediate zone of 5 feet around your house; the intermediate zone of 5 to 30 feet; and the extended zone of 30 to 100 feet. GRAPHIC COURTESY OF HEADWATERS ECONOMICS

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Sept. 4, 2020: The Bridger Foothills Fire sparked by a smoldering lightning strike. PHOTO BY CARLEE BROWN

WORK WITHIN THE COMMUNITY AND UNDERSTAND THAT THE DREAM FIVE ACRES YOU JUST PURCHASED COMES WITH RESPONSIBILITY.

Barrett says that Headwaters approaches a variety of communities with its resources and is sometimes turned away. “Montana still has a nonregulatory climate in many places. If a community doesn’t want us, we don’t bother them,” she says. “But there are other communities that want the information and realize that as we grow, so do our fire risks.” As Olson reflects on the traumatic loss of her home and so many others, she has one major thought: “We can’t give up hope. I don’t want people to have the attitude that losing their homes is inevitable. My goal is to build a fireadapted community.” This, says Barrett, should be everyone’s end goal, and one she views as ultimately achievable. “When you look at history, many cities burned down before thinking deliberately about fire and adapting,” she says. “If we can apply the same attitudes and principles to the urban/wild interface, we can do it again.” Amanda Loudin is an award-winning freelance writer who frequently covers health, science and the outdoors for publications like the Washington Post, Outside and REI’s Co-op Journal.

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OUTLOOK: SAVING GREATER YELLOWSTONE

SAVING G R E AT E R YELLOWSTONE

Elk graze on new spring grass in Gallatin Gateway as the Spanish Peaks provide a dramatic backdrop. With each passing year, more homes are being built making it difficult for animals like elk to navigate the labyrinth of development.

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A M E R I C A’ S ‘ W I L D L I F E SERENGETI’ DEPENDS O N A R A L LY T O S A V E THE WILDNESS WE TREASURE STORY BY TODD WILKINSON PHOTOS BY HOLLY PIPPEL

T H E O T H E R D A Y while sitting in my living room in Bozeman, I joined a Zoom call with students from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies who were taking a class taught by Dr. Susan G. Clark. Clark’s curriculum focuses on how to save some of the last remaining wildland ecosystems on Earth. And, as she noted, one of the greatest is a miracle that still exists in America’s own wild backyard. Surprisingly, few citizens realize this. Clark and I have been friends for more than 30 years. When she’s not delivering lectures at Yale, she spends much of her time at her Jackson, Wyoming home located across the street from the National Elk Refuge. She is author of a long-awaited book published this summer, Yellowstone’s Survival: A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story. Like many of her contemporaries who came to the northwest corner of Wyoming a half-century ago, this septuagenarian has witnessed changes that in recent years have begun accelerating. They’re visible in Jackson Hole and in Teton Valley, Idaho; in Big Sky and the Madison and Paradise valleys. And they are most pronounced, perhaps, in Bozeman—the fastestgrowing small city in America and in Gallatin County that surrounds it. Clark, founder of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, had asked me, as she does each year, to discuss the fate of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in both my work as a writer and founder of the nonprofit journalism site, Mountain Journal. As our readers know, MoJo explores the intersection of humans and nature in a region without parallel in the Lower 48. In anticipation of a lively exchange with Yale graduate and undergraduate students, I asked them to ponder an amazing map (p. 78) produced by the Wyoming Migration Initiative that illustrates where elk herds move across Greater Yellowstone. It’s a truly extraordinary thing to have tens of thousands of wapiti migrating seasonally across the tristate landscape—not only because it still happens at all, but because human development and land-use patterns, including outdoor recreation, have not yet reduced or eliminated such movements of large ungulates, as has happened nearly everywhere else. Greater Yellowstone is, in many ways, the last great large-mammal ecosystem still standing in the American West. The truth is we are steadily losing this place through a process that Yellowstone’s former chief scientist David Hallac has called “death by 10,000 scratches.” It’s occurring right now in real time right in front of our noses, and while wildlife experts and land managers concur with this premise, citing accumulating evidence, there is currently no plan or sense of urgency to talk about it, let alone save the country’s most iconic terrestrial ecosystem. >>

I N F A C T , if you ask people on the street, many longtime local citizens, including young people, be they products of Bozeman, Jackson Hole, Cody, Lander, Livingston, Soda Springs, Driggs or Dillon, don’t even understand how globally special their home region is. Nor do most of the wealthy set who have retreated to their second homes here during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even people who ought to know better. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, spouse of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady, has a house in the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky. She is a global goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ Environment Program. Do she and Brady know how ecologically significant Greater Yellowstone is? Did Yellowstone Club residents Bill and Melinda Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan? Does former Google CEO Eric Schmidt? Do they care?

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They ought to. They ought to be giving back to this wild region that has served as an extraordinary sanctuary for them. And, if they are mildly curious, they would discover things that are profound. Nearly a dozen major elk herds converge in Yellowstone National Park in summer and then circuit outward in the fall toward winter range. They touch the far extent of Greater Yellowstone and demonstrate why it’s an extraordinary ecosystem of intertwined wildlife populations. A stark reality is that you can’t protect what you can’t see— or don’t know exists or don’t have the mental wherewithal to understand why it’s important. That’s why the work of the Wyoming Migration Initiative led by USGS researcher Matthew Kauffman is extraordinary. What I wanted the bright young minds from Yale to ponder— and it’s what I ask here—is to consider not what is illustrated on the elk map, but rather what’s missing.

Gateway elk navigate fences and roads to chase the first new sprigs of spring grass. Elk in the area contend with human traffic and can become casualties as they try to cross U.S. Highway 191 between Four Corners and the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon.

Yes, we easily recognize the cartographic boundaries of federal, state, county, local and private property jurisdictions, but elk migrations flow across them like rivers. What’s absent, I mentioned to the students, is a chronicle of the seasonal migrations and movements of several other species, as in bison, mule deer, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep, and wolverines. All of these animals, like elk, migrate, too, and they need spaces and habitat not fragmented or overrun by humans in order to keep doing it. Grizzlies and wolves also peregrinate, as do bald eagles, peregrine falcons, trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, bobcats, lynx, and wild neotropical songbirds. Greater Yellowstone is a vast remnant symphony of wildlife whose movements are like the melody articulated by notes scrawled across a beautiful, complicated, harmonious masterpiece of sheet music. This is the reason why Greater Yellowstone warrants rough comparison to the other great wild ecosystem, the Serengeti, in East Africa. This is our still living, breathing version of that. Other regions can only dream of bringing back species that have been lost and some will spend millions of dollars trying to recover them and never succeed. Greater Yellowstone is the only one of its kind on the planet and it’s every bit as valuable a national treasure as anything else in this country. Yet by neglect, indifference, lack of mass awareness of what we have right before our eyes—and add to that a fragmented way of thinking about it—we are losing this place. How? Were one to take the present existing grids of private land development, replete with all of the major and minor roads, homes, fences, commercial or industrial enterprises and the intensive accompanying infrastructure of obstacles, then add in thousands upon thousands of lot lines outside towns that have already been subdivided but which now are invisible to us—and then superimpose them on a comprehensive map of wildlife migrations—it would be obvious, scientists tell me, we are in trouble.

T H E Y, A S W I T H A L L O F U S , NEED TO LET THE WONDER OF G R E AT E R Y E L L O W S T O N E E N T E R INTO THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS, CONSCIENCES AND HEARTS. THIS I S N ’ T A C O N S E R VAT I V E V E R S U S LIBERAL POLITICAL ISSUE. Were we also to include all of the front country and backcountry recreation trails on public lands, and show their rising levels of uses and illustrate the displacement happening with wildlife, even conservation organizations still in denial would be forced to admit there is serious impact occurring and it’s only going to increase. This is the reality; hope does not reside in wishful thinking or looking the other way, it demands that we actually do something.

T H O S E W H O A R E I N F O R M E D know the direction where this is headed. It’s not a mystery because our future has already been written with what’s not present, in terms of wildlife, in other regions. The question is: Are we willing to chart a different course which must necessarily involve each of us giving up a little bit of our personal ambitions to give wildness in Greater Yellowstone as we know it today a chance of persisting in the face of growing human pressure? Can we reduce our relentless appetite of trying to blindly monetize as much undeveloped private land as possible

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G R E AT E R Y E L L O W S T O N E I S A VAST REMNANT SYMPHONY OF WILDLIFE WHOSE MOVEMENTS ARE LIKE THE M E L O D Y A R T I C U L AT E D B Y NOTES SCRAWLED ACROSS A B E A U T I F U L , C O M P L I C AT E D , HARMONIOUS MASTERPIECE OF SHEET MUSIC.

Elk cross the flats south of Bozeman under the early morning moon.

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and scrambling as outdoor enthusiasts to cross (or conquer) every still-wild corner of Greater Yellowstone in order to, instead, leave space for the animals you see represented in the graphic on p. 78. Can we look past the manic focus on rational self-interest no matter what the cost to nature and accept limitations on how we develop and use landscapes? Can we be a lot smarter? If we’re not willing to do that, then let’s just admit publicly that we are consciously choosing as communities to wave a surrender flag and let wildlife abundance wither away. Unless we get undistracted and change the way we’re doing business, any future SOS distress call—“Save Our Serengeti”—is destined to be too little, too late, and too costly to fix. Good commendable work is being done, especially by land trust-like organizations, but it clearly isn’t happening fast enough; more crucial land is being disturbed than is being protected. We all have a role in its stewardship. Like the sheet music that speaks to Greater Yellowstone’s marvel of remnant biodiversity, citizen voices who identify as wildlife advocates represent the vital chorus. Yes, let’s have a serious, heartfelt chat among people near and far who love this place and know that we need a plan—a vision—to safeguard the miracle that is Greater Yellowstone. Here, I want to amicably lean upon a few people, beyond elected and government officials who can and should be making a difference in elevating

ecological awareness at a mass scale. Often absent are members of the business community, including locals and people of means. You know the folks I’m referencing—the affluent from Jackson Hole, Bozeman, members of the Yellowstone Club at Big Sky, Cody, Red Lodge, Paradise Valley, Madison Valley, and the Centennial. They, as with all of us, need to let the wonder of Greater Yellowstone enter into their consciousness, consciences and hearts. This isn’t a Conservative versus Liberal political issue. It’s an issue of the common values we share surrounding the protection of nature—places where elk and grizzlies can still roam; the persistence of wild bison, bighorn sheep, wolves and, yes, even rural ranchers and farmers who preside over crucial habitat and open space. Second homeowners who try to isolate themselves away need to know that, yes, money can buy more material stuff than one will ever need, but more meaningfully, it can earn satisfaction, admiration in the eyes of family, community and country for stepping forward to help make a plan for saving America’s last best wildlife ecosystem: Greater Yellowstone. A version of this article was first published in Mountain Journal. Visit mountainjournal.org to read more from our friends at MoJo.

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REPORTS: THE REAL MCCOY

Cord McCoy has long been known as a bronc and bull rider and a reality TV star. Now he’s raising bulls to new heights. BY BAILEY BELTRAMO

Kaique Pacheco rides Cord McCoy/Big Sky Bulls, LLC’s Viper for 88.25 during the first round of the New York City Unleash the Beast PBR. PHOTO BY ANDY WATSON.

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LEFT: Straddling the Atoka-Lane town line in southeastern Oklahoma, the McCoy ranch produces some of the top bovine athletes in the sport of bull riding. PHOTO BY BAILEY J. BELTRAMO MIDDLE: Cord watches the action during the first round of the Las Vegas PBR 25th Anniversary Unleash the Beast World Finals in 2018. PHOTO BY ANDY WATSON RIGHT: Cord McCoy stands with Ridin’ Solo (Cord McCoy/Bill McCarty) on his ranch in Atoka, Oklahoma. Ridin’ Solo is currently ranked second in the world standings and has already established himself as a top competitor for the 2021 YETI World Champion Bull. PHOTO BY BAILEY J. BELTRAMO

Stadium lights illuminate red dirt on the McCoy Ranch in Atoka, Oklahoma, on a warm May night. The hum of cicadas breaks with prehistoric sounding bellows and snorts: Midnight Rock, a 1,200-pound bull phenom paws the ground inside the arena. With a clang of scraping metal and a thud of boots on dirt, ranch owner Cord McCoy deftly drops into the ring. Keeping a respectful eye locked on Midnight Rock, McCoy moves the bull into small laps around the arena. It’s well after 9 p.m., but not yet time for him to hang his well-worn hat for the day—there’s still work to be done. McCoy’s worn many hats over the years: he was a champion saddle-bronc rider at 16, making him the youngest competitor to win the all-around title at the International Finals Rodeo, and winning five professional rodeo titles along the way. He’s pulled down the brim of the reality-TV-star hat as he and older brother Jet became fan-favorites on the CBS show The Amazing Race for three seasons. He’s worn the hat of motivational speaker on the TEDx stage in Big Sky, Montana, and he’s raised his “hat” (in actuality, a helmet) countless times in the Professional Bull Riding arena after matching a ferocious bull like Deuces Wild move for move for eight seconds. Now at 40, McCoy wears a different hat: the hat of a premiere stock contractor. And, true to tradition, it’s still widebrimmed and white.

