Missoula.com Magazine Spring/Summer 2010

Spring/Summer 2010

on top of the world glacier national park centennial

airstream resurrected classic silver campers shine anew

backwoods fungi

harvesting the fruit of the earth – wild mushrooms

see also inside

art evolution: a guide to missoula’s public art missoula magazine

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

letter from the editor

W

e started the hike in a collective funk. One of us was tired, one a little sickly, one just grumpy. It was too hot for hiking, someone said. The trail was too steep. The flies were biting and abundant.

The first half-mile we kept our distance from one another and our thoughts to ourselves. Then we started passing other hikers, cheerfully coming back down the trail from our destination. The afternoon cooled as we gained elevation and shade. Heads cleared. Lungs and eyes, and hearts, opened to the day.

By the time we reached Apikuni Falls, a relatively easy hike near Many Glacier, smiles were on every face. One of us leaped up the rocks to the base of the falls. Two of us sat high up on a ledge, taking pictures and admiring the view. The flies were gone, and the heat too. The day began anew.

And so it is every time my children and I get out of the car and into the backcountry of Glacier National Park. There is no “bad” hike. No bad day. No why’d-we-come-here destination. Every outing is a memory I hold precious, every photo immediately refrigerator-worthy.

On this centennial year in Glacier’s history, we should all spend a day or several in the park – up and away from the highway, breathing deeply and quietly. At the base of Grinnell Glacier. In a tent alongside Elizabeth Lake, listening for the early morning loon serenade. Peering into the darkness of the Ptarmigan Tunnel. Watching for grizzlies and mountain goats on the trail to Granite Park Chalet.

And we should all read Michael Jamison’s recounting of Glacier’s history, which is our cover story in this edition of Missoula magazine. It is a history befitting the grand and oversized scenery of Glacier, a tale that literally goes back to the earliest days of the planet Earth. And the photographs, from the Library of Congress and Glacier National Park archives, are spectacular.

So, too, do I recommend Rob Chaney’s tale of hunting for mushrooms in the forests of western Montana, and the photographs he’s collected – along with mushrooms – over the years. And Michael Moore’s tribute, with photos by Michael Gallacher, to the Missoula Writing Collaborative.

Local writers work most of the school year, teaching creative writing one day a week to all ages of schoolchildren. The results, you’ll see for yourself, are lovely beyond description.

I also really enjoyed the story and photos by Betsy Cohen and Kurt Wilson from the East Missoula garage where local entrepreneurs renovate classic Airstreams, those most quintessential of American travel trailers.

These craftsmen turn the little domed trailers into showpieces, shined until their sides are mirrors and their interiors are appointed with every modern convenience. Be forewarned: You’re going to want one! And that, of course, is exactly why business is booming at Mintage Airstreams.

I could go on. And on. But suffice it to say: This is a great edition of Missoula magazine, and a great time to be alive and well in western Montana.

The best days of the year are at hand. Turn your face to the sun and smile!

bookmark it!

Go online to Missoulian.com throughout the summer for:

big fish!

Our fly-fishing blog, Talkingtrout.com, has the latest reports from western Montana’s rivers and streams. Where’s the hatch? What’s biting? Who caught the biggest fish?

refreshments!

Summer will be tastier if you frequent our food and drink blogs, GrizzlyGrowler.com, KnowYourVino.com and MissoulaFoodie.com.

Eat local! Drink local! Sample the season!

flowers and foot paths!

We’ll take you hiking through western Montana’s loveliest wildflower blooms at WildflowerWalks.com.

And you can share your own sightings, too.

rocks and rivers!

For the adventurous, we’ve got a summertime of kayaking, rock climbing, high-mountain hiking and mountain biking ahead at MontanaAdventurer.com/blog. And be sure to check out the latest edition of Montana Adventurer magazine, free on newsstands throughout western Montana.

birds and baseball!

Keep up with the latest news from the Missoula Osprey Pioneer League baseball team on our sports blog, ProsandPreps.com. They’re our very own birds, er boys, of summer!

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

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

publisher john vanstrydonck publisher stacey mueller

editor sherry editor sherrydevlin devlin

art director director kate art katemurphy murphy

assistant art director mike assistant art director mikelake lake

photo editor editor kurt photo kurtwilson wilson sales & marketing advertising director director kristen bounds jim mcgowan

online director jim mcgowan

writers tim akimoff writers tim akimoff betsy cohen betsy cohen rob chaney gwen darylflorio gadbow daryl gadbow kim briggeman lori grannis michael jamison michael michaeljamison moore bob katemeseroll murphy michael moore greg patent kate murphy

photographers joe tomnickell bauer greg patent michael gallacher linda thompson jodi rave kurt wilson

graphic design tom diann kelly bauer photographers mike lake michael gallacher megan richter linda thompson andrew henderson kurt wilson

jacque walawander advertising sales diann

graphic design kelly 406-523-5271

megan richter

chris sawicki

distribution Available in more

youa vangthan 160 racks in western Montana, Missoula magazine is a natural extension for people who read and rely on the Reaching 80,000 to 90,000 readers daily, the Missoulian newspaper. advertising sales jacque walawander Missoulian has long been recognized as the most thorough, in-depth source of

523-5271 news in western Montana. Missoula magazine takes this award-winning coverage another step, showing off the very best of Missoula in words and photographs.

By capitalizing on distribution .Available in morethroughout than 160 racks western Montana, the Missoulian’s presence the in region and utilizing its Missoula.com a natural extension for magazine people whoand readMissoula.com and rely on the website establishedmagazine chain of is distribution, Missoula Missoulian newspaper.

80,000 to 90,000 daily,publication the Missoulian long reach more readers Reaching in more places than any readers other such in has western been recognized as the most thorough, in-depth source of news in western Montana.

Montana.

Missoula.com magazine takes this award-winning coverage another step, showing off the very best in words By capitalizing on the Missoulian’s No part of of theMissoula publication mayand bephotographs. reprinted without permission. presence the region utilizing its established distribution, Missoula. ©2010 throughout Lee Enterprises, all and rights reserved.

Printed inchain the of USA. com magazine and Missoula.com Web site reach more readers in more places than any other such publication in western Montana.

on the cover:

NoApart of the publication may beconservationist, reprinted without permission. ©2007 Lee Enterprises, naturalist, an influential a writer and explorer and all rights reserved. Printed in the USA. ethnographer, George Bird Grinnell was captivated by the Glacier area

and did more than any other single person to promote the idea of it on the cover: being a national park. Here, Grinnell stands on the glacier later named Ryan Springer pedals along the Clark Fork River with a delivery of for him.

Le Petit Outre breads bound for downtown Missoula restaurants.

missoula magazine

photo courtesy of Glacier National Park Archives cover photo by linda thompson photo coloring by mike lake

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

10

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

11

12

missoula magazine

TMRR

Trout Meadows River Ranch Missoula, Montana

missoula magazine

13

14

missoula magazine

china woods

every great room starts with a great piece

716 dickens | toole ave at the tracks | 550.2511 thursday - sunday 11-5 | chinawoodsstore.com missoula magazine

15

vol.4 no.2

inside this issue

contents spring/summer 2010 The old trailers come into the Mintage shop heavily oxidized and often require a full sanding of the exterior before hours of polishing begins. “To bring them back to their former glory,” says Mintage Airstreams owner Rory Burmeister, “they first have to be stripped down to their shell.” page 36

50

16

36

44

64

58

in season

all year long

36 44 50 58 64

18 22 26 30 34 82

airstream resurrected glacier centennial backwoods fungi love of poetry mystery of briggsville

missoula magazine

tablescapes know your vino and your beer missoula cooks on the fly parting shot

the way we were

1922 all in the family

Frank and Alfreda Stevenson, center, and nine of their eventual 14 children, have a portrait taken by Missoula photographer R.H. McKay, who also stood in the frame with his wife, Ethie, at left. Stevenson was a prospector in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park and the family was en route to their homestead on Sherburne Lake when this photograph was taken in Missoula’s lower Rattlesnake Valley in 1922.

photo courtesy of Tim Stevenson

missoula magazine

17

18

missoula magazine

delightful dining on the green

photos by linda thompson

Dinner on Par at the Ranch Club

The Ranch Club is a golf community that sits on a 340-acre swath of scenic land in the Clark Fork River Valley. Just six miles northwest of Missoula’s city center, off Mullan Road, is a championship 18-hole linksstyle golf course surrounded by homesites that start at $97,500. Home packages are also offered.

The fine-dining restaurant with newly expanded indoor and outdoor dining areas is always open to the public. With more than 20 new items to celebrate Missoula’s warm season, the table is set with a sampling: lemonpoached artichoke stuffed with preserved-lemon couscous, black currants, pine

nuts and feta cheese, blanketed in a fried garlic beurre blanc; and pancettawrapped sea scallops atop watercress, papaya and grapefruit salad with tarragon-honey vinaigrette. Willamette Valley’s Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir accompanies. All wines on the Ranch Club’s carefully chosen list are served in Riedel glassware.

Now offering no initiation fee memberships, Ranch Club’s unmatched amenities include a new 15,000-square-foot resort-style pool complex, state-ofthe-art fitness center, golf shop and other clubhouse privileges.

To learn more about The Ranch Club, visit www.RanchClub.com, or call (406) 532-1000.

missoula magazine

19

Tee time at The Keep & Highlands Golf Club The Keep Restaurant overlooks Missoula’s landmark Highlands Golf club, and offers diners unparalleled panoramic views of the Missoula Valley. Formerly known as Shadows Keep, the fine-dining spot was purchased in 2007 by Reed and Melissa Mooney.

Local diners will now find a revamped menu with newly envisioned dishes, such as the one shown here: pine-nut encrusted halibut with a lemon-garlic aioli, served with couscous and grilled asparagus. Longtime patrons can reminisce about the “Mansion” of old, with menu signature dishes such as the classic spring entree of old: grilled rack of

20

missoula magazine

lamb with mint balsamic vinaigrette, plated here with roasted garlic whipped potatoes and grilled fresh asparagus.

Meal-ending desserts at the Keep, such as decadent chocolate mousse cake, are all made in-house by a resident pastry chef. The Keep also offers diners broad choices on its extensive wine list, and hosts several wine dinners throughout the year, most recently with selections from Pepper Bridge and Amavi wineries from the Walla Walla Valley of Washington.

Open seven nights a week. Call (406) 728-5132 or visit www.thekeeprestaurant.com.

A hole in one at the Missoula Country Club Founded in 1916 as a private golf and country club, the Missoula Country Club was originally located at what is now the nine-hole University of Montana course. In 1927, the country club was relocated to its current location adjacent Fort Missoula as part of a land swap between the club, the university and Fort Missoula.

There, an 18-hole course with fast, undulating greens and classic tree-lined fairways was developed. With many oldgrowth deciduous species, along with old-growth evergreens and blue spruce, it is considered one of the most beautiful courses in Montana. Spring membership efforts added 50 new members, capping the number at 440.

Facing north toward the 18th hole of the Missoula Country Club, the table is set with votive candles and sculpted napkins, and features food by newly appointed chef Richard Kolenda.

