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TUNNEL VISION • MUSIC MAN • LAST CHANCE PUB
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Just minutes from downtown Billings, located along Pryor Creek, this spectacular venue brings together the quiet of the country and the convenience of the city. We offer a stunning wedding garden and a brand new 7,800 sq. ft. reception hall featuring a beautiful foyer, private bridal suite, elegant chandeliers, & spacious patio areas
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FEATURES
MARCH/APRIL 2017
87
MUSIC MAN BY JACI WEBB
76
BEGINNER’S LUCK WINNING THE SMITH RIVER LOTTERY
BY SUSAN BARFIELD
94
BANKING ON FAMILY VALUES BY MIKE FERGUSON
82
ROCKY’S RENAISSANCE BY JEFF WELSCH
99
PAINTING IT FORWARD ART AUCTION 49
SELECTED
BEST MAGAZINE ‘13-’16 MONTANA NEWSPAPEr ASSOCIATION
BY TARA CADY
billings’ most read magazine
TUNNEL VISION • MUSIC MAN • LAST CHANCE PUB
FULL THROTTLE HOLIDay 2013 2017 MArCH/APrIL
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2/6/2017 11:29:08 AM
ON THE COVER “FROSTY EVENING” BY MORGAN LEGARE
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 5
DEPARTMENTS
MARCH/APRIL 2017
RIVER TO RIMS
IN EVERY ISSUE
8
FROM THE STAFF SPRING IS A PART OF OUR MAGIC
9
CONTRIBUTORS
108
SEEN AT THE SCENE
111
DATEBOOK
10
THE LIST
11
PERSON OF INTEREST
16
GIVING BACK
19 24
ARTIST LOFT
26
ELEMENTS
FUN, FASCINATING FINDS
JACK LARSON
YELLOWJACKET EMERGENCY PANTRY
MATT FISKE
MEDIA ROOM
BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSIC & WEB REVIEWS
PREPPING YOUR PACK
114
WHY MAGIC CITY?
LAST WORD
READER SURVEY
SIGNATURE SECTION
FINE LIVING
28 42 46
GREAT ESTATES
URBAN FRONTIER HOUSE
GARDENS
GROCERY STORE GARDENING
EPICURE/LIBATIONS LAST CHANCE PUB & CIDER MILL
WESTERN LIFE
55
MT LEGENDS
62 69
PHOTO JOURNAL
THE FALL OF WILLARD FRASER
TUNNEL VISION
LOOKING FOR A NEW ENDING
BY RUSSELL ROWLAND
6 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
In the early 1880s, immigrants and adventurers came in droves to seek their livelihood on the verdant land along the Yellowstone River. The hastily constructed tents and log cabins made it appear as if Billings materialized overnight – thus earning the name “The Magic City.” Today, as the largest city in Montana, Billings proudly retains its ‘Magic City’ moniker. As for Magic City magazine, we promise to continue our mission to uncover all that is unique and wonderful and changing in this great community … and we guarantee a few surprises along the way.
IMAGINE
MARCH/APRIL 2017 I VOLUME 15 I ISSUE 1
A DAy ThAT Begins WiTh your
WELLNESS in MinD...
MICHAEL GULLEDGE PUBLISHER 657-1225 EDITORIAL
TARA CADY SENIOR EDITOR 657-1390 MARLISA KEYES ASSISTANT WRITER/EDITOR 657-1490 TIFFINI GALLANT ASSISTANT WRITER/EDITOR 657-1474 EVELYN NOENNIG COMMUNITY LIAISON / ASSISTANT EDITOR 657-1226 PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEOGRAPHY
LARRY MAYER, CASEY PAGE, HANNAH POTES, BOB ZELLAR AND BRONTË WITTPENN
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
MARCY BAUMGARTNER, BROOKE BUCHANAN, BILL COLE, CHRIS DORR, JAMEY EISENBARTH, JEFF EWELT, KIM KAISER, NICHOLE MEHLING MILES, PAIGE SPALDING, HELEN TOLLIVER, LIZ WILMOUTH, JEREMIAH YOUNG CONTACT US: Mail: 401 N. Broadway Billings, MT 59101 editor@magiccitymagazine.com FIND US ONLINE AT www.montanamagazines.com/magic
FIND US AT VARIOUS RACK LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT BILLINGS: Billings area Albertsons I Billings Airport I Billings Clinic Billings Gazette Communications I Billings Hardware I Curves for Women Evergreen IGA I Gainan’s I Good Earth Market I Granite Fitness Kmart I Lucky’s Market I McDonald’s I Pita Pit I Reese and Ray’s IGA (Laurel) Shipton’s I Stella’s Kitchen & Bakery I St. Vincent Healthcare I Billings Family YMCA Valley Federal Credit Union (Downtown location) I Western Ranch Supply Western Security Banks (Downtown location) I Yellowstone County Museum Plus many other locations Magic City Magazine is published five times a year by Billings Gazette Communications Copyright© 2017 Magic City Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written consent is prohibited.
2217 Grand Avenue, Billings, MT • (406) 652-7727 • www.LoveTheTub.com
EVELYN NOENNIG,
FROM THE STAFF
SPRING IS A PART OF OUR MAGIC Maybe it’s the cold, brutal winter with its grays, white snow and dark, dark nights. Maybe it’s just coincidence. But fate has conspired for us to be art heavy in this edition of Magic. Again, we didn’t necessarily plan for it to be that way. It just happened — and we probably couldn’t have gotten a better result if we had held several marathon planning meetings — as is the tradition around our office. We have decided to depart from a photograph on the cover of this edition of Magic, opting instead for a piece of art by Morgan Legare. We have taken her painting, to be sold at the annual Yellowstone Art Museum auction, and featured it. It was something about the chickadee in a tree that made us feel, well, more spring-y, even though as we prepared this edition, snow still sat in piles of dirty white on the streets and sidewalks. Speaking of the YAM, there are two other references in this Magic City Magazine to the organization which just passed the 50-year mark. Again, it wasn’t planned, it just worked out that way. We are the community that decided to repurpose a county jail into an art museum (see page 55). We took the dreary and dark and turned it into a center for beauty and creativity. The YAM continues to receive accolades for its art collection — an unexpected surprise in a place where you may not expect a modern art museum. If you hav-
en’t been there in awhile, go and check it out. The YAM houses amazing exhibits and collections that you — like thousands of people — probably pass by every day (see page 99). The Yellowstone Art Museum is working on the second half of its first century. It’s no longer a fledgling organization, but rather a permanent part of our cultural fabric. It’s imposing stone exterior stands as a bulwark against the snow and cold of winter — reminding us that on the outside it’s cold, but on the inside, there’s vibrancy and color just waiting for discovery, much like the new cider mill on Montana Avenue (check out page 46). We also touch on familiar places with new stories to tell, like Rocky Mountain College’s recent exciting renaissance (page 82). And on page 94, we share the story of the Scott family who transformed a small bank into a regional powerhouse while benefiting this area with their philanthropy. There’s new reporting on old stories, like the urban tunnels on page 62 (spoiler alert: There are no secret crime dens). We who have stayed bundled are in a waiting game with snow and ice. We want to rediscover the familiar and be surprised again. We know spring is coming, we can almost see the colors on the way during sunrise. That’s our story, repeated every year. That’s our magic.
executive assistant to the publisher and Billings native, continues to enjoy all that her hometown has to offer. She considers the opportunity to always run into someone she knows at the grocery store, downtown on the street or at one of the many wonderful events held throughout town, one of the small blessings of living in the Magic City.
TARA CADY grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago but has since fallen in love with the mountainous West. After finishing a degree in psychology in Colorado, her love of travel and meeting unique people inspired her to pursue a more creative path in a city that celebrates art and music. With Billings as her muse, she hopes to unlock hidden talents.
TIFFINI GALLANT hails from east of the Mississippi, but has made Montana her home for nearly a decade. A bit of an old soul, she’s nostalgic for the 1920s, listens to The Beatles, and loves the smell of antique books. With an insatiable thirst for knowledge (and intolerance for boredom), you’ll regularly find her juggling many hats. Call her crazy – she’s heard it before.
MARLISA KEYES is a dabbler in hooking rugs, cooking paella and growing roses, hydrangeas and playing in the dirt. She is still trying to decide what to do when she grows up: Teach U.S. history? Pull weeds? In the meantime she loves hiking in the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho and camping in Glacier Park with daughter, Olivia, and son, Austin, as well as bookstore dates with her husband, David, of 25 years.
8 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
CONTRIBUTORS
DARRELL EHRLICK loves reading, writing, baseball, bourbon, cooking, Montana history, more books, bacon, old albums, cigars, cats (especially crossed-eye Siamese and black cats), his patient wife and his two children who are his real day job. He tends to have an opinion on everything, often being wrong but rarely in doubt. He works as the editor of The Billings Gazette and was born and raised in Billings. He’s written other things, few probably worth mentioning here.
JEFF WELSCH returned to journalism two years ago after a six-year hiatus only to discover this Internet thing had turned everything upside-down. In his role as Lee Montana executive sports director, his work revolves around a new statewide website: 406mtsports.com. He is co-author of five books.
MIKE FERGUSON
Since 2013, has covered City Hall for the Billings Gazette. His initial piece for Magic Magazine has afforded him a welcome respite from long meetings and short deadlines. He’s married to the lovely and talented Susan Barnes, pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. The couple have two children: Lucas, 24, and Eleanor, 20.
BRONTË WITTPENN
Although born on the east coast, has lived in Montana most her life. Her desire to become a photojournalist ignited when she lived in Spain and traveled independently through Europe and North Africa. She also makes a mean Indian curry and enjoys talking to strangers.
RUSSELL ROWLAND
is a native Montanan, born in Bozeman. He has published three highly acclaimed novels. His most recent book, Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey, is the result of two years of travel and research into every county in Montana. Rowland lives in Billings, where he teaches writing workshops and works one-on-one with other writers. More at russellrowland.com.
JACI WEBB fell in love with words and stories starting in second grade when her teacher banned her from recess one week, leaving her surrounded by books. Jaci has spent 30 years interviewing rock musicians, visual artists and actors for The Billings Gazette to give voice to their magic.
SUSAN BARFIELD
is Executive Director of non-profit Project International Pride, and Professor Emeritus from Montana State University Billings (Education). She has published 14 articles and co-authored three books. She has visited more than 40 countries and worked in seven of those. She lives in Luther, MT.
SUZANNE WARING became a freelance writer after she retired from a career as a college educator. She especially enjoys learning about and sharing stories of Montanans and their communities. She has been a reader since she discovered the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder in the fourth grade. She is also a master gardener.
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406-259-3624 MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 9
THE LIST
THE LIST
PERSON OF INTEREST
GIVING BACK
ARTIST LOFT
MEDIA ROOM
ELEMENTS
FUN, FASCINATING FINDS WE THINK ARE GREAT
TIMELESS DESIGN
WHERE THE HEART IS
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Write a message on a scrap of paper and slip it into this pretty prayer bowl. Decorated with sequins and beads, the container is small enough to place on a window ledge or dresser for daily devotions.
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HOME SWEET HOME
Take a road trip to relaxation with a pillow that proudly gives a nod to Eastern Montana. With Billings at the center of the letter “O” highway map, the plush pillow inspires more trips to the Magic City.
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This set of two wicker baskets by Collected Notions is a smart – and stylish – way to store your stuff. With two sizes, stash everything from knick-knacks to spare room bedding. These twin totes are classy and keep your house clutter-clear.
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10 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
PERSON OF INTEREST
BY SUZANNE WARING
PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK LARSON
JACK LARSON EDUCATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE
A
resident at Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility in Miles City would be going home soon. He wanted some new clothes, so he asked where he might purchase a pair of boots. Jack Larson gave him the names of several businesses. With privileges to leave the school, the resident went shopping. A few days later, the young man was wearing a western outfit — mirroring the way Larson dresses. Larson mentioned to him this was a most unusual change in his attire. “If I go home looking the same, I’ll end up in the same crowd that got me in trouble. If I’m dressed differ-
ently, they’ll leave me alone,” the young man said. Though Larson has been an educator for more than 25 years, he knows there’s always more to learn. Larson is new to Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility for Boys. He grew up near Pompeys Pillar, where his dad ranched and also had a plumbing and heating business. “I don’t remember a holiday that someone didn’t have problems, such as their furnace quit working or their sewer backed up. We were the kind of family that worked every day. I often don’t get home until after 7 p.m., so things haven’t changed much for me,” Larson said.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 11
After majoring in agriculture in college, Larson taught ag for four years in Melstone and then 21 years in Miles City. He developed a philosophy for working with kids that has made him a leading Montana educator. In 1992 he received the Teacher of the Year award from the Miles City School District. With that honor came the opportunity to attend a conference of his choice. Larson attended an event by Zig Ziglar, the motivational coach. “I came away with new techniques for relating with others, especially my students,” he said.
12 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
When he gives presentations, Larson tells educators they have to build relationships with students. That is done by knowing their names, shaking hands, one-on-one conversations and building trust. Relationships are more important than subject matter because students won’t learn without that connection. After Larson retired from teaching high school, he spent five years as the agricultural and vocational coordinator at Miles Community College. Just when he thought he would spend more time riding horses, feeding cows, putting up hay and going fishing, he got a call from Kim Leslie, the new principal at Pine Hills and one
PHOTOS BY SUZANNE WARING
Left: Jack Larson stands next to a green house his students built. “If I start to make something, I want to be able to finish it. That was never possible where I grew up,” a Pine Hills resident said when he was given the opportunity to make a project. Above: An inside look at the green house. of his former students. She wanted him to become a consultant for a new Pine Hills vocational program. Larson wants to provide opportunities to gain vocational skills and to better their personal lives with his mentoring. In 2010, Larson started a vocational program at Pine Hills. The facility used isn’t ideal because it lacks space. Carpentry, welding, agriculture and auto mechanics are crammed into a former maintenance shop. Even with limited room, Larson is determined that residents leave school with skills and a positive attitude about themselves. He wants them to work in jobs paying
at least $15 an hour, what he considers a living wage. Besides practical skills, students earn certifications in the operation of forklifts, skid steers, backhoes and farm tractors. They also receive 10 hours of Occupational Safety and Health Administration training. The students often bring psychological baggage to the classroom. “If I start to make something, I want to be able to finish it. That was never possible where I grew up,” a resident said when he was given the opportunity to make a project.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 13
“When I walk out of here the last time, the philosophy that I thoroughly believe in will have so permanently permeated the atmosphere of the school that no one will notice that I’m gone,” Jack Larson said. PHOTO BY SUZANNE WARING
Larson works with teachers and correctional officers. As a part of their discussions, he imparts the philosophy that they are “building men” in all interactions with students. Since that philosophy has taken hold, there has been less need for physical intervention with them. There hasn’t been the need because a different philosophy changes everyone. Recently a group of young men 18 to 25-years-old, housed at Pine Hills, met with Larson. He asked them to write five goals, including one he could help them with. He thought they would suggest some aspect of their vocational training. Like him, they were parents and wanted help being good fathers. This type of relational inquiry is not unusual. Larson has participated in the weddings and, sadly, funerals of five former high school students. “So you see I truly believe that all kids deserve a positive shot at life,” said Larson. “And a good percent of our students haven’t been presented with that opportunity.” Larson tells of a student set to leave Pine Hills. On his 18th birthday, he was to be taken to the bus station and told, ‘Good Luck.’
14 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
SO YOU SEE I TRULY BELIEVE THAT ALL KIDS DESERVE A POSITIVE SHOT AT LIFE. AND A GOOD PERCENT OF OUR STUDENTS HAVEN’T BEEN PRESENTED WITH THAT OPPORTUNITY. “The other students wanted to give him a good send off,” said Larson, “so I got some plastic champagne glasses and some sparkly apple juice, and we made toasts to his success upon leaving. For a kid who had had few positive experiences, this was a relished moment for him.” Larson’s billfold is covered with sticky notes with information for making telephone calls on behalf of the students who have left Pine Hills. “I also try not to let them down when they leave Pine Hills,” he said.
“So you see I truly believe that all kids deserve a positive shot at life,” said Larson. “And a good percent of our students haven’t been presented with that opportunity.” Even though Larson could retire any time, he likely won’t. He knows too many kids are coming into Pine Hills who he can help. He wants to build on the spirit of the facility that he, Leslie and the staff have created. “When I walk out of here the last time, the philosophy that I thoroughly believe in will have so permanently permeated the atmosphere of the school that no one will notice that I’m gone,” Larson said. Larson believes that “practice makes permanent.” Instead of talking about drugs, violence and life in jail, he gives students language about projects they are making and possibilities for a better life. He is now hearing them talk about others’ success and their own future plans.
