Missoula Magazine Winter 2011

winter 2011/2012

Happy Birthday,

Snowbowl

50 years

endearing qualities

aerial firefighting

lady griz coach robin selvig

a visit with neptune aviation

missoula's made fair

running & biking

success in a tough economy

on missoula's wintry roads missoula magazine

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missoula magazine

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letter from the editor

Happy holidays!

The halls are decked here at Missoula magazine – with boughs of holly and a basket full of beautiful stories and photographs for our readers. May your days be merry and bright, and the delivery of our humble offerings bring you joy.

We love every season in these five valleys, but none defines us more than winter. What I love is how we turn a time that could be a test – all that snow and cold and more snow and more cold – into fun. We run and bike and ski and sled and fish and frolic, smiling all the way. We teach our children well, and they grow up loving the cold months.

That’s why our cover story this winter is a tribute to Montana Snowbowl’s 50 years as Missoula’s backyard ski area. We’ve grown up there, our kids have grown up there; in fact, western Montana’s ski industry has grown up there. And through it all, as reporter Chelsi Moy says, the Bowl has been lovingly tended “by local residents for local residents.”

So while you’re toasting the season this December, lift a glass to the north and offer your congratulations and best wishes to Snowbowl. Here’s to another 50!

If you want to go way back, to the winter of 1861-62, reporter Kim Briggeman has a tale of survival few could match. Charles Schafft lost his legs to the cold that winter, while attempting to walk from Deer Lodge to Missoula while working on the Mullan Road. Not only did he survive, but he went on to serve as Missoula County’s first clerk and recorder and then as one of its first justices of the peace. It’s quite a tale.

Want to go ever farther back, or farther out? Jamie Kelly spent some time recently with the University of Montana’s Diane Friend to assemble a guide to western Montana’s nighttime skies. Cold, clear nights offer spectacular stargazing; years ago, Friend showed me and my children how to find Orion’s belt right outside our front door – one of the easiest and most beautiful finds in Missoula’s winter sky.

Of course, we all spend a good bit more time indoors come winter, so we’ve included a big menu of inside fare in this edition of Missoula magazine: cooking with Greg Patent, fly-tying with Missoulian sports editor Bob Meseroll, reading with Barbara Theroux, sampling our local taverns’ fireside drinks with Jenna Cederberg and shopping the holiday craft fairs with Joe Nickell.

Best of all, though, are the times we spend with family and friends this time of year. No matter how dark the day, the light of their lives fills the season with grace and love. From all of us here to all of you, the warmest of holiday wishes – and our thanks for your generous and abiding support throughout the year.

I’ll see you again in 2012!

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bookmark it!

Want to spice up your winter? Go online to Missoulian.com for:

snow report!

Montana is a big state with a lot of choices for skiing, snowboarding and backcountry adventures. Chelsi Moy and her MontanaSnowSports.com blog will help you keep up with the latest news about Montana ski resorts, snow conditions and events happening in our great ski country.

slam dunk!

Most bears hibernate in winter, but not the Griz! Join Griz basketball writer Bob Meseroll and Lady Griz basketball writer Bill Speltz on their Missoulian.com blogs. The duo also have live Twitter feeds from Dahlberg Arena to help fans keep up with all the hardcourt action.

craft time!

Matt Pritchard isn’t talking about quilting and sewing at his GrizzlyGrowler.com blog.

Nope, he doesn’t go near the stuff. His blog is dedicated to the nuances of Montana’s growing craft beer industry. In other words, this is a blog all about beer in the land of Big Sky.

get out!

No matter how cold and unfriendly the winter months get, it’s easy to fight the siren call of your couch and find fun in local bars, theatres and galleries at NickellBag. com. That’s the place Missoulian arts and entertainment reporter Joe Nickell gives us a guided tour and preview of what’s happening after hours in Missoula.

stay home!

There’s no better excuse than winter to fall in love, go on an adventure, learn a new subject, be inspired and burrow under the blankets. You can do all of that with a good book – the paper kind or the e-kind, it doesn’t matter – either way, Betsy Cohen will help find your escape and learn what’s new in the world of Missoula’s literati at the Missoulian’s new blog, BookBuzz.

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missoula.com flagship magazine missoula is is thethe flagship magazine of of the the missoulian missoulian newspaper newspaper

publisher john vanstrydonck publisher jim mcgowan

editor sherry editor sherrydevlin devlin sales managers tara murphy halls

art director kate brooke

assistant art director mike lakeredpath photo kurtwilson wilson

photo editor editor kurt

art director mike advertising director kristenlake bounds

assistant art director megan richter

online director jim mcgowan sales representative jacque walawander

writers tim writers kimakimoff briggeman

betsy jennacohen cederberg

gwen florio rob chaney sherry devlin

daryl gadbow gwen florio

lori grannis jamie kelly

michael jamison bobmeseroll meseroll

bob

chelsi moy

michael moore joe nickell

kate murphy greg patent

joe billnickell speltz

greg patent barbara theroux

jodi rave

photographers tom bauer michael gallacher linda thompson photographers tom bauer kurt wilson michael gallacher

graphic design linda jessethompson brockmeyer kurt wilson diann kelly mike lake graphic design diann kelly megan richter megan richter josh quick

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Reaching 80,000 to 90,000 readers daily, the Missoulian hasmost long thorough, in-depth source of news in western Missoula magazine been recognized as the most thorough, in-depth sourceMontana. of news in western Montana. takes this award-winning coverage another step, showing off the very off best Missoula.com magazine takes this award-winning coverage another step, showing ofvery Missoula in wordsinand photographs.

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By capitalizing theMissoulian’s Missoulian’s presence throughout the region and its utilizing its established chain ofMissoula. presence throughout the region and utilizing established chain of distribution, distribution, Missoula magazine Missoula.com website com magazine and Missoula.com Web and site reach more readers in morereach placesmore than any readers in more places thanMontana. any other such publication in western Montana. other such publication in western part of the publication may be reprinted permission.

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on Springer the cover: Ryan pedals along the Clark Fork River with a delivery of Snowbowl, loved for proximityMissoula to Missoula and steep, expert LeMontana Petit Outre breads bound for its downtown restaurants. terrain, is celebrating its 50th birthday this winter and continues to have skiers jumping for joy. cover photo by linda thompson cover photo by Tom Bauer

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inside this issue

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vol.5 no.4

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contents all year long 9 10 14 18 22 24 82

the way we were winter events missoula cooks missoula reads on the fly thirsty missoula parting shot

aerial 46 firefighting

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64

winter 2011/2012

in season 26

happy birthday, snowbowl

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robin selvig

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making it work at the made fair

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a frontier survivor

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aerial firefighting

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a non-traditional holiday dinner

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winter skies: seeing is believing

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running and biking in winter

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santa's coming to town

If you could ski Snowbowl, you could ski anywhere.

Stan Cohen, page 26

the way we were

1958

snowed in The Burditt kids gather in 1958 at the igloo made every winter at 1000 Washburn Ave. in Missoula. From left are Bette Jeanne Burditt (Brush), Barbara Jo Burditt, Billy Burditt and Bonnie Burditt (Donahue).

Photograph courtesy of Bonnie Burditt Donahue

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happening in western montana

snow much fun by sherry devlin

J

photos by tom bauer and linda thompson

ust when you’d imagine us all heading indoors and out of sight, out comes Missoula for the winter.

Bundled from head to toe, babies in tow, bright-eyed and brimming with good cheer.

Winter comes calling with a calendar filled with activities both out-of-doors and in. We offer the smallest of starter lists, hoping to get you up and on your way. For more detailed listings, we suggest going online to Missoulian.com and to Missoula. com, where we provide an ever-refreshed calendar of events.

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First Night Missoula, Dec. 31, 2011

One year, I wrote a newspaper story about the alpine horn players who brought their king-size instruments to the Florence Hotel lobby for First Night. Another year, I performed at First Night with my fellow ringers from the handbell choir at First United Methodist Church. Yet another, I was honored to be asked to read a favorite poem as part of a presentation at the Missoula Public Library.

Eccentricity – and also singing, dancing, dining, drumming and face-painting – abound at Missoula’s annual New Year’s Eve bash. It’s wholesome and affordable,

heartwarming and simple. Hundreds of local folks showing off their talents for thousands more local folks, all intent on spending the changing of the calendar with one another.

Watch the Missoulian for a full listing of First Night festivities; half the fun is traveling from venue to venue, meeting and greeting friends and neighbors and swapping recommendations of must-see performances. First Night also publishes its schedule online at www.missoulacultural. org/firstnight.

My advice: If you’re in town this Dec. 31, grab a copy of the First Night schedule and head downtown. And stay until midnight for the ever-wistful rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.” You’ll start 2012 with a smile.

Above: The annual Race to the Sky Sled Dog Race is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11. The starting line is a great spot for spectators to get in on the action.

LINDA THOMPSON

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happening in western montana

Above: Seeley Lake’s Winterfest blasts off Friday, Jan. 20 with a bonfire to burn discarded Christmas trees.

TOM BAUER Left: Missoula’s First Night celebration continues to gain popularity with a variety of events and activities for kids and adults.

TOM BAUER

Seeley Lake Winterfest, Jan. 20-22, 2012

What began as a snowmobiling celebration 30 years ago is now an epic wintertime party in one of western Montana’s loveliest burgs, Seeley Lake.

Come spend the weekend at Winterfest 2012 and you will not only enjoy snowmobiling, but cross-country skiing on the Forest Service’s incredible system of trails, a torchlight parade and bonfire, a truly grand snowsculpting competition, a dessertfest and chili-making contest, a biathlon, snowshoeing, ice fishing ... need I continue?

Whether you’re a seasoned winter outdoorsperson or a newcomer, Seeley Lake is the place to embrace the snowy months – even if you just decide to stay inside by the fire at the Double Arrow Lodge. (The Double Arrow, by the way, has great sledding and cross-country skiing just beyond the lodge.)

For a full schedule of events, go online to www.seeleylakechamber.com. Then grab your gear and go!

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Race to the Sky, Feb. 10-15, 2012

I covered the Race to the Sky for years, but best remember the times I toted my children along for the day’s assignment.

They loved the wildly out-of-control harnessing of dogs and sleds, and the equally rambunctious arrivals of teams fresh from the trail. I loved the grand vistas of the Whitetail Ranch outside Ovando and the scenes of solitary mushers and dogs crossing the wide expanse of white.

Sled-dog races aren’t easy to watch, with hundreds of trail miles in some of the most remote places in western Montana.

But they’re a hoot when you find the right vantage: starts, finishes, rest stops. The folks are fun and friendly, the dogs are alternately sleepy and crazed. The scenery is unmatched.

The 2012 Race to the Sky runs Feb. 10-15, with veterinarian checks and school visits in Butte on Friday, Feb. 11. The first leg starts in Butte and ends at Camp Rimini, just west of Helena, on Saturday, Feb. 12. The teams will then truck to Lincoln for the restart and long race, starting on Sunday, Feb. 13. Junior mushers also start on Sunday in Lincoln. The finish line for all teams is in Seeley Lake; they’ll have covered 350 miles by then.

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Feb. 17-26, 2012

This is the ninth year for Missoula’s wintertime film festival, the premier venue for non-fiction films in the West. Over its 10-day run, the festival presents 100-plus films in the Wilma Theatre, as well as panel discussions, retrospective programs and a Doc Shop featuring a work-in-progress film.

The big news this year, says the festival’s Katrina Shull, is the receipt of a $10,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures to ensure “a massive music presence” during the screenings.

And if you’re a would-be documentary filmmaker – or even a semi-establishment filmmaker – you won’t want to miss the documentary pitch sessions, with guest Diane Weyerman, producer of “Food Inc.” and “Yancy Ford” from the PBS series “P.O.V.” For the mondo listing of showings, go to www.BigSkyFilmFest.org.

Sherry Devlin is editor of Missoula magazine and the Missoulian. She can be reached at (406) 523-5250 or by email at sdevlin@missoulian.com.

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missoula cooks

irresistible éclairs by greg patent

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photos by kurt wilson

hy beat around the bush? Chocolate éclairs have it all if you’re going for broke with dessert. Forget sinful, decadent and all those silly adjectives designed to make us feel guilty when we eat something rich and joyful. How can you enjoy something if that demon “guilt” is taking up precious space in your brain? And how often are you going to wrap your mouth around a chocolate éclair anyway?

Ever since I was very young, chocolate éclairs fascinated me. Hunger for something sweet drove me to our neighborhood bakeshop nearly every day, and I almost always bought a cookie or a cupcake on my way home from school. Then one day something new appeared in the display case. Here were these golden logshaped pastries that had been split; the bottoms were filled with something that looked very creamy and very chocolatey, and the tops glistened with a smooth, shiny chocolate glaze. I plunked down my two bits for one (remember, this was a long time ago!) and bit into it.

The crisp pastry yielded willingly to my bite. Some of the filling oozed out the sides, but most of it made it into my mouth.