That path, however, came to a dangerous halt at the Oklahoma State Fair Rodeo in 2004. McCoy was unseated from a bucking horse and dealt a kick to the side of the head. The wreck nearly cost him his life and left him relearning to walk and talk again. Grit and an undying love for the sport allowed McCoy to not just recover but to return to a professional level of riding. After his accident, he traded in his bronc saddle for a bull rope and went on to compete professionally in the PBR, earning six trips to the World Finals and a spot on Team USA. In those first few years on the PBR tour, McCoy unintentionally began his stock contracting career. “When I first started raising and training bulls, I was training them for me,” he explains. “I was getting on the bulls to practice.” McCoy started occasionally selling bulls to other contractors as well, but the official switch in profession came a couple years down the road at a rodeo in Decatur, Texas, in 2013. He showed up with his bull rope and a few mighty beasts. He walked away from his ride without a paycheck while one of his bulls left the arena with one. That was when things clicked. Handed a check for $4,500 that his body didn’t need to cash, McCoy couldn’t help but question why he was still riding. “I probably retired a year later than I should have,” he admits, but focusing on contracting offered a way forward that would keep him connected to the sport he loves. He hung up the bull rope for good and became a full-time stock contractor that same day.

A LIFE OF RODEO

A NEW DIRECTION

Raised in Tupelo, Oklahoma, Cord McCoy began rodeoing as a child, quickly developing a skillset that put him on a path to the professional circuit.

That was in 2016. Since then, McCoy has progressed in his own training techniques, but a notable change over the past years has been the advanced nutrition and care that have become

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“T H E BUL LS DON’ T K NOW T H E Y’ RE PRAC T I CI NG. IT WOULD BE LIKE PRAC T I CI NG W I T H MI K E T YSON AND NOT T E L LI NG the bedrock of bull training; training that allows the bulls themselves to find more success in the arena. This new era of animal athletes is largely coming about by means of people like Melissa McKeithen and David Clark who’ve stepped into the sport as financial partners. And the influx of new financial resources is causing a domino effect. Increased investment in bulls means a greater population of top-tier stock for cowboys to practice on. More practice at an elite level leads to improved performance which leads to growth and progression of the sport. “It’s not unusual to get on a bull in a practice pen that you could be 90 points on [in competition],” McCoy says. “As long as [the riders] can practice on that level, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of what they can do yet. The bulls don’t know they’re practicing. It would be like practicing with Mike Tyson and not telling him it’s for fun.” In McCoy’s operation, he sells 50 percent interest of his bulls to partners. From Australia to England, the Northeast to the Midwest, they come from all walks of life. “It’s the craziest bunch of partners you’ve ever seen in your life,” he says, flashing an affectionate grin. In addition to the sale price, partners contribute a $200 monthly boarding and training fee, and cover all event entry fees. In exchange, they get a 50-50 split of any winnings, proceeds from semen sales (another novel revenue source in

H I M I T ’ S FOR FUN.” the bull industry), and an intangible return on investment, one that’s personal to each partner.

T H E PA RT N E R S For Clark, it’s largely about the communal and familial aspects. Born in the U.S. but raised in England, Clark didn’t experience his first rodeo until 2016, when he attended a Missoula event while visiting the famed E Bar L Ranch in Greenough, Montana. He was hooked. “I loved it. The family atmosphere, the patriotism, the show, the bravery of the riders, it was all just amazing,” he remembers. “It was beautiful.” A chance encounter with a friend at the Big Sky PBR first introduced Clark to the idea of investing in bulls. Soon after, a partnership of 10 friends formed under the name Shotgun Bulls to pay tribute to Clark’s father-in-law’s call sign as an F-15 pilot who was a Montanan by birth and a former rodeo athlete himself. Shotgun Bulls has since been renamed Pioneer Bulls and now sponsors a string of four bovines from McCoy’s ranch. >> Their prized athlete, Midnight Rock, is currently ranked 16th in the world standings with an average buck-off time of 2.62 seconds and an average score of 44.46 out of a possible 50 points.

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TOP: Cooper Davis attempts to ride Cord McCoy/Pioneer Bulls’ Midnight Rock during the second round of the Ocala Unleash the Beast PBR. PHOTO BY ANDY WATSON BOTTOM: Cord McCoy stands with his wife Sara and his daughter Tulsa at the 2019 American Heritage in Duncan, Oklahoma. PHOTO BY ANDY WATSON

For McKeithen, the intangible piece combines public education and personal enjoyment. A longtime resident of Connecticut, McKeithen has been venturing out to Big Sky, Montana, for the past 25 years, journeys that led to her discovery of rodeo and the PBR. Her knowledge and personal enthrallment with the sport has grown and she loves sharing her passion with friends at home. “People are just interested in knowing ‘Well, how is it that they get the bulls to buck?’” says McKeithen, who has even introduced a friend that has gone on to sponsor three bulls from the McCoy ranch. “I’m a very small part in a big and growing sport,” she says. Like Clark, McKeithen invested through a group venture named Big Sky Bulls that purchased the notorious Viper who went on to win at the Big Sky PBR in 2019. Since then, McKeithen joined McCoy to cosponsor a bull of her own that she proudly named Belligerent. And for Cord McCoy? Well, he gets what any coach strives for: to focus on developing his athletes to the height of their potential. “As a coach, contractor, trainer, whatever you want to call it, [my goal] is just making each bull the best that he can be,” he explains. It’s a philosophy he can proudly hang his hat on. Bailey J. Beltramo lives and works in New Hampshire as a content creator, freelance photographer and filmmaker. He ventures west whenever possible to experience Western culture and life under the big skies.

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Fencing in the Modern West BY BRIGID MANDER

The short, adventurous reality of the true American Wild West died a quick, ignominious death when barbed wire fencing was patented in 1874. Cattleman quickly unspooled countless miles of the cheap fencing across the landscape to contain herds, putting cowboys out of a job. Homestead Act recipients fenced others out, and barbed wire earned the nickname “the devil’s rope” as it ended tens of thousands of years of such romanticized open spaces. Fences are now as ubiquitous and unremarkable as sagebrush on the landscape, but for wildlife, fencing has never been unremarkable. There are now millions of miles of barbed and woven wire fencing, and it has long had a deadly impact on cherished wildlife populations that need space to move across the landscape for survival. The more research is conducted, the more the sobering reality for wildlife is clear. “It’s incredibly hard to inventory fence miles, but it is a huge problem,” said Kyle Kissock of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation in Wyoming, which has worked to remove or modify fences in western Wyoming since 1996. At first glance, it seems like a low-impact issue: What’s the big deal over some thin metal wires? They just jump over, right? It is in fact a brutal, deadly hazard: elk, mule deer, pronghorn and other wildlife often become caught in wires, trapped by the leg as they jump over fences to get to food, water or find seasonal habitats. Mature males can become entrapped by their own antlers in wires, and new calves and young fawns die when they’re separated from their mothers by woven wire fences that don’t allow them to go under, over or through. In western states, enough open space still exists for animals to complete traditional, long-range migrations. Recently, one collared doe in Wyoming (Deer 255) alerted researchers to a 242-mile route from southern Wyoming to near the Idaho-Montana border. But the Wyoming

Migration Initiative showed in 2013 that mule deer, on their 150-mile seasonal migration between Wyoming’s Red Desert and the Hoback Basin, had to navigate about 170 fence lines. A landmark 2006 Utah State University study of 600 fence miles in Colorado and Utah showed that for every 2.5 miles of fencing, at least one ungulate (hooved animal) died. It showed woven wire fences topped with two strands of barbed wire are among the most lethal barriers. Other times, fences near water or sage grouse mating grounds called leks are fatal if birds in flight collide while swooping in for hunting or landings. The problem is one long known to ranchers, game managers and wildlife biologists, but increasing public interest in conserving remaining wildlife habitat and migration corridors has begun to push fencing issues into the spotlight. It’s good news for wildlife, but fence removals and modification are slow, expensive and can be complex, said Kissock, noting it can take a half-day for volunteers to remove a mile of fourstrand barbed-wire fence. “The statistics are staggering,” he said, “and there are very few people on the ground to fix it.” Yet each mile in migration corridors can make a difference. With the help of organizations like JHWF, fence modifications or removals can be done at a significantly reduced cost to landowners like ranchers, and additional help comes from volunteer labor as well as grants and federal, state and local agencies. JHWF mainly focuses on fences in the Teton region, partnering with landowners, national parks and the U.S. Forest Service, but the more local groups and fence days other regional groups undertake, the better for wildlife. Along with the JHWF, conservation organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, western state game agencies and even transportation departments and the Bureau of Land Management have worked for years to mitigate the worst

Mature males can become entrapped by their own antlers in wires, and new calves and young fawns die when they’re separated from their mothers by woven wire fences that don’t allow them to go under, over or through.

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TOP: Troy Fieseler, a Wyoming Game and Fish Pinedale Habitat biologist, helps wind up old barbed-wire fence that was being replaced with wildlife-friendly fencing on big game winter range south of Pinedale, Wyoming. PHOTO BY MARK GOCKE, WGFD

REPORTS: FENCING IN THE WEST

BOTTOM: Doug Brimeyer, deputy wildlife chief with Wyoming Game and Fish, releases a calf moose from a barbed-wire fence as its mother looks on west of Jackson, Wyoming. The calf survived. PHOTO BY FRED BRIMEYER

fences, and to educate ranchers and landowners on wildlife-friendly fencing tactics. But as the reality of fencing impacts becomes more publicized, other groups dedicated solely to the task are popping up, including the newly formed Absaroka Fence Initiative based in Cody, Wyoming. Retroactively, nonprofits help by organizing volunteers, making necessary outreach to landowners or land managers for removal or modification. Important changes are smooth (not barbed) top and bottom wires. The bottom wire should be 18 inches off the ground so young animals can follow their mothers, and the top wire 12 inches from the wire below it so legs don’t get tangled. A comprehensive handbook for any size parcel landowner on wildlife-friendly fencing considerations, called A Landowner’s Handbook to Fences and Wildlife by Christine Paige, is available free of charge on the Western Landowners Alliance website. “Anytime a fence needs to be replaced is an opportunity to make it wildlife friendly,” said Renee Seidler, wildlife biologist and executive director of JHWF. “There are a lot of resources for funding and these projects really make people feel good because you’re taking tangible action to help wildlife.” Brigid Mander is a skier and writer based in Jackson, Wyoming. She writes about mountain sports, culture and conservation issues for publications ranging from Backcountry Magazine to the Wall Street Journal.

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M elissa DiN ino | “ M ox ie” | 9 x 12 inches | w atercolor on paper

“Jamie” | 9 x 12 inches | w atercolor on paper

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ART: MELISSA DININO

Melissa DiNino checks in on her sidekick, June, after a long day of range riding in Centennial Valley, Montana, to prevent livestock losses from grizzlies and wolves. PHOTO BY LOUISE JOHNS

The Emotional Space of Melissa DiNino A range rider and watercolorist paints in experience, intuition BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO

In any creative life there are dull turns and droughts. Our work feels dehydrated, blank, strained. We have little to express and are tempted to express little. These are the times that artist Melissa DiNino finds most difficult—and most valuable. “My art is ever evolving and hard trial and error and learning,” says DiNino, an instinctive and dramatic watercolorist who also works as a range rider and ranch caretaker throughout Montana. “Art is something that is at its truest to me when I’m struggling with something emotionally or sitting with certain thoughts for a while, clearing out thoughts, or trying to understand something that seems like emptiness.” Indeed, DiNino has spent ample time mulling over the juxtaposition of the keen pursuit of fulfillment with the

slow creep of meaninglessness. Born near the Naugatuck River in the suburbs of Connecticut, on the semi-rural edge of the city of Waterbury, she was nurtured in a tightknit, gregarious Italian enclave that contrasted its outsized, aloof urban sensibilities. DiNino moved to Montana several years ago after studying biology and conflict resolution in college. She soon found a job in the Centennial Valley as a range rider. The work is tough and entails, she says, “monitoring livestock on horseback to encourage successful coexistence of livestock and predators like wolves and grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.” After a few days of “weeping from loneliness,” she fell in love with the job, and with Montana to boot. >>

“There was a part of me that struggled with the idea of leaving my familiar community, yet I was very excited about wild, open spaces … I’d never seen such an open, jarring landscape before.” This new venture unlocked DiNino’s inner creativity and triggered a reaction that she began studying carefully. She drew some as a child, and when her winter job as a dogsledding guide was cut short in 2017, she revisited art, this time in the form of the watercolor painting her mother had practiced for years. “I found out that I really liked it,” she says. “From the first painting onward, I had no idea what I was doing. Soon, watercolors became a way to challenge myself and to grow, and I wanted to see where I could take it. [They] taught me more about myself: art as a way to deal with things that I’m struggling with around me, art as the mental space to release it all.” Since first picking up the paintbrush, DiNino has been consumed by the need to acquire knowledge, expand her mind and better conceive of truthful possibilities. Horses are one of the subjects that she frequently channels into the narrative and figurative perspective of her painting. “Like my art and through it, my understanding of horses has grown deeper in the past few years,” says DiNino, referencing her horse, Willa, which she saved from slaughter in 2019. “It’s interesting working with a slaughter-bound rescue horse and giving the relationship between the two of us the space and time to trust each other without expectations. If you’re experiencing some type of emotional incongruence, a horse can see right through that. When I have anxiety built up and if I try to hang out with Willa, she will start snorting at me, not letting me near her. She demands that I be honest with my emotions first and she makes me work through them before she is ready to work together.” Realistic. Naturalistic. While DiNino struggles with labels, she concedes that her work probably falls somewhere between the two designations. “Sometimes I get really nervous about exhibiting all of the emotions in my art that are tied to vulnerability,” she says. “Light and happy or something that is dark or feels uncomfortable, I’m hoping to convey all of that through my art and not think too much. Whether I’m nervous about exhibiting those emotions or not, I ask myself, is it authentic?” Notwithstanding her panic about being able to stay in sync with her true self, DiNino has clearly been pensive about her art, deciding calmly and quietly to paint the flowing, muted boundaries of the West. In the future, she plans to be living and >>