656-7273
Happily Ever After Begins Here!
www.billingsdepot.org MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 15
GIVING BACK
BY TIFFINI GALLANT I PHOTO BY BOB ZELLAR
Shayla Fox is impressed with the amount of donations to the Yellowjacket Emergency Pantry – many of which come from MSUB staff and faculty.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT THE YELLOWJACKET EMERGENCY PANTRY
S
hayla Fox wants Montana State University Billings students to have the support they need in and out of the classroom. “If we’re encouraging student success, we need to look at the whole student picture – a holistic approach,” said Fox, volunteer engagement coordinator in the Office for Community Involvement. It’s no mystery that college is expensive. What is less obvious is that some students struggle to pay for their education while trying to afford basic necessities, like food.
16 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
With the help of her colleagues, a lifetime of community involvement experience and collaboration with Billings non-profit organizations, Fox started the Yellowjacket Emergency Pantry to address the issue of hunger at MSUB.
The promise
The pantry targets students in crisis. They can access the pantry as many as three times per semester, with additional options during holidays and breaks. A student can take 10 to 25 food items, depending on fam-
Award Winning Taste!
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
“The goal was not to ily size. Food near expirarecreate great services altion and hygiene materials ready offered,” said Fox. are free and not counted Though the pantry helps against the total. students in immediate need Pantry users complete a DONATE NON-PERISHABLE of a meal, she refers them short application and show GOODS: elsewhere when they exa photo ID with their class n High-protein foods perience consistent food schedule. They receive gron Soups shortage or request other cery bags and “shop” with n Fruits and vegetables items, like clothing. a list explaining what food n Bottled juice or water “(The pantry) is not a they can take. n Grain items long-term solution,” said “People like that they n Jarred sauce Fox. “Referring students is can dig through the items probably one of my main and choose the things they DONATE HYGIENE ITEMS: (jobs).” like and want,” said Fox. n Deodorant Partnering with local The pantry is a confin Body wash resources, like Family Serdential program, but Fox n Shampoo and conditioner vices, Inc. and Tumblesays using it is nothing to be n Toothpaste and brushes weed, makes the pantry a ashamed of. She is working unique entity. Any items to abolish the stigma related Learn more about the not needed at the pantry, to need-based food services Yellowjacket Emergency Pantry like a recent surplus of and notes that students of by contacting the Office for canned corn, are sent to all backgrounds come to the Community Involvement at other programs. pantry for help. (406) 896-5815 or online at The majority of donaAn adult learner turned msubillings.edu/community. tions come from MSUB to Fox last fall to feed her faculty and staff. Students family of five. Her husband appreciate knowing that is in the concrete business and consistent work depends on weather and employees on campus support them. “It’s really cool to see people’s generosity,” permits. “Sometimes he gets really good paychecks, said Fox. “That someone cares and can acknowland sometimes we have to scrounge and do edge that (students) have more going on than what we can,” she said. “You can still make too just school.” much (money) to qualify for food stamps, but it doesn’t mean you actually have enough to feed Looking ahead your family.” Fox has a vision for the future of the pantry, When students don’t qualify for outside ben- starting with an expansion to the City College efits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance campus on Billings’ West End. Program (SNAP), the pantry is available. She also wants to educate students on best “When I found out about (the pantry), it was practices in grocery shopping and food prepahelpful to know there was a place we could go ration. Budgeting classes related to those skills when we needed it.” are coming soon. The student said the environment was welFox plans to work with MSUB’s Student coming. She didn’t feel judged for requesting Health Services to learn more about nutrifood. tion. She already encourages donors to provide “They just asked how they could help with a healthy options and students to be mindful of big smile on their face,” she said. what they eat. To continue thriving, the service needs steady donations and volunteers. Donated items can It takes a village be sent directly to Fox’s office in the MSUB StuFox did not start the pantry alone. Along with the Student Union and Activities and dent Union building at 1500 University Dr. The Housing and Residential Life offices, she col- pantry is open Monday through Thursday from laborated with a student representative from a 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Look for more information on the Office MSUB course in hunger and food security. She turned to existing programs in the Magic for Community Involvement website and Facebook page. City for additional guidance and partnership.
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MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 17
ARTIST LOFT
BY MARLISA KEYES I PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY MAYER
CERAMIC SORCERER
M
MINING FOR INSPIRATION
att Fiske is a modern-day alchemist. He isn’t turning rock into gold, but darn close. The resident potter with the Red Lodge Clay Center mixes disparate personal interests—geology, technology, art history and ceramics—with finely ground stone he sources during rock hound expeditions to make glazes that fuse art with science. “I like to go digging for minerals,” Fiske said. “I’m a huge rock nerd.” Fiske’s scientific approach to art has expanded his education and landed him in pottery studios in China, South Korea and several in the United States, including a long-term residency in Montana that began in July 2016. Combined with his curiosity, the artist’s willingness to immerse himself in pottery processes and document the details via a blog earned him a full-ride master’s scholarship in ceramics to Utah State University. Fiske is the first art major to receive a STEM schol-
arship from USU, according to the university’s website. At Utah State, Fiske learned how to use a scanning electron microscope to examine materials and glazes at nanoscale; he then scanned and printed the images for his final show. While science permeates his work, the outcome of his experiments transform the deceptively simple lines of Fiske’s favored utilitarian kitchenware into elegant art. His pottery is inspired by the Sung Dynasty pottery he learned to make during a trip to China. The glazes Fiske creates vary in look, depending on the minerals. His pottery is a physical catalogue of glaze recipes. Celadon blue glaze flows like molten glass from the top of delicate cups, ending in drips that resemble ice cream melting from a cone. Iridescent hematite in a hare’s foot oilspot glaze glimmers like gold leaf in the interior of a bowl. And multiple layers of what looks like microscopic stacked ice give a multidimensional effect inside another dish.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 19
Lava rock is mixed with rhyolite and water for glaze. The finished work is shown at left. Fiske also has developed an iridescent glaze by putting a kiln through a reduction cool process that brings out the basalt’s iridescent sheen, similar to raku-fired pottery. Montana magic
red clay dug from a Montana road cut. Scoring a coveted fellowMinerals prospected at ship at Red Lodge Clay Center mines also go into Fiske’s fired Fiske’s imagination for glazes. From a corner, he pulls five years. Montana’s “world out a bucket and sifts a hand class” pottery center and stuthrough a mixture of green dio, plus its geology and fishrock and sand, then holds out ing, were a strong lure, he said. a small container. “There’s something amazThe cup is rustic and eleing to me about exploring the gant; different than his other place that I am in.” work. Streaks of blues and Fiske didn’t stray far from greens originating from the Red Lodge, though. bucket’s copper ore cover He took hikes along Rock the surface, contrasting with Creek and fished the stream granite pebbling. that runs through the 100After a visit to the Carbon acre property where 10 years Juxtaposition plays a significant role in the artist’s work. This tea set sits County Historical Society ago Red Lodge Clay Center on a rock sourced and shaped by Fiske to enhance the pieces. The oil and Museum, he was given Executive Director David spot glaze on this piece combines rhyolite and basalt. The artist uses a box of coal samples bored Hiltner and his wife, textile different firing techniques to bring out iron spots in the glaze. from Red Lodge. artist Maggy Hiltner, built the Customers at Red Lodge Clay Center are drawn to Fiske’s pottery; Red Lodge Clay Studio. The studio is located six miles north of Red fascinated by its backstory, he said. Lodge on Two Bridges Road. “People want the new Montana glazes,” said Fiske. His jaunts included searches for new minerals to test, and Fiske Even Fiske is mystified by his own interest in making glazes from is just beginning to make pottery with his finds. His private studio space resembles a rock shop. Small dishes, numbered to distinguish the soils of the places he inhabits. “What is it about it that makes it so cool?” the ground minerals inside, sit on a table along with chunks of rock Perhaps it is a simple answer, he said. Whether he’s shoveling and gallon-size plastic bags of red clay. Fiske reaches up to take a rich brown cup from a shelf in his pri- buckets full of iridescent vesicular basalt from a quarry near Paul, vate studio space and turns it slowly. Like his earlier work, the glaze Idaho, or topaz amber at Topaz Mountain in Juab County, Utah, the shimmers on the surface like molten glass. Its only ingredient—plain contents become a tangible representation of the area.
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The mottled effect on this cup is the result of a copper ore glaze created by Matt Fiske. The cup rests on a pile of copper ore sand and fragments sourced from mining waste. The sorcerer’s stone
A self-described pyromaniac, Fiske experiments with the effect of fire on ceramics. He’ll use a hammer to bust off a hunk of rock, toss it in a small ceramic dish and cook it in a kiln. If anything remains when the dish cools, Fiske runs additional tests. “Not knowing the outcome is what makes creating glazes interesting,” Fiske said. “I’m constantly collecting new samples, testing stuff.” It wasn’t always that way. As an undergrad at Indiana University, Fiske let his lack of knowledge about minerals, geology and potential outcomes impede him from experimenting with glazes. Then one day, he changed Tools cover a work table as ceramic artist Matt Fiske works at the Red Lodge Clay his thinking, perhaps influCenter. Making glaze is similar to baking, he said. enced by a high school teacher’s earlier encouragement to play solid fundamental pottery building skills. with commercial glazes. When he sits down at his wheel in Red Lodge, Fiske “Somewhere along the line, I just started testing,” Fiske revisits forms he prefers to make. By doing so, his work said. “It’s a lot like baking cookies. It’s just a recipe.” Fiske’s college instructors reminded him that his glaze has improved. “The forms have changed and gotten better,” Fiske said. studies and kiln experiments were immaterial without
NOT KNOWING THE OUTCOME IS WHAT MAKES CREATING GLAZES INTERESTING. I’M CONSTANTLY COLLECTING NEW SAMPLES, TESTING STUFF.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 21
Above: How minerals are fired can significantly change their color and appearance. Each experiment is meticulously written on paper that Matt Fiske keeps on a clipboard. Each cup contains minerals for test firing. Below: The percentage of basalt determines the color in high-fire celadon glazes, as shown in these porcelain bud vases. Taking shape
The kitchen is a useful starting point when deciding what pottery forms to make. It is a view developed after a fellow college classmate said it seemed Fiske didn’t use his ceramics. “I wasn’t paying attention to the actual living with stuff. You need to take these home and use them,” Fiske said. Fiske now makes utilitarian, simply-shaped dishes: gin and tonic cups, tea bowls, dessert plates and colanders. Making pottery is also about community; bringing friends together to share
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a meal and drinks. “I use handmade pots every day. That informs what I make, using them in the kitchen.” His favorite dish is a cup, a vessel which most potters make. The small, easily portable size and inexpensive price are also popular with customers. “I drink whiskey out of it,” he said. To Fiske, cups are the most intimate of kitchenware. “There are so few things that we put to our mouth.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO:
montanaclay.org redlodgeclaycenter.com twitter.com/fiskepottery mattfiske.com mattfiske.wordpress.com
Red Lodge Clay Center includes this gas kiln and several electric kilns in the same space. The 7,000-square-foot facility also features soda and train kilns outside, private spaces for long-term residents, a large welllit studio for shortterm residents and a glaze mixing room.
Please Fill Out a Guest Form at www.ClarkMarten.com
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 23
MEDIA ROOM
BY TIFFINI GALLANT
MUSIC
BROKEN THINGS
BOOK
A PASSION FOR LIFE There is no shortage of inspiration in this remarkable autobiography. Read about the many obstacles Cliff Potts has overcome since he was diagnosed with polio. With profound spirituality and an inherent love for art, Potts embraces his paraplegia and desire to create drawings and paintings that capture his Montana heritage. Available at cliffpotts.com
WEB ED
EATBY
Calling wayward travelers and old souls of the open road. Quinlan Conley’s gritty new album speaks to the broken-hearted and the broken-handed. The music resounds a life-long connection to Montana and the experiences of a Paradise Valley native who ventured out to find himself behind a throttle and a bottle. He returns home, picking up the pieces of his broken heart on the long road to happiness. A notable combination of punk rock, soul and folk music, every strum on the acoustic guitar and story-telling lyric resonates with nostalgia for lost love and new beginnings. You’ll sing each soulful tune with memories of your own journey as you listen. Available at iTunes and Google Play
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It’s never been easier to keep track of your groceries than with the new EatBy app, a kitchen management and grocery list technology. Bringing artificial intelligence into the kitchen, this app learns your food habits and keeps track of perishables for you. Eliminate the need for grocery labeling, waste less food and save money with EatBy. Available on the Mac App Store and Google Play
DVD
CERTAIN WOMEN Offering an extraordinary perspective on the lives of four ordinary women, this drama engages you from start to finish. Based on a short story collection by Maile Meloy, the plot explores the ways the characters’ lives intertwine. “Certain Women” is set in Livingston, Mont., with incredible views and realistic narratives that have garnered the approval of critics and audiences. Available at most local retailers
ELEMENTS
BY TIFFINI GALLANT I PHOTOGRAPHY BY CASEY PAGE
PREPPING YOUR PACK THE LATEST ESSENTIALS IN HIKING GEAR PACKED TO PERFECTION
A day hiker’s delight, this versatile Redwing 50 pack has the necessary storage to carry your essentials. Offering plenty of pockets, PerfectFIT suspension and less than four pounds, the Redwing 50 is the latest in backpacking gear.
Available at Big Bear Sports Center $140
WEIGHTLESS WARMTH
Montana weather can be unpredictable in the spring. This super-light Thermoball jacket from The North Face promises warmth even when wet. The jacket converts into a ball for easy storage and reliable insulation during fair or fierce conditions.
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ALL-IN-ONE
HANDS-FREE From the trees to the seas, the transitioning lenses in these Rudy Project Kylix sunglasses have you covered. They adjust with the light, so you can see no matter where you hike. The malleable frame guarantees a custom fit, and they’re so lightweight you’ll hardly know they’re on.
The Black Diamond LED Cosmo headlamp illuminates those night-time trails and leaves your hands free for climbing. Lighting distances up to 200 feet for 50 hours means you’ll see more of what’s ahead for longer. Plus, it’s splashproof, so you can see even when it’s raining.
Available at Time Out Sports $165
Available at Sunshine Sports $30
SHIFTING SHADES
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When you want a tool that has it all, look no further than the trusty Swiss Army knife. With 13 functions, it includes a wood saw and Phillips screwdriver. The Hiker model comes with everything you need for wandering in the wilderness.
Available at The Base Camp $36
It’s your home, at last.
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Accidents happen, so it’s important to be prepared wherever you go. Pack this Adventure Medical Kit with you for those bumps, bruises, scrapes and strains. The waterproof shell keeps contents dry and within easy reach for when you need them most.
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G.I. GO!
Once you find that perfect place to call home, the next important decision is the financing. So many mortgage options, so little time. We get that. Our goal is to partner with you to help guide you through the loan process and find the best financing to fit your needs. We’ve got the experience and mortgage products that will have you moving into your new home, at last.
Navigate with ease using this military-grade Cammenga Tritium Compass. Both sand and waterproof, its durable design keeps you on track in even the most offtrail terrain. The bonus illumination feature needs no recharging, so feel free to explore day and night.
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Call today, and put my knowledge to work for you.
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The fanny pack is back! Keep water within reach with this smart storage Triangle pack by Nathan. The thermal sleeve ensures your beverage is cool while you sweat it out. It’s adjustable, with superflex technology that moves when you do. Keep a snack in the side pocket for easy access.
KIMBERLY MACDONALD Mortgage Loan Originator 6 24th Street West Billings MT 59102 Direct: 406.655.1699 Cell: 406.861.0052 kimberly.macdonald@usbank.com NMLS#: 470804
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FIRED UP
If your backpacking trip ends in a campout, the last thing to worry about should be keeping warm at high elevations. Even in severe weather, the easy-to-use Survival Fire Stick gives you the spark to start fires – and conversations – on your next adventure.
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EQUAL HOUSING
Visit usbank.com to learn more about U.S. Bank products and services. Deposit Products are offered through U.S. Bank National Association, Member FDIC. Mortgage products offered by U.S. Bank National Association. ©2014 U.S. Bank Association. ©2014 U.S. Bank, Member FDIC.
Available at Big Bear Sports Center $8
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 27
The Urban Frontier House, 702 N. 23rd St., Billings, is powered by a windmill and solar panels. The red rain barrels collect 9,000 gallons of water which is stored in tanks in the basement. COURTESY PHOTO
Tilting at Windmills THE URBAN FRONTIER HOUSE BY MARLISA KEYES | PHOTOS BY BOB ZELLAR
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andy and Janna Hafer R live much like Montana pioneers did 100 years ago. They don’t pay the city of Billings for sewer, water or garbage pickup. Nor will NorthWest Energy ever collect a dime from them for electricity to power their home or heat it with natural gas. And in the future, the couple expects to produce all the fruits and vegetables they can eat from a garden room and vegetable gardens on their corner lot at 702 N. 23rd St. in a historic Billings neighborhood. Unlike their predecessors, these 21st century pioneers live in a self-contained, self-sustaining home that is far more comfortable than frontier abodes, said Randy Hafer. “We’re not going back to living in a cave,” he said. Randy and Janna are co-owners of High Plains Architects in Billings. Randy, an architect, planned the 2,400-square-foot “Urban Frontier House” to make good on outdated lifestyles by integrating new building practices with homey and visually interesting interiors. It was a tall order for Billings’ first sustainable home. Randy wanted to put into practice what the couple’s architectural firm did for others. The company portfolio includes LEED-certified designs for Crow Mercantile at Crow Agency and The Boys and Girls Club of Carbon County in Red Lodge, plus a 2008 remodel of one of Billings’ oldest commercial structures, the Klos Building owned by High Plains Architects. “This (sustainable building) is a pretty unprecedented thing in today’s world,” Randy said. His goals for the home included meshing rigorous standards for construction, energy and building materials to make the house Janna’s home – a sewing room, a walk-in closet and
1. Randy and Janna Hafer’s south-facing living and dining room includes a two-level ceiling and a skylight that also provides warmth. The walls are load-bearing, making the home rock solid.