The contrast between the pastry and the thick chocolate custard was pure heaven. The gooey icing, less sweet but more intensely chocolate than the filling, made the éclair so irresistible that I gobbled the whole thing down in a flash.

I craved another but didn’t have enough money. I made a vow that from then on I’d save up and only buy chocolate éclairs. There was nothing in the world better to eat. If I could only make them myself, I could have them whenever I wanted. But they seemed beyond my 12-year-old abilities as a baker, so I thought I’d do the next best thing: Read about them.

At the time, we had just one cookbook at home, “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book.” And wonder of wonders, there was a recipe for chocolate éclairs on page 231. I learned that the pastry was actually a dough used to make cream puffs (pate à choux). You

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just shaped it into cylinders instead of mounds.

But how was I to do that? The instructions said to “put the dough through a pastry tube or shape with spatula into 12 fingers 4 (inches) long and 1 (inch) wide.” What was she talking about?

Pastry tube? Fingers? But the recipe for the filling was even more of a disappointment. There wasn’t any chocolate in it! The only thing chocolate in the éclair was the icing. And that wasn’t really IN the éclair, but ON it.

How could Betty Crocker call these chocolate éclairs? She should have called them Practically Chocolateless Éclairs. I felt completely defeated and cheated. I’d just have to keep buying them for now. And just as well, since I knew that was the only way I could have them as an everyday special treat.

It wasn’t until decades later, after I had my own kids, that I found what I consider the very best recipe for chocolate éclairs in “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts” (Knopf, 1980).

The pastry shell is the classic one for cream puffs – crisp, yet tender – and the filling is super delicious and chocolatey, a combination of a chocolate pastry cream and a chocolate Bavarian (made with gelatin). The glaze is fudgy and not too sweet. These chocolate éclairs were even better than the ones I had eaten as a kid!

Chocolate éclairs take time to make. But what you wind up with is a work of baking art that not only looks gorgeous but will make you shiver with pleasure. And what does the word “éclair” mean? A quick trip to my French dictionary gave the answer: “Eclair – a flash of lightning.” Now everything made sense. I had bolted down my first chocolate éclair with the speed of light. You will, too.

Greg Patent is a Missoula food writer and regular contributor to Missoula magazine and the Missoulian. Visit his website at www. gregpatent.com, or email him at gregpatent@gmail.com. Kurt Wilson is photography editor of the Missoulian. He can be reached at (406) 523-5244 or by email at kwilson@missoulian.com.

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chocolate éclairs You’ll need a large pastry bag, about 16 inches long, and a plain round tube with a 5/8-inch round opening (mine says No. 8). Be sure to warm the eggs in hot water before adding them to the cooked flour and water or the final dough (pate à choux or choux paste) will have less puff. Either weigh the flour or dip a 1-cup dry measure into the flour container, fill to overflowing and sweep off excess.

1 cup water 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (3 ounces), sliced Pinch of salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces) 4 large eggs, warmed in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes Put the water, butter, salt, and sugar into a 2 1/2 to 3-quart heavy saucepan and set over medium heat. Crack the warmed eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. When the butter is melted, raise the heat to medium high and bring the liquid to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally.

The entire surface should be bubbling furiously.

Immediately take the pan off the heat and dump in the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely incorporated and forms a smooth mass of dough. This is called a panade.

Reduce the heat to medium, return the pan to the heat, and stir and cook the panade for 2 to 3 minutes. Press and spread the dough with the wooden spoon to flatten it and increase the surface area to speed evaporation of excess moisture. The dough should film the bottom of the pan with a very thin layer

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makes 12 to 14 éclairs Take the pan off the heat and continue stirring the panade with the spoon for a minute or two to cool it slightly. Pour on about 1/4 cup of the lightly beaten eggs and mix them in. At first you’ll get a mess looking like lumpy scrambled eggs

But keep stirring and beating gently until the egg is incorporated and the dough becomes thick and smooth.

Continue adding the egg in three more installments, beating in each until smooth. After the last addition, beat about one more minute until the pate a choux is thick and glossy and holds its shape on the spoon with an inch or more of the dough hanging down 2 or 3 inches.

The choux paste is now ready to use.

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Using a pencil and ruler, draw parallel lines lengthwise on a sheet of baking parchment 5 inches apart. Turn the paper over and set it on a heavy 14-by-17-inch cookie sheet. Fit the pastry bag with the plain tube. Fold down a deep cuff on the outside of the bag. To support the bag, put it into a tall bowl or glass and scrape the pastry into it. Unfold the bag and twist the top over the pastry. Holding the bag at a slight angle to the sheet, with the tube almost touching the paper, press out strips of dough 5 inches long and 3/4 to 1-inch wide, leaving 1 1/2 inches of space between strips. At the end of each strip, retrace your movement with a

quick jerk to cut off the pastry neatly. Or, if you’re uncertain about doing this, use a small knife to do the job.

Bake the éclairs for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, and don’t open the oven door during this time. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking another 30 to 55 minutes, until éclairs are golden brown and crisp all over (including the sides, which are the last part to dry out). About 5 to 10 minutes before they’re done, reach into the oven with a small sharp knife and stab the tops of the éclairs in 2 or 3 places to release any steam. Cool the pastries on a wire rack. When completely cool, use a serrated knife to slice the tops off each éclair, leaving a deep case to contain the filling. Keep original tops and bottoms together. With your fingers, scoop out soft dough from the inside of the shells. Make the glaze.

Chocolate Glaze 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/2 cup sugar 3 to 4 tablespoons water Melt the chocolate in a small pan or metal bowl set into a skillet with a shallow layer of simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth. Whisk in the sugar and 3 tablespoons water until completely smooth and remove from the water.

The glaze can’t be too thick or too thin.

When you spread it over the éclair tops,

it should stay put. Let the glaze cool for a few minutes, then adjust its consistency with droplets of water if necessary.

Pick up a rounded teaspoon of the warm glaze, place it on an éclair top, and spread it with the back of the spoon to cover the top with a thin layer. Let stand while you prepare the chocolate filling.

The glaze will be shiny at first, but it loses its sheen when set.

Chocolate Filling 1 envelope unflavored gelatin 1/4 cup cold water 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup sugar 1 cup whole milk 4 large egg yolks 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup heavy whipping cream

the bowl and stir the sauce gently with a rubber spatula, making sure to go all around the sides and bottom, until it’s cool and just beginning to thicken. Take the pan out of the ice bath while you whip the cream.

Put the cream into a small bowl and beat until it holds a soft shape, not until it is really stiff.

The chocolate mixture should be thick like a mayonnaise. If not, put the pan back into the ice bath and stir until it is.

Then beat with a whisk to make sure it’s smooth. Take the pan out of the ice bath and fold in the whipped cream. The filling should hold its shape when you press it out of a pastry bag. If not, refrigerate for a few minutes.

Set the pastry case bottoms onto a kitchen towel and press out generous strips of filling to fill the cases. Then press out a second strip of filling over the first, mounding it high Set the glazed tops gently over the filled éclairs, arrange the éclairs on a tray, and refrigerate until serving time. Éclairs should be served the day they’re made.

Equip a large pastry bag (16 to 18 inches) with a plain round tip with a 5/8-inch opening. Fold down a deep cuff on the outside of the bag. To support the bag, put it into a tall bowl or glass and scrape the chocolate filling into it. Unfold the top of the bag and twist the top closed.

Sprinkle gelatin over the water in a small cup.

Just leave it alone – don’t stir – as the gelatin soaks up the water. Melt the chocolate in a small pan or metal bowl set into a skillet with a shallow layer of simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth, and remove from the water.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar. Gradually add the milk, whisking until smooth and free of lumps. Cook over medium heat, stirring with a heat-proof rubber spatula, until the liquid boils and thickens into a thin white sauce. Cook 1 minute, stirring, and take the pan off the heat.

Whisk the yolks just to combine in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in half the hot sauce, then whisk the yolks into the remaining hot sauce. Set the pan on medium low heat and stir with a rubber spatula for a minute or two to cook the yolks and thicken the sauce a bit more.

Don’t actually boil the sauce.

Take the pan off heat and whisk in the melted chocolate and soaked gelatin until very smooth and the gelatin is dissolved.

Whisk in the vanilla and butter.

Prepare a large bowl with ice and water about 2 inches deep. Set the saucepan in missoula magazine

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missoula reads

cool winter reads by barbara theroux

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photo by kurt wilson

t is a gray, rainy day as I think about the books coming out from November to January. This list has books to consider giving as a gift or books to consider reading by a cozy fire. There are books to make you think and books to entertain and books to take you to other places, so let’s begin.

Two South Dakota natives, and favorites of Missoula readers, reflect on America today:

“The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation about America”

by Tom Brokaw

“What happened to the America I thought I knew?” Tom Brokaw writes.

“Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so divided that we’re easy prey for hijackers who could steer us onto a path to a crash landing? ... I do have some thoughts, original and inspired by others, for our journey into the heart of a new century.”

Rooted in the values, lessons and verities of generations past and of his South Dakota upbringing, Brokaw weaves together inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference and personal stories from his own family history, to engage us in a conversation about our country and to offer ideas for how we can revitalize the promise of the American Dream.

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“What It Means to Be a Democrat”

by George McGovern

George McGovern has been a leading figure of the Democratic Party for more than 50 years.

From this true liberal comes a thoughtful examination of what being a Democrat really means. McGovern admonishes current Democratic politicians for losing sight of their ideals as they subscribe to an increasingly centrist policy agenda.

Applying his wide-ranging knowledge and expertise on issues from military spending to same-sex marriage to educational reform, he stresses the importance of creating policies we can be proud of. Finally, with 2012 looming, McGovern’s “What It Means to Be a Democrat” offers a vision of the party’s future in which ideological coherence and courage rule.

Several new biographies sure to be popular include:

“Tolstoy: A Russian Life” by Rosamund

Bartlett

In November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station. At the time of his death, he was the most famous man in Russia, with a growing international following, and more revered than the tsar. Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy had spent his life rebelling not only against conventional ideas about literature and art but also against traditional education, family life, organized religion and the state.

In this biography, Rosamund Bartlett draws extensively on key Russian sources, including much fascinating new material made available since the collapse of the Soviet Union. She sheds light on Tolstoy’s remarkable journey from callow youth to writer to prophet; discusses his troubled relationship with his wife, Sonya, a subject long neglected; and vividly evokes the Russian landscapes Tolstoy so loved. Above all, she gives us an eloquent portrait of the brilliant, maddening, and contrary man who has, once again, been discovered by a new generation of readers.

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missoula reads

“Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman” by Robert K. Massie

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Peter the Great,” “Nicholas and Alexandra” and “The Romanovs” returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at 14 and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful and captivating women in history.

Catherine’s family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies – all are here, vividly described. These included her ambitious, perpetually scheming mother; her weak, bullying husband, Peter (who left her lying untouched beside him for nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son and heir, Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her “favorites” – the parade of young men from whom she sought companionship and the recapture of youth as well as sex.

History offers few stories richer in drama than that of “Catherine the Great.”

In this book, this eternally fascinating woman is returned to life.

“Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan” by

William Hjortsberg (January 2012 publication)

Confident and robust, “Jubilee Hitchhiker” is a comprehensive biography of late novelist and poet Richard Brautigan, author of “Troutfishing in America” and “A Confederate General from Big Sur,” among many others. When Brautigan took his own life, his close friends and network of artists and writers were devastated though not entirely surprised. To many, Brautigan was shrouded in enigma, erratic and unpredictable in his habits and presentation. Brautigan’s career wove its way through both the Beat-influenced San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s and the “flower power” hippie movement of the 1960s; while he never claimed direct artistic

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involvement with either period, “Jubilee Hitchhiker” also delves deeply into the spirited times in which he lived.

Ultimately this is a work that seeks to connect the Brautigan known to his fans with the man who ended his life so abruptly in 1984 while revealing the close ties between his writing and the actual events of his life. Part history, part biography, and part memoir this etches the portrait of a man destroyed by his genius.

Popular authors will help us escape the news and weather of the day:

“Slash and Burn: A Dr. Siri Mystery Set in Laos” by Colin Cotterill

Dr. Siri might finally be allowed to retire (again). Although he loves his two morgue assistants, he’s tired of being Laos’ national coroner, a job he never wanted in the first place. Plus, he’s pushing 80 and wants to spend some time with his wife before his untimely death (which has been predicted by the local transvestite fortune teller).

But retirement is not in the cards for Dr. Siri after all. He’s dragged into one last job: supervising an excavation for the remains of U.S. fighter pilot who went down in the remote northern Lao jungle 10 years earlier. The presence of American soldiers in Laos is a hot-button issue for both the Americans and the Lao involved, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. But one member of the party is found dead, setting off a chain of accidents Dr. Siri suspects are not completely accidental. Everyone is trapped in a cabin in the jungle, and the bodies are starting to pile up.

Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot’s mysterious story before the fortune teller’s prediction comes true?

