Got Counties?

The naming of Montana’s 56 counties
adds color and meaning to our rich heritage

Text by Michael Ober

Just how did Montana end up with such a patchwork of unique counties? Examination of historic maps reveals the inexorable expansion of humanity across the territory and, later the state. The peopling and populating of Montana can be told in the origins of its counties.

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Flying High at Riverside Railyard

Great Falls BMX/Skatepark Draws Riders from All Over the U.S.

Text and photography by Shane Klippenes

Nick Hart is the dad everyone on your block wishes they had growing up. A kid at heart, he’s always looking for ways to connect with his four children (replacing their backyard with a BMX track and covering the driveway with a half-pipe ramp), include the neighbors in his craziness, and engage those who don’t have the same opportunities. Skating, surfing, freestyle and BMX bike riding, and ministering to the homeless energize Nick and his family, and are staples of their daily lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

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Lambing

Under the Big Sky

Text by Shane Klippenes and Photography by Darrin Schreder

It was a typical, rural Montana, early spring night featuring a cloudless, ink black sky with corner to corner stars, so bright they almost hurt your eyes to look at through the thin, frosty air. I wasn’t losing sleep to stargaze on this night though, and only caught occasional glimpses of the night sky through a crack in the barn door while wrestling with an old ewe.

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O-mok-see: ‘Riding Big Dance’

The Big Sky Saddle Club Summer Events Provide a Timed Sport Event for Western riders

Written by Polly Kolstad • Photography by Sara Young

For twelve years, the blistering fast pace of O-Mok-See, a colorful event on horseback, has caught up with Linda Andrews.

“Participating in O-Mok-See is my reward. I started after I had cancer surgery, and survived. My horse is twenty-three and still ‘rockin’ it.”

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Black – Cast Iron – MAGIC

Dutch Oven Meals Fit for Even the Most Discriminating Palates

Recipes by Chandee Bomgardner
Photography by Sara Young | Staging by Jennifer Moore

The idea of “outdoor cooking” typically conjures up images of hot dogs or marshmallows speared on a stick and held over the brightly lit embers of a campfire. If you are seeking a slightly higher level of dining sophistication without a significant amount of trouble, SignatureMT has two words that might change your view on roughing it in the outdoors: Dutch oven. The art of “leather-glove cuisine” is making a comeback despite today’s high-tech hustle-and-bustle lifestyle. Campfire cooks and backyard chefs are dusting off an integral and versatile part of Americana to prove once again that anything you can fry, stew, bake, roast or boil in the kitchen can just as easily be done in the great outdoors with a cast-iron workhorse …the Dutch oven.

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Community Service

Where the Idea of the Old West Lives On

Text by Colter Pedersen | Photography by Steve Wolff

The road north to Dupuyer cleaves the surrounding territory in two. With soaring summits to one side and endless plains to the other, you watch the stark landscape climb from tumbleweeds to towering peaks.

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