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1
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2 2. Randy Hafer designed the Urban Frontier House so he and his wife Janna can live in it as long as possible. If climbing stairs becomes a problem, the Hafers can easily live in the 1600-square-foot first floor. The space includes the master bedroom shown here, a sewing room, guest bath, laundry room and two-car garage. While the house was built above street level to protect from potential flooding, its front walk has a gentle incline and there is no transition between it and the front door. That aspect was given a passing grade from Randy’s father, who has some mobility issues. Access to the shower in the guest bath is flush with the floor. After breaking both arms and a big toe several years ago, Hafer wanted a bathroom with easy accessibility. 3. The dining area overlooks open-concept living spaces that include the eat-in kitchen and living room. At right is the office. The lighting fixture above the dining room table is one of three custom pieces by MJR Industries in Billings. Two lights made from blue wine bottles hang above the kitchen island. The structure was sourced from a Montana ranch.
enough space to host their seven children, two grandchildren and future family members. Janna chronicles their adventure in her funny and honest blog on the company’s website. Following Randy’s advice to write down goals and make a plan didn’t exempt them from experiencing challenges. The initial design was too big and the Hafers’ ideas sometimes clashed.
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3
It’s About Time. Bill and Marilyn Simmons had waited for years to remodel their kitchen. When the time came, they called Freyenhagen Construction. With Freyenhagen’s online scheduling system, the couple could see the project schedule from start to finish—and know what was happening and when. A guaranteed completion schedule gave them peace of mind that their project would be ready on time. Today, the Simmons kitchen is a sleek, modern masterpiece with stunning stainless steel cabinets and rich woodwork sure to stand the test of time. See the complete transformation at FreyenhagenConstruction.com
Freyenhagen Construction. Built for Life. (406) 652-6170 1343 Broadwater Avenue Billings, MT 59102 www.FreyenhagenConstruction.com
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Her husband’s priority for living off-grid would take some adjustment. “That was very important to Randy; however, nowhere on the lists did it say no city water, no city sewer, no heat, gray-water recycling, DC micro-grid and composting toilets,” Janna Hafer wrote. His goals included qualifying the home for the U.S. Green Building Council’s platinum certification, passing the International Living Future Institute’s rigorous Living Building Standards Challenge and meeting Passive House energy standards. It took diligence by project manager Anya Fiechtl to comply with the Challenge’s stipulation not to use toxic chemicals and materials on its “Red List.” “That turned out to be extra difficult,” Randy said. “It’s actually pretty frightening.” Only 4,000 to 6,000 of the 88,000 items on the list have been tested related to their effect on human health, he said.
5
6 4. Randy Hafer designed custom cabinets in the kitchen, dining room and bathrooms. Custom Pine of Billings made the cabinets from beetle-killed wood. Living Challenge Home standards require using reclaimed wood or wood from Forest Stewardship Council certified forests, which Montana doesn’t have. 5. The office is located just off the front entryway and the kitchen. After rarely using a second-floor study in a previous home, having the room on the first floor was important to the homeowner. Randy Hafer said he spends a lot of time in this room. The deep window wells give a peek at the home’s one-foot thick wall system. The home’s insulation is R-70 in the roof and R-48 in the walls, which make it energy-efficient and quiet. 6. LED rope lights illuminate the stairwell that access the basement and second floor.
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MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 35
7 Powering down
Dressed in a sweater and jeans on a snowy December day, Randy looked at a monitor on the kitchen counter which records inside and outside temperatures, humidity and carbon dioxide. “It’s 62 inside,” he said. While cool, the house was not uncomfortable. An electric fireplace in the living room corner is powered by energy from batteries in the basement and an oscillating infrared heater in the kitchen warms the room; both concessions to Janna’s need for warmer spaces. One morning when they woke up, the house was 52, while it was 20 below outside. “What I wasn’t expecting is we’d have the hardest winter in 20 years,” Randy said. While air intrusion is common in most stick-built homes, the home’s 8 feet tall by 24 feet thick Structurally Insulated Panel walls leave few places for cold and heat intrusions. A set of doors used to enter a small entryway vestibule and the house serve as an airlock, keeping heat in the house when guests arrive. The home is warmer than the thermometer indicates. Not having a drafty interior means the home’s surfaces are the same temperature as the inside air. The indoor temperature varies two degrees
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8 between the basement, main floor and second level. Pinpointing how much energy the home needs to make it feel warm enough when it’s cold outside takes work, he said. When it’s hot, comfort is easily achieved by opening the windows and closing blinds on the home’s south-facing windows and skylights.
A Montana State University Billings student project is monitoring the home’s energy use supplied by a front-yard wind turbine and roof-top voltaic cells. By studying the data, Randy will know whether to buy additional solar cells and batteries to store the sun’s energy. The windmill and energy storage cells have a symbiotic relationship, said Randy.
7. Randy Hafer stands in the basement of his sustainable home. The space includes seven rainwater tanks that hold potable water, a gray water tank for collecting water from bathing, washing dishes and clothing and kitchen use. Once a week, Hafer adds a handful of sawdust through a small door in the top of the black waste composter and gives the tumbler a turn to make the contents break down. 8. Water pumps, filtration system and a PURA infrared system for killing pathogens. The products making up this system are designed for continuous usage. Since equipment will be minimal, Hafer expects it to last a long time before needing replacement parts. 9. The second-floor guest bath includes LED rope lighting that runs along the walls and above the mirror.
9
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10 10. The custom lighting fixture above the table in the eat-in kitchen is made from a scale and mason jars. 11. The family room is located on the second floor of the Urban Frontier House. The wood slats in the ceiling are the floor joists for an unfinished sleeping loft. Janna Hafer wanted enough sleeping space for their seven children and grandchildren. The loft has room for 12 small children “sleeping shoulder to shoulder,” said Randy Hafer. The couple has two grandchildren.
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The windmill generates energy when the sun isn’t shining and vice versa. Through no fault of wind turbine designer Taisei Techno, adjustments were needed to make it work. It was designed based on Billings Logan International Airport wind speeds, which are far stronger than those the Hafer property gets. Taisei reduced the diameter of the arms holding the windmill’s blades and replaced the generator with a smaller size. By Thanksgiving, the wind kicked up enough to get it moving. “It’s pretty fun to watch it,” he said.
A sustainable life
When Randy packed his bags for Stanford in 1972, the Montana resident didn’t know attending college in California would influence his approach to architecture. While there, he noticed cars lined up for miles as people tried to buy gasoline during the energy crisis. Gas lines weren’t a problem in Eastern Montana at the time, but that experience made Randy think differently about designing homes and buildings for his home state. The region’s semi-arid terrain, low rainfall and extreme temperature play into his designs. It’s taken the Hafers eight years to build their
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MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 39
12 home, beginning in 2008 when they successfully bid on property covered by brambles and a parking lot. Pointing to several large white tanks in the basement, Randy calls it the house’s “GI tract.” In the summer of 2016, barrels staggered outside the home’s perimeter had collected three inches of precipitation; the equivalent needed to fill six tanks with 9,000 gallons of water. Randy thinks it’s far more water than they need; as of December, the water in one tank had dropped only by a foot. The Hafers use 36 gallons of water every two days. “It’s really incredible how little water we use,” Randy said. The water is first pumped through an infrared light that kills any pathogens before it is used. He points to one tank that holds gray water from washing dishes, clothing and bathing, and another large, dark container that captures waste from the composting toilets and other compostable household waste. In five years, the composter will produce black matter. “It’s just good, rich hummus,” he said. In October 2016, the couple settled into their new home. They are learning how to make the most of the “Urban Frontier House.” The Hafers still have work to do on their home. They will add a spiral stairwell in the second-floor hallway to access a sleeping loft above the family room. They also plan to build a small roof deck, with enough room for four people to overlook downtown Billings, and an enclosed crow’s nest. The garden room, located on the first floor between the house and oversized garage, will be filled with soil for plants and year-round produce. Randy anticipates the home will run itself, its electronics making adjustments to get the most from its innovative systems. In time, the goal is for other Montana pioneers to build or remodel their own homes based on the “Urban Frontier House,” he said. “Now we’re learning there are things we can do better.”
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13 12. The house’s 12-12 pitch roof allows for a high-angle in the kitchen ceiling. 13. A substantial amount of light in the second floor guest bedroom comes from north-facing windows. Rather than hanging sheetrock, which can be expensive, the Hafers bought sheets of oriented strand board for some interior walls. Janna Hafer painted the OSB in this room and wiped off the wet paint to give the walls a plaster look. In the main living space, the Hafers sanded and sealed the OSB with clear varnish.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Learn more about the Urban Frontier House and keep updated on project news with Janna Hafer’s blog at highplainsarchitects.com/blog. Search “Randy Hafer at TEDxBillings” on YouTube to watch him explain the inspiration behind building a sustainable home.
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FINE LIVING
GARDENS
Produce APLENTY GROCERY STORE GARDENING
T
BY TIFFINI GALLANT | PHOTOS BY BRONTË WITTPENN
here’s nothing like spring in Montana to inspire your inner gardener. The feel of wet earth crumbling in your palms. The smell of new grass sparkling with morning dew. Your green thumb gritty with remnants of a hard day’s work. In the Big Sky State, where agriculture is the leading industry, there is a rich heritage of growing food. After harvest ends, we
Grocery store gardening is a great way to save money, eat well and put your green thumb to good use during the winter.
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retire to warm houses to wait out the winter. But there’s a way to bring the outdoors in while plants hibernate under a blanket of snow. Think about the last time you perused the produce section for the items needed to make mom’s minestrone on a cold day. The variety of colorful peppers, heads of broccoli and cauliflower, bright, leafy greens – all recently misted and gleaming like a garden after it rains. Many of the things you buy can be regrown to provide food again and again.
Root concepts
Grocery store gardening is a unique way to feed a family and the gardening itch year-round. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a novice, the concept is simple: save the parts of the plant that are trimmed off when preparing your winter meals. The base of a head of romaine lettuce, core of a red onion, top leaves of basil or a clove of garlic can be grown into a new plant. By repurposing parts of the produce bought in the grocery store, you save money, eat well and have pride in knowing your green thumb performs just as well indoors as it does outside. Green Man agrees. Scott Prinzing (also known as Green Man) and his wife, Kris, are both avid local gardeners. The Billings couple has an expansive garden of more than 600 square feet over three locations – their own backyard and two community gardens. This green team boasts 26 years of marriage and more than 100 house plants. “It is so satisfying to harvest fresh ingredients immediately before preparing a meal,” said Prinzing. “It’s fun, affordable and rewarding.” Their indoor produce, sourced from local health food stores and the summer farmers’ markets, ranges from gourds to avocado pits, but most of their inside edibles are herbs. As Green Man, Prinzing says his mission is to “live a life that’s as easy on the planet as possible while setting an example for others along the way.” Prinzing and his wife have been practicing sustainable living for decades. He is glad to see others becoming
Much of the produce bought in a grocery store can be regrown to provide food again and again.
“It is so satisfying to harvest fresh ingredients immediately before preparing a meal. It’s fun, affordable and rewarding.” SCOTT PRINZING, LOCAL GARDENER MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 43
Pot the heads of carrots to grow greens as a unique addition to salads.
more interested in their nutrition, noting how inspiring it was that Michelle Obama encouraged home gardening and healthy eating from the White House. But it doesn’t take an executive order to eat well; it requires only a shopping trip and desire.
Dirty work
Leave the sunhat and trowel in the shed. Grocery store gardening is completed in the comfort of your home. The simple tools of the trade are pots, gloves, potting soil, and – of course – the plants. Next time you grocery shop, purchase veggies that have not yet been trimmed. Buy
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organic to yield a product that’s most like what you would grow from seed. If produce shopping isn’t your forte – give it a try anyway. “People who don’t eat fresh organic produce truly have no idea what they’re missing,” said Prinzing. Not only will a jaunt down the vegetable aisle give you a variety of growing options, you’ll have fresh items to use in a healthy meal. While preparing herbs and vegetables, take note of what you’ve trimmed. There’s probably a pile of tops from carrots, bulbs from green onions and the base from stalks of celery.
The hardest part is choosing what to pot, since these living things require care to become full-grown herbs or vegetables. Prinzing says he and his wife even experimented with a small banana plant, but it has never produced fruit. You can be adventurous, too, but unless you have a plethora of pots and lots of time, your in-home garden will not be as expansive as the one outside. Start by soaking what you’ve chosen (and have room) to grow. Most plants need to soak for five to seven days. After the soak, pot your plants. Put bulb vegetables, like garlic or onions, in a pot that will allow them to grow larger, and use shal-
IT’S GOOD TO BE A GIRL
Many herbs are sold with roots intact, making them easy to replant in your herb garden.
low pots for herbs. Cover vegetables completely with soil, but keep leaves above the surface for easy access to the sun. Place pots in sunlit areas, and avoid putting plants too close to frosty winter windows. Much like a garden, indoor plants need love too. Every time you water and trim your plants, they are receiving the care they need to grow strong and produce.
Reap the rewards
Harvest times are different for each plant. There are many great resources online that say when to uproot vegetables, but most have the same yield time as they do in the yard. Herbs can be harvested as they grow. Sim-
ply trim leaves of basil, rosemary, parsley or green onion and watch as they continue to see new growth. Use your new produce right away or consider canning – something Prinzing and his wife have begun as a way to preserve their harvest throughout the year. “While we are serious gardeners, we do it primarily for the love of growing our own food and knowing that our soil and other nutrients are all organic,” said Prinzing. Grocery store gardening allows you to start the process over again with each new harvest. By reusing what would otherwise be thrown away, you’ll save money and your inner gardener will be satisfied all year long.
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MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 45
46 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
Take a
CHANCE ON LAST CHANCE PUB & CIDER MILL BY TARA CADY | PHOTOS BY HANNAH POTES
A
n apple a day keeps the doctor away, but your mother probably never mentioned cider. Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill is just what the doctor ordered. Lights hang from the wood-planked ceiling of the old United Glass warehouse at 2203 Montana Ave., illuminating the original exposed brick and single-pane windows of the interior. Couches at either direction encourage lounging and leisure, as do the cushioned back rests strapped to the benches with belt buckles and buffalo nickels. The green ceramic tile fireplace adds to the restaurant’s rest-and-digest appeal. As for the food, well, chef Jason Corbridge has that down to a science. Corbridge, who wrote every recipe on the menu from within the pub’s kitchen, shares what he considers “just a little teaser” of Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill. Novice be warned: Exact is advantageous to deliciousness. MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 47
MONTANA GRASS-FED BEEF BURGER What makes this INGREDIENTS: 1 6-oz. beef patty salt and pepper classic American- brioche bun style burger familiar DIRECTIONS: isn’t the home-state Lightly wash patty in cooking oil meat, but the ability seasoned with salt and pepper before using char broiler. to make the rest Garnish with butter lettuce, of its trimmings Bent Nail pickle and raw, thinlysliced onion. Served best with your own with sharp cheddar, egg and bacon. home-made fries and pickles. For HOUSE FRIES extra flavor, add a Served with a burger or standing fried egg or bacon alone, fries made from scratch keep the salty goodness and plush potato accoutrement. center intact and ready to enjoy no matter the main course. INGREDIENTS: Montana-grown potatoes
48 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
BENT NAIL PICKLE Red Lodge Ales’ Bent Nail IPA is not your average beer. It can be used for making pickles, too. INGREDIENTS: 3 garlic cloves, whole 2 oz. kosher salt ½ oz. black peppercorns 3 bay leaves, whole 5 g. dried dill
¾ ¼ 1½ 2 3
c. apple cider vinegar c. Bent Nail IPA c. water T. water lb. English cucumbers
DIRECTIONS:
Bring all ingredients except the cucumbers to boil. Let rest for 10 minutes and then pour over cucumber chips. Store accordingly.
DIRECTIONS:
Scrub potatoes individually. Cut into 3/8-inch-thick fries and triple-rinse until all visible starch is removed and the rinse water runs clear. Blanch in salted boiling water for about nine minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from the water and bake on a lightly-oiled
sheet pan at 450-degrees. Stir the fries halfway through the bake time. Chill in freezer (preferred) or refrigerator until cool throughout. Heat canola or grapeseed oil up to 350 degrees and fry until potatoes are deep, golden brown. Season with salt, pepper and garlic pepper. Enjoy.
