Weather
Very soggy. Western Montana was the recipient of the spillover of the rain that flooded Washington. But soggy means warm so there is that. Not that I care much anyway since I am traveling this week. What I do care about is that it has also been somewhat to very windy almost everywhere I’ve been driving or outside from up in Great Falls all the way down to Pburg and west to the Montana/Idaho border.
News
Red streak
In a year where Republicans were repeatedly thrashed in races in the state of Montana, this story of a backlash against zoning in the Bitterroot hints at a better strategy for Republican success: return to embracing the free-market instead of trying to be socialism-lite.
Bills both curious and controversial go before MT Legislature
Hundreds of draft bills are piling up for the legislative session beginning in January. Montana’s legislature normally meets only every other year. That is way too much but it is certainly better than most other places which have regular annual sessions. Bills range from the stupid but benign (a third grade class proposes that the state endorse huckleberry pancakes as our official state-sanctioned “yummy thing”) to the outright evil (for example, a state sales tax proposal).
PETA pilgrims say turkey’s done
It must be hard to be PETA in Montana.
Montana Band of the Week
This week I am highlighting the Cold Hard Cash Show- a Johnny Cash tribute band who will appear on David Letterman on 18 November.
Montana Trivia
Given its reputedly harsh winters, I was surprised to discover that Montana is very big on bicycles for both recreation and regular transporation. One difference from the state of Arizona that I have found is that here in Montana you may ride your bicycle on state and federal highways and interstates. I know in Arizona you at least could not legally ride a bicycle on interstates.
Here are a few interesting bike links from Montana:
Cycling Routes in Montana
Adventure Cycling Association- headquartered in Missoula
Bozeman Bike Kitchen
Free Cycles Missoula
Montana Picture of the Week
This photo was taken at Ulm Pishkun State Park this week. This is the site of First Peoples Buffalo Jump with Square Butte laccolith in the background. I was priveleged to be accompanied by an anthropologist friend who has done research in this area who related its history in an incredibly vivid way. She practically erased all evidence of the modern features of the landscape from my mind as we drove through, replacing them with the sounds and sights, thoughts and feelings that would have been experienced by the various participants of the hunts that took place here.
For hundreds of years, native people hunted by breaking off a few hundred buffalo from a larger pack and stampeding them over the cliff to their deaths. A gentle slope about a mile long leads up from the plains from the right side of this photo to this cliff which is not readily visible until you are practically on top of it. Stampeding buffalo would not see it until it was too late. We wound up our visit by running up the last several feet of the incline to the edge of this cliff as she chanted a prayer as would have been done by a runner hundreds of years ago.
Thanks for highlighting Cold Hard Cash. I went with them to NYC. It was scary and the boys did great. I just googled them and I see your sight is really cool. I will check into it now. Thanks. -Cathy
Great lead in picture. Missoula and Montana have been bicycle crazy since the 1800s. My Great Great Uncle owned a bicycle shop in Missoula in the 1890s. In fact the first place the Buffalo soldiers went when they got off the train from St. Louis and their bike trip was Yankee Repair. HR Kern’s bicycle shop. Bicycles and Buffalo, kinda like your article.
Rick
[...] what should have been the beginning) of the gallery was my favorite exhibit of all. You may recall a picture I posted a while back of a buffalo jump. This gallery contained a diorama of a buffalo jump complete with hunters and buffalo. I loved the [...]