On the menu: bruschetta with roasted tomato, basil chiffonade and parmesan-reggiano; summer salad with sliced nectarines, Gorgonzola cheese, toasted walnuts and vinaigrette; chicken Capri – a pan-seared breast of chicken stuffed with sundried tomatoes, baby spinach, sauteed mushrooms and herbed cheese in a light Marsala sauce, accompanied by roasted new potatoes in garlic butter, haricots vert and baby carrots. Carly’s Cuvee Chardonnay, Sangiovese-blend Ferrari-Carano Siena, complement service.

missoula magazine

21

know your vino

worden’s legacy Worden’s continues to be innovative in their wine buying, pushing the envelope and encouraging oenophiles to expand our wine world by introducing wines we can barely pronounce – like Bourgueil, Vacqueyras and Vernaccia.

22

missoula magazine

by kate murphy photos by tom bauer

Tim France, left, and Chris Niswanger have brought more than 1,200 wine labels from around the world to Worden’s Market. France has owned the business since 1981, and Niswanger has been a wine associate there for more than 26 years.

C

an you imagine Missoula without Worden’s Market? Probably not, as the landmark has been around since 1890. It has stood the test of time through the Great Depression, wars, economy shifts, relocation, changing owners and construction. Today, it stands at the corner of Spruce Street and Higgins Avenue as an iconic mainstay, supplying Missoulians with some of the best wine selections in all of Montana.

When Tim France and his wife Exie bought Worden’s in 1981, he was a selfproclaimed “beer guy” and didn’t know much about wine. He was in good company.

Between 1950 and 1980, Blue Nun German wine was probably the largest international wine brand. However, Tim was stacking Bordeaux, Burgundy and Barolo on his shelves. With quite of bit of money tied up in the wine collection he inherited from the previous owner, Tim went to work.

There was no Internet then, so Tim learned the old-fashioned way: He read

books and connoisseur’s guides; he picked the brains of distributors, importers and winemakers. He began publishing an instore newsletter and hosting tastings for his customers. This expanded into Worden’s Wine Festivals, which included live music and jazz bands.

In 1980, Tim took the business to the next level by pre-selling the 1982 Bordeaux futures to his customers. He sold more than 100 cases out of his store – more than the entire state of Montana combined. It was a risky venture, as investing in fine wine wasn’t common and the wine boom hadn’t hit Missoula yet. Tim’s pioneering spirit would prove auspicious.

A

s Worden’s continued to enjoy great successes, the wine world started to take notice. Renowned winemakers like Hubert Trimbach from Alsace, France, came to visit Tim to personally find out why Missoulians were drinking so much Alsatian Pinot Gris.

continued on page 68

missoula magazine

23

France says that while the recession hurt high-end wine buying, people are coming back again with a more critical interest.

10 20

00 20

90 1987

19

80 19 1981

70 19

60 19 1964

50 19

40 19

30 1936

1927

19

20 19

10 1910

19

00 1907

19

1895 1896 1898

1890

18

90

Worden’s through the years

1890: Tyler Worden and Charles Bishop open Bishop and Worden Grocers at 41 Higgins Ave., in the Roberts Block.

1895: Tyler Worden buys out Charles Bishop.

1896: Tyler Worden moves Worden’s Grocers to 126 N. Higgins Ave., and his brother Otis comes to work for him as a clerk.

1898: Tyler is elected as a Montana state senator and Otis takes over running Wordens.

1907: Otis moves Worden’s moves to 109 E. Main St. 1910: Otis buys out Tyler and moves the store to 501 N. Higgins Ave. 1927: Otis moves the store to 401 N. Higgins Ave. 1936: Otis moves the store to 434 N. Higgins Ave. (southeast corner of Spruce Street and Higgins, accross the street from its current location). He operates the store until his death at the age of 80 in 1952. Otis’ sons Orville and Roy take over the business.

1964: Orville dies and the business sells to George and Laura Sherwood. The Sherwoods create an all-night market and turn Worden’s into the keg capital. The business then changes owners four more times.

1981: Tim and Exie France buy Worden’s. Tim is a deputy sheriff at the time of purchase.

1987: Tim and Exie France move the store to its present location at 451 N. Higgins Ave.

24

missoula magazine

missoula magazine

25

and your beer

Adam Osborne and Ryan Barrow, from left, sample beers brewed by the Great Northern Brewing Co. at the Black Star Draught House in Whitefish.

northern renaissance by tim akimoff photos by linda thompson

26

missoula magazine

Great Northern Brewing Co. general manager and partner Marcus Duffy stands near the brewery’s gravity-fed system.

W

HITEFISH – There are memorable road trips, and then there are road trips that leave their mark on you.

This was one of those. It was two fellas cruising slowly around Flathead Lake, stopping in for a sample or two of the various craft brews available at several of western Montana’s favorite taprooms on an immaculate summer day.

After a leisurely hour at Flathead Lake Brewing Co. watching the unreal blue lake water lap at sun-baked stones, we ventured north toward the sleepy summertime metropolis of Whitefish.

Unable to find directions or even confirmation of a brewery in the vicinity, we searched the quaint downtown on foot until we literally stumbled into the front door of a brewery-esque building with what appeared to be a small taproom in operation.

To our ultimate delight, we had walked into Great Northern Brewing Co., where we tasted a refreshing huckleberry hefeweizen that seemed to beat the heat like the air conditioner unfortunately missing in my car might have.

Now, 2 1/2 years after that trip around Flathead Lake and after visiting the majority of Montana’s 20-plus craft breweries, I’ve completed another journey of sorts.

I’ve visited and written about all of western

missoula magazine

27

A dozen lagers and ales as well as a handful of unique seasonal brews are available for tasting at the brewery.

Montana’s craft breweries in the pages of this magazine. And what a pleasure it has been.

G

reat Northern Brewing Co. wasn’t the brewery I was looking for when I drove into Whitefish on that trip.

I was looking for Black Star, a Montana beer I’d become familiar with many years before when my brother, then a student at Montana State University, used to bring it

back with him at Christmas break.

Instead, I found the defunct brand and a craft brewery struggling to find its identity in a town dependent on snow and tourists.

On a return trip to the brewery this March, it didn’t take nearly as long to find Great Northern’s haunts.

Ask most locals where their craft brewery is today, and they’ll easily point out the tall lighthouse-looking building on Central Avenue.

If ever a Montana brewery had a renaissance, it was Great Northern Brewing Co. in the last several years.

This was proved to me by the brand new Black Star Draught House, a hip wine and beer bar on the second floor that acts as sort of an incubator of culture and conversation.

As Whitefish has become a multiseason resort town and community, so has its brewery.

U

pon opening at noon on a dreary Monday, the taproom was instantly packed with locals enjoying a day off or a quick sandwich and a pint before heading off to afternoon activities.

28

missoula magazine

I sat and heard the Great Northern Brewing Co. renaissance story from general manager and partner Marcus Duffy.

The brewery was built in 1994 by one Minnott Wessinger, the great-greatgrandson of Western brewer Henry Weinhard, in fact.

How’s that for beer legacy?

Wessinger is a bit of a marketing genius behind several well-known softdrink brands and other beverages, and when his Black Star beer, though arguably popular, grew at a slower rate than other projects, he sold the brewery in 2002.

Fifteen years later, Black Star has been reborn through the efforts of a partnership with Wessinger and Great Northern Brewing Co. owner Dennis Konopatzke.

Billed as a pre-Prohibition-style American light lager, the back-from-thedead Black Star Golden Lager is one of a dozen lagers and ales available in the taproom year-round, along with a handful of unique seasonals that highlight brewer Joe Barberis’ smooth and refined style.

D

uffy and I sampled through many of the brewery’s beers, including reborn

versions of Big Fog, which used to be a heavy lager and now is a bright amber ale with woodsy accents and dark malts.

Over a now-familiar Wild Huckleberry Wheat, Duffy explained that the brewery has been working toward reintroducing itself to Whitefish locals with the new wine and beer license, which allows the brewery to serve until 10 p.m., tweaking beer recipes and spreading the word in town and around the region about the addition of Wessinger and his Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager.

Great Northern Brewing Co. is on the map, and visitors and locals alike flock there for beer, culture and conversation.

And me, I’m looking forward to a few more road trips to the breweries around Flathead Lake.

Tim Akimoff is the Missoulian’s digital manager, and the blogger at GrizzlyGrowler. com. Reach him at (406) 523-5202 or by email at tim.akimoff@lee.net.

Linda Thompson is a Missoulian photographer; reach her at (406) 523-5270 or at lthompson@missoulian.com.

Your Health – Our Commitment to You, From day one.

My definition of wellness? Health care that can keep up with us.

Community Medical Center has been with your family from day one. You can depend on Community Physician Group to provide convenient care for all of your wellness needs.

We offer comprehensive health care at 14 locations; accepting Medicaid and Medicare, as well as most major insurance providers.

Spend less time waiting and more time living.

PHYSICIAN GROUP

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER

Just one call. Community Physician Group 327-4221 www.communitymed.org missoula magazine

29

missoula cooks

spring royalty by greg patent photos by michael gallacher

I

consider the asparagus the queen of spring vegetables.

It’s regal, beautiful to look at, easy to cook and mighty tasty. Wild and homegrown asparagus have unique earthy flavors, but we’re fortunate to have top-quality asparagus in our markets that make excellent eating.

Asparagus spears may be thin or fat. Thin ones cook in no time flat, and thick ones, about 1/2-inch or so at the base, need only a few minutes. Fatter spears tend to be fibrous, but the fiber is thickest in their ends. Simply hold a spear in both hands and snap off about 3 inches of the base and your spear will be deliciously tender when cooked.

I sometimes use a vegetable peeler to remove a thin layer of skin 2 or 3 inches above the point where the base snapped off, but that may not be necessary. It all depends on the freshness and age of the asparagus. A good idea is to cook a baseless spear in boiling water for a couple of minutes, cool it, and then bite in. If fibrous, it’ll take only a few minutes to peel off

30

missoula magazine

the offending skin from the remaining spears.

Many recipes say to blanch asparagus. To do that, add spears to a large pot of boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes.

Immediately transfer them to a large bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. When cool, drain well and pat dry with paper towels. Asparagus are ready to use at this point. You can wrap them in paper towels and plastic and refrigerate for up to two days.

Asparagus are also delicious grilled. No blanching is necessary. Simply snap off the ends, coat the vegetables lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cook over a medium-hot fire for about 4 minutes, turning once. Taste one and cook a bit longer if necessary.

Greg Patent is a food writer and columnist for the Missoulian and Missoula magazine. Visit Greg’s website at www.gregpatent. com and his blog at http://www. gregpatentgetsyoucooking. blogspot.com. You can write him at chefguymt@gregpatent.com.

Roasted asparagus with parmesan cheese is an excellent side dish with chicken, fish or meat. You can assemble it ahead and bake a few minutes before serving. Grilled asparagus with egg and caper sauce. Cooking asparagus on a grill gives it a special roasty flavor complemented perfectly with an assertive sauce. Classic asparagus vinaigrette, served with a creamy vinaigrette dressing, should be served all by itself as a salad or with scrambled eggs as a main course. missoula magazine

31

To snap off the fibrous base, grasp a spear with both hands. It will bend and snap with a crack at a point of weakness, leaving a stalk that is entirely edible.

