WE FORGET ABOUT OUR GREAT OUTBACK

The Other Montana

By Bill Schneider, 7-26-07

When the name of the state is Spanish for "mountain," it's understandably hard for people to think about the tranquil charm of the prairie.

Ad agencies and the media have made Montana synonymous with "western Montana" or perhaps even more appropriate, "mountainous Montana." So now, when you travel and tell people you're from Montana, they want to talk about mountains and trout fishing and grizzly bears and famous national parks, not the Montana Outback, other two-thirds of the state.

But The Other Montana is worth experiencing.

I've lived in Montana for 38 years, but I grew up in the beautiful prairie pothole region on the border between eastern South Dakota and North Dakota. This helps me recognize the beauty of similar environs throughout eastern Montana.

My deep-set fondness for the prairie came rushing back to me a couple of weeks ago when I spent a day with Glasgow-area tourism promoters Diane Brandt and Betty Stone. They took Mike Harrelson (Travel Montana and Mercury Advertising) and I on a scenic tour of the classic prairie environment around Fort Peck Reservoir.

At the end of the day, all I could say to myself was, most people driving on the congested highways in western Montana to get to a congested park or lake really don't know what they're missing.

	Confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Photos courtesy of Missouri River Country.

We traveled the scenic Bone Trail, 60 miles one way, and saw two man-made structures and met only one other vehicle along the way to a peaceful picnic area and boat launch on shores of Fort Peck Reservoir, and we had it all to ourselves. We visited the Fort Peck Interpretive Center, one of the nicest I've ever been in, and the parking lot was almost empty. We climbed up to the overview where the Mighty Mo and the Milk River merge, just as Lewis and Clark did two centuries earlier, and spent time reading the incredible interpretive displays, again all by ourselves.

And much more. A whole day full of scenery and fun without having to wait in line or pay a fee.

I guess that's why they call them the Great Plains.

Our timing was excellent. Unlike much of the New West, in the weeks before our late June trip, the entire area around Glasgow had far above normal precipitation, which greened up the normally brown landscape. But brown is beautiful, too, and this is what you usually see out there except the early spring in most years--brown country spiced the smell of sage and not much sound except the prairie breezes.

	Moon Garden north of Jordan.

Montana has been known as Big Sky Country since The Big Sky, a best-selling book by A.B. Gutherie, Jr., came out. And if he were alive today, I bet Gutherie would agree with me that the sky is especially big out in eastern Montana, bigger than it is west of the Continental Divide.

And that sky holds down a magnificent landscape dotted with little towns, family farms, expansive ranches and historic sites and overrun with herds of deer and antelope instead of people. The lakes are filled with fish, warm-water species like pike and walleye that don't often get the respect they deserve, but if you catch a few you can take them to the local restaurant and ask the cook to fix them for your supper.

Rivers like the Missouri, Yellowstone, Tongue and Milk meander through the breaks and badlands and offer an experience you can't get many places--floating down a mostly natural prairie river. You can easily imagine what it was like for Lewis and Clark came up and down those rivers because haven't changed much since then.

In western Montana, you see change galloping out of every view, but not so in eastern Montana where much of it still looks and feels like it did when the Corps of Discovery came through. Time seems to move more slowly out in The Other Montana.

	Straw bales near Sidney.

The agrarian lifestyle still rules the day here in our heartland. The small farming and ranching communities have a special charm hard to find in the well-known Montana, and people don't have an attitude. If you need help, you won't have any trouble finding it.

I often hear parents say they should take their kids to Washington, D.C. or New York City for educational reasons. I feel the same way about the other Montana. Not only should our youth experience it, but also their parents.

One thing always happens when somebody goes to The Other Montana for the first time. The expansiveness of it all overpowers them. It's so easy to find places where you can see nothing in all directions. And no, you can't see the edge of nowhere from anywhere.

Most of us live in crowded, stressful places where we curse traffic and pass multi-million bond issues just to save a few remnants of open space in our communities, which would be a laugher out in eastern Montana. And you never have to stop twice for a stoplight, if you can find one.

So, give The Other Montana a try. You won't be disappointed.

To get started on your trip, check out these websites: Travel Montana, Custer Country, Missouri River Country, and Russell Country

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.