“ Leave no t r ace” | 30 x 22 inches | w atercolor on paper

When she’s not range riding, DiNino spends time in the corrals connecting with horses. Moments like this have shaped and informed the artwork she creates today. PHOTO BY ANDREA DININO

“Like my ar t and through it, my understanding of horses has grown deeper in the past few years,” “ Kat ie” | 24 x 18 inches | w atercolor on paper

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“ E sme” | 22 x 30 inches | w atercolor on paper

riding and creating in the McLeod area near the West Boulder River. Her most explicit goal as an artist is to obtain a studio space of her own. Currently, she lives and works out of a 300-square-foot cabin in Potomac with her partner and two dogs, and her workspace is a small desk. Such compactness limits, she says, the size of what she can achieve. “I appreciate a lot of physical and emotional space in my life,” DiNino says. “Emotional space helps me focus on getting to that state to create art. When my emotional space is blocked, I’ll go outside and hang out with my horse for a while. Personality-wise, I

thrive off of space and silence.” DiNino also aims to continue to self-excavate, to plow through the superficial layers in order to reach the core, allowing for more of that expressive freedom that she elegantly executes with her watercolors. “For me, art is the process of regulating emotions,” she says. “[It] gives me so much time to reflect and dive deeper into different things that are in my mind that I don’t know how to work with or understand. Art is trying to understand, or at least beginning to try.”

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SECTION: SUBHEAD

TALES OF TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY IN A MIDDLE-AGED SOFTBALL LEAGUE BY EDNOR THERRIAULT

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The best part of summer in Montana happens twice a week, when I get to act like a 12-year-old. Every Monday and Wednesday I lace up my cleats and take the field to play softball, and my inner little leaguer gets to run wild. Well, as wild as he can with chronic asthma and a touch of rheumatoid arthritis in his hips. Missoula, Montana, is a softball-crazy town, and the league has trouble finding enough fields to accommodate all the teams, so they cram four games into each evening, the last of which starts at 9:45 p.m. Nowadays, that’s usually when I start my bedtime routine, which, coincidentally, takes about as long as an average softball game.

ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY DZINTARS

CU LT U R E : H U MOR

There are several divisions, including 35-and-Over, 45-and-Over, and Your-Wife-Thinks-You-Should-Retireand-Over. Me? I’ve had a couple retirement scares but I’m still out there dropping routine fly balls. I’m the oldest guy on a team in the lowest division, where nobody takes it too seriously. We enjoy a few oat sodas during a game, even though beer was banned from the dugouts *wink* four years ago. Not to brag, but most years I lead the team in average PBRs per game. (“Hey, Ednor, what inning is it?” Me, opening a beer: *pssht* “Top of the third!”) That’s the only area of the game where I excel. Well, that and getting hurt. In letting my inner middle-schooler hurl my middle-aged body around the field for 25 years, I’ve suffered every injury you can imagine. Yes, even that one, which is why I wear the number 1.5 on my jersey. But more on that later. Like most “athletes” whose grasp on reality gets weaker with age, I believe my body is still capable of doing things on the softball field I could probably never have done even when I was young and spry. Now I’m old but have good insurance. I’ve never been able to hit the ball out of the park, for instance, but every time I step up to the plate, I’m pretty sure this is going to be the one. If I swing as hard as I can, I can hit the ball over the shortstop’s head, and it will fall harmlessly in the real estate between the infielders and outfielders, giving me enough time to “sprint” to first base. One reason for this lack of power is that I insist on using a wood bat. It tends to confuse umpires and elicits disbelief from catchers. (“Move in! Grandpa’s using a wood bat!”) Another source of pride used to be my ability to steal bases. In slow-pitch, you’re not allowed to lead off so it’s a lot harder to steal. Also, I’m pretty sure they’ve been moving the bases farther apart every year. It’s always an exciting play at the bag, though, largely because I tend to slide headfirst, which in my case means simply falling over at the right time. There’s always a big cloud of dust, some grunting, the slap of leather and a few cuss words. Maybe a little crying. Sometimes the baseman even gets involved. I love to slide, and sometimes when there’s no play at all, I’ll slide anyway. A couple of years ago I was on third base when our batter drove one out to the fence. I trotted in and slid across the plate, seriously annoying the catcher, who was watching the center fielder running after the ball. As I dusted myself off and walked to the dugout, I heard our new right fielder say, “What? He slid into home when he didn’t have to?” Our coach, with whom I’ve played for 20 years, said, “You’re new around here, aren’t you?” I’ve mentioned injuries, and I have accumulated a bloodstained laundry list of them. Once, while shagging fly balls in left field during warm-ups, my attention was focused on the piece of fried chicken I was eating. A long

fly ball sailed my way and I started backpedaling, sure I could get a glove on it without dropping my chicken. I jumped for the ball and a fencepost came out of nowhere, knocking me out. A gash on my skull prompted a trip to the ER where they determined I’d gotten a concussion. I had temporary short-term memory loss (“Did I catch it? Did we win?”), and one of my teammates later told me he had kept me from swallowing my tongue during my convulsions. I still have the blood-soaked glove they put under my head while waiting for the ambulance. I don’t know what happened to the chicken. I’ve pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, torn quadriceps, dislocated ribs, suffered a torn rotator cuff, cuts, bruises, and gravel rash on every extremity. I had to sit out an entire season while I recovered from a spinal fusion to repair a congenital condition called spondylolisthesis. Softball did not cause it, my doctor said, but it certainly didn’t help. The most spectacular injury of all, however, came early in my career. As a rookie, I was relegated to right field. I was already in my late 30s but wanted to show my new teammates that I was worthy of a more prestigious position. Charging a low liner that zoomed over the first baseman’s head, I went down on my knees and slid, glove extended to scoop it on the fly. The ball skipped off the heel of my glove and nailed me right, uh, below the Mendoza Line. It then plopped into my bare hand, I held it aloft to show I’d made the catch then keeled over in the grass. As I writhed in pain, I could hear my teammates screaming at me to hit the cutoff man, while the runners kept rounding the bases. Somebody dragged me into the dugout and flopped me onto the bench like a gutted salmon. When they realized I was going into shock, a couple of guys drove me to the hospital. Later that night, I woke up recovering from emergency surgery and a nurse was telling me it was a good thing I’d already had the two kids I wanted, because I’d ruptured my cojones (to use the medical term) and lost half of one. It was a good object lesson, apparently—by the next game, all my teammates wore cups. Now and then an umpire or another player will ask about the significance of 1.5. I squint right into their eyes and say in my best Clint Eastwood voice, “Let’s just say a softball isn’t soft.” When Ednor Therriault isn’t engaging in risky activities like softball, he writes and records music as his alter ego, Bob Wire. He can frequently be found road-tripping around Montana with his wife, Shannon, looking for new and interesting subjects to write about.

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SECTION: SUBHEAD

MINING A ROCK LEGEND DIGS DEEP INTO HIS FAMILY’S MONTANA ROOTS

ROU NDU P, MT BUT TE, MT

These historical images taken by Corliss Fairchild show the town and mine in Klein, Montana, around 1915. The mine produced coal for the engines of the Milwaukee Railroad. Mike McCready’s great-grandfather helped start the mine in 1907. MUSSELSHELL VALLEY HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS

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PON Y, MT

HISTORY: DEEP MONTANA ROOTS

HISTORY P

BY BRIAN HURLBUT

Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready runs onto after attending Washington State College moved to Butte the stage at Big Sky’s inaugural Peak to Sky music event when the city’s population was just topping 11,000. In just in August of 2019, the roaring Montana crowd on their 18 years, Butte’s population would peak at 100,000, and feet. McCready, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with Pearl the “Richest Hill on Earth” would produce one-third of Jam, and his all-star band—featuring members of the Red the entire world’s copper. Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Guns N’ Roses—rip The elder McCready, who later operated a trucking through some of classic rock’s greatest tunes over a threecompany, married Joanna Grigg, the daughter of a hour show, and a huge smile lights prominent city doctor, and the up his face. Indeed, he seems right at couple had three children. Mike’s home. In many ways, he is. grandfather, Roy, was born in Butte McCready’s roots run deep in the in 1917, attended the Montana State history of the Treasure State. Though School of Mines (now the Montana he only recently discovered Montana Technological University) and worked as a family getaway when he wasn’t on in the mining industry. the road with Pearl Jam, McCready’s It was while living in Butte that genealogical studies revealed several Roy met a girl named Aino “Ina” Montana connections on both sides of Kero, whose parents owned and his family. From Butte to Roundup, operated a bath house for miners, as his lineage has history in turn-of-thedid many of the Finnish immigrant century mining interests on both sides families in the northeast area of Butte of the state, and an old family cabin called Finntown. They met at the still stands today outside of Pony. School of Mines when she asked him For McCready, the tales associated for help with a science project. Ina with this history transcend time. then transferred to the University of Mike McCready, renowned lead guitarist for Pearl They allow him to reconnect to his Montana in Missoula her sophomore Jam, led an all-star lineup in Big Sky, Montana, for the past, even more important today as he inaugural Peak to Sky music event in August 2019. year, and Roy would drive for PHOTO BY KENE SPERRY and his wife Ashley and their three weekend visits. children spend more and more time in Montana. After college the couple headed further west to the “I’m getting older,” McCready, 55, admits. “If my kids Seattle area where Roy worked as an assistant professor of ever want to know this stuff, we’ll have it documented. If engineering at the University of Washington. Ina went on they ever have questions, I want something to show them.” to teach at Perkins Preschool, where McCready went in Much like learning a new song on a six-string, 1970. They married and had two boys, Roy and Ron, and McCready dug in and discovered connections around the younger Ron married Louise Wiepke. Michael David nearly every corner. McCready was born in 1966. • • • • Mike never got to meet his grandfather Roy, who died Butte, Montana, was the true Wild West in the late the same year Mike was born. Ina, however, died only 1800s and early 1900s as copper mining turned the city recently in 2020 at the age of 102. She never made it back into one of the wealthiest and rowdiest places in the to Butte, but her father—McCready’s great grandfather— country. McCready’s father’s side of the family lived in died in the house he built and lived in for his entire life. Butte during its heyday, and like many residents they had Though Mike didn’t grow up coming to Montana, he deep ties to mining. His great-grandfather, John Harrison listened to his grandmother Ina’s stories—one involving McCready, was born in Grangeville, Idaho, in 1892, and riding a donkey around town—of growing up in Butte. >>

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McCready’s grandmother, Doris Fletcher, shoots a gun outside of Roundup, Montana, in the early 1900s. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE MCCREADY

Doris Fletcher (second from right, bottom row) played on the Billings Business College Basketball team in the 1930s. She was an avid basketball player and was also the ladies golf club champion in Roundup, Montana. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE MCCREADY

In a way, Montana has been ingrained in him since he was young, but life gets in the way—especially the rock ‘n’ roll version where so much time is spent on the road. When the COVID-19 pandemic canceled a year’s worth of Pearl Jam concert dates, though, McCready and his young family lit out for the mountains. “I want my kids to be here right now,” he says, noting that most winter days include skiing and snowboarding sessions sandwiched between online school classes. “They shred, and it makes me so proud that they get to ski here.” • • • • Roundup, Montana, couldn’t be more different than Butte. Situated on the Musselshell River about an hour north of Billings, it’s one of those places that people say have more cows and horses than people. In the early 1900s, however, and much like Butte, mining took center stage in

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A letter informing Doris Fletcher that she was a finalist for America’s Most Beautiful Woman, a contest held by Physical Culture Magazine in 1937. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE MCCREADY

the area’s development. But it was coal, not copper, that miners pulled from the earth. McCready’s greatgreat-grandfather on his mother’s side, Henry Fletcher, helped start the Klein coal mine outside of Roundup in 1907 after moving there from Illinois. The mine produced coal for the locomotives running the Milwaukee Railroad, and workers laid its tracks to Roundup that same year. At one point the mine had more than 500 workers, and a post office was in operation from 1909-1957. Klein’s population was about 1,500 in 1917, with another 2,000 living in Roundup, and that year the mine produced nearly 400,000 tons of coal.