Roasted asparagus You can assemble this dish hours ahead and refrigerate it. Bake just before serving.

• 2 pounds thick asparagus, fibrous ends snapped off • Salt and freshly ground black pepper • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano • 2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

B

ring a large pot of water to the boil and add 2 tablespoons salt. Have nearby a large bowl with cold tap water. Add asparagus spears to the boiling water and cook 2 to 4 minutes, only until crisp-tender. The idea is to partially cook the asparagus so that the spears are semi-firm, not limp.

Remove the asparagus with a slotted spoon or kitchen tongs and transfer them immediately to the bowl of cold water.

When cool, drain asparagus in a colander and pat dry on paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with a rack adjusted to the center position. Arrange a layer of asparagus in a square baking dish 8 or 9 inches square. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and about one-third of the cheese. Repeat with two more layers of asparagus and cheese. Drizzle with the olive oil and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until cheese is golden brown. Serve hot.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

32

missoula magazine

Asparagus vinaigrette

Grilled Asparagus with Egg and Caper Sauce

A chilled asparagus dish dressed with a Hollandaiselike vinaigrette. You can prepare the asparagus and dressing hours ahead and put them together just before serving.

• 2 pounds thick asparagus, fibrous ends snapped off • Salt and freshly ground black pepper • 1 egg yolk • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • 1 tablespoon lemon juice • 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, plus more if needed • 1/4 cup vegetable oil • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil • 1 garlic clove, minced • 1 scallion, root end trimmed, sliced thin

B

ring a large pot of water to the boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.

Have nearby a large bowl with cold tap water. Add asparagus spears to the boiling water and cook 3 to 4 minutes, just until tender. The idea is to cook the asparagus so that the spears still have a bit of crunch and are not completely soft. Remove the asparagus with a slotted spoon or kitchen tongs and transfer it immediately to the bowl of cold water.

When cool, drain asparagus in a colander and pat dry on paper towels. Wrap and refrigerate.

For the dressing, in a small bowl whisk the egg

yolk with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper for about a minute until slightly thickened. Whisk in the lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Combine the oils in a 1-cup glass measure with a pouring spout.

Whisking constantly, add the oils in a fine stream to make a creamy dressing.

Stir in the garlic. Taste and adjust seasoning with more red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Cover and refrigerate.

To serve, arrange asparagus spears on a serving dish and spoon dressing over them in a band. Sprinkle with the scallion and serve.

Makes 6 servings.

I adapted this recipe from Deborah Madison’s classic cookbook, “The Savory Way” (Bantam, 1990). Quickly grilled asparagus is dressed while hot with a delicious olive oil and champagne vinegar sauce made with hard-cooked eggs, capers and minced shallot. You can get the sauce ready hours ahead and refrigerate it. Grill the asparagus just before serving.

• 2 pounds thick asparagus, fibrous ends snapped off • Extra-virgin olive oil • Salt and freshly ground black pepper • 2 hard-cooked eggs • 2 to 3 tablespoons champagne vinegar • 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and patted dry • 1 large shallot, finely chopped • 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley or chervil

P

ut the asparagus into a large flat dish and drizzle with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Toss gently with your fingers to give the spears a thin coating of oil. Set up a grill with a medium-hot fire and make the sauce.

Separate the whites and yolks of the cooked eggs. Mash the yolks and chop the whites very fine.

Put them into a small bowl and add 1/4 cup olive oil,

2 tablespoons vinegar, the capers, shallot, and parsley or chervil. Stir well. The yolks and oil will gradually emulsify. Season to taste with salt, pepper and more vinegar, if needed.

Grill the asparagus until crisp-tender, turning once.

It will only take about 4 minutes total cooking time.

Arrange spears on a platter, spoon the sauce over them, and serve hot.

Makes 6 servings.

missoula magazine

33

on the fly

bite me by daryl gadbow photos by tom bauer

N

eal Coté will be out there on western Montana’s rivers this spring along with all the rest of us fly-fishing loonies.

The Missoula angler may be casting a skwala pattern, or a salmonfly, or a mayfly, or a caddis to match one of the hatches that incite the annual spring trout feeding frenzy.

On the other hand, you might encounter Coté on the same local river – on the same day, and still wielding a fly rod – but with an entirely different agenda than the rest of the crowd.

Coté has made a name for himself in western Montana angling circles as a master at catching monster northern pike on a fly rod. In fact, he is widely known hereabouts as “Mister Pike.”

He earned that moniker for his exploits competing in the annual Mr. Pike Classic pike fishing tournament at Seeley Lake.

Vying with scores of anglers using traditional, time-honored pike tackle – large plugs, spoons and spinners, as well as the pike’s favorite bait, smelt – Coté has consistently cashed in among the tourney’s top prize winners. Typically the lone flyfisher in the field, he won the derby with the heaviest total weight of pike one year and twice finished second.

To deceive the pike, Coté uses killer fly patterns of his own design, which he markets locally and on the Internet under the brand name Bite Me Flies.

But what isn’t so well known about the 38-year-old Coté, is his penchant and prowess for using fly-fishing gear to land a variety of unusual fish species, especially very large fish.

F

ew anglers ever consider fly-fishing as a viable approach for certain denizens of Montana’s rivers and lakes, including such unlikely quarry as channel catfish, walleyes, tiger muskellunge, freshwater drum, lake trout and Lake Superior whitefish.

Yet, Coté routinely catches those and many other game – and non-game – fish on a fly rod.

Not that he’s averse to using other methods.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “I use whatever way I’ve got to, to catch ’em. I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool fly-fisherman.”

Under certain conditions, however, fly-fishing can be the most effective way, he adds.

“I’m fishing something that’s different, showing the fish something they’re not used to seeing, and putting it in front of the fish longer than you can with a lot of other

stuff,” he explains. “I will go out at certain times and I’m evenly matched (by anglers using other methods) when I’m using flies.

Other times, I will go out and hands-down out-fish every other tactic you can think of, including bait.”

His Bite Me Flies streamers work on the same principle as traditional plugs or spoons, imitating a wounded minnow or other prey to trigger an attack by a predator fish.

“But I’m fishing them a lot slower,” Coté says of using fly-fishing gear. “And I can vary the retrieve rate more, and target certain depths with more control, by counting down after the cast and letting the fly sink.”

He says he can also cover more water in a shorter time with a fly rod, which can quickly pick up all the line at once, and fire out another cast without having to retrieve.

“I can fan-cast an area to fish a lot of places other guys don’t fish,” he says.

“The great thing about a fly rod is, if you know what you’re doing, you can fish water from a foot deep to 25 feet deep or even deeper with different lines. In the shallower water, you can tie flies differently so they’re weed-and-snag-resistant. Another good thing about fishing a fly is pike will come up behind it, and I can pause it, or change

Biting flies Neal Coté’s Bite Me Flies for pike and other large predator fish are available in Missoula at Wholesale Sports and Missoulian Angler, or search for Bite Me Flies on Facebook.

34

missoula magazine

the cadence of the retrieve. I can stop it and tease them.”

C

oté grew up in Missoula hunting and fishing from an early age with his brother and father. The knowledge and expertise he accumulated over the years led to his career in retail sporting goods sales. An avid bowhunter, he’s currently employed in the archery department at Wholesale Sports in Missoula. He also writes articles covering a broad range of hunting and fishing activities for the store’s national Web site and newsletter, as well as for a monthly regional outdoors magazine, Big Sky Outdoor News.

“I was kind of lucky,” he says. “My dad was retired from the military. I got a jump on other kids because my dad could take me and my brother hunting and fishing all the time.”

He started fly-fishing for pike at the age of 12 or 13, says Coté, after he and his brother watched a television program about the sport in Canada.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to try that,’ ” he says.

“That was around the early ’80s. There weren’t a lot of guys around here pike fishing then. I was really big on fly-fishing for trout with dry flies in the Bitterroot.

Then I started catching bigger trout on streamers. The only thing different about

fishing for pike is using bigger streamers.”

His pike fishing exploits progressed, he adds, as he tried tying different patterns with various materials, and continually experimented with fishing techniques.

Discover all that Missoula has to offer...

Downtown.

I

n recent years, Coté says, he annually ties and sells about 1,000 of his specialty Bite Me Flies patterns. The 4- to 6-inch streamers feature epoxy heads and stout stainless saltwater hooks with the durability to withstand the wicked teeth of pike and other large predator fish.

While fly-fishing for pike in several large eastern Montana lakes, Coté discovered that the same techniques and tackle also worked for walleyes and “a myriad of other weird fish,” he says.

By accident, he also discovered that flyfishing was effective for lake trout and Lake Superior whitefish in Flathead Lake.

“How the whole thing started,” he says, “I was catching squawfish (now officially called northern pikeminnows) and peamouths with my fly rod off the dock at Blue Bay one year in May, to use for lake trout bait. And I had these lake trout come up and hit them.”

Later, Coté found that by fishing flies to imitate baitfish on fast-sinking lines, he can catch both lake trout and the large

Wednesday Out to Lunch Thursday Downtown ToNight Saturday Markets Special Events Dine Shop Entertain Play

Visit our newly revised website at www.missouladowntown.com

continued on page 70

the 2010 glk350 starting at

Your Authorized Mercedes-Benz Dealer

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

$

36,600

plus freight, options, title & license

missoula magazine

35

Resurrected Written by Betsy Cohen 36

missoula magazine

Photographed by Kurt W ilson

T

he bones of the vintage Airstream are exposed; the guts of this aluminum relic have been ripped out.

At first glance, one might think this is a morgue for travel beasts that time forgot.

Junk parts, rusty screws, tired wall paneling and worn-out floorboards – all the pieces that kept a 50-year-old vacation trailer rolling down the road—are in neat piles, not far from the skeleton they were harvested from.

There are remnants of previous trailers, too, obvious signs that other Airstreams from decades past have been here as well.

Yet this scene of demolition is in fact a resurrection underway.

In this cavernous garage in East Missoula, Airstream trailers that first explored the world from the 1930s through the early 1970s receive a new lease on life.

“To bring them back to their former glory, they first have to be stripped down to their shell,” explains Rory Burmeister, owner of Mintage Airstreams, a Missoula-based company and one of the few in the nation that specializes in Airstream restorations and custom renovations.

His eyes sweep over the carcass his employees are picking apart and grins.

“This will look so great when we are through with it,” Burmeister says. “The before and after is so dramatic, and in the end, you get so antsy to finish it, so it looks as cool as you envisioned.”

missoula magazine

37

“To bring them back to their former glory, they first have to be stripped down to their shell...”

Chris Clemens polishes a 1950s Airstream to a reflective shine as the restoration nears completion. “I think what’s reignited this trend is when someone started polishing these things and taking them on the road again,” says Scott Scheuermann, president of the Vintage Airstream Club. “That’s when people said, ‘Hey, that’s really cool, that trailer looks great.’”

38

missoula magazine

Isaac McElderry bends over a riveter while piecing together a door frame. Much of the restoration involves manufacturing pieces from scratch.

Kent Kramer works in the stripped interior to fully rewire the trailer.