“Contents May Have Shifted”

by Pam Houston (January 2012 publication)

Stuck in a deadend relationship, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds a comfort zone in the air, “feeling

safest with one plane ticket in her hand and another in her underwear drawer.”

She flies around the world, finding reasons to love life in dozens of far-flung places, from Alaska to Bhutan. Along the way she weathers unplanned losses of altitude, air pressure and landing gear. With the help of a squad of loyal, funny and wise friends and massage therapists, she learns to sort truth from self-deception, self-involvement from self-possession.

At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself” – not to mention two dogs and two horses – “staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”

“A Good Man” by Guy Vanderhaeghe (January 2012 publication)

In the ambitious and masterful final novel of his bestselling trilogy, Guy Vanderhaeghe returns to the 19th century Canadian and American West to explore the final days of one of the world’s last great frontiers.

Wesley Case is a former soldier and son of a Canadian lumber baron who sets out into the untamed borderlands between Canada and the United States to escape a dark secret from his past. He settles in Montana, where he hopes to buy a cattle ranch, and where he begins work as a liaison between the American and Canadian militaries in an effort to contain the Native Americans’ unresolved anger in the wake of the Civil War. Amid the brutal violence that erupts between Sioux warriors and U.S. forces, Case’s plan for a quiet ranch life is further compromised by an unexpected dilemma: He falls in love with the beautiful, outspoken and recently widowed Ada Tarr. It’s a budding romance that soon inflames the jealousy of Ada’s quiet and deeply disturbed admirer, Michael Dunne. When the American government unleashes its final assault on the Indians, Dunne commences his own vicious plan for vengeance in one last feverish attempt to claim Ada as his own.

continued on page 72

missoula magazine

21

on the fly

winter's bugs by bob meseroll

photos by kurt wilson

I

’m old school.

Just check out my wardrobe, or the radio station I listen to in my car.

And as far as that dang designated hitter goes, don’t get me started.

Same goes for my fly tying. Give me elk hair, peacock herl, turkey quill and some hackle – natural fibers – and I know what to do with them.

I first learned how to tie flies in about 1985 when I took a night school class through the Idaho Falls, Idaho, chapter of Trout Unlimited. While I have branched out from the simple elk-hair caddis pattern we started with in that class, I’ve always pretty much stuck with natural materials.

But foam? That was always just something that floated on top of eddies in the river.

I realize using closed-cell foam to tie flies isn’t exactly cutting-edge technology. The Chernobyl Ant – the pattern that started the craze – dates back to the late 1980s or early ’90s, as far as I can tell. Even Google wasn’t able to give me a precise answer.

But tying with foam is a new trick to this old dog, so I enlisted the help of Kingfisher Fly Shop co-owner Matt Potter for a quick lesson.

P

otter’s story is like so many others in this neck of the woods. A transplanted Easterner – he grew up on a dairy farm in northeastern Connecticut – he

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missoula magazine

needed just one look at the trout streams of Montana to decide this was the place for him.

“We took a trip out here when I was 14 and from that point on fly fishing was all I ever wanted to do,” Potter said. “I chose (the University of Montana) to go to school because it had the best fly fishing closest to campus of anywhere in the nation.”

Potter started college as a fisheries biology major, no doubt trying to gain some insight into what makes fish tick.

“Then I hit quantitative analysis and a couple of the other really nasty separate-the-men-from-theboys classes and I switched over to zoology with a natural history emphasis,” said Potter, who tied flies commercially while attending UM. “I have a degree.”

His “postgraduate” work has been hands on.

He guided for five years in Alaska and another year in far eastern Russia. He met his current business partner, Jim Cox, when both were working for Grizzly Hackle in Missoula. They’ve owned the Kingfisher shop for about 15 years.

And if this seems off topic, it’s not. Foam flies are what Potter terms “guide flies.”

“When you’re guiding 12 hours a day and then coming home and tying your flies for the next day, you look for effective and easy,” Potter said. “It’s simple, easy to see, your clients can’t sink it – that’s where foam bugs started, with Western guides wanting simple, easy-

to-see patterns that your clients can’t sink and you can crank them out fast at night.”

I

t’s easy to see that Potter knows his way around a vise. He breezed through a local pattern called a Wing Thing, even while taking time out to explain to me what he was doing.

Using a stout 3/0 red thread, he wound an underbody on the hook, then tied on his first strip of dark foam that would make up the head and the egg sack. He twisted the true body of antron yarn around the foam, leaving just the head and egg sack visible at either end.

“It’s more arts and crafts than fly tying,” Potter joked as he tied in the body. “I’m aging myself when I say that. It’s not a Royal Wulff, we’ll put it that way.”

Using silicone silly legs, he tied in the tail fibers.

“There’s nothing natural on this fly anywhere,” he said. “One of the nice things about working with foam and rubber legs and that kind of stuff is it’s not like it’s elk hair where the tails and the legs need to be tapped and evened and stuff. If you need it to be a certain length, you cut it.”

He tied another strip of foam onto the fly as a wing about a quarter of the length back from the eye. Potter tied on more silly legs as legs, this time, tying them onto the top of the fly, then moving them around to the side. He tied on a small piece of yellow foam on top of the wing to make the fly even more visible and, with

a few dabs of Crazy Glue here and there, the fly was complete.

Nothing to it.

“When you look at it, it gives you a great bug profile,” Potter said, holding the fly to give me a trout’s-eye view. “You want a skwala, you change it to dark olive; you want a salmonfly, you change it to orange.”

And that’s one of the unique characteristics of foam flies – the gaudy colors. And they come with names to match: Grillos Sideshow Bob, Mystery Meat, Gorilla Chernobyl, Fat Albert, Mega Meal Cicada, to name but a few.

Potter took a few more minutes to tie up the original foam fly, the Chernobyl Ant that was developed by a guide on the Green River.

Making this pattern all the more simple to tie, Potter uses a pre-cut Furry Foam Body produced by Montana Fly Co. It’s a piece of foam with a furry underside. Then it’s just a matter of tying in the silly legs and a small piece of yellow foam for visibility. That’s it.

A quick search on the Internet brings up dozens of results for Chernobyl Ant and no two look alike.

“The guy who tied the original Chernobyl Ant, he was an innovator,” Potter said. “Everyone else, they’re just imitating that.

“I’m a fly geek. I enjoy the history of the flies. It’s sort of like the Internet. You had foam flies, then you had this explosion of variety coming off of it. The advances and diversification of flies in

continued on page 73

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thirsty missoula Winter’s signature drink at the Double Arrow Lodge in Seeley Lake is a Mudslide, ice cream with a kick.

fireside drinks

b

by jenna cederberg

efore accepting the possibility that the chills have done you in yet again, consider what a hot drink and fireplace might do to remedy the wintertime blues.

In western Montana, a winter nightcap is often best enjoyed by a fire, and lucky for us, the fireside drink options right outside our back doors are absolutely heartwarming.

At the Double Arrow Lodge in Seeley Lake, they define cozy with a mix of Kahlua liqueur, Bailey’s Irish Cream, vodka and Big Dipper vanilla bean ice cream.

The famous Double Arrow Mudslide is a blizzard of decadence sweet enough to rival Santa’s smile, and is the drink people seek when they’ve slipped off to the rustic lodge for a wintertime getaway.

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missoula magazine

photo by michael gallacher

“It is an ice cream drink, but it still is fun to sit by the fire and enjoy that. People associate it with Double Arrow,” lodge manager Bonnie Philliber said.

“It tops off the evening for a sweet tooth with a good kick.”

The lodge’s hot drink menu also includes traditional favorites like a hot toddy and hot buttered rum. But if you’re looking to pick up a Mudslide, you’ll have to ask for it by name.

Then, sit back and let the drink and the 82-year-old Montana rock fireplace push back the encroaching chill.

T

he heat of a fire not enough? On the coldest of bone-chilling days, often in the middle of a snowstorm, the bartenders at James Bar in downtown

Missoula are busy mixing up their most popular wintertime libation, the Irish Hot Toddy.

“It’s warm, it’s sweet,” said one of the bar’s owners, Seamus Hammond. “The sweetness of the honey is balanced out by the bite of the whiskey. The lemon just kind of adds a little citrus to the end.”

While patrons warm their hands on the hot glass toddy, the signature fireplace in the middle of the bar is glowing. It’s a fire that’s hot enough to give people a little blast of heat as they pass by.

H

igh up on the city’s South Hills, the coziest view in the city belongs to The Keep. The restaurant’s lounge serves up twists on hot tea that will give even the coldest customers the kick they need to make it to spring.

The Keep’s blueberry tea blends Amaretto Liqueur, Grand Marnier liqueur and a black tea bag in steaming water.

Bar manager Neil Zauher says the tea has become more popular in the last years, as its almondy, orange tea flavors collide to bring a burst of blueberry. The taste will take you back to summer, while the giant

stone fireplace at the center of the lounge delivers you from the cold.

A long list of big, bold and delicious red wines complement the Keep’s hot drink list, Zauher said. He recommends Hedges’ Red Mountain Blend for a winter warm-up option.

Don’t forget the grand daddy of all wintertime drinks – hot buttered rum.

Zauher and his crew serve up a local and secret recipe of spices and sugar with dark rum and hot water to Keep patrons seeking warm solace.

“It's kind of hard to pin down a flavor,” Zauher said. “It's all in the name, hot buttered rum. That’s exactly what it is.”

Add a cup of golden goodness to a place where the fireplace literally lights up the room, and the snow falling outside starts to feel less like a bother and more like grace.

Jenna Cederberg is a Missoulian reporter.

She can be reached by calling (406) 523-5241 or by email at jcederberg@missoulian.com.

Michael Gallacher is a photographer for the Missoulian. He can be reached by calling (406) 523-5270 or by email at mgallacher@missoulian.com.

missoula magazine

25

H a p p y

B i r t h d ay

snowbowl c e l e b r at i n g

by chelsi moy photos by linda thompson and michael gallacher

lim Gore-Tex snow pants eventually replaced onepiece neon snowsuits, jeans and wool pants with suspenders.

Ski ticket prices spiked as skiers flocked to the slopes. Skis got fatter and shorter, snowboards entered the scene and boots reverted from rear entry to buckling in the front.

Despite the many changes in the ski business over the past half century, much is still the same at Missoula’s backyard ski area.

Montana Snowbowl, loved for its proximity to town and steep, expert terrain, celebrates its 50th birthday this winter.

It's been called Montana Snowbowl, Missoula Snow Bowl or simply the Bowl, but no matter what locals call it, the ski area has remained just that – local. For five decades it's been operated by local residents for local residents.

There are no high-rise condominiums or high-speed quad chairlifts. Some of the steepest, hair-raising runs have names only the faithful know.

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missoula magazine

27

Above: Bob Johnson, left, and Dave Flaccus were the main promoters behind Snow Park and later Snowbowl in the 1950s and 1960s. Photograph courtesy of Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. Snowmaking equipment and the popularity of the “Last Run Inn” were likely beyond the imagination of the area’s beginnings 50 years ago.

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missoula magazine

s k i

brew by chelsi moy

V.I. “Pinky” McDonald, one of the founders of the ski area, stands by a slash pile during the installation of the chairlift.

Photograph courtesy of Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.

Skiers know exactly what to expect when they arrive at Snowbowl, and whether that's good or bad, they keep coming back.

“Snowbowl is very integrated into the community,'' said Stan Cohen, who owned the Snowbowl ski shop 48 years ago and later wrote a book about downhill skiing in Montana. “It's intertwined with its psyche.”

This golden anniversary is a benchmark some involved in the ski area’s earliest days never expected to reach.

Snowbowl teetered on the edge of bankruptcy at least once, and drought years have brought the ski area's fate into question on more than one occasion. Cohen recalls skiers during the first weekend in

January having to ride down the Grizzly chairlift to the base of the mountain because of a lack of snow.

“A couple of times, it was rough, man,” Cohen said. “We never knew if it was going to open until the last minute.”

There's little doubt anymore whether Snowbowl will open, but cash flow still remains a challenge.

“There're all kinds of things to spend money on,” said Brad Morris, who has owned Snowbowl with his wife Ronnie for the last 27 years. “You can talk to anybody up there. They'll have a list of things that need to be done.”

One thing that Snowbowl has recently

Bayern Brewery is celebrating 50 years of Montana Snowbowl with another Groomer, the microbrew honoring the local ski area’s golden anniversary.

The dark winter Marzen is Bayern’s first-ever organic beer. The unfiltered Bavarian microbrew will taste mild in hops and have a mild to strong full-body taste with a deep dark color. Bayern is only serving the microbrew on tap at various local bars and restaraunts, including, of course, Snowbowl’s Last Run Inn. The alcohol content is 5.3 percent, said Bayern Brewery owner Jurgen Knoller, which is not “so intoxicating that people can’t make it off the mountain.”

Ronnie Morris, who coowns Montana Snowbowl with her husband Brad, came up with the name Groomer.

That way, on powder days, Morris can direct customers in search of packed snow inside.