LEHFELDT LAMBURGER The name comes from Lehfeldt Ranch in Lavina, Mont., whose ranchers deliver lamb to the back door of Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill. Chef Jason Corbridge likes to use local goat cheeses that blend well with apple and chamomile, though toppings are up to you. INGREDIENTS: 1 6-oz. lamb patty 1 minced shallot per 5 lbs. of ground lamb 1 Kaiser roll
ready-made apple chips spring greens vinegar, oil, salt and pepper as needed
BENT NAIL IPA MUSTARD Before you polish off a six-pack of Red Lodge Ales’ Bent Nail IPA, add some to your next mustard mix. INGREDIENTS: ½ lb. whole mustard seeds 1 shallot, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, stem removed 1½ c., plus 4 T., Bent Nail IPA 1½ c., plus 4 T., apple cider vinegar
3¼ 1 2 ½
DIRECTIONS:
Bring all ingredients except mustard seeds to a full boil. Immediately remove from heat and pour over mustard seeds, which should be in a heat-safe container. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature overnight. Puree into a smooth paste after 24 hours of steeping.
DIRECTIONS:
HONEY VANILLA MAYONNAISE
Oil and season with salt and pepper before grilling. Butter and toast inside of Kaiser roll. When the burger is cooked to the desired temperature, garnish with chamomile-baked chevre, honey-vanilla mayonnaise, Bent Nail IPA mustard and balsamic greens. Start with the mustard on the bottom, the patty, the chamomile baked chevre, then the apple ring and balsamic spring greens with mayonnaise on the bottom of the top bun.
INGREDIENTS: 3 egg whites 1 oz. white vinegar 5 g. Dijon mustard ¾ t. vanilla extract ¼ t. vanilla powder
For the balsamic greens: Make a vinaigrette with one-part vinegar and two parts oil. Lightly dress spring greens with dressing.
oz. honey lemon for zest and juice T. kosher salt t. whole black peppercorns
Show guests you’re not into pre-packaged dressings with this honey of a condiment. 16 oz. grapeseed oil (NOTE: do not use extra virgin olive oil) 3 T. honey Salt and pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Add all ingredients except for the oil into an upright blender. Puree on slow speed, gradually working up to medium to homogenize the base of the mayo. Slowly add the oil through the opening at the top of the blender lid while the machine is still on. When the oil is gone, the sauce should be fully emulsified and thick. Salt and pepper to taste.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 49
THE PORCHETTA Essentially bacon wrapped around a pork loin, this sandwich was popularized by Italian immigrants in northwest Minnesota before making its way to Montana Avenue. It is also referred to as the Father-in-Law, a nod to Red Lodge Ales’ owner Sam Hoffmann’s, you know, father-in-law. 50 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
INGREDIENTS: 1 5-lb. skin-on pork belly 1 whole pork tenderloin butcher’s twine 1 orange DIRECTIONS:
Score the flesh side of the belly with a sharp knife to about 1/4-inch from the skin side. Trim all the fat and gristle from the pork loin, seasoning both the scored side of the belly and outside of the pork loin. Thinly slice a clean orange and layer it in the middle of the seasoned pork belly. Place the seasoned pork loin on top of the layered orange slices, bringing either side up around the pork loin. Roll the porchetta onto the side where it meets the belly. Have butcher’s twine ready to bind the belly around the loin. Evenly bind the porchetta roll as tightly as possible. Take a fine-pointed sharp knife and stab through the skin of the belly, poking as
much of the skin as possible. Allow to rest and chill for at least 24 hours, uncovered in the refrigerator. Roast the roll on high heat at 425 degrees. Roll the porchetta 180-degrees after the first 15 minutes, then for another 15 minutes on the other side. Turn the heat down to 200 degrees and roast for another two hours, rotating the porchetta another 180 degrees after the first hour. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing.
PORCHETTA SEASONING INGREDIENTS: 50 g. fennel seed 10 g. fresh rosemary leaf 15 g. fresh sage leaf 10 g. red chili flake 60 g. kosher salt 20 g. black pepper 15 g. celery seed
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This German-Jewish traditional potato and apple cake is much like a fritter, its flavors heightened when deep fried. Best served as dessert for breakfast or breakfast for dinner. You decide. INGREDIENTS: 725 g. russet potatoes, peeled raw, grated, pressed and strained 335 g. apple, cored, grated, pressed and strained 72 g. sourdough starter ½ t. baking powder
1 t. ground coriander 1 t. cinnamon 1 t. kosher salt 3 T. raw sugar 7 fresh cracked pepper twists 137½ g. all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS:
Wrap potatoes and apples in paper towels to absorb any extra moisture after pressing and straining. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Portion into two-ounce cakes and pan-fry with butter. Garnish with sour cream, honey or whatever you like. Last Chance garnishes with orange cardamom mascarpone and chili-infused honey.
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WATER FOR CHOCOLATE This vegan and gluten-free dessert isn’t what you’d imagine from a non-cream-based treat. Coconut foam and a barely-baked buckwheat cookie add to the mousse’s rich flavors. Rose hip glass is the cherry on top. INGREDIENTS: 375 g. 50% bittersweet callebaut chocolate 270 g. tap water 6¼ g. green coffee beans DIRECTIONS:
Bring water to boil with green coffee beans. Chop chocolate into chunks no bigger than ½”x½” and place in a slightly steep-sided mixing bowl. Make an ice bath in a bowl that the bowl of chocolate can fit into. Pour the boiling water directly over the chocolate through a fine mesh strainer. Use a wooden spoon or high-temp spatula to stir and melt the chocolate in the hot water, making sure all of the chocolate is completely melted. Place melted chocolate into the ice bath and begin to whisk. Eventually it will begin to stiffen like whipped cream. Remove the whisk when stiffening starts and finish “whipping” it with the hightemp spatula.
PEANUT BUTTER BUCKWHEAT COOKIES INGREDIENTS: 2 c. raisins 1½ t. vanilla 7 oz. buckwheat extract flour, sifted 100 g. maple syrup 1 c. peanut butter ½ t. kosher salt DIRECTIONS:
Process raisins, maple syrup and vanilla extract to a paste, adding the remaining ingredients and paste into a mixing bowl to combine thoroughly. Form into balls of 30 grams per cookie and roll in powdered sugar. Press on a sheet pan with the tines of a fork to score. Bake at 400-degrees for two minutes, then rotate and bake for another two minutes. Store in an airtight container.
52 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
ROSE HIP GLASS INGREDIENTS: ½ t. rose hips 250 g. organic sugar oil DIRECTIONS:
Prepare sheet pan with light oil and wipe down with a paper towel so there is a light sheen with no pooling oil. In a wide stainless steel, triple-clad bottomed pan on medium-high heat, completely melt the sugar to liquid, stirring with a wooden spoon. (NOTE: Do not walk away.) Once the sugar is completely melted, incorporate the crushed rose hips as fast as possible. Immediately pour out onto the oiled sheet pan and invert to cause the liquid sugar to run and thin out. Work quickly because the sugar hardens very fast. Allow to set and harden. Break up for garnish on the mousse dessert.
SNAKE BITE This drink is a favorite internationally for its ability to keep body temperatures down during the heat of summer. 1 part, Czechmate Pilsner 1 part, St. Iggy’s
Rum Daddy 4.5% ABV
FULL MONTANA 2016 McIntosh and Spartan apples aged in rum barrels from Saint Ignatius, Montana, combine with more than a dozen other apple types from last year’s harvest to make the Full Montana 2016. Sweetened with local beet sugar, this hard cider is not your child’s apple juice. 6.4% ABV
FRESHPRESSED PRESS What begins as your traditional fresh-pressed and non-alcoholic apple juice transforms into a sweet cocktail when combined with your spirit of choice. Take some home in a growler and garnish with lemon to enhance the drink’s natural flavors. Non-alcoholic option
MULLED HOT APPLE CIDER Lemons and apples make very good friends. The acid and fruit sugars blend well when heated on the stove with fresh-pressed apple juice and cinnamon sticks. The longer it simmers, the stronger the flavors. Non-alcoholic option
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 53
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54 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
THEN COMES
THE FALL
THE RISE, FALL, RESURRECTION AND LEGACY OF BILLINGS MAYOR WILLARD FRASER BY DARRELL EHRLICK
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 55
T
he fall of former Billings Mayor Willard Fraser began just that way. With a fall. In the summer of 1968, Fraser traveled to Chicago to attend an annual national mayors’ conference where he would present several key ideas to the group, including his latest crazy proposal — an initiative to clean the air pollution from refineries in and around his city. Fraser and his parents had moved from Kansas to Billings when he was a young boy to escape to a climate that was more conducive to his severe asthma. Now, air pollution from the county’s three refineries threat-
ABOUT THIS SERIES
56 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
In this undated photo, former
ened not just the air in Billings Mayor Willard Fraser town, but Fraser’s breathsigns documents from a hospital ing and weakened lungs. bed with a City of Billings police officer standing by. It’s On Wednesday, June unknown when this was taken, 12, 1968, Fraser checked but Fraser spent several months into Chicago’s Palmer of campaigning during the House hotel. summer of 1968 when he was “I walked into the room, injured in Chicago. He did official work from the hospital bed in planning to take a shower Chicago. Chicago Mayor Richard and change my white shirt. Daley dubbed the hospital room I had been traveling all day “Billings City Hall.” in it,” Fraser recounted to COURTESY OF WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER Chicago Tribune Reporter Bob Nolte, who happened to be a Billings native. “It was a tubtype shower. I noticed no rubber or paper mat in the tub and that the tub was curved and slippery. “I lost my grip and began sliding. Before I knew it, I had fall-
This is the second in a four-part series about the rise, fall, resurrection and legacy of Willard Fraser, former mayor of Billings.
Now is the time to get
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Billings Mayor Willard Fraser COURTESY OF WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER en sideways, the whole weight of my body was pressed onto my right hip and I guess that’s what broke it.” Fraser managed to call for help because of “the unique place of one utility — a telephone in the bathroom,” according to Nolte’s article. Fraser never got to present his proposal, missing the convention completely, being in the hospital for surgery and rehabilitation for weeks. Nolte covered Fraser’s tumble in the Chicago Tribune, beneath a headline that said, “Hospital Bed is His City Hall.” “A Montana mayor who once turned a county jail into an art museum has transformed a Chicago hospital room into his city hall,” Nolte reported in the Chicago Tribune. From the bed, Fraser was holding telephone conferences and dictating letters. He made two appointments to the city’s planning board and approved six police and fire department promotions from the Chicago hospital room. Cards and gifts poured in, forcing the city to take out an ad in The Billings Gazette pleading for no more flowers — there wasn’t enough space in the Passavant Hospital room. He had received more than 50 bouquets and 800 cards. “My office hours are in the afternoon because of morning therapy so that cuts down my day. I have to write my official letters by hand, and that gets tiring. I need my secretary,” Fraser said. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley stopped to see Fraser several times, visiting what he called “Billings City Hall.” Fraser was a big fan of Daley — a fellow Democrat. When riots broke out that summer as Fraser convalesced in the Windy City, Willard took to writing his new friend, Daley. “Police brutality, hell — let’s talk about citizen stupidity and the maintenance of law and order,” Fraser wrote. Laying there in a hospital bed, 1,300 miles away, the man dubbed “The Montana Fireball” couldn’t walk. Back home, it was election season. The three-term mayor had squeezed decades-worth of progress into six short years. Some leaders were tired. Others thought Fraser’s style was too confrontational and unorthodox, although they couldn’t argue with the results — so much so that a political ad by mayoral challenger Howard Hultgren seemed taken
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58 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
This is an ad that ran in The Billings Gazette during the election of 1969 in which Dr. Howard E. Hultgren defeated incumbent Billings Mayor Willard E. Fraser. Hultgren was a city councilmember and a Republican in a solidly conservative town. BILLINGS GAZETTE straight from Fraser’s playbook as Hultgren promised business development, pollution control and meeting more with citizens. So the stolid, conservative stalwarts of the council got busy campaigning as Fraser was literally laying around. When the vote happened, Fraser’s lack of campaigning was felt. Neither Hultgren nor Fraser took a majority, but Hultgren emerged on top by 798 votes, besting the incumbent 6,295 to 5,497. The next day, Hultgren said he aimed to fix “the city’s credibility gap” and promised to “restore the people’s confidence in the city.” For his part, the defeated Fraser issued a statement more fitting for an obituary than a concession: “It has been an interesting six years and as Martin Luther said in his younger years, ‘I shall make tracks’ and in his older years, ‘I have made tracks.’ I think that I have made my tracks.” Meanwhile, Fraser sent Hultgren a telegram: “The gavel is yours — as this day presented by the people
“AT THE SAME TIME, AS A MAN WHO HAS LOST SEVERAL ELECTIONS, I HAVE GREAT SYMPATHY AND REAL UNDERSTANDING FOR THESE MEN MEN... AGAINST WHOM I HAVE WON THE ELECTION.” WILLARD E. FRASER The front page of The Billings Gazette on April 8, 1969 — the day that Willard Fraser was defeated by Dr. Howard E. Hultgren. Fraser lost by more than 700 votes in the three-way race. Voters also voted down building and housing codes that would have helped the city fight against what Fraser deemed “urban decay.” BILLINGS GAZETTE
of Billings. You now have the opportunity to continue building our city into the metropolis it is destined to be. Wield it with vision and imagination — remembering always that the Billings we dream can never again be city-limited.” A broken hip was just the beginning of the mayor’s problems. Just days after the election, Fraser got into a heated argument and took to “caning” a city councilmember while they both were eating lunch at the airport coffee shop. “The mayor picks his cane and runs it at me like a sword, and shouts at me at the top of his lungs,” said Third Ward Councilman Allen P. Wharton. “You wouldn’t be able to print what he shouted.” Fraser landed the cane into Wharton’s ribs, rendering the restaurant’s crowd speechless as they looked on to see what was happening.
Left: This notice appeared in The Billings Gazette. Fraser did not congratulate nor concede the election to Dr. Howard E. Hultgren face-to-face. Instead, he sent a telegram. Far left: The Billings Gazette opinion page on the day that Dr. Howard Hultgren defeated Billings Mayor Willard Fraser. The Gazette opinion stated, “Monday’s election indicated Billings voters wanted a change. A change to what?” BILLINGS GAZETTE
Witnesses reported a man shouting. “I got the point of the cane in the ribs; I can still feel it,” Wharton told The Gazette. When contacted later that afternoon by a Gazette reporter, Fraser denied the caning. “No, hell no,” he said. Though he denied beating Wharton, Fraser confirmed the cause of the beating that supposedly didn’t happen: Wharton had been passing notes mocking Fraser at a city council meeting.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 59
Above: The headline and story that announced Billings had lost millions of federal dollars by failing to pass uniform building, electrical and plumbing codes. The idea of building codes was something championed by Willard Fraser. Right: After defeating Willard Fraser, Dr. Howard Hultgren vowed that he would restore public confidence in the office, suggesting during the 196869 campaign that voters were tired of Fraser’s antics. BILLINGS GAZETTE
Wharton explained the notes began as Fraser had been grousing about some cabins he thought were unsightly and falling apart on Avenues E and F. Wharton then scrawled, “The SBA gave Willard $135,000 temporarily to fix his building; it hasn’t been done yet.” Incensed at the insult and comparison, having less than a week to go as a lame-duck mayor, and facing foreclosure on his downtown office building, Fraser took his cane to Wharton. It would arguably be the lowest point in Fraser’s public career and possibly the only example when his frustration turned from words to action. At the same time, Fraser had not only been stung by the mayoral loss but also the complete defeat of city building codes, which he saw as essential to cleaning up blighted and downright dangerous parts of the city. From the beginning of his term in office, Fraser had noticed “slums” that he believed needed to be cleaned up both to improve the aesthetics of the city and pull its residents from poverty. His quest to improve living conditions began when an older American Indian woman pleaded her case to Fraser. Sensing the injustice, it led him on a crusade to clean up the blight and try to enact a series of landlord ordinances that would help protect renters. Ultimately, both would be defeated. The first attempt at landlord reform failed. And, in 1969, voters turned down a series of three ordinances championed by Fraser and aimed at improving building standards throughout
60 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
the city by adopting uniform electrical, building and plumbing codes. The votes weren’t even close. Yet, Fraser — by then out of office — was vindicated a short time later. A few days after Fraser’s defeat and the defeat of the building codes, The Gazette ran the headline, “Billings Loses Millions.” Killing the codes meant that millions in federal funding, which had been lined up to help spur a building boom, would be lost. All Billings would have needed was a vote to approve the building codes. The funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs would have meant millions, maybe as much as $8 million, which translates to more than $52 million in today’s money. Fraser was right, and the city would literally pay for it. Almost as soon as Fraser left office in May 1969, the gravity of his personality coupled with his sweeping vision left some trying to figure out how to leverage this one-man crusade for everything. The Billings Chamber of Commerce hatched a plan to bring Fraser on as public relations officer “of some type,” The Gazette reported, although there had not been a job like it previously. “Fraser, whom some considered a better publicist than an administrator, was considered throughout City Hall and in the Chamber of Commerce, sources said,” The Gazette reported. It would be the perfect job for the man who seemed to be at every public function, who considered the best part of his job greeting guests and visitors, and who annually held luncheons for foreign students on George Washington’s birthday to tell them about America. “The idea was to hire Fraser with the city and the Chamber splitting expenses for the public relations operation. It would have provided Fraser with a ‘sort of mayor emeritus’ status,” The Gazette reported. Still, city leaders were wary after six years of breakneck activity and hurried ideas. This was, after all, Billings, a city known for its conservative approach to politics and business. Once word of the plot to bring back Fraser was leaked to the press, the Chamber ran quickly from it. “To the best of my knowledge no serious proposal or proposal of any kind ever came before a formal meeting in this matter,” said Chamber President Arnold Baron, in a statement that seemed to become more qualified as he spoke. The Gazette reported that city officials loved the idea, the Chamber not so much. “Say we approved the idea at $6,000 per year,” one unnamed
The sting of defeat — after Chamber source told The Gathree consecutive wins — must zette. “What would keep Frashave been sharp. He must have er from spending it all in three wondered about losing, posmonths? Then he could come to sibly for no other reason than us, pointing to the fine job he was being laid up in a Chicago hosdoing and ask for more money. If pital bed while serving as an we didn’t come across with more ambassador for the Magic City. money, we’d have to do without Fraser’s loss was felt acutefor the rest of the year.” ly by the media as it noticed a You could almost hear the lack of copy and seemed bored Chamber officials harrumphing by the plodding pace of City as they talked themselves out of This notice in The Billings Gazette appeared after Hall. the idea. Willard Fraser was defeated for a fourth consecutive Just a few weeks after leavFraser knew what it was like to term in office. Fraser’s statement quotes Martin ing office, The Gazette went to lose. He said as much on the night Luther. However, Fraser would not stay out of politics or the spotlight for long. And a cursory search tying check on the man whom it said he first won the mayoral race, April the quote to Luther has not been substantiated. “lived in the headlines” and 1, 1963. BILLINGS GAZETTE was the “very visible” mayor. “While I’ve had a great deal He replied curtly that he of experience at losing elections, this is the first time it’s been my experience to win one,” Fra- had been terribly sick with the flu. He said he didn’t have any immediate plans. ser said. “At the same time, as a man who has lost several And Fraser was telling the truth. elections, I have great sympathy and real understanding for His plans were much, much longer. these men...against whom I have won the election.”