B

urmeister’s fascination with vintage Airstream trailers has taken him on a unexpected, sometimes nerve-wracking journey into the land of entreprenuership.

Call it fate, luck, good timing or just a knack for business.

Whatever prompted Burmeister to abandon his career as a homebuilder just before the housing market tanked in 2008, hire his construction buddies and dedicate his talents to refurbishing vintage Airstreams was a giant leap of faith – and an excellent move.

Turns out, Burmeister isn’t the only one mesmerized by the bullet-shaped trailers with the mirror-like siding. Even during a national recession, people have been buying, trading, upgrading and restoring these distinctive trailers, and Burmeister’s fledgling business has taken off.

These remnants of America’s vacation history, of a time when the open road called in record numbers and families headed off in search of national parks and the nation’s backroads, have become trendy again.

Entire websites are devoted to the shiny homes away from home, and prices are on the rise.

“You used to find some that were free or nearly free,” Burmeister said. “But now, even the most rundown ones go for $1,000 or more.” missoula magazine

39

After stripping all of the original interior out, Isaac McElderry works on installing new birch paneling in a 1950s model.

F

or certain, people who are moved by Airstreams are a passionate bunch who take pride in their retro style.

In fact, there’s even an international Vintage Airstream Club that boasts hundreds of members, organizes events, has a Web site that deals with all things Airstream, and is holding its annual summer rally in Gillette, Wyo., in July where thousands of these shiny road warriors will gather.

“There’s definitely a cool factor with them,” said Scott Scheuermann, president of the club. “I think what’s reignited this trend is when someone started polishing these things and taking them on the road again. That’s when people said ‘Hey, that’s really cool, that trailer looks great.’ ” Although the Vintage Airstream Club began in 1993, widespread popularity of the aged travelers didn’t grab hold until 1999.

“It didn’t really blossom until then, and that’s when things started taking off and the value of these trailers started going through the roof,” Scheuermann said during a phone interview from his Iowa home. “The little cute ones like the Bambi – those are really hot and it’s not uncommon to see those going for $20,000 or more.”

(As if one needs further proof of the Airstream mania, just google “Airstream Hotel,” and you’ll find, among many options, articles about the rooftop of the swanky Grand Daddy Hotel in Capetown, South Africa, which has been transformed into a luxury trailer park that offers vintage Airstreams for rent by the night.)

Scheuermann is one of the lucky Airstream owners who got his before the craze unleashed. He’s the proud owner of a 1960 26-foot-long Overlander, which he inherited from his parents, who inherited it from his grandparents.

“The money my grandparents spent on their Airstream was the best money they ever spent. It gave them enjoyment, gave my parents enjoyment, and it now gives me and my wife and our kids enjoyment,” Scheuermann said. “They last forever if you give them just a little bit of care, and ours is over 50 years old now, and it’s still roadworthy.”

L

ast year, Greg Hanson became such a fan of the look and craftsmanship of vintage Airstreams, he decided he wanted one to use as a guest house on his vacation property in Livingston.

When the California resident started looking, he found one of Burmeister’s projects listed on Craig’s List. But by the time he e-mailed Burmeister, the trailer had been sold.

Not to be deterred, Hanson, who retired from a high-powered management position with an aluminum company, found a rundown prospect and hired Burmeister to give it some panache.

In a few weeks, the junky trailer had been born again.

Burmeister stripped the thing to its core, reinsulated the walls, resealed the trailer’s trademark rivets, put in modern electrical components and turned the inside into a jewel box with a distinctly yacht-like feel, as per Hanson’s vision.

“The end product came out pretty spectacularly. I was just blown away by it,” Hanson said.

Some of the high points: cherrywood cabinets, tile bathroom floor, gas fireplace, surround stereo, a flat-screen television and a wine cooler.

In fact, Hanson was so impressed by Burmeister’s talent and his work ethic that he offered to invest in Mintage Airstream and help grow the business.

“Rory is such an honest, hardworking guy, and I felt really good about the rapport we had, so I offered him working capital so he could grow what he is doing,” Hanson said. “It’s not that I’m such a nice guy. I really believe in the product, I believe in what Rory is doing and there is a market out there.”

40

missoula magazine

“Things have really changed, and there have been some really trying times when I wondered how I was going to pay the bills and feed my family, but now things are really moving in a good direction. . .”

The old trailers come into the Mintage shop heavily oxidized and often require a full sanding of the exterior before hours of polishing begins. “To bring them back to their former glory,” says Mintage Airstreams owner Rory Burmeister, “they first have to be stripped down to their shell.”

missoula magazine

41

“They last forever if you give them just a little bit of care, and ours is over 50 years old now, and it’s still roadworthy.”

With the exterior shined to a high gloss, the side of the trailer reflects Isaac McElderry as he cuts a piece of wood to be used to finish the interior restoration.

42

missoula magazine

Kent Kramer makes sense of a tangle of wires inside the trailer.

Reflected in the shine of the trailer, Kent Kramer rebuilds a door panel.

K

nowing partnerships can be problematic and sticky, Burmeister took several weeks to weigh the offer and talk it over with his wife, his father and other trusted friends.

After a while, he saw the benefits of Hanson’s offer and called him on it.

Together, with Burmeister’s can-do and Hanson’s financial backing and business mentoring, Mintage Airstreams is on the cusp of major expansion.

Having moved from a tiny garage in the Rattlesnake Valley to a commercial workshop in East Missoula, Mintage Airstreams might have to move again to an even bigger shop.

“Things have really changed, and there have some really trying times when I wondered how I was going to pay the bills and feed my family, but now things are really moving in a good direction,” Burmeister said.

With more orders, he is learning about the fine art of delegation. His crew is taking on more of the hands-on renovation, while Burmeister is spending more time working with clients and their custom orders. And many of his contacts in the home construction arena have been contracted to help with powder coating and other painting projects.

“It’s just been an amazing, nerve-wracking few months,” he said. “I can’t believe how far this has come in just over a year. There’s been huge changes.”

In coming months the company will take two distinct paths.

Mintage Airstream will continue to offer its customized renovation work, but with Hanson’s help, it will also buy old trailers, fix them up and sell them.

“I guess you could say we will be flipping trailers,” Burmeister said. “Greg has access to a lot of them in California, and he can haul them here where we will fix them up, and then we can ship some of them back to California to sell.

“We’ll be a business that is in Missoula County and Orange County, and I think that’s pretty cool.”

Betsy Cohen covers business for the Missoulian. She can be reached at (406) 523-5253 or by e-mail at bcohen@missoulian.com. Kurt Wilson is the Missoulian’s and Missoula magazine’s photography editor. He can be reached at (406) 523-5244 or at kwilson@ missoulian.com.

missoula magazine

43

1910

Centennial

Glacier National Park Archives: A workman on the Going-to-the-Sun Road pauses on an overlook in 1927. The road opened the interior of the park to tourists traveling by car.

44

missoula magazine

2010

Glacier National Park

G

Written by Michael Jamison

lacier National Park turns 100 this year, but its rocky roots reach much deeper, into depths of time that swallow not only centuries, but millennia and epochs, eras and eons.

Sedimentary rocks, a billion and a half years old, the oldest on the planet, were laid down here in patient layers to form an ancient proterozoic seabed up to 12 miles thick. These were the days before life, when earth was still becoming Earth.

Then, 170 million years ago or so, crustal plates began grinding together, lifting old rock over new and revealing the Precambrian bones beneath. A huge stony wedge, many miles thick, many more miles wide, rode eastward some 50 miles onto the plains.

High in the park’s alpine reaches remains an ancient geology exposing timeworn ripple marks, mud cracks, even the impressions of prehistoric raindrops. Cretaceous limestone, argillite, diorite, the captured fingerprint swirls of Earth’s first life, the stromatolites.

Then all of it chiseled and carved by ice sheets – horns, cirques, arêtes, hanging valleys, moraines – leftovers from a Pleistocene freeze now 12,000 years gone.

Dating back that far and more are the archaeological sites, the evidence of Native people who called this place home, and still call this park sacred. Their history, too, long predates the park, and serves as a bridge to the past century.

European explorers were late to arrive – daunted by rugged terrain and hostile tribes – and did not enter the park area in any numbers until the 1850s. Then came trappers and miners, timbermen and hunters, sportsmen, railroaders, mountaineers, conservationists.

And still it was not a park.

“There’s a lot of history here,” said Deirdre Shaw, “and it goes back a lot further than 100 years.”

But 100 years is the marker that matters, this year at least, a century since America named Glacier its 10th national park. Shaw is curator at the park’s museum, and she’s scrambling to compile the history.

“There’s so much,” she said. “So many people have had a hand in making Glacier a national park.”

I

nitially, people saw little of interest in these mountain wilds. Lt. John Parke, a member of the 1857 Northwest Boundary Survey, noted that “the entire region is

missoula magazine

45

Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress: John J. Fitzgerald, representative from New York, shares tobacco with a Blackfeet Indian at Glacier National Park during a visit in 1915.

eminently unfit for occupation and settlement.”

In spite of its being unfit – or perhaps because of that – others saw great potential. Their stories are detailed in books such as “Man In Glacier” by CW Buchholtz, and “Grinnell’s Glacier” by Gerald Diettert.

The first to publicly lobby for a park was Lt. John Van Orsdale, sent by the government in 1874 to survey the region.

A decade later, in 1883, he wrote that “a great benefit would result to Montana if this section could be set aside as a National Park.”

In 1897, the respected geologist and explorer Lyman Sperry – hired by Great Northern Railway to find tourist attractions such as “living glaciers” – lent his professional weight to the conservation cause, arguing that “the region ought to become a National Park.”

His voice was joined by explorers, surveyors and politicians.

But no single person did as much to promote the idea

46

missoula magazine

of a park than George Bird Grinnell. Grinnell first saw this place in the fall of 1885, when the larch were flaming the hillsides yellow and willow painted the lowlands red. He was a naturalist, an influential conservationist, a writer and explorer and ethnographer, and he was captured by the wild mountains.

Grinnell delved ainto the St. Mary Lake area, then up to Many Glacier, climbed Chief Mountain and even before the turn of the century began devoting his energies to establishing a park.

“How would it do,” Grinnell wrote during an 1891 hunting trip into Glacier’s eastern wilds, “to start a movement to buy the St. Mary’s Country, say 30 X 30 miles from the Piegan (Blackfeet) Indians at a fair valuation and turn it into a National reservation or park.”

“The Great Northern R.R.,” he guessed correctly, “would probably back the scheme. … This is worth thinking of and writing about.”

Left: George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress: A car full of tourists travels near Crystal Point just above the Loop on an early version of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Upper left: Glacier National Park Archives: William Logan was the first top boss of Glacier named superintendent of road and trail construction. Upper right: Glacier National Park Archives: George Bird Grinnell first saw the Glacier area in 1885 and was the first to dub it “the Crown of the Continent.” Right: Glacier National Park Archives: A gas-powered shovel works on the east side construction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in 1930.

Nearly five years later, after much thinking and writing, Grinnell himself was on hand when the treaty was signed, ceding 880,000 acres – the entire eastern front of what would become Glacier Park – for $1.5 million in federal investments.

To this day, tribal members claim the land sale was closed under duress.