“You can always find a groomer at the bar,” she said.

missoula magazine

29

Snowbowl’s first chairlift was installed in 1961. It was a mile long, with 101 seats and the ability to serve 546 passengers an hour.

crossed off its list, however, is something that has not only needed attention, but was part of what defined the ski area over the last half century – the road. There are many risks associated with downhill skiing, but anyone who’s driven to Snowbowl knows that sometimes just getting there is the day’s major triumph.

“I don't have that much grey hair but I should have more because of driving it,”' said Cohen, who drove the road for nine years. “You would need a Sherman tank to get up and down there.”

The improvements to Snowbowl road have been one of the biggest challenges in terms of time and money that the ski area has faced in the last quarter century, Morris said.

W

hen businessmen and skiers Dave Flaccus and Bob Johnson decided to move Snow Park, a poma-lift ski area on TV Mountain, just east to Big Sky Mountain's steeper terrain in 1961, the primary owners called on Pinkie McDonald. A skier and logger for the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., McDonald cut many of the original runs, built the Snowbowl road and assisted in installing the

first chairlift.

“He was always proud of the fact that he built the road in 16 days,'' said his son, Pat McDonald of Missoula. “At first there were various opinions on the quality of the road. You could get a logging truck out of there so he thought it was adequate, but it wasn't adequate for normal traffic.”

That was just a portion of the work necessary in 1961 to get Snowbowl’s slopes open.

Snow Park's Poma lift was moved to Sunrise Bowl – where the T-bar is today – and investors installed a mile-long, 101-seat chairlift to serve 546 passengers an hour. Two rope tows were installed above the Grizzly chairlift so skiers could access the High Park now served by the LaVelle chair.

“It was a tremendous project,'' said Pat McDonald, who was working as a banker at the time.

McDonald's boss allowed him a month off of work from the bank to help his father with the logging operation and chair installation at Snowbowl. Installing the

continued on page 74 30

missoula magazine

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31

Endearing

qualities Robin Selvig’s heart, sense of humor leave impression on his players by bill speltz photos by josh parker and tom bauer

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missoula magazine

T

here’s a photo floating around on Facebook of Robin Selvig lying horizontally in the arms of his former players, grinning from ear-to-ear.

Taken this summer during a Montana Lady Griz reunion weekend, it’s worth a thousand words. It speaks of the special bond between Selvig and his Lady Griz and the fun-loving nature of the University of Montana’s 34-year basketball coach.

“There was some yard darts played that weekend but no basketball,” joked Selvig about his ex-hoopster houseguests.

“Everybody can talk a good story now, but they don’t want to have to prove it.”

Of all his endearing qualities – loyalty, dedication, drive, humility – Selvig’s fun-loving, self-effacing sense of humor may be the most underrated. You’re not going to see it late in the second half of a game against Montana State. But it’s there in plain sight most of the time and Robin considers it to be important as a leader.

Truth is there are dozens of amusing Selvig stories in circulation that help make the colorful coach endearing to the masses. Take, for example, a recent happenstance when Robin’s wife, Janie, was out of town and he was hungry for supper.

“I called down there to Rattlesnake Gardens, they have real good food and I wanted something with chicken so I ordered a pot pie,” he recalled. “Well you know it looked a little different, not like what I had in mind. It turned out to be Pad Thai or something like that.

“I’m not that adventurous usually when it comes to food, but I expanded my horizons there. I tell them what I thought it was and they just laugh.”

Selvig’s adaptability serves him well at meal time and game time. He seems to have a sixth sense about what works, given the personnel at his disposal.

“Each year is exciting because you always have new kids and things like that,” he related. “It’s a fun time in that regard.”

L

"It’s an ongoing, all-year-long process. The main reason we’ve been successful here is we’ve had good players. They’ve been good people, too. That’s a neat thing."

ast season was an example of how Selvig cashes in on his experience as a teacher and tactician. His team finished fourth in the Big Sky Conference standings, then caught fire late and won the league tournament.

He may not always get the top-level recruits every coach covets.

But Selvig and his staff know a thing or two about identifying character, which can compensate for perceived shortcomings.

“We don’t recruit to a certain style here because I don’t think we’re able to do that,” he said. “We want to get good basketball players, good kids and good students.

“It’s an ongoing, all-year-long process. The main reason we’ve been successful here is we’ve had good players. They’ve been good people, too. That’s a neat thing.”

Last winter’s inspiring finish by the Lady Griz, nearly knocking off UCLA in the NCAA tournament, was a nice shot in the arm for Selvig’s program. He’s hoping to carry the momentum over to this winter.

“It’s not that we were great every night,” he said of his 2010-11 squad. “But the way the year went, they were always fun to be

Robin Selvig missoula magazine

33

Tom Bauer

around. They always wanted to play hard and get better. They never came moping into practice. They always thought they were going to do great and they did.

“It was a thrilling end to a season. And also a motivating thing for the players and the coaches. A great experience for them to have that helped us get excited for this season.”

W

hen the subject turns to Selvig’s personal achievements, the coach gets a little quiet. He was as uncomfortable as a man in a rented suit when he stood in front of a Lady Griz crowd in December of 2008 to accept a shower of adulation for winning his 700th game.

As he closes in on No. 800, he’s not any more comfortable with praise. Nor is he interested in discussing what many feel is a deserved spot in the Naismith Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Stanford women’s coach Tara VanDerveer.

“Really I don’t have any thoughts on it,” he said. “It’s not the kind of thing I concern myself thinking about. Seriously it’s just not.

“Those things are all irrelevant to what I’m doing. I don’t actually like thinking about myself in that kind of context. I’ve got a good group of girls to coach here. Whatever others think is kind of irrelevant to that.”

While on the subject, Selvig makes a point to acknowledge what he believes is the main reason for his coaching longevity and success.

“I really believe it’s important in our program the ladies know they are the team,” he asserted. “This is about what they’re doing.

“And I’ve got a great group of assistants. We’ve all been together a long time. We’re all part of that. But the team has ownership of the team. It’s not about what Robin Selvig has done. It’s about what the Lady Griz have done.”

Many of Selvig’s former players stay connected with him, his assistants and his program. That’s a testament to how much it

34

missoula magazine

means being a Lady Griz.

“We share a united bond in that a lot of our memories are centered around the coaches and the Lady Griz traditions they created or started, winning of course being the core,” former player Krista (Redpath) Pyron said. “Rob knows how to win and he surrounds himself with people that feel the same way.

“I always say that Rob started as my coach and mentor. Now he still is that mentor but also my friend. Continuing to give back and nurture our program will always be a priority for me.”

For Lady Griz longtime assistant coach and former player Annette Rocheleau, it all starts with Selvig’s human qualities.

“Robin has a heart the size of the world,” she said. “He respects everyone who plays for him, through their good, bad, whatever. I think they love that.

“There’s been so many good athletes and dedicated players, and deep down they appreciate the way he’s dedicated, putting everything he has into it.”

T

he fact Selvig’s ex-players enjoy one another’s company is heartwarming for their old coach. Selvig took particular note of their camaraderie in the reunion this past summer.

“Some of the older Lady Griz that were back from the early days, they don’t know the new kids or anything,” he said. “But it was like, ‘Oh man those are neat kids. It was fun to get to know them.’ ” “Same thing for the new Lady Griz, the ones that just graduated,” he added, noting that the reunion wasn’t open to current players. “They got to meet and feel a little bit of the history and pride the older kids had.”

Selvig would rather not spend too much time thinking about the past. Maybe that’s why he’s been so good for so long. In his mind, his Lady Griz are only as good as their last game.

Besides, it’s more fun looking forward in anticipation.

Selvig’s troops have a conference championship to chase, and that’s taking up all his energy these days.

“I see everybody being a good team,” said the coach, showing his usual respect for league challengers. “The last two years have been just a battle for positioning and I see it this year.

“Nobody going in has a big leg up on anybody else. It makes it interesting, makes it fun for everybody following. I think we’ve got a chance to have a good team and I see no reason to think everybody else in the league is not thinking the same thing.”

Even for the casual observer, it’s not hard to pick up on two of Selvig’s rules to live by: Never take yourself too seriously or an opponent too lightly.

Bill Speltz is a sportswriter for the Missoulian. He can be reached at (406) 523-5255 or by email at bspeltz@missoulian.com.

"We’re all part of that. But the team has ownership of the team. It’s not about what Robin Selvig has done. It’s about what the Lady Griz have done."

Robin Selvig missoula magazine

35

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" ... in general these days, people are yearning for something made locally and made in a way that’s soft on the environment and that is unique." ~CarolLynn Lapotka

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missoula magazine

m a k i n g by joe nickell

L

i t

at

w o r k

t h e

m a d e

fa i r

photos by michael gallacher and linda thompson

ike many of her fellow art school graduates, CarolLynn Lapotka arrived in adulthood unsure of how to transform her passions into a profession.

From her youngest years, she knew that creativity was in her blood. At the same time, she was strongly motivated by environmental concerns and the kind of pragmatism that comes from growing up on a family farm in Wisconsin.

“As a kid, we didn’t have a lot of money,” she says. “So I always wanted to try to figure out the next business idea to better my life and have a steady source of income. In general, I just have a creative mind and I need some place to put some of this energy. I’m constantly thinking of new stuff and crazy ideas all the time.”

In 2005, one of those “crazy ideas” began to take form.

After reading an article in a magazine about how to make skirts out of old T-shirts, Lapotka took up needle and thread and began sewing. After producing about 30 of the skirts, she set up a booth at a holiday craft fair.

Thus began a venture that has evolved over the years into not only a full-time job for Lapotka, but a small enterprise that employs four part-time workers in her studio in St. Ignatius.

In addition to those skirts, Lapotka now produces children’s clothing, headbands, leg warmers and other clothing items – as well as custom-bound journals and other products – which she sells at consignment stores in Missoula, Billings, Whitefish and several other cities around the region.

Each item is handmade, each one unique. And almost all of the primary materials she uses are recycled.

For her, it is something of a dream job come true.

“I am making my living doing creative things now,” she said, her voice filled with wonder and bemusement.

“I never thought I’d be able to say that or do that, or I thought I’d probably at best be doing it for someone else.

Looking for unique holiday gifts this year?

More than 100 regional artists and crafters will sell their work at the fifth annual holiday MADE Fair on Sunday, Dec. 11 at the Holiday Inn Downtown at the Park. The event begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. Santa Claus will make an appearance from 3-5 p.m. and Animeals, a Missoula animal rescue organization, will provide gift wrapping service at the fair. Early bird specials will given during the first hour of the fair, 11 a.m. to noon, and during the last hour of the fair, from 5-6 p.m.

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Julie Mullette browses the annual MADE Fair hosted by the Zootown Arts Community Center showcasing local and regional artwork.

“I think it’s a reflection that, in general these days, people are yearning for something made locally and made in a way that’s soft on the environment and that is unique,” she added.

While no objective research exists to support Lapotka’s claim, one needn’t look far to see that shops around western Montana are brimming with locally made functional crafts, household items, clothes and foods.

Moreover, as one examines the wares at outlets such as the Missoula Artists’ Shop, Upcycled, Home Resource’s ReVAMP shop and others, it is clear that these aren’t your grandma’s doilies and afghans.

Today’s craft-making entrepreneurs are more likely to be young adults and even teenagers who, facing unstable prospects in the job market, have chosen a self-directed path of creativity to make ends meet. Not surprisingly, they are choosing to make items that reflect the lifestyles and detritus of this modern age, from bowls made out of semi-melted LP records, to belt-buckles made out of bicycle gears, to earrings made out of parts stripped from VCRs and computers.

“Throughout history, when times have been toughest, people do things with their family and do creative things to make money,” said Lapotka. “With the way things are in this economy now, it just makes sense that people would look for a way to make money that’s more personally fulfilling.”

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erhaps nowhere is this broad-based movement more readily evident in Missoula than at Upcycled, a relatively new shop missoula magazine

located on Missoula’s Hip Strip. Sandwiched between the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center and the Silk Road Restaurant, the tiny store practically overflows with funky craft items, all handmade in Montana, and all employing at least 70 percent recycled materials.

Kay Langland, a longtime photographer and copper artist, said the store’s inspiration came from a simple recognition of the exploding community of young, local craftspeople trying to make a living (or at least a supplemental income) through creative reuse of discarded materials.

“I think a lot of people today are realizing that it’s an exciting challenge to reverse the creative process and say, ‘I’ve got these interesting materials, what can I do with them?’ ” said Langland.

“It’s a great way to get the creative juices going, and it’s good for the environment in the process.”

Indeed, Langland credits the green and buy-local movements as primarily responsible for the resurgence of craft markets across the country.

“As a world, we’re more focused on our energy use, our footprint that we’re making,” said Langland. “Years ago, when people handmade things, it was more a stigma that they couldn’t afford to buy things. They made things out of necessity. Now, people are doing it because it reduces our footprint, it’s interesting, exciting, it’s something to talk about. And when you recycle, almost everything is unique.”

CarolLynn Lapotka echoed that sentiment.

