Lewis & Clark Travails

Wall Street Journal Reporter Pilloried by Sensitive Montanans

IMHO, your last line sums up the situation perfectly. The collective inferiority complex of your readers is as big as the Montana sky.

[I meant to refer to Trib readers, not New West readers, in my previous comment. Sorry]

Jonathan, when I was a child back in the 50's my mother took my brother and me to visit family in the New York area. I remember trying to pay for something with silver dollar I brought from Montana and was asked by the vendor whether it was real. Also, I remember being asked by one East Coastie whether the Indians were still hostile. I guess we all have our regional biases.

Another irony -- or turn in the incestuous nature of journalism: Brooks Barnes is one of my good friends from high school. He and I -- along with another friend -- were co-editors of Billings Senior High's Bronc Express student newspaper in 1993. Barnes is not an "East Coast snob," but a graduate of Lewis and Clark Junior High right there in Billings, Mont.

I agree totally with the last line - that the article points out that some people involved are a "little bit sensitive about" the bad press.

When the late Stephen Ambrose made the prediction that millions would visit the Bi-Centennial route - scores of towns like GF and Fort Benton scrambled to prepare for what was expected to be a huge rise in tourism. When the numbers didn't show, I think it's only a natural reaction as a journalist, to point that out - and point out that many of these communities may have over-planned. I know it was a no-brainer for me, when I was based in Montana at the time.

That said, I didn't see the article as it appeared in print, but, through your link, it appears to me that Chelsi was writing a pretty light hearted column about the Journal piece, no?

I agree, Kirk. I thought it's been lighthearted all the way around: Barnes' piece, Chelsi's piece and now Jonathan's coverage of where the two came together.

And, as far as irony goes, I might have everyone beat: I've worked with Kirk, Jennifer, Jonathan AND Chelsi.

And, even though I grew up near Great Falls, I've never gone to a Lewis and Clark event other than to cover it for the Great Falls Tribune, which is when I first met New West Travel and Outdoor editor Bill Schneider about 10 years ago.

I would hazard a guess that most upset Montanans only read the GFT article and its interpretive "mocking" by the WSJ. In my opinion, Brooks Barnes wrote a fair piece. When some communities in other states celebrate Norwegian Independence Day by having the Norwegians line up on one side of the street and throw firecrackers at the Swedes on the otherside, and the Swedes light them and throw them back, I don't think many Montanans will travel to those festivities either. However, these celebrations may provide the opportunity to practice Homeland Security drills. ;)

After reading Courtney Lowery's post, I'm conflicted. I wasn't smart enough to imagine that Chelsi Moy might just be pulling GFTrib readers' legs. If true, I recommend that she ramp up her sarcasm a bit more so that we rubes from the West who work on the East Coast get the joke.

Maybe I've been away from the Mountain Time Zone (South Dakota, actually) for too long.

Anyway, both writers seems to be fully capable of reaching their readers, with a good measure of crossover. My sentiments rest with Brooks Barnes' on-target analysis. It's been tough going for the L&C;promoters. Four years is a long time to keep a party going. People (but not Barnes) from populated coastal regions (especially the East) do maintain a "they're all frozen hayseeds" attitude about much of the High Plains and Mountain West. Such fools; they don't know much and are missing out on even more. But that might not be an altogether bad thing. I was in Missoula last week and could not help but notice the pinch from suburban development and lots of traffic. But we loved a lazy float trip on the Bitterroot, and time spent with family and newly made friends.

Keep taking care of things throughout the region. We'll do our part back here by telling the Lewis and Clark story to all who will listen. To keep things from getting much more crowded in your part of the world, we also will keep telling East Coast city folks that an appropriate christening gift for a newborn is a set of baby's first jumper cables.

We remain homesick somewhere in Fairfax County, Virginia.

I'm from Montana and the story was right on. Even the local papers last year talked about the monetary loss local business and the city suffered because the numbers never materialized. Much ado about an expidition which never found what they set out to find.

Anyone who pays attention to history could have predicted that the Lewis & Clark celegration might not generate the kind of interest anticipated by Montanans. Also, I know lots of people who are from Montana who have not become "east coast elitists".

I am the grandaughter of the long-time owner/ publisher of the Great Falls Tribune, Oliver Sherman (OS) Warden. Most of the decendants of the Warden family are living elsewhere now, but we still remember the days when OS and his son Robert made the "Tribune" what it was. To the extend that the "critical" article implied that Native Americans were not supportive, I can't disagree. When I lived in Great Falls, the Indian children from the reservation were segreated. I was criticized for making friends with a girl from the "Res". At that time, I watched as OS was made an honory Chief of the Blackfeet Tribe at the State Fair.

I was born in Washington D.C. My mother, from Great Falls, and father, from Missoula were so proud to have come from Montana. And I am proud as well that my roots are there. One of my cousins (2nd or 3rd) told me about twenty years ago that his goal was to get the Tribune back for the family. Pretty short sighted, but he was only 18 at the time.

I think it's spin to say that Chelsi's piece is light-hearted. It started out ok but then goes into whiny mode, saying that the article "picks on" certain communities, and that it "mocked" the Fort Benton preparedness effort. These are very poor word choices and sound more like a letter to the editor than an article by a graduate of journalism program. The article didn't pick on or mock the cities named, it simply named them and provided details. That's what professional journalists do. Chelsi should know that.

I have to agree that Chelsi is revealing more about her lack of understanding of subtle irony than anything else (http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=1131D920523DA1C8&p_docnum=1&p_theme=gannett&s_site=greatfallstribune&p_product=GFTB). She plays to the lowest common denominator and encourages an us vs. "them east coasters" mentality which reflects much worse on Montana than the WSJ article did.