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 61
Head custodian Jeff Skovgaard walks through a tunnel leading to another part of the building at the Lincoln Center.
62 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
TUNNEL
VISIVISIOONN P
BY BRONTË WITTPENN
eople who’ve lived in Billings long enough have heard the story about a latticework of underground tunnels that once hosted opium dens, drug lords, prostitutes and more. Some people believe it and some don’t. Either way, they’re right. There are tunnels. They are under parts of downtown Billings. But they aren’t the deep, damp, cement lures that transport able-bodies from the Lincoln Center to the Babcock and across to the Moss Mansion. There isn’t any opium, but there are underground pipes that once heated the city’s center.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 63
There’s also Cold War-era sanitation kits and shelter supplies from a time when communities thought nuclear war was inevitable. A crawlspace beneath the Lincoln Center is full of them. That’s what Jeff Skovgaard finds most interesting. He’s been the head custodian at the Lincoln Center for School District 2 since 2008. Every once in awhile he walks the length of the maze to make sure there aren’t any leaks in the pipes that cover the low-hanging ceilings. The keys on his key ring resemble what one would imagine in a movie. They hang heavy in his hand as he effortlessly selects the key to unlock the door to what’s left of Billings’ underground tunnels. The earliest reference of the tunnels dates back to 1907 when Billings Mutual Heating Company proposed to construct and operate a central heating plant for the city. The plant was built on North 29th Street and piped hot water underground to businesses along the street down to Minnesota Avenue. The pipes extended to reach businesses east on 26th Street, west on 32nd to Montana Avenue and First, Second and Third Avenue North. According to Billings author and former librarian Karen Stevens, the heating plant was the largest of its kind west of the Missouri River. In her book, “Billings A to Z,” the plant had more than three miles of water mains that heated more than 50 businesses. Some included the Stapleton Building, the Northern Hotel, Billings Public Library, The Lincoln Center, the Babcock Building and city hall. The plant went out of business in 1937. The pipes leaked terribly, she said. From then on many access points to the pipes collapsed, were filled in or became inaccessible. Even after the plant went out of business people still talked about the tunnels.
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Jeff Skovgaard inspects a portion of pipe for leaks.
Above: The Cold War fallout sanitation kits contain toilet paper, a can opener and many other survival supplies. Left: An entryway leading to another part of the building is labeled with a warning, “To Hell Step High,” at the Lincoln Center.
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Jeff Skovgaard shows his key ring, weighing more than a pound. To remember which key to use, Skovgaard writes a number in the door frames of the Lincoln Center building. For Stevens, it was the most frequently asked question at the reference desk during her 22 years working at the Billings Public Library, then Parmly Billings Library. People are fascinated by tunnels, she said. Stevens said she believes there’s something that draws people to them. Even today, Billings’ historians and downtown building owners continue to get calls inquiring about one of the city’s oldest urban legends. Western Heritage Center Executive Director Kevin Kooistra said he believes the tunnels have been talked about well into the ‘30s and ‘40s. In 1943, a Billings Gazette subhead reads “No Tunnel System” in bold font. The rest of the article states the following, “China Alley (once located on Southside) is not and never was honeycombed with tunnels, although it did at one time have some interesting basements, with more doors than usual and some complex arrangements of locks.” “It’s been a question for over 100 years,” said Kooistra. “It’s a big deal.” Kooistra said people call the Western Heritage Center about the tunnels once or twice a month. Community historian Elisabeth DeGranier received a call from the Department of Transportation asking about the tunnels in January.
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Above: A hand-drawn skull and crossbones can be seen with the word “evil” in one of the tunnels. Top: A tunnel leads to an unknown part of the building at the Lincoln Center. Left: A room with shag carpet and chairs is one of the main access points at the Lincoln Center.
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After 9/11, the FBI contacted Kooistra asking about tunnels under the train tracks near Minnesota Avenue. “The rumor of this network of tunnels has reached federal agencies,” said Kooistra. “From all the years I’ve heard this story, there’s never any solid evidence.” So far, all the evidence he’s seen is from when he went under the Lincoln Center. “I’ve seen it,” Kooistra said. “It’s impressive, spooky and has evidence of a functional past.” Kooistra said he believes there is a difference between the functional tunnel system and the idea of an active corridor transporting people from one place to another. But when people ask he doesn’t immediately dismiss the idea of the tunnels. “It’s fun because we are encouraging people to do research,” Kooistra said. “We love the idea of people exploring.” Kooistra said he and his staff are always waiting and open for people to bring in any evidence they find.
Cold War fallout shelter water barrels and sanitation kits fill a crawl space at the Lincoln Center. The SK IV sanitation kit was capable of supplying 50 people for two weeks. The water barrels contained 17.5 gallons of water.
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or my latest book, Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey, I spent two years F traveling to every county in Montana, interviewing people from every walk of life and reading almost 100 books about the history of the state and the West. couple of patterns I found significant through the history of Montana. Despite having an abundance of natural resources, we have never been a wealthy state. There are several complicated reasons for this, but to me, the most obvious is many of the companies or people who have found a way to utilize these resources don’t have a strong commitment to our state. Ever since William Clark and Marcus Daly combined forces to include a provision in the original Montana Constitution giving copper mines a break in taxes, many greedy, wealthy individuals found a way to exploit Montana and its people for their own gains. While farmers and loggers and storekeepers all over the state paid their fair share of taxes, the copper companies paid almost nothing for more than 30 years. The Copper Kings also managed to gain control of the newspaper industry throughout Montana, ensuring that the press looked the other way while they exploited our people, especially their own employees. And they maintained ownership of most of those major newspapers until the late 1950s. Once Daly and Clark finagled the tax legislation, they became locked in a personal battle in which their employees were nothing but pawns. During a time when megalomaniacs held enormous power, these two men built obscene wealth on the backs of tens of thousands of hard-working Montanans. Although Daly showed occasional hints of goodwill toward his employees, his
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main investment was a mansion in the Bitterroot Valley that isolated his family from the toxic air his own company created. Once Clark was out of the copper business, he left Montana, building one of the largest mansions in New York City and putting most of his energy into traveling the world collecting art. When his last living child, Huguette, died just a few years ago, she owned several mansions all over the country that she hadn’t visited for decades. Did these men have an obligation to put money back into this state or clean up the mess their companies left behind? Legally, no. But it might have been nice. The second theme to emerge from Montana’s history is the resilience and determination of its people. Again, these qualities were established early on, mostly out of necessity. Between the propaganda that railroads put out about the fertile ground here and the rush for gold and other minerals, many of the early pioneers came for riches that simply didn’t exist or were in more limited supply. In most cases, they spent their entire life savings to pursue the promise of bushels of wheat or pockets full of gold dust. So they were stuck here. To further complicate their introduction to the West, our government was in a full-on war with the Native Americans, and each time another treaty was broken or the cavalry carried out another invasion on an Indian village, who did they retaliate against? Generally the locals. The innocents who were honestly just trying to make a living. Essentially, those who were benefiting most from Montana’s resources managed to create so much animosity between the Native American population and these innocent settlers that the two sides became locked in a conflict neither side sought nor wanted. Although there were many examples of people who managed to establish a good life in those early homestead
days, there were more who ended up having to do whatever it took to feed their families. This is the legacy we inherited, and although it has served many Montanans well, it has also fed a stubbornness that leaves many alone with their problems, feeding the high suicide rate that has become the norm. For the past 40 years, Montana has been in the top five in the United States for suicide. But the positive side: Montanans come from a long line of innovative, determined and adaptable stock. One of the most striking things I noticed in my travels was that no matter how bad things seemed, or how bad they actually were, every tiny town in Montana still clings to the belief that better days are just around the corner. This attitude has been deeply planted into our DNA from early on. Today in Montana, we are presented with a familiar scenario. Every time a natural resource has provided huge numbers of jobs, the narrative has followed the same predictable course. The working class rejoices in the chance for work, especially in cases like the Bakken, where the pay for common labor is higher than what most have ever made. Because the majority is thrilled about prosperity, they try not to think about the long-term implications. Or their concerns are beaten down. This happened in Anaconda when Daly first opened the smelter there.
One of the most striking things I noticed in my travels was that no matter how bad things seemed, or how bad they actually were, every tiny town in Montana still clings to the belief that better days are just around the corner. This attitude has been deeply planted into our DNA from early on.�
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The farmers could tell that the smoke coming from the big stack was effecting their crops and their livestock, not to mention their health. They filed a lawsuit, and some of the miners even supported their complaints. But the company was too strong. They hired scientists to fabricate statistics to prove the farmers’ claims wrong. And of course, they also employed the influence of their newspapers. The lawsuits were thrown out. Similar situations have happened all over the state, such as the asbestos mine in Libby. And it has always been those with money that got in the way of establishing an infrastructure that would prevent these problems. I have an idea about how we can alter this narrative. From the time the West was “settled,” the Native population has been warning us about how we treat the earth. They have told us that if we take our resources for granted, we will pay a price. For the most part, we’ve listened to these warnings with a vacant smile and a nod and then dismissed them as a bunch of nonsense once we turned our backs. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of evidence to indicate that their warnings were right. A few years ago, I had the great pleasure of editing an anthology with Lynn Stegner, the daughter-in-law
of one of my heroes, Wallace Stegner. We asked writers from all over the West to write about how growing up in the West affected them, and how they see the western identity changing over time. In his essay “A Dark Light in the West,” Barry Lopez wrote: To my thinking, what finally proves important in reconciling the past is not necessarily the making of amends but the opportunity for a slighted party to tell his or her own story without interruption, according to his own sense of timing, and without fear of refutation. For those in power to simply let what another person says stand as their truth, and to go on from there, is a critical part of the healing that can conceivably take place after racial and ethnic violence. So here’s my idea. What would happen if we organized a gathering with representatives of all the tribes that were the targets of the genocide that the government orchestrated when we settled the West? What if we invited family members of the cavalry members who were killed in those battles; the young men who were not there
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because they hated Indians, but because they needed a job? What if we invited the members of pioneer families who were killed in the many battles that raged while they were trying to carve a living out of the dry earth? What if we invited the ancestors of those Irish mining families, the logging families, the trappers, the Chinese railroad workers who were shunned once their work was done, the buffalo soldiers who fought as bravely as anyone but were treated like outsiders until they finally decided to go somewhere they might be wanted? What if we brought all of these people together and allowed them, as Lopez says, “to tell his or her own story without interruption, according to his own sense of timing, and without fear of refutation?” What would happen if we made this small effort to heal these decades’ worth of wounds? What if we got to a point where these groups of people felt as if they had a few less reasons to feel angry, or a few less reasons to apologize? Do I honestly think this will ever happen? Probably not. But you know what does seem possible and has never been done? A public apology to these groups. There has never been any kind of symbolic effort to admit to these people that damaging decisions were made during those early years, and that many people were hurt because of it. What if an effort to admit these mistakes inspired people to have more conversations about issues that are important? Right now, we live in a country where political contention is as nasty as I can remember. Conversations about subjects that are crucial to our future often lead to the worst kind of personal attacks and name-calling. Nothing gets resolved. But what if we could do something to change that, simply by bringing people together to heal what has happened in the past? Almost every spiritual or religious philosophy ever created includes a process by which people can achieve atonement and/or forgiveness. By cleaning up the past, people can move forward with a clear conscience and less animosity regarding their fellow travelers. It works. But for some reason, using this method for social matters never seems to be an option. Many efforts have been made to alter this narrative through the years, but healing the past never seems to be one of them. These are not political issues. These are social and economic and spiritual issues, and yet for decades we have left them to politicians to solve.
Almost every spiritual or religious philosophy ever created includes a process by which people can achieve atonement and/or forgiveness. By cleaning up the past, people can move forward with a clear conscience and less animosity regarding their fellow travelers.” 74 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
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Out of several thousand applicants, only about 1,000 win a permit to float the Smith River.
Beginner’s
luck WINNING THE SMITH RIVER LOTTERY BY SUSAN BARFIELD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT FRENCH I had just won the lottery. No, not the one that awards winners millions of dollars, but the one in Montana that many fishermen pray to win; a permit that allows them to float “the Smith.” Smith River State Park is located northwest of White Sulphur Springs and south of Great Falls. The river flows through a remote canyon, bordering Lewis and Clark National Forest. Only 26 miles of more than a hundred miles of river shoreline are public land, but there are 52 campsites and 27 boat camps in the park.
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lthough I’ve lived in Montana almost 20 years, I had not heard of the Smith River float until our neighbors went in 2014. The Smith River State Park river trip is a multiple-day float that encompasses 59 miles, with only one public “put in” at the beginning and one public “take out” at the end. Because of the magnificent scenery and excellent fishing, it is so popular that the state holds a lottery to determine who can go and when. In 2015 there were more than 8,000 applications; only slightly more than 1,000 were awarded. Each launch group is limited to 15 participants and no more than nine groups, including a limited number of commercial outfitters, are allowed to launch each day. I had been lucky to be awarded a spot. We quickly called our son, Nick, who loves to fish with his dad, Eakle, and my husband’s brother, Matt, and wife, Alicia. Count them in. Our neighbors were going to be out of town that week, and since we were virgin river floaters, they suggested we call Eakle’s previous bird-hunting friend, Rand, who has been on the Smith more than 30 times. Count him, and his buddy, Steve, in as well. Drift boats, canoes, kayaks and rafts are all acceptable, depending on river conditions. My vision of a raft was flat and wooden like the one Huckleberry Finn used on the Mississippi River, so when it was decided to use rafts I was very hesitant. I learned, however, that these rafts were inflatable boats with no engines that are rowed by individuals. Floaters decide which campsites along the route to camp at, and the list of who gets to choose campsites first is selected on a firstcome, first-served basis the day before you set out. We camped for two nights at the “put in” camp, Camp Baker, 27 miles from White Sulphur Springs, to sign up for the list first thing in the morning. I expected it to be like lining up for Beyoncé tickets, the “Star Trek Beyond” movie, or the latest iPhone, so I got up two hours early to “stake my claim” as first in line. Ironically, no one else was there when the ranger brought the list to sign, although he mentioned that it becomes more competitive later in the summer. After choosing our campsites the next morning, we packed three rafts with dry bags, coolers and raft equipment. Shortly before noon, we were off. It took most of the afternoon to discover how to properly row; at first it was
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Above: What is most confusing about rowing is that the rower is often facing upstream, which can be very discomforting if one can’t see what is coming downstream. We often become “navigators,” coaching the rowers as to what to expect. Left: The river map indicates where you’ll find Native American pictographs.