“The word ‘handmade’ was almost a bad thing when I was younger,” she said. “But now that has totally flipped: Things

“I think a lot of people today are realizing that it’s an exciting challenge to reverse the creative process and say, ‘I’ve got these interesting materials, what can I do with them?” ~Kay Langland

made in big factories aren’t seen as being high quality or good for local economies anymore. It’s a flip in mentality of the process of consumption.”

At Upcycled, popular items include Langland’s jewelry and artistic photographs – the latter printed on scrap pieces of copper and mounted on other reclaimed and recycled materials – as well as wallets and belts made by shop co-owner Donovan Peterson out of recycled rubber inner tubes.

Altogether, the shop represents the work of some 78 craftspeople, some of them as young as 14 years old.

“I grew up on a farm in Illinois, and I think of all the things my parents kept and recycled – everything from tinfoil to pieces of machinery,” said Langland. “It’s not a new concept, but I think there’s definitely a new appreciation for products that creatively reuse things that people normally throw away.”

perfectly with her current lifestyle, which includes juggling a part-time job, a fivemonth-old son, and classes at the College of Technology in Missoula.

“I do this mostly just whenever I have a little bit of extra time, a lot of evenings and weekends and bits here and there,” she said, noting that her candies are made-toorder. “I use organic and local ingredients whenever I can, which I think makes the flavor a lot better and appeals to more people.”

Many observers credit Etsy.com with a significant role in the explosion of the craft economy across the country. At the site,

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hile consumer attitudes have clearly contributed to the resurgence of handmade items in modern economies, realities of the job market have an equally important role – particularly in Montana, where many young, skilled and eager workers find themselves unable to find employment in their chosen vocations.

Such was the case for Iris Estell, a 26-year-old Montana native who spent several years studying culinary arts and later working as a pastry chef in the Seattle area.

When Estell became pregnant last year, she decided to move back to Montana to have her child. But once here, she had trouble finding employment that adequately suited her skills and fit her schedule.

So last March, Estell struck out on her own, whipping up handmade, small-batch caramels, which she sells via the online craft site Etsy.com.

“I started doing this to get some extra spending money,” said Estell, whose products range from simple chocolate caramels to morsels spiced with chipotle chilies and other flavors.

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by kim briggeman

by kim briggeman

“Slowly I plodded through the snow, really feeling warm, yet not knowing that my feet were freezing all the time. The intense cold acting on the trees made them give reports like pistol shots in all directions. The timber wolves were howling dismally and altogether it was not a very pleasant situation.”

Charles Schafft, “Sketch of a Life,” 1887

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he winter of 1861-62 was a brutal one in the Northern Rockies, and it didn’t spare Lt. John Mullan’s road crew.

They’d camped at and above the mouth of the Big Blackfoot River east of Missoula, on Mullan’s second and final sweep eastward constructing the Walla Walla-to-Fort Benton road. Most of the men were dispersed to four smaller winter camps up the Hell Gate River (Clark Fork) to make mountain sidecuts and whatever other improvements they could manage in the harsh conditions.

“I here mention with regret a sad accident that occurred to a citizen in passing from one to another of our camps, and which will tend to show the degree of cold we experienced during January,” Mullan wrote in his official report in 1863.

The unnamed citizen left on foot, intending to walk to the Deer Lodge Valley, he said.

“Night and severe cold overtaking him before he could reach another camp, he halted to build a fire, and being wet endeavored

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Gustav Sohon was with the Mullan expedition when he drew this previously unpublished sketch of Cantonment Wright at the mouth of the Blackfoot River in the winter of 1861-62. (Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

NAA INV 08541200).

to slip off his moccasins, when he found them frozen to his feet. He became alarmed, and retracing his steps reached the point he had started from, late at night, but with both feet frozen, and on their being thawed in a tub of water all the flesh fell off. The poor fellow suffered intensely, and his life was only saved by his suffering the amputation of both legs above the knees.”

The expedition’s surgeon, Dr. George Hammond, performed the surgery in March. Mullan said a purse of several hundred dollars was raised for the legless man, and he was left “to the kind charity of the fathers of the Pend d’Oreille (St. Ignatius) mission, where he remained up to the date of our leaving the mountains.”

Thus ended the famous road-builder’s account of the tribulations of Charles Schafft. But Schafft’s life and times in western Montana were only beginning. Disabled as he was, the German-born Schafft lived for 29 more years and led a mesmerizing and varied life as Montana went from frontier to territory to state.

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chafft didn’t receive his first set of artificial legs – from Philadelphia for $300 – until 1867. In the meantime, he was appointed Missoula County’s first clerk and recorder and one of its first two justices of the peace when it was established in Montana Territory. Schafft was elected to both unpaid posts later that year, and resigned them in early 1866 to make a living.

He served as clerk and ate muskrat dressed by Jesuit missionary Anthony Ravalli at Hell Gate Mission, and copied a Flathead-toEnglish dictionary for Father Urban Grassi at St. Ignatius. Schafft partnered in Missoula’s earliest years with pioneer Frank Woody to build a house and in later years lived for a time at “Baron” Cornelius O’Keefe’s castle at the foot of Evaro Hill.

Through the years he kept books for motels, merchants, attorneys and freighting companies, penned diplomas for Missoula’s early schools, and clerked at various times at the Flathead Agency in the Jocko Valley. Schafft spent several winters in the 1860s and early 1870s in charge of government property at the agency when the appointed agents left the mountains. He fled to Alberta in 1874 to avoid testifying during the federal “Indian Ring” investigation of one of those agents.

In Canada, he peddled illicit whiskey at Fort Whoop-Up and, by his account, outwitted Col. James Macleod and the newly formed Mounties. Macleod, he said, showed up to drive out the booze peddlers with cannon and needle guns, only to find “a cripple as second in command, and six or seven peaceable looking citizens,” Schafft wrote. The fort’s liquor supply, he noted wryly, “was cached on the bottom of the Belly River.”

Though his schooling apparently all came in his first 10 years in Berlin, Schafft was an accomplished writer and artist. In sketches, newspaper stories and a late-in-life memoir, he documented Montana’s formative years. In one of his few ventures outside Missoula County, Schafft spent more than a year in the late 1870s at Fort Benton, where he worked for the Benton Record, keeping the books and wrote a series of “literary contributions.” The first was a reminiscence of his time with Mullan.

Not yet 15 years old in April 1853, Charles Schafft was described in Army enlistment records as 5 feet, 3 inches tall with blue eyes and sandy hair. The Missoula Gazette, at the time of his death from pneumonia in 1891, said the deceased was unmarried, “very popular, and leaves a host of friends.” He was also an alcoholic.

“A Jesuit father once told me that every man has his fault or failing,” Schafft wrote in later life. “I have mine – a habit of drinking ‘fire water,’ a habit adopted in early youth and nourished by frontier life and usage. It has led me into a great many comical adventures and some serious ones. It has also made me some enemies, but none greater than myself.”

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hose reflections were made in 1887, when Schafft sat down to write a sketch of his life at Bass Mill north of Stevensville. The memoir, on 18 legal-sized pages, wasn’t published until 1976, when the Montana Historical Society’s “Montana: The Magazine of Western History” brought it to light.

Editor Vivian Paladin explained that the manuscript had been found a few years earlier by the operator of a used and rare bookstore in Helena. It was in an envelope that was tucked inside a copy of Arthur L. Stone’s 1913 edition of “Following Old Trails,” written when Stone was editor of the Missoulian. The envelope was addressed to John Armstrong, whom Paladin discovered had been working in 1887 at the Missoulian, which his brother Duane owned and edited.

“Since Schafft was obviously depressed and down on his luck in 1887, he may have hoped that the Armstrongs would publish his manuscript and pay him for it,” Paladin speculated.

Research revealed they never did. It seems likely, she said, that Stone, a history enthusiast, found Schafft’s story in the files of the Missoulian after he arrived there in 1907, and kept it until his own death in 1945.

In what Paladin called “precise and graceful script,” Schafft wrote that he was born on June 25, 1838, in Berlin, then part of Prussia. He was a survivor from the start, raised and schooled by his mother after his father, a merchant, left for the United States when Charlie was 2 years old. At age 11, Schafft was sent alone to New York City to join his father, who by then was an importer of liquors and fancy groceries.

Three years later he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a “learning musician” – a drummer boy, according to the Missoula Gazette’s account of his death on March 19, 1891.

After one sea disaster – the steamship San Francisco wrecked off Cape Hatteras, N.C., killing 250 of the 700 passengers – and a false start on another that floundered off the Virginia coast, Schafft and his company found themselves crossing the Isthmus of Panama on mules

Charles Schafft left his imprint on western Montana for nearly 30 years after suffering the amputation of both legs while with the Mullan Military Road Expedition in 1862. Among the numerous subjects of his sketches was the old Flathead Agency on Mill Creek in the Jocko Valley (left), where future U.S. President James Garfield met in 1872 to negotiate removal of the Bitterroot Flatheads to the Jocko. Schafft’s sketch of an old-time settlement in Montana (right) is undated. (Photos courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula)

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in spring 1854. They reached the old mission in San Diego by his 16th birthday, and Schafft spent the remaining four years of his Army hitch escorting the Southern Pacific Railroad survey in California, Arizona and New Mexico, and guarding against Indian troubles at Fort Yuma, Arizona, before his honorable discharge in April 1858.

Schafft was in San Francisco when word came of a gold strike on the Fraser River in western Canada. He was headed there via steamer when he met Mullan and was persuaded to throw in with the first roadbuilding expedition. That one started in 1858 at The Dalles, but made it only to the Snake River because of Indian troubles ahead. Mullan reorganized in 1859, and Schafft attached himself to the military escort at Fort Vancouver, where he took charge of the military escort’s herd of beef cattle. He drove the cattle, or what was left of them, as far as the 1859-60 winter camp, Cantonment Jordan, near today’s DeBorgia.

Schafft returned to the west slope with a handful of other civilians, apparently walking through deep snow on the pass. By spring he’d hoofed it to Walla Walla, then down to The Dalles on the Columbia River, where he caught a steamer to the Willamette Valley and farmed there for the next year. By 1861 he was back with Mullan, this time as clerk to sutler William Terry, and began the cold, fateful winter in that role at Cantonment Wright.

F

rom 1859-1862, John Mullan spent some 30 months in the field.

He stayed at no place longer than his winter base on the left bank of the Big Blackfoot. The 6 1/2 months at Cantonment Wright from early November 1861 to late May 1862 marked the end of the massive road project. A newly promoted captain, Mullan dismissed civilians and troops alike and resigned his post.

Schafft’s job on the Blackfoot was not to help build the four-span, 235-foot bridge, nor was he apparently assigned as the sutler’s clerk to feed the men in the four camps spaced strategically up the Hell Gate. He did get in on a little piece of history a few weeks before his disastrous walk. Late in December two horse thieves, Butler and Williams, escaped up the river and Mullan authorized Schafft and two other men to retrieve them. They captured Butler at Johnny Grant’s ranch at the mouth of the Little Blackfoot, and Williams 10 miles further on near what’s now the town of Deer Lodge on Christmas Eve. Schafft and others characterized them as the first official arrests in what became Montana.

There was no jury trial – the closest court was hundreds of miles away at Walla Walla. Mullan had the two men chained together at the legs and set to digging rocks to fill the piers of the Blackfoot bridge.

“In the spring they were set at liberty with some good advice for their future guidance,” Schafft wrote.

It’s unclear why Schafft set out alone and on foot from the winter encampment on Jan. 8, 1862. He was headed to Deer Lodge “for a permanent stay,” he wrote in his memoir. The Missoula Gazette, at the time of Schafft’s death, said the 23-year-old Schafft had a “disagreement with the clerk in charge during Terry’s absence.” David O’Keefe who was in one of the winter camps and helped rescue Schafft, said the snow got so deep and the weather so cold that Mullan offered $500 to anyone to take the mail to Salt Lake.

“A fellow by the name of Charles Shaft (sic) offered to go, but as he did not have a horse he had to go to Deer Lodge to get one,” O’Keefe said.

Schafft disputed that story, saying he had a few letters to carry, but he wasn’t under any government contract. He certainly didn’t plan to take the mail to Salt Lake. He made it 20 miles up the canyon to Rocky Point, near the mouth of Rock Creek, before becoming snowbound for nearly a week in the second working camp. On the morning of Jan. 15 he resumed his journey through “light feathery snow nearly three feet deep and too light to bear snowshoes.”

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Charles Schafft’s early 1880s pencil sketch of the original Missoulian office, built circa 1871, on Front Street. (Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula)

I

n January 1862 there were no bridges across the Hell Gate.

Schafft crossed where a lone one would soon stretch at the foot of Medicine Tree Hill, just west of the Bearmouth Area Exit on Interstate 90. He then followed the road over the hill.

Descending on the other side, Schafft broke through ice on a slough.

He struggled in wet clothes to regain the river bank as evening set in. The thermometer, he learned later, registered 40 below zero that night. Schafft built a fire and resolved to return to the last camp, but in a near-fatal irony, he had to wait to cross the river until the waterweakened ice froze up enough to bear him. Finally, after two or three hours, he made the crossing and began plodding – trees cracking and timber wolves howling – back to the nearest solider camp east of Beavertail Hill.