These images show the plane’s builder, David Comstock (upper left) and McCready’s grandmother, Doris Fletcher (upper right) in the early 1930s. Known for being adventurous, at one point Doris flew the plane for 45 minutes above the town of Roundup, Montana. The plane was fully restored in 2007 and now sits in the Musselshell Valley Historical Museum in Roundup. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE MCCREADY / RECENT PLANE PHOTO BY DALE ALGER

Mining was, of course, dangerous work, and Fletcher was killed in a mining accident in 1917 at age 53. He left behind a wife and two children, one of which also worked in the mine. “He was so loved by the miners that they called him Dad,” notes Louise McCready, Mike’s mother and Fletcher’s great granddaughter. “He died inspecting the mine, when a large chunk of coal fell on him.” Henry’s son and McCready’s greatgrandfather, Earl Roy Fletcher, was a shift boss at the mine, and later ran the post office. He passed away in Seattle in 1967, a year after Mike was born, leaving his wife, Emma, and two children, Doris and Alice. Doris, McCready’s grandmother, was born inside the Klein Post Office in 1915. She was six when the family moved to Roundup, where, by all accounts, the family enjoyed good living in a picturesque, small Montana town. Doris liked to swim, fish, raise and sell rabbits, and golf—she was three-time Roundup Golf Club women’s champion in her late teens. She was considered a firecracker, always up for an adventure, and was proud to have a Red Cross life-saving insignia. In the early 1930s, Doris and her high school boyfriend, David Comstock, flew in his homebuilt airplane—complete with a Ford Model A engine—above Roundup and Doris took the controls for 45 minutes. The plane, a 1932 Pietenpol, was fully restored in 2007 and now sits in Roundup’s Musselshell Valley Historical Museum. “When her parents, Earl and Emma Fletcher, found out about it, that was the end of mom’s flying career,” says Louise Wiepke McCready, Doris’ daughter. At the same time she met her future husband, Henry Wiepke, Doris entered a contest through the then-popular Physical Culture magazine, run by media mogul Bernarr MacFadden. She was given an all-expenses paid trip to New York City for the final judging. Doris and Henry were married in 1938, moving to California in 1948 before settling in Seattle in 1949. She passed away in 1997, but never forgot the memories she made in Montana. >>

THE PLANE, A 1932 PIETENPOL, WAS FULLY RESTORED IN 2007 AND NOW SITS IN ROUNDUP’S MUSSELSHELL VALLEY HISTORICAL MUSEUM. M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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PHOTO BY KENE SPERRY

• • • •

Now that McCready and his family spend more time in Montana, his appreciation has grown for what his ancestors went through in those early days. “I’m definitely not as strong as these people,” he says, smiling on the back deck of his Big Sky home, a fire roaring in the outdoor fireplace. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.” And his children wouldn’t be in Montana either, something that’s not lost on one of the best-known rock guitarists in the world, one who now seems right at home at his cabin in the woods. “I think it’s critical that they can be out here in Montana at this time,” he says. “I love it. I’m so happy.”

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INSIDER’S GUIDE SECTION: SUBHEAD

2021

On a mild spring evening, music fills the air in Helena, Montana, while locals and visitors crowd the pavement at the historic Helena Walking Mall. Friendly dogs meander with owners, delicious smells waft from restaurant kitchens and Big Dipper Ice Cream is ready, just a hop away, to satisfy your sweet tooth. This bustling social scene is rapidly becoming a staple in Montana’s capital city as the beer brewing scene flourishes. With three new breweries opening in the past five years, there are plenty of new brews and local niches to check out as you explore Helena. The vibrant city boasts several local craft breweries offering a rotating selection of new brews, live music and even the occasional food truck. Read on for insider tips on how to best navigate a tour of this up-and-coming brewery scene, and do it like a pro.

HELENA’S BOOMING BREWERY SCENE BY GABRIELLE GASSER

COPPER FURROW BREWING

HELENA, MT

While it’s still light out, drive a few minutes north toward Copper Furrow Brewing and its inviting outdoor patio. After years of brewing beer, a group of three couples opened Copper Furrow Brewing in 2018 to craft their own unique libations. Chemist and co-owner Nick Diehl collaborates with business partner David McKeever to dream up kooky concoctions like Barney’s Trouble, a sour beer brewed with, what else? Fruity Pebbles. But don’t knock it until you try it—it’s puckery and delicious. Stop by the social taproom and take a seat outside to sample one of the 12 brews on draught. copperfurrow.com

HEADWATERS CRAFTHOUSE Waste no time and start your tour right when you roll into town. Hop off U.S. Highway 287 and start by grabbing a flight of beers on the sunny patio of Headwaters Crafthouse. The taproom, run by Joanie and Michael More, partners with local breweries as well as bigger national names to offer a selection of 40 different brews on tap. Inside, a north-facing window provides a classic view of “Sleeping Giant” mountain snoozing in the distance. While kicking back and soaking in the views, be sure to check out the local food truck of the day for locally famous barbeque or a gourmet charcuterie box. headwaterscrafthouse.com 112

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GUIDE: HELENA BREWERIES

LEWIS & CLARK BREWING COMPANY For a casual breather before hitting downtown, take a beat to check out this historic paint-factory-turned-brewery. The labyrinthine Lewis & Clark brew building features a maze of staircases, event rooms for rent and museum-like seating areas that you can explore while sampling their classic products. Inspired by none other than the famous Meriwether and William, Lewis & Clark Brewing’s style is shaped by a pioneer spirit. The sprawling taproom is an ideal spot to unwind and catch weekly live music while sipping on one of their seven flagship brews. If you’re feeling fruity and adventurous, try the Huckleberry Hefe for a tart yet refreshing beer. lctaproom.com

TEN MILE CREEK BREWERY Live music, a bustling crowd and chance encounters with Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins characterize the experience at Ten Mile Creek Brewery, situated in the historic Helena Walking Mall. Order from the 11 beers on the wall, grab a camp chair from the communal bucket and park yourself in the courtyard. The third brewery to open in Helena in 2015, Ten Mile Creek Brewery is a small and innovative brew house that focuses on using locally sourced ingredients. With new beers every two weeks, you can frequent Ten Mile and keep your taste buds entertained with options like a Blackberry Sour or a Lemongrass Ginger Wheat Ale. tenmilecreekbrewing.com

BLACKFOOT RIVER BREWING COMPANY After swearing off bad beer, two of Blackfoot River Brewing’s founders, Brian Smith and Brad Simshaw, spent years experimenting in Simshaw’s basement to create the best taste possible. A third founder, Greg Wermers, joined the team in 1995 and three years later the trio opened Blackfoot River Brewing Company, focused on making high-quality, handcrafted beers. After grabbing your brew, head upstairs to the deck and enjoy the view of Anchor and Fire Tower parks. If you’re fresh off the river or a bike ride, you’ll fit right in here. Each week, Blackfoot serves two unique ales hand pumped by an old-style beer engine. blackfootriverbrewing.com

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A tumbling ribbon of water connects Lough Nalacken to Lough Cruttia on the River Owenmore in County Kerry, one of the many river systems where brown trout and Atlantic salmon can be caught on the fly. COURTESY OF INLAND FISHERIES IRELAND

ADVENTURE: LANE LAMOREAUX

Regaining L ift One paraglider’s journey of healing and reinvention BY BELLA BUTLER

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During the filming of feature documentary titled Flowing Air, Lane Lamoreaux soars his paragliding wing above the Snake River at Swan Falls, Idaho on Jan. 27, 2019. Six years prior, a paragliding accident at California’s Soboba Flight Park nearly cost him his life and now Lamoreaux faces his “alive day” with an annual sunset flight in remembrance. PHOTO BY SETH DAHL

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It s a windy day in Phoenix, Arizona, and Lane Lamoreaux has just paraglided from a summit in the South Mountains. Now that his flight is over, it’s time to make the 2,500-foot ascent back to the top where his truck is parked. In the past, this climb would be a breezy hour for Lamoreaux, but today it’s proving difficult. The ground is covered with loose, decomposing granite, and his prosthetic leg is slowing him down. He stops halfway up and sits on a rock to talk with me on the phone. The cotton sock and gel liner that cover his residual limb, which ends a few inches below his knee, are soaked with sweat and his prosthetic won’t move with his leg. “Fortunately, I’m in Phoenix so things dry quickly,” he says in a remarkably patient tone. “I’ll wait here for an hour.” The wet sock nearly guarantees a blister or even infection— an especially dire situation for amputees. But Lamoreaux is resilient, and he adapts. Lamoreaux took up paragliding in 2006 after his motorcycle was stolen. He’d had a few close calls on the bike as well and took it as a sign and used the insurance money to buy a paraglider. Next to his shoes, the glider became his only form of transportation. Seven years later, Lamoreaux crashed. Big. Camped at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in California, Lamoreaux and his friends woke up encased in fog. They sipped coffee and watched the cloud base slowly lift before heading up to the launch site. They heard it was windy. Lamoreaux checked the weather advisory to make a thorough analysis. Yeah, it’s windy, he thought, but these are stratus clouds. They’re stable. After two hours of flying, Lamoreaux began rollicking in the mellow conditions, intentionally losing altitude and using the wind and ridges to regain lift. Above the mountain he saw a patch of sky open up, divine beams of sunlight pouring through the gap in the clouds. A few minutes later, he noticed the numbers dropping on his groundspeed measurement device. In seconds it fell from 12 mph to six, and then two. Almost instantaneously, it then shot to 36 mph—backwards. An accident investigator hired by Lamoreaux’s insurance company would later call this “an act of God.” In meteorology, it’s called a microburst—a localized column of sinking air that trapped Lamoreaux in 60 mph winds. Lamoreaux deployed his backup parachute, but in the sinking air it only acted as a weight expediting his plummet. “I fell from such a height that I just remember I had to take a gasp,” he recalls. “I couldn’t just scream the whole time.” His right leg hit the ground first. The force drove his femur through his pelvis and into his ribs, his own body a weapon severing internal organs and arteries. His parachute inflated, dragging him roughly 200 feet across the firescoured ridge he’d landed on. A friend landed nearby to cut him free of the parachute and radio for help. Lamoreaux survived flatlining during the helicopter evacuation to the hospital, where he lay in a coma for nine weeks fighting an excruciating battle for his life. 122

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Lamoreaux recounts his “alive day” paragliding flight in a moment of gratefulness and reverence after an accident exactly six years prior nearly cost him his life. PHOTO BY SETH DAHL

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As one of only three American competitors, Lamoreaux soars through the sky above Guatemala on March 19, 2021, in the country’s first official paragliding competition. PHOTO BY LANE LAMOREAUX

TOP: Lamoreaux preps for his “alive day” flight above Swan Falls. Before his accident in 2013, Lamoreaux was a devoted and passionate smokejumper in Idaho. PHOTO BY SETH DAHL BOTTOM: Lamoreaux explores his new passion for sharing his experience of adaptation and resiliency as a speaker at the 2021 TEDxBigSky event in January. To wrap up his talk, Lamoreaux stretched out his arms, closed his eyes and said, “Keep flying.” PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

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A native of Tucson, Arizona, Lamoreaux grew up in a Mormon family. Around the time he hit puberty, he became acutely aware of how his religious identity made him different. While his friends enjoyed the weekends, his family would spend three grueling hours every Sunday in church. He was the son of a bishop, and he watched his peers begin holding hands and dating, things the Church of Latter-day Saints prohibits at young ages. At 13, long before his accident would push him to confront life and its meaning, Lamoreaux became a closeted Buddhist. Later, he’d take on one of the most exalted theological tenets: fate. “I don’t feel like the universe has created a script for everyone and that things are just going to ‘be as they should,’” he says. “I think the world’s a lot more dynamic than that … It involves a lot more of our contribution, which puts us in a position to take ownership.” For example, if everything happens for a reason, Lamoreaux posits, the reason he crashed was gravity. After waking from his coma and recognizing the limitations of his new body, Lamoreaux spent his nights grieving the memories of his former self, a man he likely wouldn’t be again. With zero cartilage in his right hip, doctors would eventually amputate his right leg. This new physical reality meant bidding goodbye to many ways he identified himself before the accident. Lamoreaux was a former U.S. Marine, marathon runner, competitive cyclist, devoted wildland firefighter—smokejumper, specifically— and of course, paraglider. These weren’t just activities for him; they were him.