Whatever the circumstances, Grinnell now had a more pressing problem. The reservation portion of the Rocky Mountain Front, so long as it was in tribal control, had been off-limits to miners seeking gold, silver and copper. But now that the federal government owned it, Grinnell wrote, “paradise may soon be invaded by mines.”

T

o find protections for his paradise, Grinnell enlisted the help of an unlikely ally – the capitalist barons at the Great Northern Railway.

“The railroad needed riders,” Shaw said, “and riders needed a destination.”

In a letter to the railroad, Grinnell laid out his vision of “a public park and pleasure resort, somewhat in the nature of Yellowstone National Park.”

Dubbing it “the Crown of the Continent,” he began writing in earnest, pushing his park proposal in national magazines.

The local newspaper in Great Falls supported the notion, but the paper in Kalispell reported that “there may be some local people who favor the park plan, but we have observed only two.”

And those two, it might be supposed, probably worked for the railroad.

“You never saw the railroad’s hand overtly in the process,” Shaw said, “but I think most people agree that without the railroad and its influence it might not have happened.”

Louis Hill – son of famed “Empire Builder” James Hill – was a capitalist, a railroad baron and, curiously, a bit of an artist.

“He wasn’t what you’d call an environmentalist,” said missoula magazine

47

Top: Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress: Tourists approach the dramatic entrance to the east side of Glacier National Park in 1914, four years after Congress created the park. Bottom: Haines Photo Co., Library of Congress: A panoramic photograph, made by placing two photographs side-byside, shows Lake McDonald on Aug. 3, 1915.

author Carol Guthrie, “but he understood the aesthetics of a good view. He had an artistic bent, and that gave him a real feeling for the park.”

It didn’t hurt that a park would give Hill a destination, a place to build depots and chalets and hotels – a place to which riders could ride.

G

lacier had been made a “forest reserve” in 1891, but the first bill proposing a park did not arrive until Dec. 11, 1907. Introduced by Sen. Thomas Carter, it was met with encouraging editorials from many Montana towns.

But the Kalispell Journal worried about timber lost to the market. The Kalispell Bee worried about property rights.

The Whitefish Pilot worried about lost hunting grounds. The Kalispell Inter Lake worried about the overall economy, and

the future of possible railroad lines.

Settlers, after all, had been homesteading the Lake McDonald area since 1892. What of them?

So a new bill was crafted in February. 1908 – with the help of Sen. Joseph Dixon and Rep. Charles Pray – and although it passed the Senate it stalled in the House. The Inter Lake, meanwhile, was raising concerns about “throngs of wandering tourists.”

“It wasn’t exactly what you’d call local support,” Shaw said. “But it wasn’t a very organized opposition, either.”

A third bill, in June 1909, proved more palatable, and with a last-minute push from the railroad made it through Congress on April 13, 1910.

Grinnell, in fact, would later give the railroad ultimate credit for creating the park.

The following month, on May 11, 1910, President William

continued on page 74 48

missoula magazine

Year-round Celebration

glacier national park Kass Hardy knows how to throw a birthday party.

Not content with hats and streamers, cake and a quick song, Hardy has organized art gallery shows and symphonies, film festivals and cross-country tours – weeks and months of events to commemorate Glacier National Park’s 100th birthday. There’s even a hootenanny or two on tap.

“I feel really great about all these events,” the park’s centennial coordinator said. “It’s been so amazing to see all these different groups of people coming together, with such a genuine love of the park.”

It promises, she said, to be “one of the most memorable years in the history of Glacier.”

May kicks off with “The Art of Preservation,” a gallery showing of official centennial art. Then come Arbor Day festivals and films and choirs and gala affairs. But the month – and the year – centers on May 11, the actual birthday, when the park will be rededicated and guests can enjoy a slice of cake and tours of the historic headquarters.

After that, a whole summer of fun rolls out, all with an eye to Glacier, its first century and the century to come. A partial list of events follows, just to get you started. For a complete listing of events, including detailed activity descriptions, visit www.glaciercentennial.org, or call (406) 888-7971.

MAY

AUGUST

1-15 “The Art of Preservation,” Kalispell’s Hockaday Museum of Art, (406) 755-5268 3-8 Arbor Day Festival, Columbia Falls, www.firstbestplace.org 11 Park rededication, 100th birthday party, Glacier Community Building, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., www.glaciercentennial.org 13 Film “Heaven’s Gate,” Whitefish Mountain Mall Cinema,

7 to 9 p.m.

21 Spring for Glacier annual gala, Belton Chalet/Lake McDonald Lodge, (406) 888-9039 24-25 Flathead High School Choir, Flathead High

7 p.m. to 9 p.m., (406) 751-3500

2 Centennial Hootenanny, Glacier Park Lodge, East Glacier, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

3 Centennial Hootenanny, Lake McDonald Lodge

5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

11-16 Glacier Grand Heritage Tour (train, Red Bus, horse, boat, hike), www.beltonchalet.com 12 Film “Cattle Queen of Montana,” St. Mary Visitor Center

7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

13-15 Centennial Huckleberry Days, Whitefish,

www.whitefishchamber.org

18-23 Glacier Grand Heritage Tour 20-22 Trail Crew Rendezvous, Glacier Raft Co. pavilion

JUNE

10 Film TBA, Columbia Falls High School, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

23-25 Plein Air Paint Out, Glacier Park, www.hockadaymusuem.org 27 Belton Chalet centennial, Belton Chalet

JULY

8 Glacier Park archival film collection, Lake McDonald Lodge, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

10 Glacier symphony, Kalispell’s Rebecca Farm

6 p.m. to 10 p.m., www.gscmusic.org 19-25 Summit Celebration, mountaineering,

www.glaciermountaineers.com 19-25 Heritage Days, Columbia Falls, www.cfallsheritagedays.com 29-Aug. 1 Many Glacier Hotel Reunion

www.glacierparkfoundation.org 30 Centennial Hootenanny, Many Glacier Hotel, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., www.glacierparkfoundation.org

22 National Park Service employee and alumni picnic, Glacier Park

SEPTEMBER 5 Belton employee reunion, Belton Chalet,

www.beltonchalet.org

8-10 Gearjammer reunion, Glacier Park Lodge,

www.glacierjammers.com

9-12 Waterton-Glacier Hands Across the Border, Many Glacier Hotel, www.montanarotary.org 12-15 Great Northern Railway Historical Society convention, Glacier Park Lodge 16-19 Fall for Glacier, with non profit GNP Fund, Many Glacier Hotel 22 Film TBA, Blackfeet Community College 30-Oct. 2 “The Land of Many Stories,” Montana Historical

Society Conference, Helena; www.mhs.mt.gov missoula magazine

49

fungi

50

missoula magazine

Story & Photos by ROB CHANEY

missoula magazine

51

G

Glacier lilies. Salmon flies. Muddy rivers. All signs that the slimy part of spring has arrived.

While everyone else looks for cherry blossoms, folks like Lynn Schraeder harvest the fruit of the earth – wild mushrooms.

“One year, I had over 50 varieties in my front yard,” Schraeder said. “Last year, I only found four or five varieties, but that year I also had morels.

I picked easily 100 morels in an area where I normally see one or two. You never know what you’re going to find.”

Fungi spotting takes an act of will. Like deer in tall grass, mushrooms blend in until they don’t, and then you slap your forehead and wonder why you never saw them before.

One particularly odd variety is the lacy fungus that follows snowpacks and new grass. The white threads make a net that’s just at the edge of melting snow. You won’t find it in most mushroom books, but you will find it all over Montana meadows.

As the days warm and lengthen, so do the mushrooms. Most need a fickle mix of sun and soggy ground. That puts them under thick vegetation, in the shadows of decayed logs and other less-than-obvious spots.

At his Bigfork home, Schraeder will spy puffballs on pine needles, oyster mushrooms on cottonwood trunks and sweet, club-shaped coral mushrooms in moss. With some luck, he’ll find a few early season boletes – the beefy thrones of the gnome world.

Best of all are the morels – pinecone-shaped, honeycomb-walled secret ingredients of scrambled eggs and hearty stews.

Previous pages: They’re not as colorful as wildflowers, but mushrooms like this Boletus edulis s.l. specimen add an extra layer of wonder to the forest floor in spring. Montana’s moist mountainsides make excellent foraging territory for wild fungi.

« The King Bolete (Boletus edulis) is another popular edible mushroom common to Montana forests.

52

missoula magazine

M

Missoula’s Good Food Store buys wild mushrooms, but produce manager Paul Rosen said he’s particular about the pickers he deals with. He’s got a stable of established gatherers, folks he trusts to know their species, obey land access rules and respect the growth cycle of the mushrooms. Picking too aggressively or in ways that destroy the rootlike mycelium can render productive mushroom patches barren in a season.

He’s also picky about what he puts on the shelf.

As much as aficionados rave about them, wild mushrooms remain a tough sell to the general public.

“Morels and chanterelles are recognizable, but porcinis tend to not do well,” Rosen said. “They look like something you pick up out of the dirt – which is what they are. But people go for the cultivated product over the wild product.

“One time a guy offered me truffles. They were wonderful, and he was able to sell them to chefs and restaurateurs. But we put them out for $19 an ounce, and nobody asked for them. They just sort of dried up.”

« Keeping fungi names straight is a lifelong challenge. There are more than 600 varieties of this Cortinarius s.p. species.

»

Some nondescript specimens hold surprises on the inside, like the bright orange center of this unidentified species.

Glacier lilies. Salmon flies.

Muddy rivers.

All signs that the slimy part of spring has arrived.

missoula magazine

53

M

Many cooks consider Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup a sign of unimaginative laziness. But the canned staple inspired Glen Babcock to get into mushroom cultivation.

Babcock had a friend in Texas in the 1980s who took the first step.

Back then, Campbell’s was recruiting independent mushroom growers through the mail. Build a mushroom-growing box to the company’s specifications, and Campbell’s would send you the spores and buy the results.

The project didn’t work out so well for the friend. But it turned into a career for Babcock. Cultivated mushrooms grow on a base made of the same grains his family farm raised.

Interest in wild mushrooms came from a different direction. He’d moved to Montana to get a degree in forestry, and worked summers driving red “jammer” buses in Glacier National Park. The summer after the 1988 Red Bench forest fire, he saw his first morels spouting out of the blackened hillsides.

“Outside the park, there was a guy sitting on the side of the road buying mushrooms,” Babcock said. “He gave my buddy and I a couple of buckets. We went up in an afternoon and made some pretty good spending money.”

In 1995, he opened up Garden City Fungi, selling to the Good Food Store and Missoula restaurants. He now moves about 17,000 pounds of cultivated mushrooms a year. On the wild side, he handles about 5,000 pounds of fresh morels and 700 pounds of oyster mushrooms during the four-month picking season.

“When I see the first glacier lily,” Babcock said, “in about two weeks I know it’s time to go into the woods.”

54

missoula magazine

« The Amanita muscaria var. Formosa

is a highly toxic but very showy resident of pine forests. Relatives have bright yellow tops with similar spots. It’s commonly known as Fly Agaric.

morel mushrooms (Morchella angusticeps) are the holy grail for Montana mushroom hunters, although many ˆ Honeycombed other species are edible. Unfortunately, the mountains also harbor hundreds of bad-tasting or poisonous varieties. Experience and training are essential in picking mushrooms to eat.

