My Page: Graham Coppes
Wilburn Knutson, or W.C. as he prefers to be called, spent the Veterans Day holiday honoring U.S. war veterans. In observance of the holiday W.C. made a trip to the nursing home, dispersing a handshake and flag to each of the center's 38 residents who are veterans. Knutson is a past commander of the Montana Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and has made this honorary tradition an annual Veterans Day event. In addition, elementary school children were present to recognize the veterans' service with song and dance. NewWest.net photographer Graham Coppes was there to document the event.
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photos
Photos: Missoulians Revel in Obama Win
Missoula Democrats celebrated Obama's victory with hugs, laughter, cheers and beers. NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes documented the night at the Union Club and beyond.
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election day
Faces of Missoula Voters
Today NewWest.Net spent time traveling from polling place to polling place with a few questions for voters after they had cast their ballots. We spoke with people at four locations around town; Missoula Courthouse, Lowell Elementary, Target Range School, and Rattlesnake Elementary.
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slideshow
Scenes from Missoula’s Day of the Dead Parade
A little rain didn't stop hundreds of people from attending the annual Day of the Dead celebration on Higgins Ave. in Missoula. The parade and festivities are in observance of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. Every year Missoula citizens are invited to join the public celebration with costumes, artwork, memorials, music and dance. NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes captured the event in this slideshow.
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multimedia slideshow
An Early Fall Float Down the North Fork of the Flathead
Whether on a raft, kayak, drift boat, float boat, sailboat or skiff boat, traveling by river is hard to beat.
Montana’s North Fork of the Flathead River supports a remarkable array of biodiversity and provides an incredible experience to humans lucky enough to pass through. This is wild country, true wilderness, incorporating all the original players. Great bears fill the mountains along with elk, moose, wolverine, lynx, wolves and large cats. A 50-mile long dusty road leads from Columbia Falls to Canada, with few signs of human life.
NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes recently led a team of friends down the North Fork from the remote Canadian border. Five days later, 45 miles further south, and with a few fat trout smiles, they left the North Fork and this remarkable country.
Click the image above to view a multimedia piece from this trip.
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Even in a region as rugged as Western Montana, where towering peaks are commonplace, the summits of Glacier Park are mind boggling. I first learned of this country as an impressionable child, seated around a fireplace, while my father regaled open-eyed company with a story from his short, but powerful history with the place I now call home.
If our lives are given meaning by those we love, then they too, are our impetus for inspiration. After 18 years of childhood surrounded by a vast sea of corn, I followed my father's influence and his stories, to Montana.
Maybe our lives, aspirations and dreams are merely an extension of our parents’ journey. So, if it was the will of a wild grizzly that my father continue living, in some ways, I too owe my existence to this creature.
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