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Lamoreaux soars his paragliding wing above the Snake River at Swan Falls, Idaho on Jan. 27, 2019 in remembrance of his “alive day.” PHOTO BY SETH DAHL

During recovery, Lamoreaux would close his eyes and go to the sky. He knew he’d return to paragliding, and it became his motivation to recover. He needed to walk. Just a few steps, he thought, to launch off the mountain. When we relinquish the concept of fate, we also gain agency. Dr. MC McDonald, a trauma researcher, believes this is where we might take note of the existentialists’ polemic. “They’re so aware of the fact that having complete responsibility over ourselves is both freeing and terrifying at the same time,” McDonald said in an interview from her California home last spring. “You’re the only one who is going to decide what your life is going to mean.” McDonald, whose work intersects neuroscience, psychology and critical philosophy, says our memory files are made up of three components. There’s the narrative, or what happened from start to finish; the emotional content, if it makes us laugh or cry; and the meaning we assign to a memory. She argues that we are the authors of our own perception, and that we can answer the question of meaning anytime. “Our power to reframe and reinvent is endless,” she wrote in a 2020 essay. Following his grieving period, Lamoreaux would come to grasp the complexity of this power: What came next was up to him. “I had to decide who I was going to be and what I was going to be,” he said. “Those aren’t easy decisions to make, especially

when you’re being forced via external events like trauma.” Lamoreaux invested in camera gear and began making training videos for the National Fire Center, something he always wanted to do. And eventually he made it back into the sky. Last spring, Lamoreaux returned from Colombia where he had spent 127 hours paragliding in the Andes. “I lived an exciting life, but that life has, like all things, come to a close,” he said. “I just so happened to be in this unique position where I cannot only live one extraordinary life but also get the opportunity to have a bonus life.” Back in Phoenix, Lamoreaux is cresting the mountain, his truck in sight as we finish our phone call. In a few hours, he’ll leave for Guatemala to compete as one of only two Americans in an exclusive paragliding competition. It’s hard to tell if he’s aware of the anomalous paradox of the last two hours as he orated the tale of a near-fatal accident while climbing a mountain with a prosthetic leg, his paraglider hoisted above his head, navigating a turbulent ascent. Perhaps it’s the seamless alchemy of trauma and creation that make him so humbly unaware of his own remarkableness. Lamoreaux would say it’s resilience, but not the kind you read about in physics: the ability to return back to an original form. His own definition of resilience: adaptation, reinvention and the pursuit of regaining lift.

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Casting to trout by the 15th century ruins of the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul on the River Boyne. PHOTO BY SHANE O’REILLY/ INLAND FISHERIES IRELAND

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TRAVEL: FISHING IN IRELAND

The low-down on fly fishing in Ireland BY BAY STEPHENS

When you hear “Ireland,” you might think leprechauns, Guinness and rain. But how about wild brown trout, salmon and bass?

Few realize how popular fly fishing is on the Emerald Isle—perhaps even more popular than in Montana. While the Montanan angler knows her fair share of mountainframed streams, what lines the waterways of Ireland are ancient stone castles and millennia of rich history. “The reason I love these places is the story behind [them],” says Daire Whelan, host of the podcast Ireland on the Fly. “You’re fishing in a place of history, you know.” Montana and Ireland have long been kindred spirits. Indeed, many Irish immigrants streamed to Butte in the late 19th century to work in the copper mines for their countryman Marcus Daly, one of the Copper Kings who made a killing in Butte’s heyday. Along with angling, Ireland brims with pastoral landscapes, austere coasts, warm locals and a thriving pub culture. A fly-fishing trip here doubles as a stroll back in time

Salmon on the fly: The king fish

The salmon flashes its way down through Irish mythology and history. It stamped Ireland’s 10 pence coin before the euro, annual salmon festivals dot the island in the summer, and all Irish children know the peculiar folktale of The Salmon of Knowledge, entailing a salmon in the River Boyne that contains all the knowledge in the world— knowledge that could be transferred to whosoever can catch and eat it. However, for 800 years Ireland’s salmon rivers were owned

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TOP: Fisheries scientist Ken Whelan casts for brownies on the River Awbeg in front of the town of Castletownroche, County Cork. PHOTO BY DAVID LAMBROUGHTON BOTTOM: A fresh-run Irish salmon caught on the fly. 2020 saw a notable uptick of salmon catches, which some scientists attributed to the cool weather that was characteristic of 40 years ago. PHOTO BY CHRISTIN BREUKER

by and reserved for the aristocratic English elite. Only since Irish independence a century ago did this divide dissolve so that many guides today consider salmon fishing affordable for the average person. But Atlantic salmon are difficult to catch, especially on the fly, as premier salmon guide Glenda Powell

elucidates: These fish don’t feed in freshwater. If “the tug is the drug” when it comes to fly fishing for other quarry, the salmon tug is a hard drug, according to Powell, because it requires so much practice and patience. “The angler who wants to catch a few fish per day, possibly, they will go trout fishing,” Powell says. “Somebody who does not care about catching a fish and will patiently wait for possibly a week or more, they’re salmon anglers.” Though Atlantic salmon have been in decline since the ‘90s, the summer of 2020 saw a dramatic uptick in the number of salmon being caught. Most summers Powell hopes a client catches one fish. But last summer she saw rookie anglers snagging three salmon in a day. While many hope conservation efforts yielded the improved season, fisheries scientist Ken Whelan thinks it’s more likely attributed to 2020’s cool and rainy weather, emulating typical Irish summers of 40 years ago. “I really, really want to be wrong,” says Whelan, an avid fisherman. “Of course, I want to see this as the beginning of the improvement.”

Trout: The people’s fish

While salmon were historically reserved for wealthy aristocrats, angling for wild brown trout has always been accessible to the Irish layperson. Though brown trout abound in Irish rivers, such as the Suir in County Tipperary, lough (Irish for “lake”) fishing is a traditional mode of seeking out “brownies.” Every May, the 27-mile-long Lough Corrib draws anglers from across the republic and U.K. for what’s known as “Mayfly Madness.” Groups post up on the hundreds of islands across the lake to cook fish, steaks, potatoes and stir-fries, washing it all down with glasses of wine. “They’d nearly spend longer on the islands than they would fishing,” says Lough Corrib guide Tom Doc Sullivan. The “Doc” in his name was the Irish way his community differentiated him from other Tom Sullivans in the area; his dad was the village doctor, so his son became Tom Doc. The traditional belief is that if you visit Lough Corrib in May you’ll leave with a bag of fish, but weather plays a large role, says Sullivan. Ideal conditions include cloud cover and wind off the nearby Atlantic, which the 20-year guide employs to drift his timber boat over the best lies, casting wet flies with the breeze so that each cast plies new water. Sullivan says the best way to experience lough fishing is to stay in a country bed-and-breakfast near the water for several days, allowing short commutes to fishing and a taste of rural Irish life. And book a full day.

TOP: Anglers select flies on the shore of Lough Mask, located just north of Lough Corrib and Galway, while a curious goat looks on. PHOTO COURTESY OF INLAND FISHERIES IRELAND MIDDLE: Irish guide Tom Doc Sullivan marvels at what he refers to as the “Melvin Monster,” one of a subspecies of brown trout called Ferox—Latin for ferocious—that he caught on Lough Melvin in 2017. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM DOC SULLIVAN BOTTOM: Most guides in Ireland will have tackle, rods, waders and any other equipment visiting anglers will need to wet their lines and rip lips while on the Emerald Isle. PHOTO COURTESY OF INLAND FISHERIES IRELAND

Though brown trout abound in Irish rivers, such as the Suir in County Tipperary, lough (Irish for “lake”) fishing is a traditional mode of seeking out “brownies.” M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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Irish sea bass: The ocean’s pull A sport growing in popularity on the Emerald Isle is fly fishing for sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, not to be confused with North American striped bass, Morone saxatilis) off the west and south coasts. John Quinlan, a guide who owns Thatch Cottage Fishing Lodge with his wife, has built a livelihood around bass fly fishing in County Kerry. Fly fishing for bass in Ireland is somewhat of an adventure. Executed from shore, bass angling involves clambering over the rocky coastline or wading into the surf on “storm beaches” where the water stays shallow far out into the Atlantic. “Even people who originally came for salmon, I think many of them now prefer the bass,” Quinlan says. “They’ve changed their mind[s].” Quinlan also takes anglers after fish that are new to Irish shores. Golden-grey mullet and triggerfish are two of the subtropical species that have migrated north due to warming oceans. Offshore fishing vessels even catch blue-finned tuna and albacore nowadays.

Beyond the fly

TOP: Called “storm beaches,” areas where the water deepens only gradually as one wades further from shore are great spots for casting flies to sea bass swimming nearby. PHOTO BY MARKUS MULLER BOTTOM: A beautiful Irish sea bass hooked on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTIN BREUKER

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The Irish are renowned for their bed and breakfast locales, offering quaint and cozy accommodations paired with great food. Car rentals are cheap and, as long as you’re comfortable driving stick on the left side of the road (and the car), allow the optimal flexibility for a 7-10-day trip. They say the Guinness in Ireland tastes better than anywhere else (they’re right). When you settle in with your “pint o’ plain” at the local pub after a grand day fly fishing, don’t forget to salute your neighbor. Sláinte! Visit fishinginireland.info or check out the “Ireland on the Fly” podcast for more information about fly fishing in Ireland. Bay Stephens is a former Mountain Outlaw associate editor and lived in Ireland when the pandemic hit in spring of 2020. He now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, working odd jobs and writing as much as he can.

Ireland’s fly-fishing guides • Glenda Powell – Salmon »» Killmurry, County Waterford »» blackwatersalmonfishery.com • Tom Doc Sullivan – Brown trout »» Cornamona, County Galway »» tomdoc.com • John Quinlan – Sea Bass »» Cahersiveen, County Kerry »» kerrybassfishing.com

In Montana, fishing isn’t just a hobby.

It’s a way of life.

The fishing shop you can’t miss • Rory’s Fishing Tackle »» If you fly into Dublin, Rory’s ought to be your first stop before leaving the city to touch base with the local fishing community as soon as possible. »» Dublin City »» rorys.ie

Lodging • Crannmor Country Guest House »» A 45-minute drive from the Dublin Airport, this accommodation offers fishing guide services with Marc O’Regan, a first-class guide, locals say. »» Trim, County Meath »» crannmor.com • The Helm »» A bar, restaurant and hotel with a great reputation located on Ireland’s west coast, with all manner of fishing nearby. »» Westport, County Mayo »» thehelm.ie • The Munster Arms Hotel »» The River Bandon runs right through town, with salmon, brown trout and sea trout swallowing flies throughout its waters, just a short walk from the hotel. »» Bandon, County Cork »» munsterarmshotel.ie • Fairhill House Hotel »» Fairhill House Hotel—or “Eddie’s,” as the locals know it—has a long reputation of catering to anglers fishing loughs Mask and Corrib. It’s a cozy, quaint lodging quintessential of Ireland. »» Clonbur, County Galway »» fairhillhouse.com • Delphi Resort Hotel »» An upscale lodging option that locals consider stunning in all respects—with a salmon river running right alongside the property. »» Leenane, County Galway »» delphiadventureresort.com

Introducing Simms Trout U gear at the MSU Bookstore.

TROUT U

Where passion meets performance. montana.edu/bobcatspirit/troutu

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TO P WATC H E S F O R M O U N TA I N AT H L E T E S BY BRIGID MANDER

POLAR GRIT X: Polar is a Finnish company with decades of sports computer and heart rate monitor development experience. The Grit is a foray into GPS watches and provides plenty of detailed, accurate fitness and GPS bang for the buck. It’s comparable with the Garmin, but without preloaded maps and not quite as seamless of an experience with the accompanying Flow app. But, it’s solid and nearly half the fēnix price. $430, polar.com

SUUNTO 7 WEAR OS: A capable, civilized touchscreen GPS sports watch, the 7 tracks legions of activities and integrates Google’s Wear OS to up this model’s lifestyle/smartwatch game. Wear OS has Google Pay, Play, Fit and Assistant, so you can ask your watch all sorts of questions, and even respond to Android texts and emails while following your waypoints to a summit. Battery life is only a few days, so the 7 is best for local missions. $400, suunto.com

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MY SIDE

ADVENTURE: GEAR

For many years, I avoided any watch touting smart, fitness or GPS capacities. I preferred to run around like a Paleolithic throwback, assessing miles based on trailhead signs or physical exhaustion, and navigate via paper maps rather than clumsy user interfaces, dead batteries when you need actual navigation, and wrist discs so large they catch on tree branches.

But as the pandemic inspired throngs of newbies out of the gym and into the outdoors, fitness and GPS smartwatches have really upped their game in form and function. Even the dubious (me) are impressed. Options abound for the different goals of burgeoning or expert outdoor athletes. Here, we highlight a few top options.

PHOTO BY ANDREW JAKOVAC

COROS PACE 2: A brilliantly designed, minimalist athlete’s tool, the Pace 2 packs a big punch from 5-year-old industry newcomer COROS. The user interface, setup and function are intuitive and sleek: no phone or data analyst needed for interpretation. Streamlined features, easy to use scroll/button orientation, along with the lightest weight (29 grams), longest battery (20 days) and thinnest profile make this a standout. It’s won various accolades, and is by far the easiest on your wallet. $199, coros.com

GARMIN FĒNIX 6S PRO SOLAR: This sleek GPS watch has your back from neighborhood training to an Andean expedition, with GPS statistics, maps, analytics spanning sleep quality to fitness progress, sport-specific tracking and more. Depending on GPS usage, the battery lasts 25 hours to over a month, given the watch face doubles as a solar charger. And the gadget itself can connect to your InReach device and serve as SOS button, for a serious adventure and dependable training buddy. $800, garmin.com

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EXPLORE: IDAHO’S FALL RIVER

BY MARIA WYLLIE

nly my hands and face were exposed to the relentless mosquitos, but I could still feel them biting through my DEET-soaked clothes. “This must be what it’s like in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters,” I thought. It was early July, normally my favorite time on the river. But instead of the bikinilounging, beer-drinking river float I’d hoped for, I was wearing wool socks with my Chacos. My warm campfire clothes had turned into 24/7 protection. The four of us ate dinner inside our tents that first night, at Alta, Wyoming’s Cave Falls Campground on the banks of the Fall River. In the morning, I awoke to a thick blanket of the tiny devils covering my tent, testing me, or perhaps warning me of what lay downstream. Convinced it would be better on the water, we slid the boats down the steep, overgrown riverbank, shotgunned a beer and pushed off. The two rafts were packed full with every convenience: coolers, fishing gear, cooking equipment, tables, chairs,

hammocks, Paco pads, and even a groover to make that most important of experiences more comfortable. We were dialed for an epic, multiday float trip down a new river. The only thing missing was more bug spray. Relief and a feeling of freedom washed over me as the river carried us beneath bluebird skies and the beating sun. A cool breeze kept the mosquitos at bay, and all was right in the world. I knew my 18-month-old son was safe with my parents. I could finally unplug, decompress and just be. The Fall River begins in Yellowstone National Park’s remote Cascade Corner and continues south for 64 miles, dropping 3,800 feet until it reaches the confluence of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River near Ashton, Idaho. Recommended primarily as a wading river for anglers, we found little beta planning the 20-mile stretch between Cave Falls and the Fall River Hydroelectric Plant. We only knew of one cement diversion dam that we could either run river right, depending on flow, or portage. >>

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Sheep Falls was a massive waterfall, barreling over lava ledges and running through narrow basalt canyon walls with force and fury.