ˇ Fungi like places that collect and hold moisture. This unidentified species like cracks and undersides of downed timber.

missoula magazine

55

Most need a fickle mix of sun and soggy ground.

56

missoula magazine

F

For retired Missoulian outdoors writer Daryl Gadbow, spring fishing gets livened up with extracurricular morel hunting.

“I typically find morels in all the river bottoms around Missoula in May,” Gadbow said. “The places I look for them are often semi-open, grassy, almost lawn-like areas, with sandy soil, near a mix of cottonwoods and conifers. I frequently associate them with dandelions and the salmonfly hatch. My best places are in the floodplain, and are prone to flooding.”

While some hunters believe rivers are best before high water, Gadbow said he’s had luck before and after. The bigger challenge is finding the right spots.

“Usually, if I see lots of other different species of mushrooms in an area, I expect to find morels, too,” he said. “If you have a canoe or raft, or are a brave wader and can get to an island, you might strike it rich.”

Rob Chaney covers natural resources and the environment for the Missoulian.

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

« Mushrooms may appear individually or in colonies, like this mass of Albatrellus confluens.

Hiding under dead or dying logs, conks like this red-belt fungus (Fomitopsis pinicola s.p.) can grow for years.

»

« Montana harbors many still unclassified fungi species

missoula magazine

57

Amber Payton, left, and Hellgate Middle School classmate Chantel Cooper listen and observe as poetry instructor Sheryl Noethe talks about the structure of an ode.

Written by Michael Moore Photographed by Michael Gallacher 58

missoula magazine

“What do you have for me today, my beauty...

“The answer, I surmise, has to be reincarnation: little Ezra Pounds with big ears roping cattle in Idaho, four-foot tall girls in braids, already pillars of Haiku, joining Master Basho; and also Issa.

T.S. Eliot unawares, in a soccer jersey, William Carlos Williams chewing on his pencil, an unkempt Dylan Thomas jumping hills on a yellow dirt bike, John Berryman tipsy on a skateboard. Sylvia Plath looks over our heads and mutters to herself.”

Sheryl Noethe, “Poetry Class.”

“I want them to understand that writing is a way to survive,” says Noethe. “I want them to be able to express themselves, smartly and fluently, with delight. I want them to imagine what might be.”

T

he poet moves in a lurching, unexpected waltz, like some giant, unnamed bird weaving to music no one else hears.

She looms over a boy who says his poem “isn’t very good,” and instructs him otherwise.

“Never say that!” she says. “The world will knock you down soon enough. Today you are a poet, and a wonderful one at that!”

Then, whirling right, she lights upon a girl, a seventh graderwith jet-black hair and a streak of magenta.

“What do you have for me today, my beauty?” Sheryl Noethe asks. “What rich wonder have you found in the world?”

Noethe goes on like this through two classes at Hellgate Middle School. She is relentlessly upbeat and encouraging. Should a single child emerge from her class uninspired, she might wilt and perish.

“I want so much for these children,” Noethe says later. “I want them to understand that writing is a way to survive. I want them to be able to express themselves, smartly and fluently, with delight. I want them to imagine what might be.”

Noethe is the artistic director for the Missoula Writing Collaborative, which has run a writing program in Missoula and surrounding schools for for the past 16 years.

Writers work for most of the school year, teaching creative writing of some sort one day a week to children from elementary to high school. This year a dozen writers – poets, novelists, short story writers – are fanned out over schools.

“The main feature of our program has always been the in-depth nature of it,” said Megan McNamer, the program’s administrative director. “The students build this trusting relationship with the writer. It allows to think and write more creatively, but beyond that, they just perform better in school.”

What rich wonder have you found in the world?” missoula magazine

59

“Ode to My Socks” is the perfect teaching tool.

“I’m not impressed or entertained by poems that hinge upon a studied knowledge of the classics.

That kind of cleverness usually bores me (or pisses me off) like an inside joke I have to learn to get – a goddamn research project – when all I want is an honest song, bloody & lusty.”

Mark Gibbons, “Great Apes and Monkey Business.”

M

ark Gibbons steps to the front of Ms. York’s fourthgrade class at Paxson Elementary School. A fixture at Lowell School, Gibbons is doing Day One in his spring Paxson residency.

He sets himself to learning the kids’ names, having them say them out loud.

“Isn’t that one way we remember things?” he asks the kids. “By hearing names, by hearing stories.”

First minute in, he’s already teaching.

“You all know what a poem is, right?” he asks.

“Yeah!” the kids respond.

“What comes to mind when you think about poems?” he asks, making sure it’s the students who do most of the talking.

For young kids, poetry is at first always about rhyme. But because most poetry no longer rhymes, Gibbons moves the kids beyond the idea of pattern rhyming toward a understanding of poetry as music.

“You know how sometimes it doesn’t matter what a song says?” he asks. “Sometimes the song just has a beat or the words just have a certain sound. That’s what poetry is about sometimes.”

By referencing music, Gibbons makes poetry more accessible, less arcane, more doable for the students.

They’re thrilled when Gibbons tells them poetry doesn’t necessarily have to make sense; they’re blissfully immune to the knowledge that the absurd sometimes best reflects reality.

But Gibbons herds them in that direction by revealing poetry’s secret: “Poems are like freedom,” he says. “Freedom to say what you want the way you want to say it. It’s your voice speaking out loud.”

And that, he says, makes them important.

I

t’s said that education is the great equalizer, and to an extent, it’s true. But it’s also true that some things about education will never be equal.

No lesson plan will ever account for the differences that come from privilege, money and opportunity.

But as practiced by the Missoula Writing Collaborative, creative writing in general and poetry in particular are egalitarian undertakings where affirmation comes first and judgment comes not at all.

“These kids come from all over the map, and that experience is their poetry,” said Robert E. Lee, a poet who works at Lowell Elementary School. “At this age, where you come from and what you are are not something that needs to be judged. If anything, there’s something to be learned by not judging.”

As Noethe never neglects to point out, the world judges soon enough.

Obviously, the feedback loop adjusts based on who is being taught. Working with a high school junior trying to write a sophisticated short story or poem is a far cry from extracting a fourth-grader’s very first poem.

“I think what we’re trying to do with our students is meet them where they are,” said Noethe. “That means something different with each kid. A seventh-grade girl with boy drama in her life is going to write a very different poem than a fourth-grade boy who loves his dog. So we just work to be open to their experiences, and to help learn to write about them openly and forcefully.”

When that’s done, poetry happens.

Bri Garrett, 13, reads her poem aloud to her class. “I love poetry class because Ms. Noethe is like a grown-up kid. She gets us, and she’s always supportive. I didn’t really care about writing before I got in her class, but now I love it.”

60

missoula magazine

Poems are like freedom. . .

“When I had no real path I made the road I’m walking go on forever When I had no voice I made my hands talk for me When I had no future I made the present my life.”

Jerry Buck, seventh grade, Hellgate Middle School.

T

he bell has rung and Sheryl Noethe is waiting for her students. When they come in, their faces light up, despite the prospect that they’ll soon stand in front of their peers and read something they wrote in 15 minutes or less.

Today, they’re working on odes, and Noethe reads one of the form’s most famous practitioners, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

The poem she uses, “Ode to My Socks,” is a perfect teaching tool.

Descriptive, immediate, familiar but also strange, imaginative.

Here’s a snippet: “Audacious socks, my feet became two woolen fish, two long sharks of lapis blue shot with a golden thread, two mammoth blackbirds, two cannons, thus honored were my feet by these celestial socks.”

Neruda’s work creates a fertile field for the students to work in, and Noethe pushes them to find examples of metaphor in Neruda’s work. The collaborative’s writers use a daily format that allows them to introduce a new poetic form, a chance for the students to write a poem, then an opportunity to read it aloud. No one is required to read, and Noethe and other instructors obligingly ready many of the pieces anonymously.

“So, as you sit down to write your ode, it can be to anything at all,” Noethe implores. “Your dog, your mom, to music. To anything that has meaning in your life.”

Noethe hands out “poetry paper” to kids who are without, telling them: “This is poetry paper. You can’t make a mistake writing on this paper.”

One kid writes “Ode to My Pain in the Neck Dog.” Another writes “Ode to Zombies.”

The poems are by turn funny, nonsensical, touching.

Then one girls reads her “Ode to Poetry.”

“You are like my father who I never see,” she says.

Noethe stops cold. Her mouth falls open. Sometimes there’s just nothing to be said, and this is one of those times.

In the next class, the moment of astonishment comes amidst the comedy of Ashlyn Hill, who reads “Ode to School Lunches.”

“The hot dog is still barking,” she says. “The lasagna crawled off my plate. The meat loaf bit me, Noah said.”

The room is in stitches and Noethe smiles at this brief glimpse of comic genius.

Mark Gibbons helps a young poet with his prose during a fourth-grade class at Paxson School in Missoula.

Gibbons has been with the Missoula Writing Collaborative since its inception 16 years ago.

missoula magazine

61

The teachers give the kids a phrase “I am from...” and the kids fill in the blank.

A

fter the students move on to their next classes, Noethe muses on the moments of wonder that erupt simultaneously in poetry class.

“I know these kids pretty well, but even so, you never really know what’s coming,” she says. “And I guess that’s what I love about it. That chance to just see their minds set free and them realizing that they’re free to say what they feel.”

And that is what the students themselves love about it.

Listen to Ashlyn Hill: “Ms. Noethe helps us see things in ourselves we might never see. She helps us find that stuff and let’s us know it’s OK to say it in front of people.”

Said Bri Garrett: “I love poetry class because Ms. Noethe is like a grown-up kid. She gets us, and she’s always supportive. I didn’t really care about writing before I got in her class, but now I love it.”

That is the stuff that keeps Noethe in the classroom.

“You know, the collaborative has had a hard time these year financially, and I basically cut my own salary back to nothing to keep us going,” she said. “But the payback has never been the money. The currency here is watching them open up, hearing their words, seeing them become more confident. There’s no way to say how much that’s worth.”

Lowell Elementary School fourth-grader Maxine Hamersley, 9, searches for creative inspiration as she works on a poem during class.

62

missoula magazine

I

t’s perhaps a daunting prospect to have someone come to a classroom and expect children to be writing poetry 30 minutes later. But it’s happening almost every day in schools around western Montana.

“It seems to me that part of the reason that this works is because of the approach,” said Gibbons. “It’s a credit to Sheryl, really, but I think what we have in place is a system for doing something that isn’t really based on formula but can work that way with children. It’s almost perfect, really, to get them working.

One day it’s an ode, the next it’s a chant, a form that the little kids seem to love.

The teachers give the kids a phrase, “I am from ...” and let the kids fill in the blank. And where are your children from?

I am from flowers.

I am from baby powder.

I am from cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

I am from the underbrush crackling in the forest.

I am from mountains of chocolate chip pancakes.

I am from the blue.

I am from fireflies.

I am from a wolf’s growl.

Study after study has shown that students who develop both the imagination and critical thinking skills required by writing do better across the full spectrum of learning.

“It’s not just writing,” Megan McNamer says. “It’s everything they do in school.”