HELPFUL HINTS:
a bit like carnival bumper cars, hitting banks or ricocheting off or over boulders. What is most confusing about rowing is that the rower is often facing upstream, which can be very discomforting if one can’t see what is coming downstream. We often became “navigators,” coaching the rowers as to what to expect. Thanks to Rand and Steve’s rowing support and patience, we felt much more confident by the end of the trip. Our first campsite, Rock Creek (8.9 miles from Camp Baker), was a great location; the camp lies opposite a 100foot rock cliff and the intersection of a small stream. Although it had rained the whole afternoon on the river, the weather cleared when we arrived at camp so putting up tents and getting the camp kitchen organized proceeded quickly. Each camp had a metal grill for fires and an openpit toilet, the latter quite a distance up the hill, located in the center of a beautiful meadow. We had a National Geographic moment at this camp. The night we arrived we noticed a Canada goose perched nearly 50 feet up on the rock cliff sitting on her eggs. Early the following morning, the eggs hatched and five baby geese were high above the river. As we debated how they might survive, the mother and father geese flew down to the water. Within seconds, one of the new goslings leapt from the nest. Bouncing three or four times off the rocky shelves and outcrops, it plunged deep into the rushing river. We thought it couldn’t possibly have survived the high dive and rocky hits, but the hours-old gosling popped up and swam to the mother while the father coaxed the others to jump. All four followed in the same manner; miraculously, all five survived. The following day we hit the river hoping the waters would be clearer so the fishing would improve. Mother Nature had her own ideas. It rained most of the day, but we were able to catch a few fish. Nick almost landed his very first. The fish made it to the outside of the raft, but escaped before it could be netted. Alicia was luckier; she caught and released her first fly-fishing catch. Steve and Rand, experienced anglers, caught several. It has been said, though, that catching fish is really a “bonus” compared to the beauty of the canyon and the river. On the river map, it indicates there are Native American pictographs at Mile 16.6. They are located on a
n Have each person in your party apply for the three dates that you choose; it will only increase your odds of being successful at winning the river lottery. n If you are not traveling with experienced rafters, practice rowing until you are comfortable maneuvering the raft. n If having your choice of campsites is important, have at least one person be the first to register on the list the day before you launch. n Make sure your tents and outside clothing are totally waterproof, not just water-resistant. Try them in rain or water before you take off. n Have each boat bring firewood, including firestarting bricks in the event of severe rain. n Keep a waterproof camera handy. Note that there is no cell service.
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that night (up to 50 mph), but Eakle and I slept in a dry tent, despite having to tie it to a tree. The metal fire ring was surrounded by water, but we were able to start a great fire with the wood we brought on the boats. We broke camp early on our final day. While it is known that the final miles of the river are pretty mild and rock overhang in the the fishing isn’t as good as bend on river left. the first couple of days, the As neophyte rowers, weather cooperated with we would have conus. The current was fast becentrated on getting In 2017, applications for the Smith cause of the previous rains, the raft around the River Lottery were available January 3 leaving the water muddy. curve and would have – February 16, but there are still two This was the day that I got missed the pictomore ways to apply for this year. to finally try rowing. I had graphs had Rand and been paying close attention Steve not drawn our n FWP issues one special permit that, to instructions and thought attention to them. We if chosen, can be used at any time. I would be just fine. Withstopped at Upper Cow Applications are available after in minutes I was doing a Coulee Campground March 1 and are due March 15. The decent job, steering as we (Mile 22.8), which winner will be chosen March 20. faced downstream and rowwas quite wet from ing “backwards” facing upthe day’s rain. Eakle’s n Sometimes the people who win a stream and around corners. and my 30-year-old lottery spot have to cancel or aren’t Perhaps because I was too tent was certainly able to go. You can call the Smith River proud of myself, or maybe showing its age; evReservation & Information Line at to remind me that I really erything was soaked (406) 454-5861 beginning March 13 wasn’t in control, Mother both inside and out. and throughout the summer to see if Nature started to blow. I wish I could say anyone has cancelled or if there are any No matter how hard I the third day was open dates available. tried to row, she was pushbright and sunny, but ing me further and further no luck. In addition More information is available at into the bank. A 90-degree to the rain, we had stateparks.mt.gov/smith-river. curve was coming up, so high winds and hail Matt diplomatically asked on the river. It took most of the day to get to our next campsite, to take over the oars. My glory was cut short and Upper Parker Flat (Mile 37.5). The longer day humility restored. Fifty-nine miles from the beginning of our allowed us to spend more time looking at the magnificent scenery. People say the Smith Riv- journey, we arrived at the take out at Eden er is the “Little Grand Canyon” of Montana. Al- Bridge. Although I was ready for a hot shower, though there are many private cabins along the I was reluctant to say farewell to this glorious, river, the canyon walls can be hundreds of feet isolated environment. Despite our personal high, and there is a sense of remoteness and se- challenges, this trip was a reminder that life, like the Smith River, continues to flow. reneness in the canyon. No, I hadn’t won a money lottery, but a life The fourth day was basically a day of leisure; we only rowed seven miles to Upper Ridgetop lottery. Wildlife abounds, and even though we nevCampsite (Mile 45) and arrived early afternoon amid the continuing rain. After falling into the er saw a bear, we encountered mule deer, mink, river trying to dock the boat, I was as cold and rabbits, geese, ducks, eagles, turkey vultures and wet as our tent. But Mother Earth must have many more species of birds, wild flowers and heard my prayer, for less than 30 minutes after animals. I was mesmerized by the colors of the we arrived at the campsite, the rain stopped and trees and flowers along the river and their reflecthe sun came out. We quickly set up our wet tent tions in the light each evening and morning. We had arrived at Eden Bridge. We had sucand put out our clothes to dry. The wind started to blow and helped dry everything. It was windy cessfully floated “the Smith.”
SMITH RIVER LOTTERY INFORMATION:
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LARRY MAYER/GAZETTE STAFF
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Rocky’s
Renaissance THE LITTLE COLLEGE THAT COULD BY JEFF WELSCH n any given day, the man presiding over unprecedented prosperity at Rocky Mountain College could be sporting a trendy and spendy Hugo Boss suit or a well-laundered hoodie with old-school Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers. Though Bob Wilmouth initially was leaning toward the latter on this wintry December day, his wife, Liz, persuaded him to seek middle ground to something a little more, well, presidential: An overcoat with scarf, pressed slacks, white button-down shirt and dress shoes. “Notice I bagged the tie,” Wilmouth said with a chuckle. The tie isn’t all Wilmouth bags during a 45-minute conversation in Prescott Hall about the former heart surgeon’s unlikely three-year tenure as president of Rocky — and the small, private liberal arts school’s subsequent surge even as Montana State University Billings, its public neighbor a mile to the east on Rimrock Road, struggles. Forget carefully scripted and wonky talking points provided by communications specialists. Forget the president looking and acting, well, presidential. “There are many challenges in my position,” Wilmouth said, “and one of them is I’ve got to act more presidential. Right?” Well, if it ain’t broke…
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nd one thing for sure is that Rocky, the Little College That Could, ain’t broke, literally or figuratively. Since Wilmouth took the reins in April 2013, after five years as head of Rocky’s Master of Physicians Assistant Studies program, a resilient school destroyed twice by earthquakes, and then on the precipice of bankruptcy in the 1980s, is enjoying its headiest days. Enrollment has surged past 1,000 toward an annual goal of 1,100. The school achieved surplus revenue in 2015-16 for the first time in five years. Reserves are edging toward $1.5 million, with Bob Wilmouth, president of Rocky Mountain College. an eye on $2 million. The endowment is at $30 million. Freshman LARRY MAYER/GAZETTE STAFF retention is hovering around a satisfying 70 percent. To fully appreciate Rocky’s recent evolution and revolution, a brief As part of Rocky’s ambitious “ImpACT Today, Transform Tomorrow” campaign, renovations to history is in order. The Presbyterian Church opened the school’s doors in 1878 in Deer the Herb Klindt football stadium are underway — with lights for night events, an artificial surface allowing for greater community use, and Lodge as the Montana Collegiate Institute – the state’s first institution improved seating already in place. Just outside the south end zone, of higher education. After an earthquake forced the college’s closure construction has begun on a $15 million science center along Poly in 1916, it moved to Helena and merged with the United Methodist Church’s newly-minted Montana Wesleyan College to become InterDrive that will have a balcony overlooking the football field. mountain Union College. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake in 1935 deFor Wilmouth, who is 60 this year, it’s just a start. “It’s a good college, maybe a very good college,” he said. “But it stroyed all but one of the school’s buildings, necessitating the closure could be an exceptional college. We’ve got to dream big. Billings has of the Helena campus and the merging of Intermountain Union’s asgot to dream big. Why not dream big? And I think that’s starting to sets with the United Church of Christ-affiliated Billings Polytechnic Institute, which had opened in 1908. happen here.” Those schools operated side-by-side on what was then rural farmThe dreaming begins with Wilmouth, a particle of combustible energy whose tenure in academia began only after a life-threatening land beneath the rims until 1947, when they became one. In a close student vote, the name Rocky Mountain College was adopted over illness in 2004 forced him to give up heart surgery. A dedicated sports enthusiast who lives and dies with the New Yellowstone College because at the time “yellow” was associated with York Jets and Yankees despite growing up in a Chicago suburb, he is cowardice. In a state rich in public four-year institutions per capita, the private likely to show up anywhere at any time and say just about anything to anyone. One day he’ll dine at a high-end restaurant with the state’s top college lured top-flight faculty, setting the tone for what Wilmouth decision-makers, the next he’ll make a lunch date at a sandwich shop calls “the sacred relationship of the classroom – which works here.” Billings was fertile ground for graduates, especially those in the with a middle-class alum he’d just met the previous day at a Rocky sporting event. “Like a fart on a skillet,” is how one associate affection- business and geology programs who gravitated toward the oil and gas industry, and today about half of Rocky’s alums remain in the Magic ately describes him. Wilmouth’s vibe has permeated the otherwise pastoral 60-acre City. The student body, historically in the traditional 18-24 age range, campus and stately sandstone buildings, many carved and built with has long been revered in the Billings community and across the state help from students from a quarry beneath the rims beginning in the as reflecting grassroots Montana values — hard-working, responsible, accountable. late 1940s. Much of the credit for the school’s initial sterling academic repu“I don’t think trickle down is the right word for it,” said Rocky Athletic Director Bruce Parker, who was hired by Wilmouth in 2014 tation is accorded to Lawrence F. Small, who was lured to Montana after an 11-year stint at Carroll College in Helena. “It floods us. We’re from Harvard in 1958 to teach history. He was Rocky’s president for 10 years, beginning in 1965. bathed in that enthusiasm.”
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Rocky Mountain College athletic director Bruce Parker with a rendering of the school’s stadium. CASEY PAGE/GAZETTE STAFF
“There’s a depth within our faculty,” said Brad Nason, a Bozeman native and Rocky alum who hired on briefly after graduation in 1983, returned in 1987 as dean of students and now serves as a jack-of-alltrades vice president and dean for student life. “I’d stack ours up against anybody across the state.” Despite the early academic success, enrollment struggles – Rocky still had less than 500 CASEY PAGE/GAZETTE STAFF Brad Nason of Rocky students in the late 1970s — left Mountain College. a trail of budget deficits that peaked at around $4 million in 1987. At that point, the story goes, interim president James J. Rittenkamp went to the facilities department, asked for a box of keys to campus buildings, marched downtown to First Interstate Bank, dumped the box on a conference room table and issued an ultimatum. Either help us breathe or the college is all yours. “I think he got their attention,” Nason recalled. “The debt was just smothering the college and we were quite literally month-to-month. It was hanging by a thread.” First Interstate forgave half the debt, $2 million. Rocky sold several property parcels south of Poly Drive for development to retire the remainder of the burden. But financial stability wouldn’t truly arrive until 2005 under the temperamental but fiscally-savvy president Michael R. Mace, who had a long history in business development and finance. Within two years, Mace dramatically reduced the debt and increased
the endowment, and his leadership led to an enrollment increase of more than 50 percent. Fast forward to 2017. “Mace got us out of that financial situation,” Nason said, “and Bob is giving us the opportunity to further that work.” Wilmouth, who earned his undergraduate degree at Notre Dame and medical degree at the University of Illinois, arrived in Billings to serve as a cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgeon at the Billings Clinic. He concedes to living practically across the street from Rocky for a quarter-century without knowing much about the school except that “it was a liberal arts college that loved sports.” He had been the clinic’s chief of cardiac services for six years when in 2003 he realized he’d been ignoring chronic bleeding for too long and went down the hall for a checkup. The result: leukemia had metastasized to the bowels, liver and lungs, he said, all exacerbating a relatively common inherited neurological condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT). “I got lucky,” he said. “I had good care in Billings.” Wilmouth’s surgical career was finished. But after nearly two years of recuperation, Rocky approached him about taking over the PA program and the rest is history. He was asked to apply for the presidency in 2013 and did so because “I can’t say no,” and was given the nod over 53 other applicants. “I remember telling my wife and she thought I was kidding,” he recalled. “When they called me I said, ‘I’m not even a PA.’ But, I was surprised I was even a heart surgeon, to be honest.” Wilmouth spent six months assessing the state of the union and admits he forced dramatic change too quickly. Several cabinet members left and three of four he hired in 2014 have departed as well, leaving only Parker, for which Wilmouth accepts much of the responsibility. “I wanted total world domination for us, and that was a mistake
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49 yellowstoneartmuseum Art Auction
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March 4, 2017 5:00 P.M. This fun and exciting evening includes heavy hors d’oeuvres by Tom Nelson Catering, no-host bar, live music, Quick Draw, and more. Make the bid and take home original artwork by talented Montana Artists! Reserve your favorite piece immediately with our Buy-It-Now option for Silent Auction artwork. Participate in noon tours in February when you can meet artists and learn more about their work. Check online for tour dates.
Visit us online for information and to purchase tickets Top down: Sheila Miles, Tom Foolery, Carol Spielman
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RMC President Robert Wilmouth speaks in September 2016 after it was announced that the NAIA Women’s National Championships will be in Billings the next two years.
on my part,” he said. “I have a certain style. I’m very demanding, I move quickly, I’m results-oriented. On the other hand, you’ve got to come in and observe how a place works. You can’t just come in and make changes. And if you allow frustration to get to you, that’s going to be a problem. “I guess I would just say I underestimated the difficulty of the position. But I want it all for this place. I really do.” Parker, a Billings native and Eastern Montana College (MSUB) alum, recognizes Wilmouth’s desire to set Rocky apart. “He wants us to be better, wants us to improve, to change. The saying ‘we’ve always done it that way’ is not a good saying at Rocky, and I really do think it starts from the top. We’re aggressive in our fundraising, aggressive with the community. We don’t want to be that sleepy little school in Billings down the street from MSU Billings,” said Parker. A result of Wilmouth’s learning curve is the board of trustees’ retooling of his role in 2015. He is the man with the long-term 30,000-foot vision, and restructuring has allowed him to emphasize two strengths: fundraising and schmoozing, even if neither are in the comfort zone of a man who insists much of his world had revolved entirely around “my family, my job and sports – the Jets and the Yankees.” So Wilmouth frequently is seen about town and the state, chatting up donors at cocktail parties in his spendy suits or mingling with rowdy football players at men’s basketball games in the Fortin Center (about onethird of Rocky’s students are athletes), often on the same day. His message is the same: We’re just beginning. After the science center is complete, he and Nason envision more facility improvements, including major renovations at the Fortin Center and construction of new residence halls. It’s all a continuation of what some are calling a renaissance at Rocky, even if Wilmouth and others are hesitant to go that far. “To me it doesn’t necessarily feel that way,” Nason said. “It feels like continuation of a very positive trajectory.” Renaissance or trajectory, for the man presiding over the rarified air, the quest is simple. “To be one of the best colleges in the galaxy,” Wilmouth said. “I don’t know why you’d shoot for anything less.”