Looking down on Sheep Falls as we scout the rapids. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

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There were more unknowns than usual, but Kyle and Ryan, first cousins with 25 years’ experience running rivers together, were confident they could pull it off. The current ran fast with whitecapped rapids pushing us along; we must have covered five miles in two hours. When the water slowed, we experienced an eerie silence followed by the sound of big water crashing. A veil of mist rose from behind a large lava boulder blocking our view of what lay ahead. We pulled the boats ashore to scout the rapid and hiked along the rising shoreline to the top of a 20-foot cliff, mosquitos giving chase. Mist rose from below, and we looked down upon the roaring Sheep Falls. It was a massive waterfall, barreling over lava ledges and running through narrow basalt canyon walls with force and fury, a tumultuous channel of white foam demanding respect. “It takes your breath away,” said Kyle, mesmerized by the raw beauty and power. But this was no diversion dam. How

could we have missed this in our research? My heart dropped into my stomach. There was no way around, not that I could see. The river opened up at the base of canyon, the water only slightly less turbulent, and the men plotted an entry, weighing the consequences. My mind spiraled around “what ifs.” Fears of dying and leaving my young son behind blurred with frustration for even being in this situation, which led to anger about the goddamned bugs, and then fears of inadequacy and displacement. “What am I doing here?” I thought. “I’m a city girl with un-callused hands who just happens to live in Montana.” I wanted to cry. My biggest fear was being useless. I wanted to help but also didn’t want to get in the way. Kyle and Ryan blazed a trail for the rafts as they brainstormed pulley systems to lower the boats down the steep, 60-foot hillside and into the Class V rapid. It was our only choice; they had to get me, Ryan’s wife Dixie and Zeke the dog safely off the

river. But they needed encouragement. “That I can do,” I thought. Suddenly, the bugs didn’t seem so bad. Strengthening my resolve, I decided to ignore the swarm of mosquitos gnawing on me. If I was going to help, I couldn’t let them get in my way. We ate dinner quietly and quickly at our camp atop the waterfall; it was clear we had fully shifted from vacation mode to survival mission. “Guess I didn’t need to bring my fishing rig!” Ryan joked. In the morning, splattered mosquitos peppered my eggs. “Take this!” I thought, swallowing them without hesitation, disgusted and surprisingly satisfied at the same time. Extra protein? I began hauling gear down the steep single-track trail that meandered through the willows to the base of the canyon. Backand-forth, up-and-down I went, again and again. With each heavy load, I felt myself growing stronger. Walking along that trail, watching my feet carry me, I was reminded to stay calm and focused—to remain present as we tackled each obstacle step by step.

TOP LEFT: After a long morning portaging boats and gear around Sheep Falls, the writer is ready to get back on the river. PHOTO BY KYLE MACVEAN TOP MIDDLE: A view of the put-in at the base of Sheep Falls. Violent rapids allowed no room for error. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE TOP RIGHT: Kyle and Ryan rig their boats, carefully strapping down gear (and Zeke) in preparation for a challenging launch at the base of Sheep Falls. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

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BOTTOM: Ryan and Kyle enjoy a brief respite from the mosquitos at our camp atop Sheep Falls. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

Capturing the beauty and power of Sheep Falls’ turbulent waters in the early evening light. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

REACH YOUR FINANCIAL SUMMIT

I couldn’t change the bugs or the river or the canyon walls or the trees that forced us to carry the boats up the steep hillside, but I could control my point of view. And being in charge of that made the difference. Holding tightly to the line, I kept one foot on the boat and one foot on shore as we prepared to launch. My job was to make sure the river’s fury didn’t sweep our boat away. I proudly assumed my position. -We covered 15 miles that day and portaged the boats three more times. Along with mosquitos, I learned I don’t like dams. But anything seemed doable after Sheep Falls. Nearing the takeout, we caught some big flowing wave trains that rewarded our hard work. The gift, however, was short lived. There was no boat ramp in sight, a metal ladder our only way out. We deflated the boats and began unloading and hauling once more. Up-and-down, back-and-forth. A smile grew on my face, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Maria Wyllie is a writer and marketing professional based in Bozeman, Montana. While she proudly identifies with her Richmond, Virginia roots, she’s forever grateful for the lessons learned while exploring the mountains and rivers of the American West. M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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Morning Glory Pool at Old Faithful Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. PHOTO BY DANIEL J. COX/NATURALEXPOSURES.COM

Y O U R G U I D E T O A M E R I C A’ S F I R S T N AT I O N A L P A R K G A L L E RY / 1 4 8 M A P & PA R K I N F O R M AT I O N / 1 5 6 EXPLORE / 158 FLORA AND FAUNA / 162

Lightning strikes near a herd of American bison (Bison bison) in Yellowstone National Park. PHOTO BY DANIEL J. COX/NATURALEXPOSURES.COM

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Up-close view of geode inside petrified wood NPS / JACOB W. FRANK

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Land snail on Sepulcher Mountain Trail / NEAL HERBERT

Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) perched on a branch NPS / JACOB W. FRANK

A great gray owl (Strix nebulosa) hunts near the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in fall. PHOTO BY DANIEL J. COX/ NATURALEXPOSURES.COM

Stellar's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) perched in a tree NPS / JACOB W. FRANK

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Black wolf pups explore Elk Park Meadow near Norris Geyser Basin. Just one white wolf currently exists in Yellowstone, the alpha female of the Wapiti pack. PHOTO BY JOHN LAYSHOCK

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Morels have a short growing season from April to June. This darker morel was found near West Yellowstone, Montana. PHOTO BY JOHN LAYSHOCK

Grizzly near Swan Lake / NEAL HERBERT

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ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY DZINTARS

SEC TION: SUBHEAD

YELLOWSTONE AND GRAND TETON ENTRANCE FEES: Vehicles $35 per vehicle to visit each individual park, good for seven days.

Access Pass Free for U.S. citizens or permanent residents with permanent disabilities.

Motorcycles or snowmobiles $30 for each park, good for seven days.

Military Annual Pass Free annual pass available for active duty military personnel and their dependents.

Individual (foot/bicycle/ski, etc.) $20 per person for each park, good for seven days. Annual passes $70 for each individual park. An $80 America the Beautiful Pass is valid for entry to all fee areas on federal lands and is valid for one year. Senior Passes $80 lifetime pass, or $20 annual pass, available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents age 62 or older.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUMMER UPDATES: For 2021, the following Grand Loop Road from Tower–Roosevelt to Canyon Village will be closed. Additionally, there will be no trail access to Mount Washburn.

Free Entrance Days August 4: One year anniversary of the Great Outdoors Act. August 25: National Park Service birthday. September 26: National Public Lands Day. November 11: Veterans Day.

2021 Fall Closing Dates Roads will close to regular vehicles on the following dates: October 12: Cooke City to Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, Beartooth Highway (US 212 to Red Lodge, Montana). November 8: All roads close at 8 a.m. except the road between the North Entrance and the Northeast Entrance.

Due to COVID-19, park access and amenities may not be available at full capacity. Visit nps.gov/yell for timely updates.

Conditions in Yellowstone can change quickly. Check nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/ parkroads.htm for live updates on park road conditions and closures.

EXPLORE: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK APP Unsure where to begin your visit to Yellowstone’s 2-million-plus-acre terrain? Unable to make it to the park yourself this season? No worries— you can now visit virtually via the Yellowstone National Park App! The National Park Service’s Yellowstone App features live updates on the status of lodges, campgrounds, roads and even predictions for when the parks’ famous geysers will erupt. If you’re planning your trip to Yellowstone this summer, the app also reminds you when you’re near the places, topics or tours you marked as “interested in” once you arrive. Your trip is over, and you’re ready to share your Yellowstone photos with friends and family. The app lets you create a collage of your unique experience and plug in photos from your trip. The search bar feature allows users to browse by services or sites, finding everything you will need to know at your fingertips. Download the app and explore your Yellowstone today! – Tucker Harris

M T O U T L AW. C O M /

MOUNTAIN

BY EDNOR THERRIAULT

EXPLORE: DEVIL’S EVERYTHING

ow do you describe a place that’s indescribable? If you’re a mountain man, circa 1825, who’s stumbled upon the otherworldly landscape of the Yellowstone plateau, your frame of reference is largely religious. Whereas many of us Yellowstone buffs today call the park “heaven,” famed Montana trapper Jim Bridger went the other direction, describing it as “the place where Hell bubbled up.” The imagery stuck. Trappers, traders and explorers who blazed new trails into the American West in the early 1800s were notorious for tall tales and embellishments in the stories they sent back East, and Bridger, a contemporary of Hugh Glass, John Colter and other celebrated frontiersmen of the era, saved some of his wildest “alternative facts” for Yellowstone. The namesake for Bridger Canyon, Bridger Bowl and countless other locales, wrote of angling for trout in Yellowstone Lake and pulling them through a section of superheated water, yanking fully cooked fish ashore. He also claimed to have shot an elk near Obsidian Cliff and upon approaching the beast, which never moved a muscle, discovered that it was made of glass; obsidian, perhaps cleaved from the cliff. One wonders if Bridger’s mind had become warped from being too long in the wilderness, or maybe he’d scooped the wrong mushrooms into his larder. Bridger wasn’t the only early European-American explorer to ascribe qualities of Hades to Yellowstone’s unique geothermal character. Anything that looked like it had escaped from the depths of hell must have belonged, of course, to the Devil. By the time Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, the names of 60 places contained the word “devil,” and four had the word “hell.” Zero features contained the word “heaven.” Looking for Devil’s Den? Maybe that’s where you’d find Devil’s Inkstand. Perhaps to get there you’d climb Devil’s Stairway and take Devil’s Cut to the Devil’s Slide. Actually, the Devil’s Slide is located just outside the park, on the other side of Devil’s Gate. Early on, the park seemed to contain more devils than a New Jersey hockey rink. Historians believe that the devil-themed names were a fanciful reflection of the Romantic period, itself a reaction to the Enlightenment, an 18th-century movement that embraced science and dispassionate objectivity. The names certainly weren’t applied by Yellowstone’s earlier human inhabitants. National Park Service archeologists have found points carved from Obsidian Cliff stone near Yellowstone Lake that indicate the presence of indigenous hunters in the area at least 9,000 years ago. Surely, they had no such ties to scary, nonsecular imagery. Indeed, among later Native American tribes, Yellowstone was a sacred place regarded with reverence, not fear. A tour through Yellowstone today reveals a collection of names connected more to the people associated with the park than any references to Old Scratch. Once formal expeditions began “discovering” Yellowstone in the late 1860s, their tendency was to name the area’s features after themselves or someone they wished to honor. Mount Haynes, Gibbon Falls, Hayden Valley—it was first come, first named. Still, tributes to the Devil littered the landscape. >>

View from the Grand Prismatic Overlook Trail NPS / NEAL HERBERT

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In the early 20th century, many of the devilish names applied by the early white explorers were methodically expunged by park officials who were aghast at the references to Satan in their beloved Yellowstone. Chief among these Beelzebub buzzkills was Arnold Hague, a geologist appointed to the U.S. Geological Survey of Yellowstone in 1883. Having studied volcanoes in Guatemala and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim, this son of a New England Baptist preacher fell in love with Yellowstone and published a geological study in 1899 still praised today by geologists as the most extensive of its kind. Hague also fought for the conservation of the park’s resources, working to prevent a proposed railroad through the Lamar Valley, even suggesting that the park expand its borders to protect water sources. But man, those Luciferous names really stuck in his craw. “He wanted all of the devil names gone,” said Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey, “and he was in a position to get rid of them.” By the end of World War I, the bulk of the Satanic nomenclature had been replaced or removed, though many areas of the park survived this holy cleansing. The Devil’s Kitchen was one of them. This popular, if somewhat unpleasant, geological feature in the Upper Mammoth area operated well into the 20th century. This narrow gash in the earth provided access to a deep cavern created by an extinct hot spring. First explored in 1881, the steamy, dank cave became an official tourist attraction in 1884. Visitors clambered down a 50-foot wooden ladder to a cave floor littered with the bones of deer and other hapless creatures who’d fallen into the opening in the earth. It became so popular that a snack bar called the Devil’s Kitchenette opened nearby.