But it’s not just making better students that fuels Sheryl Noethe. Writing literally transformed her life, and she believes it can do the same to her students’ lives.

“We talk a lot about verbal fluency, which is important in everything you do,” she said. “But I am just as interested in emotional fluency. That’s a skill unlike math or geography. That’s a skill that will let you survive whatever comes at you in life. That’s what I want to give these kids.”

Listen to what her student Wesley Acosta wrote: “When I had no T.V. I made the stars my show.

When I had no pencil I used my tears as a marker.”

And Jerry Buck, again: “When I had no words, I made paper my lips.”

“Sometimes,” Noethe is saying, “I hear the things they say and realize there is hope for the world. Isn’t it marvelous to help them along their way?”

“I try not to plead or badger, but What did you mean by that line?

Tell me, how did you think of it, where did it come from?

How did you ever think of anything like that?

Do you know what it’s called, what you did?”

Sheryl Noethe, “Poetry Class.”

Michael Moore is a reporter at the Missoulian; he can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com. Michael Gallacher is a Missoulian photographer; reach him at 523-5270 or at mgallacher@ missoulian.com.

Missoula poet Robert E. Lee and student Jimmy McKay discuss McKay’s poem during class at Lowell Elementary. Lee has been a writer-in-residence at the school for the past eight years.

missoula magazine

63

George Briggs, shown here in an undated photo in front of the Florence Hotel in Missoula, had big dreams for a village near Fort Missoula in 1891.

mystery Written by KIM BRIGGEMAN Written by KIM BRIGGEMAN Photos courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, the University of Montana-Missoula:

64

missoula magazine

not get home till nearly midnight. Many of the ’m finding it no coincidence that history rhymes 300 girls in the paper box factories at Briggsville with mystery. Every time I think I’ve got were unable to get home at all and stayed at the Briggsville nailed down, it squirms free. factory or in the vicinity all night. They did not There are plenty of towns around Missoula seem to mind it much either. Geo. Briggs got up that ain’t. Ever hear of Iris? Thelma? Gaspard a dance for them at his summer pavilion, and or Soudan? Nagos or Schley? Most were sidings despite the low temperature they tripped the light on one railroad or the other – the Northern Pacific fantastic there until after midnight with the dudes main line or its branches, or what we’ve come to who go out from the city in the afternoon looking call the Milwaukee. Briggsville wasn’t, though the for mashes.”

Bitterroot Railroad apparently ran right through it.

I came upon mention of Briggsville while Briggsville? Paper and box factories? Five scanning through Missoulian microfilm a while back, trying to determine what kind of coverage was hundred “operatives” and female workers, in a town with a population that, according to a Sanborn given the formal establishment of the University insurance map of October of Montana in February 1893, numbered just 6,000? of 1893. Not much, it turned out. But what omething smelled fishy, commanded a Page 1 and it wasn’t a pulp middle column on Feb. mill. I began asking 15, a Wednesday, was a around town, but no one report of a motorman’s I consulted had ever heard strike in Missoula that of Briggsville, or of any large shut down the Missoula paper plants operating near Electric Street Railway Missoula before the turn of Co. the previous evening. the last century.

“A GREAT Teresa Hamann, at the STRIKE,” the headline University of Montana’s began. “Motormen on Mansfield Library, turned All the Electric Street to a trusty source: the Cars Go Out. TRAVEL Audra Browman collection.

EASILY PARALYZED.” She pulled the “Briggs” The long story that index cards that Browman followed – more than had typed out in her years 1,500 words – detailed of meticulous research, the paralysis, and referencing Missoula warned, “If the strike newspaper articles and other continues through the sources from most of the last day the residents of this three decades of the 1800s. city will probably see George Briggs It seems George Briggs repeated here the street was post trader at Fort car riots in the East, Missoula for five years, with all the attendant until the Secretary of War lawlessness and loss of abolished the position at all military posts in 1891. property.”

The description was elaborate. The opera house He moved across the “reservation” line to the east of the fort, and intended to establish a business and and theaters of Missoula had to scramble on that post office there. The Bitterroot Branch railroad weeknight because so few people could get there ran through an eight-acre tract of his land, carrying from the suburbs; George Nink rented all available with it half a dozen trains daily. omnibuses from the livery stable to run patrons Wrote a Missoula Gazette reporter in April out to his Winter Casino on West Pine to see “the ’91: “Mr. Briggs was not at all averse to saying that original” Lottie Collins perform her “Boom-de-ay” he thinks he is now on the high road to prosperity, song. believing that in the course of a few months, or a And this: few years at most, the present site of his handsome and commodious quarters will be the center of a “ A large number of the 200 operatives in the paper thriving suburban village of the city of Missoula.” mills at Briggsville live a long distance from their The next month, the Gazette reported that a work, and some of them, having to walk, did

S

continued on page 76

missoula magazine

65

china woods from the Orient

716 dickens • toole ave at the tracks • 550.2511 thursday - sunday 11 - 5 • chinawoodsstore.com

2010

66

missoula magazine

Tibetan Rugs

741 S Higgins • 542-8993 • www.huntingandgathering.com

829 S Higgins Missoula, MT 59801 Mon - Sat 11-6 406-543-1179 ‘providing natural toys for your imaginative children’

www.walkingsticktoys.com

COFFEE FOR

FREE THINKERS

BUTTERFLY HERBS Coffees, Teas & the Unusual 232 N HIGGINS AVE • DOWNTOWN missoula magazine

67

know your vino

...continued from page 23 To this day, winemakers are visiting Missoula because of Worden’s, putting us on the map. Tim continues to be innovative in his wine buying, pushing the envelope and encouraging us to expand our wine world by introducing wines we can barely pronounce – like Bourgueil, Vacqueyras and Vernaccia.

Tim started with 400 wine labels in his store and today has more than 1,200 from all over the world. Worden’s is known for an eclectic and vast selection of artisanal

68

missoula magazine

and award-winning wines.

“If there is a good wine out there on the planet, it’s our job to find it and bring it to our customers,” he notes.

Tim also attributes much of Worden’s success to longtime wine associate Chris Niswanger, who has been working at Worden’s for more than 26 years.

“Chris is the best buyer in three states around the Northwest. He scrutinizes every wine brought into the store and really knows all of our customers. He remembers their palate, what they like to drink and how much they typically like to spend,” says Tim.

E

ven as Worden’s continues to grow and expand, it is a business like any other. Tough economic times hit everyone, Worden’s included.

“The economy has knocked the top off of high-end wine buying over the past two years, which is 20 percent of our wine sales,” Tim explains. “However, people are recovering from the shock and we are seeing people coming back with genuine interest again. They are just being more critical of what they are buying.”

Other obstacles have come into play as well. In 2007, Montana lawmakers and regulators took a more stringent stance on wine tasting events and licensing. The inability to hold regular wine tastings has impacted Worden’s wine business significantly.

“Sampling a wine is like test-driving a car; it’s all about the ‘experience.’

Consumers should have the opportunity to taste before making a purchase,” says Tim. The wine market also continues to change.

“There are many more blended wines than there were five years ago. New appellations are being developed and a lot of good wine is being produced and sold for a lot less money,” Tim says. “However, if history repeats itself, we will see an attrition

of supply, which will make the industry healthier over time as it thins itself out.”

I

love to spend time in a wine shop, looking at labels, picking out new bottles to try, just taking it all in. And a wine merchant can make or break the experience. A good wine merchant is like your favorite florist or butcher, often knowing what you want even when you don’t know yourself.

For many wine drinkers in the area, Tim and Chris at Worden’s are like that.

They are as iconic as the store itself, and through their connections and expertise, you can be guided toward places you never even knew you wanted to go.

At Worden’s, wine isn’t just a commodity, it is an experience. And that is why oenophiles repeatedly patronize their shop, which will help them to sustain the business for another century or more.

Kate Murphy is the wine writer for Missoula magazine. Keep up on the latest in local wines on her blog, KnowYourVino.com.

Tom Bauer is a Missoulian photographer; reach him at (406) 523-5270 or at tbauer@ missoulian.com.

missoula magazine

69

on the fly

...continued from page 35

YOU WORK HARD TO CARE FOR YOUR FAMILY When you want a physician to handle the health care of your entire family, consider the services of a Western Montana Clinic family practice physician. They get to know your family’s medical needs through all the stages of your life and guide you in making appropriate health care decisions. They’re your lifelong medical partner.

So do we.

SERVING YOUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1922

55 MEDICAL PROVIDERS 18 SPECIALITIES

Lake Superior whitefish from July through September. At that time, those fish are feeding in Flathead Lake bays at depths of 20 to 40 feet, when the generally accepted fishing methods are jigging or trolling with steel lines or downriggers.

As a bonus, Coté often tangles with large pike, bass and trophy-sized cutthroat and bull trout.

It’s a lot of fun, he says, but he advises anglers that the extreme fly-fishing tactics required are challenging.

“It’s not for the faint of heart; it’s not easy,” he says. “But if they’re hitting, you’re going to catch ’em. It’s hit or miss, but can be quite successful. I do it just because I can do it, not because it works better. There are vastly better ways to do it much quicker.”

M

uch of Cote’s fly-fishing success can be attributed to his willingness to experiment, he says.

It’s easy, he says, to get stuck in a fishing rut.

“It’s the Zen of fishing, I call it,” he says, “when you do the same thing all the time and never change. A lot of times, I start catching fish when I make a change.”

For example, he says, if retrieving a streamer a certain way doesn’t work, try varying the speed and cadence.

“The speed of the retrieve is important,” he says. “It can change from day to day. One day you have to do three fast strips and then pause. The next day you have to strip all the way as fast as you can.”

“Every time you go fishing,” he adds, “you should always try one thing you’ve never tried.”

It’s paid off for Mister Pike.

Daryl Gadbow is a Missoula freelance writer, former Missoulian outdoors and sports reporter, and avid fly-fisherman. His stories regularly appear in Missoula magazine.

Tom Bauer is a Missoulian photographer.

He can be reached at (406) 523-5260 or by e-mail at tbauer@missoulian.com.

70

missoula magazine

Fashions for him for her for home S.M . d ad foCro. r B

549 Electric Ave. Bigfork 837-6444 206 Central Ave. Whitefish 862-6333

Brett Thuma Gallery

Corbett Custom Lighting, Inc. Excellence in Lighting Design since 1974 You are invited to visit our new showroom at 29771 Hwy 209, Bigfork MT Please call for an appointment!

(406) 837-5823 www.RocCorbett.com

“Flathead Valley Thunderstorm�

Prints Available Brett Thuma Gallery . Downtown Bigfork (406)837-4604 . brettthumagallery.com missoula magazine

71

72

missoula magazine

MLS# 10000945

Vacation Homes Land Waterfront www.JulieGardnerProperties.com

Commercial

State Land Access

Acreage in Missoula

Located just south of Lolo with unbelievable views of the Bitterroot Valley, this property hints at paradise. The large 4 bedroom home sits on 20 acres in 3 separately deeded parcels that adjoin State lands.

This is the impossible find! Unmatched views featuring a custom home centered on over 20 acres.

Located minutes from Missoula’s city center, this beautiful home & acreage will fulfill your Montana dreams.