“At daylight I discovered that both my feet were frozen solidly up to the ancle (sic) joint where the moccasin strings were tied and I had yet four miles to make and partly along the side of a steep hill,” he recalled.

Schafft finally reached camp by 8 a.m. and “the usual cold water and salt remedy was at once applied and the feet thawed out.” But no one knew what to do then. Before a messenger could return with medicines and advice, mortification had already set in. Mullan sent a detail of soldiers and citizen volunteers, including O’Keefe, to fetch Schafft in a sled. But it took three days to make the 20 miles back to Cantonment Wright. Even then there was more agony. Dr. Hammond was snowed in at Fort Owen in the Bitterroot Valley and didn’t arrive for a week.

“When he came my case was hopeless,” reported Schafft, who by then was knocking on death’s door. “Being too weak to be performed upon at once, the inevitable operation was delayed until the 7th and 8th of March, when both of my legs were successfully amputated within six inches of the knee joints and I was henceforth a cripple.”

Mullan had only some of Schafft’s story correct. The amputations Hammond performed were not above the knees, but below. Under Grassi’s care, Schafft recovered enough by October to get around on his knees, he wrote, “so that I could render some slight service and amuse myself by painting pictures in oils of the Virgin Mary and some of the Saints.”

The spirit of a frontier survivor burned bright.

Kim Briggeman is a reporter for the Missoulian.

He can be reached at (406) 523-5266 or by email at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.

TMRR

Trout Meadows River Ranch Missoula, Montana TMRR

Trout Meadows River Ranch Missoula, Montana TMRR

Trout Meadows River Ranch Missoula, Montana

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Neptune Aviation’s BAe-146 retardant jet makes a test water drop in 2010. Neptune hopes to make the jet its next generation of firefighting airplane.

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Aerial firefighting by rob chaney

S

oaring along the jagged ridge of the Ninemile Divide, an automated voice announced the words most pilots dread to hear: “Pull up! Terrain!”

“We need to get that fixed,” Neptune Aviation lead pilot Pete Bell says as he aims Tanker 40 at a make-believe forest fire “burning” near the ridge top. Flying close to terrain is exactly what the BAe-146 jet under his control is supposed to do.

As they zoom toward Cha-paa-qn Peak, Bell and co-pilot Loren Crea maintain constant chatter in the cockpit. They call out their drop spot and choose the escape route they will take afterward – this time a winding ravine down toward the Clark Fork River. They agree on the amount of wing flap to deploy before the jet drops 3,000 gallons of red foam from its belly.

They also agree to get a mechanic to fix the faulty terrain warning system.

The cockpit atmosphere is much more relaxed than the typical Neptune retardant bomber mission. For the past 38 years, Bell has been flying aerial tankers. Thirteen of those have been in Neptune Aviation’s workhorse P2V bomber – a 1950s-era

photos by tom bauer

submarine hunter modernized to fight forest fires.

“The P2V is way more work than this,” Bell said as he banked left down the ravine. “It’s going to revolutionize our job.”

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he BAe’s four jet engines provide only part of the thrust pushing Missoula-based Neptune Aviation to a new level of business. The 20-yearold company banks on it as the next generation in aerial firefighting. But years of nursing along an aging fleet of P2Vs has also inspired Neptune to put more than just retardant bombing under its wings.

In September, Neptune’s BAe-146 won an

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Neptune employees wash one of the company’s P2V retardant tankers. The company plans to keep maintaining and flying the World War II-era planes for the foreseeable future.

interim contract to fight fire for the U.S. Forest Service and was immediately dispatched to Longview, Texas. A week later, the governor of Texas had photos on his Facebook page of Tanker 40 laying a red strip through the trees.

“This is the first time a new large air tanker has been brought on in a very long time, at least since the early ’80s” said Neptune President Dan Snyder. “They’ve had to dust off the whole process of certifying a new plane.”

“Pull Up! Terrain!” warnings have rattled the aerial firefighting industry for a decade.

In 2002, there were 44 large air tankers flying forest fires in the United States. That summer, a C-130A lost its wings over a California fire, and a PB4Y-2 broke apart in mid-flight.

Five crew members died. Both planes were operated by Hawkins and Powers of Greybull, Wyo. Two years later, the Forest Service grounded its whole fleet of large air tankers, or LATs, Neptune began a four-year struggle to prove its P2Vs were airworthy. It finally did so and won a five-year contract from the Forest Service in 2008.

“Since then, there’ve been five or six studies commissioned by the Forest Service on the future of LATs and how to rebuild the fleet,” said Bill Gabbret, a retired wildland fire manager who monitors aerial firefighting

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developments on his Wildfire Today website.

“They haven’t made a decision how to do anything about it.”

About the same time the Hawkins and Powers bombers crashed, Neptune was hunting for a next-generation airplane. It went through at least six models before settling on the BAe-146, a British-built jet designed for freight hauling and commercial travel.

“It has a lot of potential,” Gabbret said of Neptune’s choice. “BAe’s are newer than the World War II-era P2Vs. You’re talking 15 years old vs. 50 or 60 years old. Maybe it is the answer.”

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erial firefighting has many siblings but no true mother. Many of its first pilots and planes came from the world of farm cropdusting. They flew low, took risks and dumped heavy liquid loads in defined lines. The ground rarely fought back.

Military pilots would seem a natural ancestor, but again, the challenges differ.

Yes, a bomber pilot drops heavy loads on target or strafes in lines, and must evade antiaircraft fire. But even heat-seeking missiles don’t present the same threat as a landscape convulsed by billowing heat waves, spiraling winds and smoke-obscured mountain walls.

And Neptune pilots consider themselves

firefighters first, aviators second.

“People tend to default back to what they know,” Snyder said. “All the old planes are old military aircraft that dropped bombs. Now we’re taking non-warplanes and teaching them to drop retardant. We have to educate the government on why it works the way it does.”

Forest Service national fire aviation director Tom Harbour said dozens of companies have offered candidate airplanes for firefighting work. Neptune’s just been the first to take Forest Service criteria and put a plane in service.

“We’re looking all around to see what aircraft there are out there,” Harbour said.

“We’re not doing any research in particular aircraft (within the Forest Service) but we’re interested in all designs. There are lots out there, old, new, big and little.

“In the case of the BAe, we’ve been in close coordination with Neptune,” Harbour continued. “We said ‘Here are the attributes we’re looking for.’ Then Neptune put their own energy and money into developing the platform.”

While the Forest Service remains the biggest player in the firefighting field, several others have a say as well. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service have their own considerations, as does every state

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with wildland territory. California, in fact, has its own firefighting air force, mostly single-seat and smaller multi-engine tankers.

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eptune examined six other planes before settling on the BAe-146 as its best bet. It bought Tanker 40 from its leasing partner, Canada-based Tronos, in 2010. Then the testing began.

“The flying was the tip of the iceberg,” Snyder said. The plane spent about 45 hours in the air, but much more than that getting poked, prodded and reviewed on the ground.

“The BAe is a very responsive airplane,” Snyder said. “It can get into places a bigger plane can’t. It’s not like the DC-10 or the 747 (which have been used as air tankers in some areas).”

The BAe will deliver between 3,000 and 5,000 gallons of retardant, compared to the P2V’s 2,000- to 3,000-gallon payload. And simply being a contemporary jet makes a huge difference. The P2V can’t fly on a rainy October day – it risks icing its wings. The BAe has modern deicing capabilities, as well as weather radar.

Its cockpit is pressurized and climatecontrolled. It has hydraulic-assisted controls.

The P2V required lots of muscle to move the flaps and fins. All those things cut down on pilot fatigue, which is a common cause of flying accidents.

“There’s much more automation,” pilot Bell said. “We have an autopilot we use a lot to get from job to job.”

Its extra speed and range could allow the Forest Service to cut back on the number of strategic air bases where it stages fire bombers.

Those bases try to be within an hour’s flight of any dispatched fire. The BAe can hop between bases in Texas and Florida in an hour and a half if the need arises.

“The mission of the pilot is still the same; it’s just a new tool,” Snyder said. “It’s giving the firefighters a new fire truck.”

“We’re going to be putting more mud on the ground quicker and more reasonably priced because we can do it more efficiently,” Neptune Chief Executive Officer Kristen Nicholarsen said.

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he wartime rumble of P2V rotary engines won’t leave the Missoula skies soon.

Neptune still has 10 of them in active duty.

And it’s building an 11th purely for training purposes.

But when the Forest Service grounded all heavy tankers in 2004, it prompted Neptune to rethink its future.

“It brought to the forefront how one event can really impact us,” Snyder said. “We served one customer and we work well at it. But we needed to diversify our business.”

Neptune employees 168 people in its core Missoula work force, plus another 30 or 40 contractors brought on for specific tasks. Most of them live and work in Missoula, although pilots are allowed to live anywhere in the country.

Snyder’s Missoula office sits two doors and a hallway away from the shop floor. The whine of grinders and rattle of hammer drills penetrates and never seems to stop. Neptune has expanded its metals machining capabilities because it had to make P2V replacement parts from scratch – sometimes milling them out of 85-pound blocks of steel.

“We have hundreds of years of accumulated experience with rotary engines,” Snyder said.

“We’re looking at the warbird community.”

In other words, Neptune wants to put its make-it-yourself mechanics at the service of other vintage plane owners who have an equally tough time keeping their planes in the

Neptune Aviation pilots Peter Bell, left, and Loren Crea fly the company’s BAe-146 jetpowered large air tanker over the Missoula Valley during a test water drop in 2011.

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A Neptune P2V drops retardant on a fire on Mount Jumbo in Missoula in 2000.

sky. That ranges from air-show veterans who keep old B-17 and B-25 bombers flying, to Alaskan bush pilots who remain faithful to rotary engines for their dependability in tough conditions.

One of the requirements to get back in the Forest Service firefighting business was proving the planes’ parts wouldn’t succumb to metal fatigue. At the time, nobody agreed on how to test for that. Neptune developed many of the techniques the Forest Service adopted for its reviews.

“We became the expert in fatigue issues,” said Greg Jones, Neptune’s project director. “That will work to our advantage on different levels.”

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uring the nearly year-round fire season, Neptune’s P2Vs travel to wherever the fire is. And because they are so maintenance-heavy, Neptune kept another small jet to deliver parts or mechanics as needed.

That sparked an idea to expand into the air charter business. The company’s King-100 turboprop plane can haul eight people, and was getting plenty of work delivering Neptune crews. So when a Falcon 50 EX jet came on the market, the company grabbed it.

The Falcon only holds one more person than the King-100, but it does so in much more executive style. And faster.

While charter air service has never been cheap, it makes more and more sense in places like Montana, Snyder said. For example, a round-trip business visit from Missoula to Billings requires three days by car, or a connecting flight through Denver by commercial airline.

Neptune’s charter planes can take a whole business team round-trip in an afternoon.

It can also fly them across the country or across the ocean. Nicholarsen said the market for executive travel remains strong, especially for companies that need the speed but don’t want to own their own jet anymore.

Motorists driving Broadway or Interstate 90 could occasionally catch a glimpse of Neptune’s “boneyard” – a five-acre lot east of its main hanger where it kept cannibalized P2Vs and other planes once considered candidate fire bombers.

“We want to become a maintenance repair organization,” Snyder said. “And to do that, we need more infrastructure. The Missoula

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a non-traditional dinner

by rob chaney

I

f you got the same thing for a Christmas present every year, how long would it take to get annoying?

And yet we let tradition dominate holiday dining. Every December, most of us pull a repeat of Thanksgiving with the turkey and potatoes. For an entree that’s uninteresting the other 363 days of the year, the big bird rules the family reunion menu.

Sure, we claim to mix it up with figgy pudding and roast beast and mincemeat pie and the rest of the Dickensian fa-la-la.

And true, sticking with tradition keeps the internecine squabbles to after-dinner games we all play (charades or spoons – who wants to lose a finger?).

“The current Norman Rockwell Christmas dinner would be your prime rib, served with horseradish, garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables,” said Ginny Horning of All Events Catering. “But one Christmas I did an Italian dinner that was pretty fun. We served 26 people on Christmas Day.” That dinner started with a Caesar salad, followed by a lasagna with béchamel sauce, zucchini and eggplant.

The main course was a Sicilian chicken breast stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese in a marinara sauce, with a helping of ratatouille. Dessert was tiramisu.

“The family was there, and they were all Italian, so that’s what they chose,” Horning said. “I’d guess of people catering Christmas, about 30 percent want something different.”

Sometimes what looks traditional actually has roots in a much different tradition.

F

or Fouad and Fadwa Haddad growing up in 1920s and ’30s Palestine, Christmas dinner was turkey. But turkey with a distinctly Middle Eastern touch.