“By the time Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, the names of 60 places contained the word “devil,” and four had the word “hell.” Zero features contained the word “heaven.”

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FAR LEFT: The Devil’s Kitchenette was a small, sister-owned snack bar set up near the Devil’s Kitchen from 1908 to 1953 to provide cold drinks and refreshments for visitors to the Mammoth area. NPS YELLOWSTONE COLLECTION MIDDLE: Opening in 1884, the Devil’s Kitchen was among northern Yellowstone’s most popular attractions. Eager visitors would line up to descend a rickety wooden ladder into a steamy subterranean chamber, but it was closed in 1939 when dangerous levels of CO2 were discovered. NPS YELLOWSTONE COLLECTION RIGHT: Punch Bowl Spring near Old Faithful is easily accessible from its own boardwalk path. The bubbling bowl of raised sinter is 8 feet in diameter, and its name was changed from the Devil’s Punchbowl in the early 20th century. PHOTO BY EDNOR THERRIAULT

An entry in the Haynes Guide to Yellowstone reads, “Through a small opening … you descend a ladder into the kitchen. The peculiar damp and heated atmosphere of the interior produces a queer sensation and the desire to seek fresh air at once.” Turns out that “queer sensation” was probably the onset of carbon dioxide poisoning. Park officials closed the feature in 1939 after dangerous levels of CO2 were detected. Those who spent time in Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin will certainly understand the name reportedly given it by Rudyard Kipling in 1889. The geyser dome he’d dubbed Hell’s Half Acre is bordered by the Firehole River, which runs alongside the large moonscape that emits plumes of steam across its desolate surface. Here lies Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the United States. Adjacent to that eyepopping wonder is Excelsior, a steaming crater named by Col. Philetus Norris, the park’s second superintendent and no fan of devil-centric names. When that geyser last erupted in 1881, Norris seized on the opportunity to give it a more regal name to replace its original moniker, the Cauldron, a reference to the Devil’s Cookware. Speaking of cookware, Frying Pan Spring is a nice little roadside hot spring just north of the Norris Geyser Basin that offers a short, wheelchair-accessible boardwalk leading to a foul-smelling, olive-colored hot spring tucked into the forest. The surface of the water is broken by a constant, hissing riot of small bubbles, suggesting the sound and appearance of a sizzling frying pan. Back in the day this pool wasn’t just anyone’s frying pan. It was the Devil’s Frying Pan. The fabled Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition of 1870, widely credited with cooking up the idea of a national park, produced at least one name inspired by the Prince of Darkness. The man who would become the park’s first superintendent, Nathaniel P. Langford, stood in awe of the giant shale boulders

in the chasm below Tower Fall and wrote in his journal of a “huge mass sixty feet in height, which, from its supposed resemblance to the proverbial foot of his Satanic Majesty, we call the ‘Devil’s Hoof.’” Twenty miles to the west in Mammoth Hot Springs, a massive formation that looks like the nose cone of a rocket squats next to delicate travertine terraces. Devil’s Thumb is identified in an F.J. Haynes stereograph from the 1880s indicating the early application of that name. Of course, this raises the question: How can the Devil have a thumb and a hoof? You don’t have to be a cryptozoologist to sort this one out: Satan frequently is depicted as a satyr, the character from Greek mythology who’s half man, half goat. Also known as Pan, he’s usually playing a flute-like instrument called an aulos. [Side note: If Satan is truly evil incarnate, he’s likely playing “Baby Shark.”] After spending some time in Yellowstone, it’s easy to see how early explorers let their imaginations take a turn toward the underworld. With the biggest concentration of geysers and hot springs on Earth, it’s a freaky, fabulous and endlessly fascinating park. Places like Devil’s Staircase, a steep cliff rising from the Gardner River, and Devil’s Elbow, a hairpin turn on the treacherous Virginia Cascade Drive, maintain a little edge of danger and mystery thanks to the devilish motif used by those early Yellowstone visitors.

“the place where Hell bubbled up.”

From his home in Missoula, Ednor Therriault and his wife make frequent forays into Yellowstone. He’s authored seven books, including Myths and Legends of Yellowstone in 2018. Currently, he’s working on a book exploring the virtues of Montana for visitors traveling between Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.

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Yellowstone National Park

ANIMAL GUIDE Which animals can you spot in the park? Check them off as you see them!

BALD EAGLE

Bald eagles, the national symbol of the United States since 1782, are usually found near water where they feed on fish and waterfowl.

BISON

Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Yellowstone bison comprise the nation’s largest bison population on public land.

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BEAVER

Beavers are famous dam builders. Most dams are on small streams where the gradient is mild and the current is relatively placid during much of the year.

BLACK BEAR

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the few areas south of Canada where black bears coexist with grizzly bears. They’re commonly observed on the northern range and in the Bechler area of the park.

explorebigsky.com / Explore Yellowstone

BIGHORN SHEEP

Between 10 and 13 interbreeding bands of bighorn sheep occupy steep terrain in the upper Yellowstone River drainage. Mount Everts receives the most concentrated use by bighorn sheep year-round.

COUGAR

The cougar, also known as mountain lion, is the one of the largest cats in North America and a top predator native to Greater Yellowstone. They are seldom seen, but are tracked with strategic cameras.

COYOTES

Coyotes, also known as “song dogs,” communicate with each other by a variety of long-range vocalizations. You may hear groups or lone animals howling, especially during dawn and dusk periods.

MOUNTAIN GOAT

Both male and females have horns; females’ horns curve less, are thinner and are sometimes longer than males.

ELK

As Yellowstone’s most abundant large mammal, elk comprise approximately 85 percent of winter wolf kills and are an important food for bears, mountain lions, and scavenger species, including bald eagles and coyotes.

GRIZZLY BEAR

The grizzly bear is bigger than the black bear and has a large muscle mass above its shoulders, a concave facial profile, and more aggressive behavior.

MOOSE

Yellowstone moose are the smallest of four subspecies of moose in North America. Montana has noted a state-wide decline in moose populations due to forest fires and limited food and habitat availability.

MARTEN Marten are nocturnal and are often found in conifer forests with understory of fallen logs and stumps.

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GLENN CLOSE F I N D S H O M E I N M O N TA N A I N H E R T H I R D A C T, O N E O F H I S TO R Y ’ S G R E AT E S T A C T R E S S E S I S G A I N I N G A S E N S E O F P E A C E A N D F A M I LY I N B O Z E M A N BY TODD WILKINSON

Glenn Close soaks up the summer sun after a long morning fly fishing the Madison River.

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PHOTOS BY SEONAID B. CAMPBELL

SECTION: SUBHEAD

F E AT U R E D O U T L AW

In a part of town she fondly references as “Bozeman’s funky North Side,” Glenn Close, wearing faded blue jeans and a flannel shirt, answers the door knock. But Sir Pippin of Beanfield, her spirited, barking Havanese nicknamed Pips, beats her to the porch. A full year before the COVID pandemic arrived, Close left her longtime base of New York, settling in a quiet Bozeman neighborhood of modest homes that, from the outside, are inconspicuous and lack pretention. These days, the same can be said of Close herself. One of the first things you need to know straight away—and it’s something the movie star herself doesn’t mind making clear—is this: Close didn’t come to southwest Montana to inhabit a castle-sized trophy home, perched behind the wall of a chichi gated subdivision and manned by uniformed security guards to insulate her from being a member of the local community. In her case, being modest has done nothing to diminish her standing in the world. Only weeks after our get-together, Close appeared at the 2021 Academy Awards in Los Angeles where she was a nominee for Best Supporting Actress, earning praise for her gritty portrayal of surly blue-collar steel worker Mamaw in Hillbilly Elegy. In all, Close has been nominated for eight Oscars and is counted among the greatest and most versatile American actresses ever. Yet following a four-decade odyssey in which she’s brought unforgettable characters to the big screen, major theater productions and television dramas, at 74 she’s now coveting a personal prize that eluded her: reconnection to family. “I shot a film in Canada during the winter. It was fun and lovely but I was homesick, and I never used to get homesick,” says Close as we walk through her home, a mix of traditional moldings adorning its recent contemporary renovation. She’s discussing her sisters, Jessie who lives next door, and Tina, a painter who lives Close and her beloved Havanese dog, Sir Pippin of Beanfield. nearby. “Not only is Bozeman my home but I couldn’t wait to get back here. When I left to go to that job, Jessie the hospital will take mental-health issues more seriously. and Tina were there to see me off at the airport. It was so great. Or this side: the quiet wanderer with a lifelong passion for I’ve come to realize how much I dread going away.” rockhounding and who surrounds herself with billion-yearHere in the Northern Rockies, in this unlikely stage for the old geological touchstones that remind her of favored earthly third act of her life, Close is planting deep intergenerational places, including those of her distant New England childhood. roots closer to nature. Eschewing the notion that successful Could this introverted Close really be the same person, the actors must necessarily be awaiting audition calls and perfect actress who morphed into jarring Alex Forrest, the abused jilted scripts in New York City or LA, she is feeling more energized lover in Fatal Attraction? The devilishly scheming Cruella de than ever about the roles that keep coming her way. But most Vil in 101 Dalmatians, or the vengeful 18th-century French importantly, she’s savoring the bonds of siblinghood, being an noblewoman Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Dangerous attentive aunt, and embracing the role of grandmother after Liaisons? The laconic gender-bending Albert Nobbs? The her daughter Annie and husband Marc Albu welcomed their formidable power attorney Patty Hewes in Damages (that she first child. called “the role of her life”)? Captain Monica Rawling, headSo, what are we to make of this lesser-known, more packing cop in The Shield? Gertrude, mother of Hamlet, and anonymous Glenn Close, the self-described “homebody” who the ultimate American tragic figure, Norma Desmond, used-up calls reading books one of her greatest pleasures? Citizen Close starlet, whom she’s played twice to critical acclaim in renditions who, when she’s not blending into the scenery, joins volunteers of Sunset Boulevard? in encouraging people to vote and, as a low-key activist, pens Close is deriving as much delight soaking in the star-filled op-eds in the local newspaper and holds protest signs so skies over the Bridgers as basking in limelight. Recently, Close

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the committed conservationist lent her voice to an animated film about gray wolves and she’s narrated a number of wildlife documentaries for entities like the National Geographic Society. “Glenn is smart, informed and committed,” says Mike Phillips, leader of the Turner Endangered Species Fund, former federal wolf biologist who helped restore the canids to Yellowstone National Park, and who served in both the Montana House and Senate. “Above all else she knows that we’ll get but one chance to set things right with the natural world. Until we do, too many people and other living things will suffer, needlessly. And that’s unacceptable to her.” Still, Close says she’s mindful about how she engages. “The thing I’m always sensitive to is the ‘celebrity quotient’ because it can be not a positive thing if you are trying to influence people and get them to pay attention,” Close says. “I hate the word celebrity to begin with. People have so many misconceived ideas, especially as it applies to me. I don’t want to be a hindrance. I don’t want people getting involved in a cause because the person promoting it is perceived to be famous. I ask myself this question: ‘Am I going to be an asset at this meeting or is somebody going to be intimidated?’ I don’t want my presence to get in the way.”

° ° ° ° Having nothing more to prove in her career, Close arrived in Bozeman in late 2019 realizing she had a second chance to remedy a regret: how the whirlwind of professional opportunity had cost her time with two sisters and a brother, all creative individuals who bonded as youngsters in the Connecticut countryside, temporarily in idyllic animation before their enigmatic, Liberal, affluent parents, black sheeps of old Blue Blood families, defied their pedigree and made the clan a nomadic one. Among the stops was spending time with a religiouslike cult, Moral Re-Armament, first in the Congo where her Harvard-educated dad was a doctor, and later in Switzerland where Close attended a private school, and after that a boarding school stateside. Fate pulled the Close siblings in different directions and their parents ended up in Big Piney, Wyoming, within sight of the Wind River mountains where her dad was a self-described “country doctor.” Close considers herself a “late bloomer,” at least with regard to making movies. But her college drama instructor at William and Mary knew she had what it takes to be a multidimensional thespian. Long before her film debut in 1982’s The World According to Garp, and following it up with Oscar-nominated

In the epic 1984 baseball film, The Natural, adapted from Bernard Malamud’s allegorical novel, Close plays Iris Gaines, childhood sweetheart of slugger Roy Hobbs, played by Robert Redford. PHOTO COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES

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LEFT: Clockwise from bottom right: Glenn, sister Tina, brother Alex, sister Jessie, and their mother Bettine Moore Close in Big Piney, Wyoming. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CLOSE FAMILY RIGHT: Close the performer in an Oscar de la Renta gown which she wore for the SAG Awards virtual red carpet. “In Connecticut, we were always using our imaginations to pretend, and I just never stopped doing that,” she says.