Wes Urbaniak poses with the guitar he built. GAZETTE STAFF
music man FINDING MAGIC IN CAST-OFF JUNK BY JACI WEBB | PHOTOS BY BRONTË WITTPENN
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tep into Wes Urbaniak’s Knotty Wood Guitar shop in downtown Billings and it feels like you’ve entered the Mad Hatter’s lair. A rusted metal cutout is a picture frame, a guitar has seven strings, and the proprietor is sitting barefoot strumming a ukulele, wearing a pair of homemade overalls. It’s a topsy-turvy world that Urbaniak has created for himself. He added a seventh string to a six-string guitar to give it more range, and put his innovative brain into re-purposing every scrap he carts home or to his studio. In his workshop, Urbaniak shows off a contraption he built with a microwave step-up transformer that allows him to send 2,200 volts of electricity into a strip of wood, burning an image into it that resembles roots or lightning. He can’t predict what design will emerge or whether the device will start something on fire, but that’s what Urbaniak likes about it—the unpredictability. Urbaniak sees magic in what others consider junk. He is an inventor, a musician, composer and music producer. Call him the Renaissance Man of Billings. He has a gift for envisioning a dusty redwood burl in a garage as something to make music with. In fact, he turned that burl into two of his favorite instruments, one of which is a standup bass played by his bandmate Bryant Mettler. He calls his instruments “perfectly imperfect.” Part of that came out of Urbaniak’s humble beginnings. “I grew up poor, so poor.” Urbaniak, 34, arrived in Billings at 13, dealing with the death of his father. He stayed summers with his uncle, Tim Urbaniak, a bluegrass musician and longtime professor at Montana State University Billings, until Wes eventually moved to Billings and graduated from West High. “My uncle Tim is an everything kind of guy. If he encounters a problem, he’ll work through the solution. That’s how I learned how to do any of this stuff. I have no training at all, other than experiential training.” Urbaniak said he’s been taking things apart to see how they work for as long as he can remember. He started building instruments as a teenager and began in earnest about 10 years ago. He would come home from national tours
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Ukeleles made by Wes Urbaniak rest on stands in the lobby of Knotty Wood Guitar Co.
The wood counter labeled “Knotty Wood Guitar Co.” was the first thing Urbaniak made when he moved into his shop.
This ukelele made of Koa wood from the Hawaiian islands is the instrument Urbaniak plays the most.
Wes Urbaniak plays the handmade zebra wood guitar that he gave away to a fan to kick off his tour. GAZETTE STAFF
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Wes Urbaniak sands a plank of wood after burning it with baking soda. He has been making instruments for 12 years. depressed and looking for a way to cheer himself up. So he started building instruments to give away at his shows; that kept him busy during the off-season. Urbaniak has always struggled with charging for his work. He has been building instruments professionally for two years, yet he still gives some away. “I’ve made close to 100 instruments by now. I barely remember making some of them. People will send me photos and I’ll say, ‘That looks like something I built.’” Three years ago Urbaniak launched his Letter Writing Left: Wes Urbaniak plugs in a device he made from a microwave step up transformer to make Lichtenberg figures on wood. Right: Lichtenberg figures that resemble a tree are burnt into a plank of wood. Guitar project. Tired of the digital age of texting and postSo far, 13 fans have fulfilled that challenge and Urbaniak has made ing to social media, Urbaniak put out the call for letters, the old-fashioned them each a guitar, hand delivering most of them. kind where you use a pen to write on paper. “Last February, I drove to New York City to hand deliver one,” he said. “When I was on tour, I noticed that everybody was on their phones all In 2016, Urbaniak opened his downtown shop at 2913 Third Ave. N., the time. I told them that anybody willing to write me a one-page letter and built 23 ukuleles. He also started a series of live shows he calls the every month for a year could have a guitar.”
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The body of a mandolin lays on a work bench in the workshop of Knotty Wood Guitar Co.
Above: Wooden trinkets that Wes Urbaniak makes to give away to fans. Right: Wes Urbaniak shows off one of his handmade capos that he uses to help create his unique sound. GAZETTE STAFF‌ Light Box Music Sessions, hosting Billings musicians including John Roberts Y Pan Blanco and Drew McManus of Satsang. He is also filming videos for the bands, finishing 13 in 2016. The purpose of the Light Box series is to introduce the audience and the musicians to a different kind of concert, where the audience doesn’t talk but listens. Urbaniak created what he believes to be the most pure sound possible by strategically placing more than a dozen speakers around the space. Seating is tight and the place always fills up quickly the night of a show. He also founded a new band, Wesley and the Revolving, or WatR.
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Wes Urbaniak and band members from Wesley and the Revolving, an alternative Indie folk band, pose for a portrait at Knotty Wood Guitar Co. From left, base player Bryant Mettler, guitarist Seth Gordon, percussionist Wes Salter, guitarist Wes Urbaniak, mandolin player Jarret Kostrba and guitarist Troy Owens have been playing together close to 1 1/2 years. Bandmate Jarret Kostrba often performs using Urbaniak’s first handmade mandolin, an instrument so striking that people look at it in awe, Kostrba said. “I have a lot of friends who are mandolin players in Butte and here in town, and nobody knows what to make of it. It’s Wes’s take on a mando.” Urbaniak worries that it is too heavy, but Kostrba said it is a work of art with an earthy sound. “That mando has a really distinct tone because of the wood and the shape of it. It’s a more subtle tone,” Kostrba said. Urbaniak’s youngest son, a kindergartener who Urbaniak nicknamed Sherpa because that was the joyful sound he made as a baby, spends many afternoons in the shop and is a constant source of inspiration for Urbaniak. “Sherpa breaks more stuff, but he is a bright light. He has an aptitude for remembering lyrics and can adlib. He can take a melody and make a joke out of it.” Urbaniak married artist and third grade teacher Whitney Urbaniak in June 2016. The two inspire one another and, because they are both artists, they celebrate each other’s quirks and need to create. A typical evening for them might be framing one of Whitney’s paintings or recording a video of a touring musician like Jalan Crossland when he came to Billings last fall. Urbaniak once described his sound as “a musical love child of Tracy Chapman and Jason Mraz who was given guitar lessons by John Mayer,” or simply, “Indie folk-grass.” With his positive lyrics, creative instrumentation and the help of his five bandmates, Urbaniak is building WatR into one of the most innovative bands in Montana, the perfect outreach for Knotty Wood Guitar Co.
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Banking on family 94 I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE
values
BY MIKE FERGUSON
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sk Jim Scott to explain how family values have informed and helped shape the success of Billings-based First Interstate Bank and he can spend 45 minutes just scratching the surface of the stories that helped build one of the region’s great banking institutions. Scott, the bank’s chairman, will tell you the story of Alberta Bair and her sister, who used to pick up the bottles that construction employees working for Scott’s dad, Homer Scott, left behind at construction sites in order to claim the bottle deposit. Or the way his father, a civil engineer who, before he founded what would become First Interstate Bank, helped build Peter Kiewit Sons into one of the nation’s largest construction firms, formed Depression-era relationships with county commissioners in rural Nebraska who needed a culvert or bridge built. The young businessman was sure to hire local people to help seal the deal. There were the summers when Jim Scott’s older brothers, Dan and Homer Jr., known as Scotty, lived with their parents in construction camps while Homer helped build the roads inside Yellowstone National Park. “The earliest stories I heard were of my dad milking cows” on a Nebraska truck farm a century ago, Scott Jim Scott said. His father loved horses more than he loved milking the cows every morning. “He would tell stories of the old horses laughing at him as he worked to bring the milk to his neighbors,” Scott said. During the Great Depression, “they lost everything they had, like everyone else did,” Scott said. But Homer never lost his innate business sense. In his early days working for Kiewit, he was paid partially in stock, “and he bought all the stock he could,” his son recalled. “In the early 1940s, he was told he’d bought enough stock, so he bought the early part of the Padlock Ranch,” 2,000 acres and 200 cows, a ranch that straddles the plains of Wyoming and Montana and is now one of the nation’s largest cow-calf operations. It was community building in their adopted home — Sheridan, Wyo. — that taught Homer and his wife, Mildred, “the satisfaction and joy of being involved in the community,” their youngest son said. The family helped raise money to build a new wing for their Presbyterian church. Jim’s brother Tom remembers their work building “a great” YMCA in Sheridan and their efforts to transform an old theater into a performing arts center. “It was just something that we all saw, and it became part of our family’s DNA,” Jim Scott said. “Our commitment to the community and our banking vision was forged in those early days
living in Sheridan.” Company policy forced Homer to retire in the late 1960s at age 65. A stint on the Federal Reserve Bank board, which included a time as board chair in Kansas City, taught him enough about banking to lead him, in 1968, to purchase controlling interest in the Bank of Commerce in Sheridan. Two years later, he acquired the Security Trust and Savings Bank in Billings, meaning the Scott children were helping run operations — including the ranch operation — in two states. The Scott brothers’ sister, Susan Heyneman, “was not a banker,” but served on the board. While attending a conference in 1984, family members “first heard about this company called First Interstate Bank,” Scott recalled, a group of banks in 11 Western states under a holding company called Western Bank Corp. First Interstate Bank re-branded those banks, “and it was very successful,” he said. “We decided instead of arm-wrestling over what name was best, we’d enter into a franchise agreement with First Interstate.” That way, “our customers could travel across the state and the region and be treated like customers of First Interstate. That was good for our customers, it allowed us to stay independent — and it solved the name issue.” By the early 2000s, First Interstate had become the largest bank in Montana and one of the largest in Wyoming. The bank took on a presence in the Black Hills by buying a bank in western South Dakota. The Great Recession that followed “brought tough days to our region,” Scott said, “and as we looked at our alternatives, capital
The Scott family gathered for a reunion in 2015. COURTESY OF FIRST INTERSTATE BANK
became important — very important. It was time for First Interstate to go public and have access to public capital markets,” a step that occurred in 2010. Even while going public, “one thing that was important to us was retaining the values and the culture that allowed us to be successful,” he said. The bank structured its initial public offering so that family members would retain super voting shares, “so we maintain our commitment to communities and values.” That commitment is appreciated among the many organizations and agencies that have partnered with the bank and its foundation over the years. “Our partnership has been a long one. It’s been not only financial, but the bank’s leadership staff and employees volunteer their time,” said Kim Kaiser, CEO of the Billings Family YMCA. At present, she said, three bank employees — Randy Scott, Bill Schrock and Ed Garding — are on the YMCA board. Years ago, when financial difficulties almost doomed the YMCA, “I know the bank helped forgive loans and cut interest rates, and our organization continues,” Kaiser said. “They have been a big supporter of people in need.” Stacy Brown, executive director of Family Service Inc., which
Left: The Scott siblings as they were in 1980. In the back, left to right, are Tom, Scotty and Jim. In the front row are Susan Heyneman and Dan. COURTESY PHOTO
Photographs from pages 94 and 95, left: Mildred and Homer Scott. Middle: The Scott family, taken about 1949 before Jim Scott was born. From left are Susan Heyneman. Homer “Scotty” Scott Jr., Homer Scott, Tom Scott, Dan Scott and Mildred Scott. Right: The Scott family at the Padlock Ranch near Dayton, Wyo. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FIRST INTERSTATE BANK works to prevent homelessness and alleviate poverty in Yellowstone County, called the bank and its foundation “a remarkable family partner.” A case in point: one bank-funded program helps Family Service purchase and fill backpacks at the start of the school year for students in need. “Every child needs a quality start” to the school year, Brown said. “They have done so much for us.”
A second-generation company
Because Homer Scott founded the bank later in his life — he died in 1993 at age 89 — First Interstate Bank “was never really a first-generation business,” Jim Scott said. “He was active, but he delegated responsibility to others. Now it’s evolved into cousins,
and at that point, there’s a lot more people. A second-generation company is relationship-based, where trust and relationships are the guiding principles.” In business circles, the 1980s are remembered for competing management theories, including management by objectives, management by walking around and others. In 1986 family members heard a Disney executive speak about management by values. “What made sense to us was preserving the values dad and mother had learned building Kiewit and what we had learned in the banking business. We wrote down the core beliefs,” which include customer service, hiring the best people possible, being competitive, winning, taking care of shareholders, integrity and pride. “Those became the principles we manage by,” he said. When his brother Tom was CEO during the 1990s and 2000s, “whenever he had a tough decision to make, Tom would bring out those values and use those as the criteria for making the decision,” Jim Scott said. “It was that consistency and commitment to those values and principles that helped build the brand of First Interstate.” As recently as 2016, “we refreshed our strategy because we had grown significantly,” Jim Scott said. “We wanted to make sure that you didn’t have to be around in 1986 to know how those values were formed and what the stories were.” “We streamlined them not to change them, but to make them more powerful and memorable,” he said. “They’re still the guiding star for how we operate.
Products That Endure
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All six values are “we” stateThe Scott siblings ments: We put people first, we in 2006. From left act with integrity, we are comare Scotty, Jim, Susan Heyneman, Dan and Tom. mitted to our communities, we strive for excellence, we embrace COURTESY PHOTO change and we celebrate success. As the conversation drew to a close, Scott paused a moment when asked if his parents would be proud of what First Interstate Bank has become — a bank with more than $12 billion in assets with a reach from South Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. “They accomplished a lot in their lives,” he said. “I don’t know if they ever really looked back and thought about all that they had accomplished, or what we have. It is really part of what we do: continue to grow, do our best and live by our principles. “But I think they would be proud.”
Painting it
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illings has one thing art addicts in Bozeman and Missoula do not — the Yellowstone Art Museum. Housed in the old Yellowstone County Jail building in downtown Billings, the YAM has made a name for itself since opening in 1964 and sets the standard for other museums in the region. As one of the first, and certainly largest, institutions to display and encourage contemporary art in Montana, the YAM (formerly known as the Yellowstone Art Center) announced its reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums at its Art Auction 48 in 2016. The YAM hosts an art auction every year, raising funds for programming while showcasing regional art. “The purpose of the auction is to provide a mechanism of support, a venue for living artists to sell their work,” said Robyn Peterson, YAM executive director. With more than 100 Montana artists featured in this year’s Art Auction 49, many are paying homage to the institution that supports the creative community.
Bringing home the Baken
Jim Baken understands you can’t always survive financially as an artist, especially in Montana. The Absarokee, Montana, native grew up around hunting, so when his art-teaching paychecks weren’t enough for his family, he’d reluctantly set out for some meat. “I am not one to be proud of killing an animal,” the now Rocky Mountain College art professor said. “There was pressure on me to get meat in the freezer for the family, but I didn’t enjoy killing things.” Baken’s featured painting in the Art Auction 49 is titled, “Be Elk,” after one memorable kill he made. “The deer are easy, the elk were different,” he said, noting that throughout his hunting years, he only shot one. Baken promised the female cow elk that he’d remember her. She’s been featured in about 40 of his paintings. It’s important to Baken that the elk’s rendering is accurate and shows her beauty. One of the classes he teaches is figure drawing, which features live models in the RMC classroom. Baken considers the elk his model, though there is more intention to his painting than just capturing the elk’s essence. “Outside the lines it’s chaos and it’s abstraction,” he said of the abstract expressionist style of painting; an
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“Outside the lines it’s chaos and it’s abstraction. It shows the war, the conflicted feelings behind hunting.” JIM BAKEN
Above: Jim Baken remembers the elk he killed with his “Be Elk” painting.
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aggressive way of applying paint, color and texture. “It shows the war, the conflicted feelings behind hunting.” Since Baken first came to teach at Rocky in 1990, he’s been featured in the auction several times. He’s enchanted by his home state, but thinks his inspiration may be different if he lived elsewhere. “An artist who is being true to him or herself is responding to right where they are, their immediate surroundings and their everyday activities,” he said. Baken is not discounting the area’s appeal, however. “We’re just lost in these thousands of miles of brown, rolling hills,” he said. “Billings is located where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains and it’s a special place.”
Sold at shock value
Photographer Ellen Kuntz has a different take on Billings. Her lens captures the Magic City’s hidden gems, not the landscapes commonplace in local galleries. When Kuntz was 17, her parents bought her a camera, and without any formal education, she learned photography skills like lighting and even modeling. “When I turned 18 I decided to do self-portraiture,” she said. “I kind of realized I’m probably the best person to do it because I know what I’m looking for and I’m always there.” Kuntz set the curriculum for an independent study course in Adobe Photoshop while in high school. Part of her plan was to submit to art auctions or publications. With two weeks before the deadline, Kuntz submitted two pieces to the YAM and both were chosen. “I was the youngest person at the time to be accepted,” she said. Kuntz has been featured in the last five auctions. Art Auction 49 includes her self-portrait, “Illusory State of Happiness.” It was photographed in an abandoned building in downtown Billings. Kuntz says, “If I shocked my mother, then I know I did a good job.” With the help of Jeremiah Young, owner of Kibler & Kirch where Kuntz is a marketing assistant, she was granted access to an abandoned building only accessible through a rooftop door at the Stapleton Building. With props like old theater seats in hand, Kuntz and her father climbed through the second-floor windows to set up for the photo. “I don’t like to do things easy,” she said. Dressed in a gown, Kuntz posed in the run-down room amid hanging ornaments, Artist Ellen Kuntz, left, talks about her piece “Illusory State of Happiness” with Diana sheer fabric and bouquets of Kersten at the opening reception for the art auction.