“I would do it myself,” Fouad said of acquiring the main course. “You would buy it live and kill it. It was more or less the same, although here you use bread for stuffing, and we used rice and lamb meat, but in half-inch pieces. Each family had its own different kind of spices to use.”

Fadwa broke in with proper instructions.

“You’d cook the rice in the turkey broth, with pine nuts and almonds and spices like allspice, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom,” she said. “Serve it with plain

G

rant Parker and hunting partner Chris Frandsen have often made “turducken.”

The domestic version involves a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed in a turkey. The wild recipe calls for a teal duck or Hungarian partridge stuffed in a pheasant stuffed in a Canada goose that’s in turn stuffed in a turkey.

“And then you fill it with stuffing in between all the layers,” Parker said. “You have to sew it up so it looks like a turkey. But when you slice it, you get different levels.

In the middle two-thirds, you get a bit of everything.”

The stuffing has everything from andouille sausage to wild mushrooms, or whatever else is in the hunting-and-gathering larder. The turkey makes a white meat layer, while the goose is dark meat, the pheasant is white and the teal is dark.

Each bird must be boned before it can be inserted in the next cavity.

“You go way back to some of the English kings who would have these at meals,” Parker said. “They’d have animals inside of animals inside other animals. We started doing it with wild game because it’s more fun.”

Also somewhat harder. Game animals are naturally low in fat and therefore dry out more easily in the cooking. Having everything coated with moist stuffing helps, but Parker said it remains a challenge to get the whole turducken thoroughly cooked without the outer layers toughening up.

“You have to have guests with flexibility,” he said. “I’ve never really mastered it, and it’s usually drier than I’d like. But it’s still really good.”

"If you got the same thing for a Christmas present every year, how long would it take to get annoying?"

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yogurt and vegetables. And for dessert, we don’t make pies. We’d have Middle Eastern sweets like baklava.”

“When I was a little kid, it wasn’t easy to find a turkey,” added Fouad, who’s now 90 and a Missoula resident since 1981.

“Then we’d use little lambs and the stuffing was almost the same. You’d stick it in a primitive oven, really just digging a hole in the ground, covering it properly. We only started using turkey around 1935 or 1940.”

And then there’s the table where the gifts of nature lead the way.

Deek Roomi Mahshi

(Fadwa Haddad’s favorite stuffed turkey) 1 10-pound turkey 2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed 1/3 cup butter or vegetable oil 1 pound ground lamb or beef 2 cups chicken broth or water 2 cups chestnuts, cut small 1/2 cup pine nuts 1/4 cup almonds, peeled and halved 1 tablespoon allspice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground clove Plain yogurt salt and black pepper to taste chopped parsley for garnish Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Wash turkey and dry inside and out.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside. Fry separately the pine nuts and almonds on a low temperature until light brown. Add meat and 3 tablespoons butter and saute until meat is tender. Add rice, 2 cups broth or water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Rice should be partially cooked. Add nutmeg, clove, allspice and chestnuts and mix well.

Fill the turkey cavity loosely with the stuffing mix and close the cavity with skewers or sew shut with a needle and thread. Rub with plain yogurt and butter. Place the turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan. Add 3 cups water and cover with foil. Bake 3-4 hours, basting every 20-30 minutes until tender. Uncover the turkey for the last 30 minutes of cooking time. Place on a large platter, remove skewers or thread, and garnish with chopped parsley. Let it rest a few minutes before carving.

Note: Cook the remaining rice stuffing by adding some turkey juice and simmering on low heat until done.

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Seeing is believing by jamie kelly

illustrations by ken barnedt

H

To plan for your night under the stars this winter, download the free astronomy software Stellarium at stellarium.com. Also, try Google Sky Map for Android or Star Walk for iPhone/ iPad. To see the astronomical friendliness of the weather, visit cleardarksky.com.

igh and dry” is the rule if you want to see the full glory of the winter’s night sky in western Montana, which offers stunning views of nebulae, galaxies and the rise of the constellation Orion when conditions are just right.

Trouble is, said University of Montana astronomy professor Diane Friend, winter has a distinct knack for hiding its own celestial bounty.

And it isn’t just cloud cover that blocks the Big Sky. “We have a lot of moisture because of the air flow west of the Divide,” said Friend, who also has plenty of advice for stargazers and amateur astronomers to enjoy the heavens this winter.

Sky watchers may have to be either a little or a lot patient to get unmolested views of the thousands upon thousands of visual treats the universe has to offer.

Patience pays off, however. On a dry and still winter night, far away from city lights and above the earthly haze, the view of the

Constellations in the winter sky looking north in the Northern Hemisphere Pleiades

y

a

Aries

Cancer

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Triangulum

Auriga

y

Perseus

Andromeda

k

Ursa Major North Star

i

l

Cassiopeia

Big Dipper

M

Cepheus

Ursa Minor

Constellations in the winter sky looking north in the Northern Hemisphere

Constellations in the winter sky looking south in the Northern Hemisphere 56

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Pleiades

y

Aries

a

Auriga

Cancer

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k

y

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seen in some detail with a decent telescope. Look for Orion to rise heavens can humble a person living in the Northern Hemisphere.

“The beauty of it is that when we have long winter nights, and in the east and ascend to its full height and glory around midnight Triangulum the air is still, it can be beautiful and even spectacular,” said Friend, in the southeast.

Jupiter, situated above and slightly to the east of Orion, will also who also helps run the Blue Mountain Observatory.

Perseus Though the observatory is closed in the winter, people don’t be particularly brilliant this winter. Look for the gas giant to appear need much more than a pair of binoculars to see some exquisite in the southern sky shortly after dark and then slowly settle to the details of creation. Even a mere set of decent eyeballs can spy some western horizon.

“Jupiter will be quite interesting because it will be quite high,” grand celestial objects – including star-birthing nebulae.

The importance of escaping light pollution can’t be overstated. said Elison. “And the higher it is the better because you’ll have a Andromeda And that means driving to places that are far from city lights and better chance of seeing surface features.”

Ursa Mars will rise in the east thisMajor winter around midnight and make freeways, and preferably high up. Lolo Pass is often mentioned a slow, diagonal arc to the south over the night. among amateur astronomers.

Cassiopeia North Saturn won’t be far behind Mars, rising around 1 a.m. This year, So, it’s a rare dry, clear and still night in Missoula. You’ve got Star astronomers should be able to get a good view of its rings – and the your eyes, perhaps your binoculars are a decent telescope.

Cassini Division between them – because it will be tilted around 14 degrees, said Elison.

Look also for the Andromeda galaxy on a clear night, whose Big Dipper form is more discernible the more powerful the telescope.

Ursa Well, among constellations, Orion is not just a mythical Greek Winter Minor will put on quite a show, celestially, if the weather Cepheus hunter, but a rock star. cooperates, said Friend. So be prepared for that rare occasion.

“Orion is the top thing, and it’s always fun to see if you can “High is good, and dark is good,” she said. “And on the driest separate the four trapezium stars in the center,” said Bill Elison, night possible.” treasurer of the Western Montana Astronomical Society, an informal collection of astrophiles.

Jamie Kelly is a Missoulian reporter.

Orion’s brilliance in the night sky makes it popular, as does the He can be reached at jkelly@missoulian.com. presence of the Orion nebula, which can be seen with the naked Ken Barnedt is the Missoulian’s graphics editor. eye as it gives birth to stars.in Thethe nebula’s gassessky and dust can be south in the Constellations winter looking Northern He can be reachedHemisphere at kbarnedt@missoulian.com.

M

i

What should you look for?

Perseus Auriga

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a W

Andromeda Triangulum

Cancer Pleiades

Gemini

y

Taurus

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Canis Minor

Aries

l

Orion

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Cetus

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Lepus Canis Major

Constellations in the winter sky looking south in the Northern Hemisphere

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survival guide:

running & biking in Missoula's winter

by gwen florio photos by linda thompson and michael gallacher ou’ve seen these deranged people.

When you’re inching along on the ice, bracing yourself against nearby buildings or vehicles, they cruise past, surefooted in sneakers on the same frozen surface that you know for a fact will land you in traction.

Or maybe you’re driving, fishtailing through an intersection, when somebody zips effortlessly through. On a bicycle.

It seems impossible. At the very least, unfair.

And yet, despite our climate’s official designation on the Missoula County website as a downside – “several months of frigid temperatures or icy roads” – a fair number of runners and cyclists here continue their summeryseeming pasttimes year-round.

You can, too, thanks to some of those folks, who shared tips for surviving winter with both bones and dignity intact.

“It’s really not as difficult as you would imagine,” said John Wood, coowner of Open Road Bicycles on South Orange Street. “I often feel like I have better traction when I’m on my bike than when I’m on my feet.”

That’s because he switches to studded tires when the snow falls.

“I went to them eight years ago. Without them, I’d go down two to three times a winter,” Wood said.

With them, he said, his tires grab the surface just fine. His feet are another matter. He’ll be coasting along on his bike, approaching a stop sign.

“I’ll put a foot down and almost fall.”

So, how do the runners do it?

Again, studs – this time, for shoes.

“Gripwise, you can get some little microspikes for underneath your feet,” said Tyson Warner, a sales associate at Runner’s Edge on North Higgins Avenue. “They’re pretty similar to YakTrax, but less noticeable with smaller spikes.”

Like YakTrax, the spiked grippers fasten to shoes with rubber fittings.

“You can run in them, stay on your feet. When you’re in a good amount of snow, you really don’t notice them at all,” Warner said.

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I often feel like I have better traction when I’m on my bike than when I’m on my feet.

John Wood

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O

nce you’ve conquered the problem of staying upright, what about keeping warm?

You probably already knew this part.

Layers. But not cotton.

Still, said Pam Gardiner, who heads Run Wild Missoula’s Back of the Pack group of mercifully slower runners, “there are challenges to layers. It’s amazing how quickly you warm up when you run.”

A vest seems like a great layer until you get too hot – and realize its shape doesn’t lend itself to tying around your waist. Same with a single bulky jacket.

“The highest quality clothing I invest in is a zip turtleneck,” said Gardiner, who also runs the wellness coaching business Wellbuddies. “It’s warm, it hugs the body but it wicks the moisture and enables you to cool as you warm up. It makes or breaks the cold for me. Don’t skimp on that.”

Design counts, too, said attorney Dave Ryan, who doesn’t just bike to work in the winter but keeps on mountain biking, too.

(His personal best is biking at 20 below.)

“I personally like big zippers on the top layer so you can open them and vent, and then zip back up before you freeze on the

way down,” said Ryan, who heads Mountain Bike Missoula, a nonprofit that supports mountain biking.

Along the same practical lines, Warner of Runner’s Edge advises people to “try to pick runs that you start off heading into the wind and come back with it at your back.”

Protect your extremities. Gardiner likes mittens – sometimes with liner gloves – and EarBags, which are like individual muffs fitted around each ear.

Open Road’s Wood uses earmuffs and a wool neck gaiter that he can pull up to below his nose. “In real cold weather, I wear goggles as well.”

W

hile few bikes have fenders, winter cyclists should add them, Ryan said. Their bikes will stay cleaner and they’ll stay warmer with the protection against wet, slushy stuff that splashes onto clothing and freezes during a ride.

Wool socks are a must. Cyclists can buy special winter shoes, “but they’re pricey,” Ryan said. “Most people around here use neoprene shoe covers that are good to a little below zero.”

Anyone running or riding in the dark of winter needs to use a light. Ryan uses a super-bright one for mountain biking on packed snow – which he much prefers to downtown’s crowded streets.

“Cars make me a little nervous,” he said.

Studded tires and spiked shoes aside, winter itself still makes a lot of people a little nervous.

For those less confident athletes, there’s another solution.

“It’s important for people who are new to really size up their tolerance for things like ice,” Gardiner said.

Last winter, Gardiner was at a point in her training where she was doing threehour workouts on weekends. When the weather got too extreme, she headed indoors, hooked up to a book on tape and put in an hour each on an indoor track, a treadmill and an elliptical machine.

“It was not my ideal,” she said, “but it worked well for me.”

Gwen Florio is a reporter at the Missoulian.

She can be reached at (406) 523-5268 or gwen.florio@gmail.com

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Wishing simply for “a pink present,� Madyson Fava stands mesmerized by Santa after a visit with him. KURT WILSON

coming to town

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Cowboy Claus stirs some local horses as he makes his annual ride through Ovando. “Santa needs someone to help with the rural kids,� he explains.

KURT WILSON

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Above: Santa and Mrs. Claus borrow a motorcycle form Missoula’s Mike and Carol Waddell for a ride through town to greet holiday shoppers.

KURT WILSON Left: With a couple of lucky youngsters in tow, Santa takes a spin on A Carousel for Missoula.

TOM BAUER

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santa pics

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Above: Santa keeps hold of a couple of dogs reluctant, apparently, to sit on his lap for a photograph.

TOM BAUER Left: His rounds successfully completed, Santa spends a Christmas Day shredding the slopes on Blue Mountain.

LINDA THOMPSON

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When the Griz are playing for the national championship, even Santa stops what he is doing to cheer the boys from Montana.