performances in The Big Chill (featuring a brilliant ensemble cast) and The Natural with costar Robert Redford, she spent her post-college 20s on Broadway, receiving a Tony Award in 1980 that’s been followed up with Emmys and Golden Globes. Newcomers to Bozeman may not realize that for a stretch of years Close and sister Jessie co-owned the popular Leaf and Bean coffee shop and the adjacent, equally revered Poor Richard’s magazine and tobacconist store. Jessie minded the businesses while writing books and poetry on the side. Out of sight, she also was struggling with what became formally diagnosed as bipolar disorder and began taking medication to help address the chemical imbalance. Her journey, which included a couple of psychotic episodes, has led her to become a national advocate for mental health, joined by Glenn. Not long ago, Jessie coauthored a memoir, Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness, that is an unflinching personal account of dealing with mental health challenges known to millions yet still treated with stigma. “Jessie is my personal hero and I’ve always thought of her as the most creative of all of us,” Glenn says. Again, Close acknowledges that she’s often reticent to use her high profile to bolster causes because fame does not translate into credibility. “Lending my name is not a natural instinct for me,” she says. “And with something like the cause of bringing dignity to those who struggle with mental health issues, it’s not like you can start and then decide I just don’t want to do this anymore. For an introvert like me, it was a conscious decision and one where there was no alternative because it involves my family.” Inspired by her sister’s courage, Glenn has lent her support, appearing at book events and rallies with her side by side, calling upon politicians and the medical community to give mental health issues the resources and dignity they deserve. Their co-initiative, Bring Change to Mind, which she and Jessie created, is intended to bring discussions about mental 172

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health out of the dark ages and end the shame that society has imposed on its many sufferers. In Bozeman, the Closes and friends have made it clear that better mental health care needs to be a priority. And they are not going away. Close lives just a stone’s throw away from Jessie and on most mornings they’ll share a cup of tea and discuss the coming events in their days. While this writer was there, Jessie graciously gave a sneak preview of a body of photographs she’s been amassing for decades, showing different parts of the Gallatin Valley in differing seasons and at times of day, and how it is changing amid huge population growth. Their sister Tina, a talented nature artist formerly of the Jackson Hole town of Wilson, is noted for her botanical illustrations and multimedia depictions of wildlife. Meanwhile, brother Sandy has a fascinating mind and can make all kinds of stuff by hand. “He literally invents parts in order to fix machines and save his clients thousands of dollars in repairs,” Glenn says. “He’s kind of a genius.” One of the things Close likes about Bozeman is that most people are more obsessed about being outdoors than fawning over so-called celebrities. Still, rumors fly about famous people living in their midst. When I ask Close if reports of her dressing up on occasion and going around town taking on the persona of different characters holds veracity, she laughs in amusement. “It’s not true. I don’t make a habit of it,” she says. “The only time I’ve done it was to post a comment on my Instagram account to voting day but not in character as a different person.” ° ° ° ° Close takes notice of things in nature; the imprint of sensual awareness and of elemental forces that took place early in her life. The filmmaker Michael Apted, creator of the famous British documentary series Up that chronicled the evolution of children

IN THE CHILDHOOD O F M Y I M A G I N AT I O N , I T I S A LW AY S SUMMER. as they grow up from 7 years old, said give him the child at 7 and he’ll show you the essence of the grown-up being. “Seven was a crucial year for me,” Close says, noting that when she and her siblings were young they ran rampant over the Connecticut countryside. “We grew up with a great reverence for nature. We were so close to it being little wild kids. My mom was a great lover of being outdoors, probably because she suffered from bad hearing at an early age, and it got to the point where she could no longer

hear the birds sing. Still, she sought it out. When we were in Big Piney, she had a teepee and she would go out there to make contact. You come to appreciate the minutiae, the tiny things that are so fascinating. It’s imprinted on each of us, very much.” With that, we stand in front of an intricate painting of lichen on a glacial erratic done by her sister, Tina, who has work in the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art. About her own relationship with the West, Close says, “I don’t know if I’ve past lives but as a woman who grew up in the countryside of New England where you don’t have a big sky at all, I have always been attracted to open space and enjoyed it much when our parents lived in Wyoming near the Winds,” she says. “Big Piney, which from an airplane looks like a wasteland to some, was to me one of the most beautiful places. Those high desert rock formations and the way the light falls.” Looking back, having become infected with what her friend, the eminent ecologist E.O. Wilson calls “biophilia,” or love of the natural world, Close can see a link to her acting. “In Connecticut, we were always using our imaginations to pretend, and I just never stopped doing that. In the childhood of my imagination, it is always summer.”

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The motion picture historian and conversationalist James Lipton described Close as having genius in being able to get at the essence of her characters. I asked her how that intuitive talent translates into real life? “It drives my daughter crazy. I am very much a new soul, and she is an old soul.” “What does that mean?” I ask. “I go around thinking I’m unfinished,” she says, a look of earnest contemplation on her face, and evincing a vigor not often associated with a mid-septuagenarian. “I’m very unfinished and that’s why I get such satisfaction creating characters. I’ve always said I feel like a waving grass on a shifting bar of sand. It makes me kind of a clean slate in a way.” Being an introvert means that she likely spends more time in her head than most people, she says, mentioning Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. “That book really helped me because … if anybody asked me to do something, I forced myself to do things that I really didn’t enjoy. Now I feel OK with saying no because, first, I have less time in front of me than I have behind me, and time is even more valuable. I’m learning to spend time creatively. I’d much rather read a book than go to a cocktail party. The pandemic, for me, was no hardship to be at home and I kept thinking how lucky I was to have moved here. It’s been a sanctuary. For everybody, the stories of how we coped and came out of it will last for a long time. We are basically traumatized as a country.” In Hillbilly Elegy, the film adaptation of J.D. Vance’s acclaimed memoir about the economic disintegration of steel towns in the Rust Belt and social problems that ensued, Close played, with startling impact and make-up transformation, the crusty family matriarch, Mamaw. “Did Mamaw possess hope?” I ask. “That’s a good question,” Close answers. “I don’t think she was a very contemplative woman but what she did for her grandson certainly gave him hope. I don’t think she would say life is hopeless. She’s said it’s up to you; you need to take your chances and be realistic about where you’re coming from and what you need in order to realize change.”

TOP: Close’s favorite place to read: under a portrait of her grandmother, Elizabeth Hyde Moore. RIGHT: Close has been nominated for eight Oscars and is counted among the greatest and most versatile American actresses ever.

I ’ M L E A R N I N G T O S P E N D T I M E C R E AT I V E LY. I ’ D M U C H R AT H E R R E A D A B O O K T H A N G O TO A C O C K TA I L PA R T Y. T H E PA N D E M I C , F O R M E , WA S N O H A R D S H I P TO B E AT H O M E A N D I K E P T TH I N K I N G H OW LUC K Y I WA S TO H AV E M OV E D H E R E . I T ’ S B E E N A S A N C T U A R Y. 174

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ONE OF THE THINGS WE NEED TO DO MORE OF IN THIS COUNTRY IS PUT O U R S E LV E S I N O T H E R PEOPLE’S SHOES. AND U N D E R S TA N D T H AT E VERYON E HA S A S T O R Y.

Pip and Close spend many happy hours along the stream that runs through her property.

Close believes the challenges hold parallels for many people in the rural West, where the best days in some small ranching, farming and resource-extraction towns have come and gone. Winnowing prospects of achieving the “American Dream” have brought disillusionment, depression, despair. “I didn’t need that role to find empathy and compassion,” Close says. “One of the things we need to do more of in this country is put ourselves in other people’s shoes. And understand that everyone has a story. Whether it’s anger or disappointment, it makes people susceptible to those who claim to hold the answer. It’s human nature. I’m not judging them. But I do want to know their stories, what brought them there. I want to understand the source of their struggles. I have great respect for women of the rural West—full of tough women. Family is everything.” In her new film, Four Good Days, Close plays the mother of a daughter, played by Mila Kunis, who is fighting for her life against addiction. Close sees its exploration of drug abuse, in some ways, as an extension of despair, one that also gripped protagonists in Hillbilly Elegy. “Millions of American families are dealing with addiction and their stories don’t often have happy endings,” she says. “They’re traumatic and heartbreaking and no matter how much you love someone you can’t save them. They have to want to save themselves.”Close recites what her mother told her, that “most Americans are really good people just trying to get by. And I think we’re no different from anyone 176

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else. Saying that, I personally don’t think the human species is great in a crowd.” Listening to people who feel shut out, left out or abandoned is incredibly important. “But we’re in the age of Tweets. Tweets are not eloquent, unless they’re expressed as haiku or something,” she says laughing. “Wouldn’t it be nice if people could only Tweet if it were done in haiku?” At this point, Close reflects more deeply. “I love history and have always felt that, without exception, the people that emerged as leaders—inspirational leaders—have eloquence. To me, eloquence is as important as anything else,” she says. “Look at a great classical piece of music. The genius is how the composer has put one note after another and invariably it creates an emotional response. It’s the same thing with words. They have that power. If you know how to put them in that order they can go straight to the human heart.” Every character she has played, including Cruella de Vil, is a woman who at some level was struggling to find a center of gravity while dealing with adversity. None is perhaps more poignant than Desmond, the aging tragic protagonist in Sunset Boulevard about an aging actress who once was a queen in Hollywood but whose days in the limelight have passed. “It’s an incredible blessing to do what I do because it’s really about exploring how people are—what the human condition is.” Desmond as an American character ranks as one of the best drawn ever for a woman and whose complexity could be considered Shakespearean. Namely, the movie deals with a country and film industry that is notoriously obsessed with eternal youth. Where Desmond is the paragon of a starlet once catapulted to fame by the Hollywood Dream Machine only to be discarded when her youth fades, Close is among a diverse coterie of contemporary women defying ageism and writing new rules of engagement. As intense or even as mild-mannered as Close can be, she has a wicked sense of humor, demonstrating it both in her private life and the roles she’s taken on for fun. In Mars Attacks!,

she played a First Lady to Jack Nicholson’s President and was taken out by a falling chandelier installed by Nancy Reagan. In Guardians of the Galaxy, she was Nova Prime Commander Irani Rael who enlisted a ragged band of superheroes to save her home planet. In real life, she’s concerned, too. “Glenn is awesome. Her thinking is expansive,” says Thomas Kaplan, an investor and commodities guru who has dedicated earnings to creating Panthera, the nonprofit devoted to protecting 40 different species of wild cats ranging from cougars to African lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and others around the world. “I’m impressed by her not because she’s a damned fine actress, but she’s informed, and she cares, and she’s willing to lend her cachet to giving voice to creatures whose stories need to be heard.” Close has served as chair of Panthera’s Conservation Council. She remembers her grandparents lighting her empathy for cats by taking her to the Bronx Zoo as a young girl. “Big cats interest me in that they’re the top of the heap wherever they are and for them to survive means that everything below them can survive,” Close explains. “Somehow, humans think that we can do it alone, that we’re smart enough to create

A fierce backgammon competitor, Close is known to bring the game to her film sets.

some kind of world that doesn’t need the profound connection that has led us to be where we are today.” Close has a sophisticated understanding of ecosystems at the landscape level. She can eloquently discuss her friend, Dr. E.O. Wilson’s Half Earth initiative to protect the planet’s biodiversity from disaster. And she’s well versed about her home bioregion, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and the fact that it is the only one left in the Lower 48 with all its original large mammals that were on the landscape before Europeans arrived on the continent. She mentions rapid growth occurring in the Gallatin Valley and noted not only the loss of wildlife corridors but also prime farm ground and prized open space and unblighted views treasured by all. To invoke an analogy for demonstrating why it’s vital to maintain all the parts of wild ecosystems, Close references the game Jenga where wooden pieces are built into a tower and every player is required to remove one until, eventually, the structure collapses. “We are both removing the pieces and we are one of them ourselves,” Close says. “How dare we think that we are the most important and that we don’t need everything else, organisms that have taken ages to develop. It’s the height of arrogance and stupidity that we think we can survive without the incredible network in nature.” Another thing she’s well versed in is family. “All of us congregating here stems from the fact that we lost each other for most of our adult life. We were scattered and before the arrival of iPhones and texting, we didn’t have a culture in our family of calling each other on a regular basis or even writing letters,” Close says. “My sisters and their families have gone through things and we’ve had a lot of catching up to do. There’s a mutual feeling, I think, that we’re making up for lost time and kind of deriving joy out of the mundane. I had never seen much of the mundane side of life.” ° ° ° ° A while back, Close purchased some property north of Bozeman between the Bridgers and the snaking course of the East Gallatin River. She has trees on the place and a creek flowing through it, and wildlife tracks and rocks—lots of beautiful rocks deposited over time. Plans are in place to build an abode there but not one that will lord over the terrain, displace critters and make a statement. It’s about something else. “When I was little, I got solace in nature and that has never changed,” Close says. “I always tried to create that same potential for my family, especially now to come back here and be with my siblings and have a piece of land outside of town that will always be here for my daughter and her children.” With no dramatic flourish in sight, the actress adds, “That’s my legacy.” Gone for her in Bozeman are days when she might have second guessed choices she made. “You can wake up at four in the morning and think you’ve made every wrong decision in your life, and then you stay awake until dawn which is an incredibly deadly place to be,” she says. “I just feel incredibly lucky. I do think these will be the best years of my life.” M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN

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LAST LIGHT SECTION: SUBHEAD

Lone Mountain in Big Sky, Montana, catches the setting sun in early summer. June is a time of beauty in the Northern Rockies. The weather is turning, the grass is green, the mountains still hold snow, and the sunsets are spectacular. PHOTO BY DAVE PECUNIES

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