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Left: Morgan Legare used a gel that causes paint to crack for her painting, “Frosty Evening.” “It was an experiment that went wonderfully,” she said. Below: Morgan Legare smiles at the opening reception for the Art Auction 49. CASEY PAGE/GAZETTE STAFF white flowers. “I march to the beat of my own drum because I know there’s somebody out there that wants to consume it,” said Kuntz. It’s that rhythm that takes Kuntz to some unexpected places for inspiration. “One thing that I really love about Montana is that there are so many odd or abandoned places that you can get access to,” she said. “It seems like everyone packs up and leaves all of a sudden, and I want to know why did they leave their shoes behind?” Being drawn to more contemporary art, the young female photographer is slightly frustrated with Billings. She wants to make a spot for herself at the table of artists. “I love Montana, but I feel we could have a better art scene,” she said. “I’m not saying what it’s accepting is bad, but I feel it’s in a comfort zone. I want to create something better for it.”
Not all it’s cracked up to be
Morgan Legare knows the Billings art scene well. Growing up with a family of artists, Christmas presents were often art camps at both the museum and Rocky Mountain College. The young artist-in-training attended not only camps but Paint n’ Sips and day-long lessons as she got older. She was influenced by local artists like Carol Spielman, Carol Hagan and Sonja Caywood. Legare became more involved with the YAM through its annual Summerfair event, and was pleasantly surprised when the staff weren’t stereotypical stuck-up artists. “The wonderful thing about Summerfair was the people weren’t what you expected,” she said. “I volunteered more and more and interned both semesters of my senior year, helping with special events coordinating.”
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Raymond Ansotegui and Amber Jean, who is featured at the auction, look at art in the silent auction galleries at the opening reception of the art auction. CASEY PAGE/GAZETTE STAFF
Above: Wayne Small’s “Highland Cow” ceramic plate was made with clay from his family’s Rockin’ 7 Ranch in Custer. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE YAM
Right: Wayne Small’s creativity isn’t limited to pottery and drawing. He built a sheep wagon to display his art and travels with it across the state. PHOTO COURTESY OF WAYNE SMALL
Kat Healy encouraged Legare to submit art to the auction in 2016. Her art was accepted and Legare was able to work at the event while being featured at the Art Auction 48. “It’s a huge party for (artists) and quite often they are buying each other’s art,” she said. “It’s a wonderful combination of class and fun. No one appeared to be taking themselves seriously.” Her painting of a chickadee, titled “Frosty Evening,” was accepted to this year’s auction. “It’s from my series that I call, ‘Crackle,’” she said. “It was an experiment that went wonderfully.” The first-year University of Montana art
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student was given a gel by her Billings Senior High art teacher Carolyn Thayer which causes paint to crack when applied. “When I paint for fun, I’m working with the acrylic crackle,” she said. “But Missoula has forced me to get out of my box.” Legare enjoys sticking to the familiar Montana landscape. “My art always reflects home,” she said. “The scenic painting takes you back to childhood. If it evokes emotion, then it has done its job.” Driven by feelings, birds and horses, Legare’s paintings are her effort to preserve childlike joy, though the process of sharing makes her feel vulnerable.
“Many people don’t submit (art) because of fear of rejection,” she said. But she credits her involvement with the YAM to keeping her confident. “The best thing that ever happened to me was that art museum. I will be forever grateful for them helping me to grow in the art world,” said Legare.
Back at the ranch
Like Legare, Wayne Small has an affinity for mammals and birds, but for a different reason. The Pompeys Pillar native recently took them out of his diet and wants to preserve their nature in a more artistic way. His uncle, Steve Degenhart, has been a
potter for 40 years. Small inherited his uncle’s passion and received an art degree from Montana State University. Though his studies covered an array of media, he returned to pottery for his profession. “I took this one class where a bunch of Chinese and Korean students came over and for several hours of the day we hand-dug some clay on the banks of the creek up in Bozeman,” he said. Small’s family owns Rockin’ 7 Ranch in Custer, where low-fire clay rich in iron is found. All of Small’s pottery now comes from that ranch. “When I was digging my own clay from my ranch, it felt more authentic to my experiences,” he said. “A lot of my art is identifying how I grew
up in Montana.” Small visits the ranch several times a year, hauling four to five bags of clay weighing more than 50 pounds each. “I can’t drive the pickup down there,” he said. “I kind of have to hike down into that ravine.” This is the first time Small has submitted art and been featured in the auction. His art nouveau-inspired plate features a Scottish highland cow commonly found on Small’s ranch. “When I looked at art nouveau images, they were always beautiful and exotic and kind of erotic women,” he said. “I wanted to take all of these farm and ranch animals and instead of (painting) women, I (painted) the animals. It’s a little comical.”
Art Auction 49
LOCATION: Yellowstone Art Museum at 401 N. 27th St. TIME: Auction begins at 5 p.m.; live auction bidding begins at 7:30 p.m. COST: $95 per person and $105 at the door FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Call (406) 2566801 or visit artmuseum.org Auction bidding and Buy-It-Now available until March 4. Exhibit on display through March 4.
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MARCH/APRIL 2017 I 105
The “Highland Cow” ceramic plate is part of a series. “When I was making them, I went with an intricate design with circles,” he said. “I’ve been incorporating drawings into my pottery.” Small’s creativity isn’t limited to pottery and drawing. He built a sheep wagon to display his art and has taken it to ArtWalks and the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs. The potter, who works at Cold Mountain Pottery in Billings, says he’s only been seriously making art for five years and considers the auction an opportunity to get recognized. “It is a type of work where people might pass by and they might like the piece, but what makes it more special to people is that I dig my own clay and have more control over the entire process.”
The sky is not the limit
While Lynn Thorpe might not be from Montana, the Wyoming native is no stranger to the YAM. Having taught art for many years at Powell Community College (now Northwest College) in Powell, Wyoming, she used to bring freshman and sophomore students to the museum. Thorpe relocated to Billings in 2012. “I feel like it’s my museum since I live here now,” she said. “It means a lot to me to be in this auction.” Thorpe’s art is a mix of philosophy, place, mathematics and some politics. She says her submission, “Oddly Anchored,” is fairly typical of what she does. Two pieces of canvas — one like the Earth and one like the sky — are sewn together with embroidery thread. The background is what Thorpe refers to as infinity, or nothingness. Thorpe insists the sky is not necessarily the sky, but could be a metaphor for something deeper. “I deal a lot with ideas, and sometimes political comment,” she said. “So that’s why the sky is tipped and trying to be laced together.” Thorpe was an English major first. She likes the potential for humor or puns in her art. “People have accused me of being a left-brain artist. The philosophical, the thinking, the probing,” she said. The canvas symbolizing Earth shows a place between Shell and Ten Sleep, Wyoming. “The landscape is something that is very important to me,” she said. “It seems to be the one unshakeable constant in our life. We stand on the Earth and our head is in the sky.” Since she’s been in Montana, Thorpe formed the 604 Art Group with several local female artists. They critique work and watch documentaries on other artists. Some even participate in the auction as well. “The people in Billings benefit so much from having that art museum here. Where else are they going to see things like that?”
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Above: Lynn Thorpe’s “Oddly Anchored” art is a mix of philosophy, place, mathematics and some politics. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE YAM Top: Lynn Thorpe talks with friends at the Art Auction 49 opening reception. “I feel like it’s my museum since I live here now,” she said. “It means a lot to me to be in this auction.” CASEY PAGE/GAZETTE STAFF
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SEEN AT THE SCENE 36th annual Heritage Club Dinner
Yellowstone Country Club 1] Richard Ford, Corby Skinner, Kristina Ford & Steve Corning 2] Sharon Peterson, Corby Skinner, Chris Scott, Ossie Abrams, Jim Scott & Susan Heyneman 3] Bill, Kim and Harry Gottwals & Corby Skinner
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Fame the Musical Alberta Bair Theater 4] Bob & Mariene Gallagher 5] Lucille Sax, Julie Hammond & Connie Roussan
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Holiday ArtWalk 6] Zoe & Zach Terakedis
Holiday Pops
Billings Symphony Orchestra & Chorale 7] Laura Woyasz, Denise Sherer & Anne Harrigan
Jay Leno
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MOMIX: Opus Cactus
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Alberta Bair Theater 8] David North, Jay Leno & Pat North 9] Sharon Clarke & Calvin Southwick 10] Steve Gountanis, Sharon Hernandez, Terri Malucci & Steve Henry
Alberta Bair Theater 11] Jim Hummel, Betty Christensen, Paige Spalding, Dick Christensen, Jamey Eisenbarth & Don Christensen 12] Raychel, Jackson & Madelynn Hust
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Once the musical Alberta Bair Theater 13] Daphne Walker, Helen Brown, Angela Allen, Lorraine Evangeline & Jessica Brown 14] Kali George 15] Sandi & Rod Eaton
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Scotty McCreery
Alberta Bair Theater 16] Danny & Cyndy Desin, Scotty McCreery, Hayley & Becky Desin 17] Debbie & Amy Demaree
The Benefit
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Family Service, Inc. 18] Candace & George Kimmet 19] Dr. Jerry & Jan Wolf 20] Katie Thompson & Kelly Wickam 21] Jayme Roll & Russell Pierce
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Alberta Bair Theater 22] Michael & Marian Kirst 23] Tom, Kim, Thomas & Adam Rupsis
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Yellowstone Art Museum 24] Danell Jones, Jim Baken, Christie LeClair Baken & Tim Lehman
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Art Auction 49 Opening Reception
Yellowstone Art Museum 28] Bruce & Rosellen Westerhoff 29] Ed Enders & Carla Pagliaro 30] Jim Baken & Jon Lodge 31] Kevin & Lisa Olmsted 32] Lynn Thorpe, Susan Stone & Carol Welch 33] Michael & Meagan Blessing 34] Ryan & Holly Cremer 35] Evey Lamont & Tom Singer
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Art Auction 49
FEBRUARY
Yellowstone Art Museum | March 4 Cool art. Cool people. Cool gig. The annual contemporary art auction is the Yellowstone Art Museum’s most noteworthy fundraising event of the season. Proceeds support educational programs and exhibits for the year. The YAM is known for keeping its art and programs fresh. This year’s ice-themed event kicks off at 5 p.m. with a catered dinner and dessert buffet. The live auction starts at 7:30 p.m. Place silent bids and make Buy-It-Now purchases through March 3. Open seating tickets are $95 or $105 at the door. Visit artmuseum.org to purchase tickets online.
Exhibition is ongoing: Boundless Visions: Selections from the Permanent Collection Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org Until March 4 Exhibit: Art Auction 49 Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org February 16-18 MATE Home Show and Health Expo MetraPark Expo Center and Montana Pavilion themateshow.com February 17-March 3 MSUB Library Quilt Show MSUB Library msubillings.edu February 17; March 24; April 14 Contradance Billings MetraPark Cedar Hall cdss.org February 17-18 No Limits Monster Trucks Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com The Irish Rovers Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org The Dixie Swim Club Billings Studio Theatre billingsstudiotheatre.com February 18 For the Love of the HeArts NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org Murder Mystery Mayhem Moss Mansion mossmansion.com
ZONTA Club of Billings 20th annual Trivia Night St. Bernard’s Church billingszonta.org
February 24-25 Billings Bulls Hockey Centennial Ice Arena centennialicearena.net
Beach Blizzard Party for the Promise Big Horn Resort billingsihn.org
February 25 Mozart’s The Magic Flute Alberta Bair Theater rimrockoperafoundation.org
Lights! Camera! Math! Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
February 19 Prof – Time Bomb Tour Pub Station 1111presents.com
Lucero with Esme Patterson in concert Pub Station 1111presents.com
March 2 Skillet Unleashed Tour Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com
February 22-25 Super A Divisional Basketball Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com
February 26 An Evening with Dawes in concert Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com
March 2-4 Southern B Divisional Basketball Tournament Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com
February 23 Railroad Earth in concert Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com February 23-26 Billings RV & Boat Show and Sale Expo Center at MetraPark metrapark.com February 24 Nonpoint in concert Pub Station 1111presents.com
February 27 Max & Igor Cavalera Return to Roots Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com
MARCH Exhibition is ongoing: Quilt Exhibit Moss Mansion mossmansion.com Exhibition is ongoing: Art in Action 2: Marking Time Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
March 4 Art Auction 49 Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
March 1 Martin Sexton in concert Pub Station 1111presents.com
March 3-5; 9-12; 16-18 Sugar Billings Studio Theatre billingsstudiotheatre.com March 3-5 Home Improvement Show Expo Center and Montana Pavilion at MetraPark metrapark.com March 3-4 Venture Improv Open NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org
Winter Carnival NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org March 5 Adelitas Way in concert Pub Station 1111presents.com March 8 YAM Teens Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org March 9 Friends of NRA Banquet MetraPark Montana Pavilion metrapark.com March 10-11, 17-19 James and the Giant Peach NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org March 11 Billings Symphony & Chorale presents The Big Brass Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
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Docent Second Saturday: Art for Kids Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
After5 – Unplugged Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org April 6 Garrison Keillor Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
Salt on the Rims: A Jimmy Buffet Experience Expo Center at MetraPark metrapark.com
April 7-9 Professional Bull Riders Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark pbr.com
March 14 Menopause the Musical Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org Artful Women of Montana Billings Public Library billingslibrary.org Datsik in concert Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com March 15 Jobs Jamboree MetraPark Montana Pavilion metrapark.com March 15-21 NAIA Women’s Division 1 National Basketball Championships MetraPark Rimrock Auto Arena metrapark.com March 16 High Noon Lecture Series Montana Fireball: The Wild Ride of Billings’ Mayor Willard Fraser Western Heritage Center ywhc.org
St. Patrick’s Day & Celtic Fair Downtown Billings | March 18 Get your green on and kick winter to the curb while celebrating everything that is Irish from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The 100-float parade begins at 11 a.m. Check out the Irish dance music, cloggers and bag pipers. The familyfriendly Celtic Fair offers up an arts and crafts show, plus stages at First Avenue North and a kids’ venue at Second Avenue North and Broadway. Local restaurants and food trucks provide tasty fare. This 34-year event is sponsored by the Downtown Billings Alliance. For more information visit downtownbillings.com. Yonder Mountain String Band in concert Pub Station Ballroom 1111presents.com Fam at the YAM Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org March 20 Kari Jobe in concert Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org March 22 The Naked Musicians Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
March 23-July 16 Jaune Quick-to-See Smith art show Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
March 18 St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celtic Fair Downtown Billings downtownbillings.com
Archaea by Rosane Volchan O’Conor Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
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April 8 EggStravaganZoo ZooMontana zoomontana.org April 11 Artful Women of Montana Billings Public Library billingslibrary.org
March 23-August 6 Exhibit: Archaea: Rosane Volchan O’Conor Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org
March 31 Funky Bunch Improv NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org
April 15 Montana Women’s Expo Montana Pavilion at MetraPark metrapark.com
March 24-26 Spotlight Dance Cup Montana Pavilion at MetraPark metrapark.com
March 31-April 2; April 7-9 Love, Loss, and What I Wore NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org
April 20 High Noon Lecture Series Historic Restaurants of Billings Western Heritage Center ywhc.org
March 25 Heritage Playapolooza! Western Heritage Center ywhc.org March 30 Billings Chamber annual breakfast Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com Black Violin Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org March 30-April 3 Shrine Circus Al Bedoo Shrine Auditorium albedooshrine.org
March 31-April 1 Rescued and Reclaimed Vintage Market Expo Center at MetraPark facebook.com/ rescuedandreclaimed
APRIL
Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights for Artists Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org April 20-23; 27-30 The Foreigner Billings Studio Theatre billingsstudiotheatre.com
April 3 Obituary in concert Pub Station 1111presents.com
April 21-23 Billings Market Association MetraPark Montana Pavilion billingsmarketassoc.com
April 5 Doktor Kaboom! Live Wire!: The Electricity Tour Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
April 22 Billings Symphony presents A Mass for Peace Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org
Dierks Bentley with Cole Swindell & Jon Pardi in concert Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com April 27 Forbidden Broadway Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org April 28-30 Thunderstruck Dance Competition MetraPark Montana Pavilion thunderstruckda ncecompetition.com April 28, 30 & May 6-7 Festival of One-Act Operas NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org
A Wild Affair at ZooMontana ZooMontana zoomontana.org Dancing with the Big Sky Stars DoubleTree by Hilton bigskyseniorservices.org April 28-29 K.S. Cabaret NOVA Center for the Performing Arts novabillings.org April 29 Jozef Luptak Quintet: From Bach to Piazzolla Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org Harlem Globetrotters Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark metrapark.com
MAY May 5 Well-Strung Alberta Bair Theater albertabairtheater.org ArtWalk & Jam at the YAM Yellowstone Art Museum artmuseum.org Spring ArtWalk Downtown Billings artwalkbillings.com
Professional Bull Riders
May 5-6 Princess Days ZooMontana zoomontana.org
Rimrock Arena at MetraPark | April 7-9
Mothers of Multiples Garage Sale MetraPark Montana Pavilion metrapark.com
Try to keep your seat along with the professional bull riders who compete at venues around the United States. Fresh off a big January win at Madison Square Garden, Montana native and professional bull rider Jess Lockwood will ride for his home state. Lockwood is the 2016 PBR Rookie of the Year. Prices range from $21 to $304. Learn more at metrapark.org.
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