KURT WILSON

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cool winter reads

...continued from page 20 New paperbacks to take on a flight or ski trip:

“The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea

More than once I was reminded of my aunts living together in a small Pennsylvania town. Book groups will find much to discuss and others will want to revisit Emily in O’Nan’s earlier book, “Wish You Were Here.”

Obreht

In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of “The Jungle Book” and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.”

But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her – the legend of the tiger’s wife.

“Emily, Alone” by

Stewart O’Nan

When her sister-in-law and sole companion, Arlene, faints at their favorite breakfast buffet, Emily faces life changes in unexpected ways. So begins this bittersweet story about aging. As she grapples with her new independence, she discovers a hidden strength and realizes that life always offers new possibilities. Stewart O’Nan’s intimate novel follows Emily Maxwell, a widow whose grown children have long departed. She dreams of visits from her grandchildren while mourning the turnover of her quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood.

“The Hypnotist”

by Lar Kepler

In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness – the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die; he’s suffered more than 100 knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock.

Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option – hypnotism.

He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again – ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.

“At Home: A Short History of Private Life” by

Bill Bryson

With his signature wit, charm and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through

FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE, COMPLETE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION STRAIGHT FROM INSIDE GRIZZLY ATHLETICS

his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows and every item of furniture. Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and the sheer fluency of his prose makes “At Home” one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.

A book to entertain and send you to your own library looking for lost notes:

“Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages” by Michael Popek

It’s happened to all of us: we’re reading a book, something interrupts us and we grab the closest thing at hand to mark our spot.

It could be a train ticket, a letter, an advertisement, a photograph or a fourleaf clover. Eventually the book finds its way into the world – a library, a flea market, other people’s bookshelves or to a used bookstore. But what becomes of those forgotten bookmarks? What stories could they tell?

By day, Michael Popek works in his family’s used bookstore. By night, he’s the force behind forgottenbookmarks.com, where he shares the weird objects he has found among the stacks at the store.

“Forgotten Bookmarks” is a scrapbook of Popek’s most interesting finds. Sure, there are actual bookmarks, but there are also pictures and ticket stubs, old recipes and notes, valentines, unsent letters, four-leaf clovers, and various sordid, heartbreaking and bizarre keepsakes. Together this collection of lost treasures offers a glimpse into other readers’ lives that they never intended for us to see.

Barbara Theroux is manager of Fact & Fiction Bookstore in downtown Missoula and a regular contributor to Missoula Magazine and the Missoulian.

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winter's bugs

...continued from page 23 the last 10 years is huge, just huge. You just didn’t see them before.”

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K, now for the real test.

A day after my lesson from Potter, I sat down at my own vise and tried to replicate the flies Potter had tied. I was forced to go from memory, because the photographer made off with the samples Potter tied the day before, citing some excuse about needing to get close-ups back at the office.

I started with the Chernobyl Ant since that seemed the easiest.

Bruce Staples taught that Trout Unlimited fly-tying class I took many years ago and I remember him saying that there are two types of flies: flies that catch fish and flies that catch fishermen. My first two attempts at the Chernobyl Ant would probably catch fish, but they wouldn’t impress too many fishermen. My third attempt, though, looked pretty good to my eye.

The only real trouble I encountered was having the foam slide upside down on

the shank of the hook as I was tying. A little more tension on the thread got the foam to bite into the shank a little better and a couple of drops of glue after it was done seemed to cement it in place.

I’ll have to admit, I feel pretty sheepish that it took me this long to embrace foam as a fly-tying material. Now that I know how easy it can be, I’ll be using it this winter as I replenish my fly boxes.

There’s still a part of me, though, that likes the romantic notion of tying with fibers found in nature.

“There are really no disadvantages to it,” Potter said of tying with foam. “It doesn’t have the motion of natural fibers.

It doesn’t breathe like something like marabou would, but for a dry fly which doesn’t need motion, it floats like a cork, it’s super durable, fish like it; there’s no real downside to it.

“Some people don’t approve of the traditional aspect of it. The older I get the more I understand where that’s coming from. But all you have to do is tie a parachute Adams with a poly yarn post versus a calf tail post and it’s so much easier to tie it with poly yarn. The fish don’t care.”

And that, after all, is the bottom line.

Missoulian sports editor Bob Meseroll is an avid fly fisherman who listens to ’60s music in his car, thinks pitchers should have to take their turn at bat, and now knows a new trick for tying flies.

350.

the 2012 glk350 starting at

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3115 West Broadway, Missoula 721-4000 • www.demarois.com

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37,880

plus freight, options, title & license

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For five decades, Snowbowl has remained a local ski hill, operated by local residents, for local residents.

snowbowl

...continued from page 30 2,000-vertical-foot chairlift required hooking cement trucks to Cat machines and pulling them up the mountain. A boss allowing an employee to take a month off work is unlikely today, McDonald said, but “that was the kind of spirit that existed around Missoula towards Snowbowl.”

In 1963, Cohen, an out-of-work graduate student living in a fraternity house agreed to run Snowbowl's ski shop despite the fact that he couldn't ski. There weren't many duties Cohen didn't perform during his years working at Snowbowl.

He ran the ski school for a time and owned the ski shop, and even constructed the building that housed the shop until it burned to the ground in 1983.

“It was one of the most interesting times of my life,” he said.

In the 1960s, before there was grooming equipment, Cohen arrived at the mountain at 7 a.m. and used a snowmobile to pack down the bunny slope and the bottom of Sunrise Bowl as best he could. Otherwise, it was up to skiers to maneuver the powdery white slopes.

“If you could ski Snowbowl, you could ski anywhere,'' he said.

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n 1963, Snowbowl boasted of the largest vertical drop in the Northwest. And until Big Sky Resort installed its tram to the top of Lone Peak, Snowbowl had the largest vertical drop of any ski area in Montana. That drop of 2,600 vertical feet is part of what distinguishes the Bowl, Morris said.

“In the days when there was no grooming, it was pretty challenging,” he said.

In 1967, that challenge drew the U.S. Senior National Alpine Championships to Snowbowl. The event would in part dictate the makeup of the 1968 Olympic ski team, and Snowbowl stepped up with improvements that included a T-bar, additional runs in the bowls and construction of the bierstube, which was connected to the lodge by a large deck.

Top American and international racers showed up, and Gov. Tim Babcock presented awards to the winners.

The surprise was the lack of advertisers, who Snowbowl owners thought would turn the event into a solid profitmaker.

“They thought they were going to make a bunch of money and that never happened,”' Morris said. “Here, they spent all this money and now they didn't have a way to repay what they owed.”

In the wake of the financial disaster, Snowbowl deteriorated. Without money for needed improvements, facilities drifted into disrepair, and the ski shop and bierstube burned down. Even the T-bar derailed.

That's when six local physicians led

by Morris stepped up to buy the ski area in 1984.

“We thought we could keep it going,” he said.

"if you could ski snowbowl,

you could ski anywhere."

Stan Cohen

T

he first year was a success, with skier visits doubling to 40,000. The second year, skier visits slid back to 20,000.

Meanwhile, the new owners were trying to pay off debt accrued by installing the upper LaVelle Chairlift. After five years, when the chairlift was paid off, five of the doctors walked. But Brad and Ronnie Morris stuck it out.

As money became available, the couple invested in new equipment, built a hotel and ski shop, expanded the bar and worked on the road.

“I believed I could make it go,”' he said. “You learn a little each year.”

On any given day of the week, the Snowbowl bar is hopping. Skiers devour wood-fired pizza and re-energize with one of Snowbowl's famous Bloody Mary's. missoula magazine

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Snowbowl has reached its capacity, recording an average of 63,000 skier visits each season.

The original Grizzly chairlift installed in 1963 was upgraded and reinstalled in 1994, which more than doubled its hourly skier capacity.

In order to accommodate a future with more skiers, Snowbowl needs more terrain, particularly runs that cater to beginner and intermediate skiers. So, on this golden anniversary, Morris is looking back to Snowbowl’s roots for inspiration, hoping one day soon to redevelop the the area to the west formerly known as Snow Park – the place where it all began.

Snowbowl’s base area was expanded in 1967 with the addition of a ski shop and a Swiss chalet building. It burned in 1984 and the current ski shop and lodge was built in its place.

Photograph courtesy of Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.

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Chelsi Moy is a reporter at the Missoulian and the blogger who presides over MontanaSnowSports. com. She can be reached at (406) 523-5260 or by email at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.

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After returning to her native Montana and unable to find a job, Iris Estell struck out on her own, making handmade, small-batch caramels and selling them on the Internet.

made fair

...continued from page 41 small-scale craftspeople can advertise their goods in a marketplace designed to provide shoppers with easy access to unique items – and personal connections to the people who make them.

For Joshua Marceau, a Hamilton resident and doctoral student in biomedical sciences at the University of Montana, Etsy.com served as a turning point, of sorts, in what had previously been a hobbyist fascination with silversmithing.

Marceau, who grew up on the Flathead Reservation, first began dabbling in the craft about five years ago, while taking a class at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.

“I was really into chemistry at the time, and it turned out that my chemistry professor there also taught the silversmithing class,” he said. “I like working with torches and hammers and drills – I’m kind of a tool junkie – so it just fit my personality and turned into something that I enjoyed doing for relaxation and as a creative outlet in my spare time.”

Marceau followed his interest as purely

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a hobby for quite some time, buying his own tools along the way and producing jewelry for friends and family, and to give as Christmas gifts.

Then his wife stumbled upon Etsy.com, and suggested that Marceau set up a “shop” at the site.

Since then, he has kept himself quite busy producing rings and other jewelry, much of it custom-made to the specifications of people who find him through Etsy.com.

“A lot of people find me through Etsy and then ask me to do something particular for them,” he said, noting that he has shipped his work across the country and to customers in France, Australia and elsewhere. “It’s a great way to make those connections all over the world.”

W

hile Etsy.com serves as the online hub for those engaged as buyers and sellers in the craft movement, many local shoppers have begun to structure their holiday shopping around a single event: the Holiday Made Fair.

Started by Lapotka and a handful of other craftspeople in 2007, the MADE Fair has evolved into one of the largest and most diverse fairs of its type in this part of the

Top: Handmade baby booties done by Melanie Knight of Starry Knight Design.

Bottom: The caramels are made to order using mostly organic and local ingredients.

country. This year, more than 175 artists and craftspeople submitted applications for booth space at the holiday fair, which will take place at the Holiday Inn Downtown at the Park on Dec. 11. (A separate, summertime MADE Fair has also drawn large crowds to Caras Park in recent years.)

Lapotka said that the range of vendors and the size of crowds that have attended past MADE Fair events is a testament both to the boom in handmade products generally, but also to the Missoula community’s love for the local, the quirky, and the hand-made.

“There’s some crazy, amazing talent in Missoula,” she said. “People seem to love coming to the MADE Fair because they get to see all this original work, they see their friends, they can share their ideas. We’ve had just such amazing support. It’s really gratifying.”

Joe Nickell is a Missoulian reporter.

He can be reached at (406) 523-5358 or by email at jnickell@missoulian.com. Michael Gallacher is a Missoulian photographer. He can be reached at (406) 523-5270 or by email at mgallacher@missoulian.com.

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aerial firefighting

...continued from page 52 airport also needs more hangar space.”

So over the next five years, Neptune plans on developing a hangar and shop facility in its old salvage yard big enough to house Boeing 737 jets and similar-sized aircraft. Knowing that commercial airlines typically contract out their routine maintenance chores, Neptune wants to develop a team of mechanics qualified to work on all the planes that frequent Missoula International Airport.

International is another key idea. Despite their antiquity, Neptune’s P2Vs faced a daunting barrier to fighting fires in other countries like Australia or Russia. The U.S. government prohibits most military aircraft from operating overseas. The BAe’s civilian upbringing neutralizes that problem.

“It’s a global platform,” said Jones. “And that’s a whole new market we’re starting to look at.”

At the start of the 21st century, Neptune Aviation was essentially a two-job company.

It fought forest fire with P2Vs and maintained them. It had 50 employees and six planes.

Today, the pie chart has many more slices.

P2Vs and maintenance share space with the BAe-146, charter flights, outside aircraft maintenance and other expansion projects.

The fire-bomber fleet is up to 10, plus the two

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Mechanic Andy Lassila works on one of Neptune's P2V retardant planes at their hangar at the Missoula airport. charter planes, and the work force has more than tripled.

“We’re a completely different company from three years ago,” CEO Nicholarsen said.

“And we’re unrecognizable from 20 years ago.

We’re driving the change within the aviation industry.”

Rob Chaney is a reporter for the Missoulian.

He can be reached at (406) 523-5382 or by email at rchaney@missoulian.com.

Tom Bauer is a Missoulian photographer. He can be reached at (406) 523-5270 or by email at tbauer @missoulian.com.

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parting shot

p.s.

A backyard tree hung with ornaments and covered in a quiet snowfall reflects the simplicity and peacefulness of a happy holiday season.

photo by kurt wilson

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