MLS# New

$595,000

$789,000

Western Montana Real Estate...The Time is NOW! Private Recreational Paradise

MLS# 903896

Located just 50 minutes from Missoula, MT, Big Sky Lake is truly a one-of-a-kind paradise. This private lake is a former state fish hatchery. The home sits on 1.47 lakefront acres - ideal for family recreation. $699,000

One-of-a-kind River Frontage

MLS# 10001922

DuE DiLigEnCE The effort made to avoid harm to any other through conscientious attention to a task.

Diligence inspires confidence and results in excellence.

Situated on 1.1 beautiful acres, and enjoying 100 feet of Bitterroot River frontage, the home features crown molding, wood floors, granite counters and stainless appliances. Missoula riverfront property such as this is indeed a rarity. $875,000

Julie

Residential

gardner Realtor®

“From day one, Julie was different from any other Realtor® I’ve ever worked with.

She went above and beyond in her commitment to selling my home which resulted in a contract offer within two weeks of listing – during the biggest economic downturn of our time. She skillfully navigated potential deal-breaking issues to win-win solutions that brought us successfully to a completed sale. Even after the sale of my home, she continued to give wise counsel and I always felt like she cared for us personally first and the sale of my home was secondary.”

– A Satisfied Client

Lambros Real Estate, ERA® 3011 American Way Missoula, MT 59808 Office (406)532-9233 jgardner@lambros.com

Lambros reaL estate

missoula magazine

73

glacier centennial ...continued from page 48 Howard Taft signed the bill that made Glacier a national park. One million acres, 130 named lakes, 1,000 plant species, hundreds of animals. A playground, a scientific laboratory, a way to keep Americans home, instead of spending their travel money abroad.

Now, the real work could begin.

I

n 1910, Glacier was a park on paper only. There was no real budget, no rulebook, no guidelines for how to manage the place.

The first top boss, William Logan, was named superintendent of road and trail construction, his title a window into priorities at the early preserve.

“The very idea of a national park wasn’t very settled yet,” Shaw said, and it would be six more years until the country established the National Park Service.

Into the void stepped the Great Northern Railroad, building roads and chalets at an astonishing rate.

Grinnell returned to the area in 1911 – along with a whopping 4,000 tourists – to see it “before it gets full of wagon roads and hotels.” By 1913, he despaired that his paradise “is now more or less full of tourists.”

His were the roots of a dilemma that plagues the Park Service to this day – to preserve it, you have to let people trample it a bit.

The years that followed, however, brought an emergent philosophy of conservation in the park. By 1920, managers already were talking about roads and visitor infrastructure that blended in and laid lightly upon all that ancient geology.

Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service, penned the basic philosophy in 1918 – a sanctuary for everyone, not just the rich, and a place where nature comes first.

But the dilemma persisted. Packers ran 1,000 horses in the park by 1925, even as crews blasted a path for Goingto-the-Sun Road. They built trails and hotels atop Grinnell’s paradise.

Mather pushed for a gentler touch, but still Grinnell was not convinced. As to the new chalets, he wrote, “I shall not greatly enjoy seeing them; but after all, that is what the Park is for – the benefit of the people.”

74

missoula magazine

G

rinnell made his last trip into Glacier Park in 1926, the same year President Calvin Coolidge told him, “The Glacier National Park is peculiarly your monument.”

And although he despaired of the crowds and the prices, Grinnell noted that without protections Glacier would have been logged, mined, dammed and hunted out.

“We have cut down our forests,” he wrote after that final trip, “cleaned up our fields, drained our swamps and plowed up our lakebeds. Yet a new era has begun, and more and more people demand that refuges be set aside where the wild creatures may live and man may not encroach on them.

“This, as I see it, is the question of the day.”

And some would say it remains, 100 years later, the question of today.

Today’s park managers look across that same billion-year-old strata and struggle to balance the needs of wildlife, of wolves and great grizzlies, against the needs of tourists. They seek to improve roads and habitat at the same time. They build boardwalks even as they argue for wilderness protections.

The question of the day, it appears, has not changed much.

But then, neither has the rocky history writ in stone, nor the regenerative nature of Grinnell’s Crown of the Continent.

“Give a month at least to this precious reserve,” the conservationist John Muir wrote, his advice echoing across generations. “The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it, and make you truly immortal.”

Immortal like Muir himself, like Grinnell, like Logan and Mather and like all the stromatolites before them.

“It’s an enduring place,” Shaw said.

“And the story of its history goes back a long, long ways.”

Michael Jamison covers Glacier National Park and the Flathead Valley for the Missoulian. He can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or by e-mail at mjamison@missoulian.com.

missoula magazine

75

the mystery of briggsville ...continued from page 65 new suburban tract four miles south of Missoula near the Fort was named Briggsville. It predicted the town would “soon bloom out as a full-fledged village with the genial George as its burgomaster.”

A Gazette blurb that July said the “handsome new residence of Geo. Briggs at Briggsville, near the Fort, is almost completed, and will be occupied by Mr. Briggs, his mother and sister.”

Alas, it’s the last reference to Briggsville in the Browman files.

Some of our talented local history sleuths started doing some digging.

Marcia Porter and her staff at the Missoula County records office discovered a record of a sale on June 26, 1890, of 38 acres “within the middle of the Bitterroot Bend” from Michael McCauley to George Briggs, who paid $400.

Kim Kaufman has a loyal following as portrayer of Mary Gleim, Missoula’s infamous madame of a century ago. Among Gleim’s other holdings was a ranch south of town.

Several years ago, Kaufman and Porter dug up the plats. Kaufman looked closer and discovered Briggs lived right next door.

His property, sold by wife Annie in 1930 after Briggs died, spread across both sides of the Bitterroot River, on either side of Buckhouse Bridge, where Highway 93 crosses today. A street named – go figure – “Briggs” runs through it in the Cold Springs area behind Wal-Mart.

Kaufman added her 2 cents worth: “I am convinced that this is a completely bogus article.”

b

ut George Briggs was real.

He was a year shy of 70 when he died in 1927. His obituary said he had come to Missoula in 1888 from another post trader job at Fort Snelling, Minn. An ad in a 1900 newspaper promoted the finest brands of liquors and cigars at the Mentrum-Briggs Co. in Missoula, W. A. Mentrum and George Briggs proprietors.

By March 1901, Briggs was arranging for construction of a ferry across the Bitterroot River opposite his ranch. He married Annie in 1902, and by then seemed to be living uptown – in more ways than one.

76

missoula magazine

“Principal among the events in Missoula’s social circle this week was the wedding of George Briggs and Miss Annie M. Beckwith,” the Anaconda Standard reported in January 1902.

“This wedding occurred on Wednesday evening at 5 o’clock at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. McLeod, and was witnessed by relatives of Mr. Briggs and the bride and a few intimate friends.”

Annie’s father was Charles Beckwith, a Missoula civic leader.

Charles H. McLeod, whose stately home was on Gerald Avenue, was the beloved grand poobah of the Missoula Mercantile, the nephew of not-sobeloved mercantile and railroad magnate Andrew B. Hammond. His wife was Annie’s sister.

Thus began, or continued, George Briggs’ association with the kind of folks who have streets named after them today. Annie’s friends at the wedding bore such prominent Missoula family names as Woody, Catlin and Knowles. Another sister of Annie’s was Harriet Keith, whose husband John was vice president of the Missoula National Bank (and later president of the First National Bank) and was between his second and third stints as mayor of Missoula.

Briggs’ best man, Harry Chaney, had established the “new” Florence Hotel and Steam Laundry in 1888, and later the Chaney Block across Higgins on East Front Street.

In 1906, Briggs was named to the board of the First National, a board presided over by Hammond. In June 1911, Briggs and Keith were two of three men appointed by the Chamber of Commerce to raise $1,000 to attract pioneer aviator Eugene Ely to come fly in Missoula. Ely did come, and on June 28 treated the city to two solo flights and a third with his chief mechanic.

They were the first airplane flights in Missoula.

Retired by 1913, Briggs became the first president of the Missoula Automobile Club.

“He was a man of quiet, unassuming personality, but progressive, and he always stood for the advancement of the community in which he had made his home for 39 years,” his obituary in the Missoulian read.

The funeral that day in 1927 was held at the Briggs home, 207 E. Pine – miles from his ranch near Fort missoula magazine

77

Missoula and years from the promise of a “full-fledged village” named Briggsville.

a

n electric streetcar system ran through Missoula from 1910 to 1932. There are still folks around who rode it. I’d heard tell of a streetcar system in the 1890s, which I assumed was of the horse-drawn variety.

The 1893 Missoulian article seemed proof there was a Missoula ELECTRIC street car system.

What’s more, it was apparently developed enough that operators both south and north of the Clark Fork had joined in the strike. Of course, the story also included this nugget: “Another noticeable feature was the absence from the city of all the university students, who generally come in great crowds on the Grass Valley line, either to go to the theatre or meet the girls from the box factories at Briggsville.”

It claimed that Prof. J. M. Hamilton, “president of the university,” was in the city when the strike occurred, and “had to hire a rig to go to the university, as he feared his charges would be up to some mischief over night if they knew he was away.” The University of

78

missoula magazine

Frenchtown, maybe?

Remember, this was the week the governor signed into existence the University of Montana, which wouldn’t begin classes until 1895 and didn’t establish a campus presence until a couple of years after that. Hamilton, it turns out, was superintendent of Missoula High School.

By now, I was coming around to Kaufman’s way of thinking. Surely this was a bogus report, perhaps a satire of a developing Missoula’s big city airs, or a lampoon by the Missoulian, a Republican paper at the time, of the Missoula Gazette, which was decidedly Democrat.

April 1 or not, readers in 1893 would instantly recognize it for the counterfeit story it was. We in the 21st century aren’t so quick on the uptake.

I could find just one clue to the spoof theory in papers leading up to and following the Feb. 15 story. It had to do with Lottie Collins, the “original Boom-de-ay” girl purportedly playing at something called the Winter Casino on West Pine, which probably never existed.

In a legitimate story the previous week, the Missoulian reported that a

company was coming to town to play at the new U and I theater. It included Miss Kitty Kursale, “whose wonderful imitation of Lottie Collins … has made her almost as famous as the original.”

Collins was indeed a star at the time, a 28-year-old vaudeville singer and dancer who had made the skirtflinging “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay” her signature song on the stages of London the previous year. She was nowhere near Missoula in February 1893. We settled for an imitation.

History is an ever-evolving study, and time may shed more light on Briggsville and the Missoulian’s Great Streetcar Strike spoof. It could have been a great “slice-of-life” peek at Missoula in 1893. Come to think of it, maybe it was.

Kim Briggeman covers Missoula County for the Missoulian. He can be reached at (406) 523-5266 or by e-mail at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.

missoula magazine

79

80

missoula magazine

BMM JO UIF EFUBJMT

OLBVKOUTVBC

designs & photography

nn-dp.com 406.544.1700.

parting shot

p.s. photo by kurt wilson

82

missoula magazine

A harbinger of the change in the seasons, the brilliant blooms of arrowleaf balsamroot cover hillsides around Missoula in an annual burst of color.

missoula magazine

83

84

missoula magazine