Week of July 15, 2026
Week of July 15, 2026
LEWISTOWN, Mont. – The Bureau of Land Management will mark the 25th anniversary of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument with two public events in August, highlighting the monument’s history and ongoing conservation efforts. Missouri Breaks Fest events held in Lewistown and Fort Benton will feature outdoor activities and opportunities to learn about natural resource management, recreation, and the unique landscape of the monument. Attendees can meet BLM staff and partners, including Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the...
Left: Dan and Pat Matthew celebrated 62 years of marriage on July 11, 2026. Right: Floyd and Marlene Terry will celebrate 60 years of marriage on July 15, 2026. From Fred Terry, son of Floyd and Marlene, “I would like to encourage everyone to say congratulations and stop by their home and wish them...
By Matt Hudson, Montana Free Press Mired by a stagnant population while Montana’s other larger cities have enjoyed relative economic booms, Great Falls has long had a bit of an underdog reputation. The city lagged behind Missoula, Kalispell, Bozeman, Billings and Helena in population growth since 2010. Great Falls was an outlier among larger cities from 2023 to 2024, losing residents. Even the city’s new growth policy notes Great Falls’ steady population level, which has hovered between 57,000 and 61,000 residents since 2000. But the...
The Most Important Crop We Protect is Each Other With summer in full swing and we’re spending long days outside, the risks increase for farmers and ranchers to suffer work-related injuries. Statistics show that the average cost for nonfatal agricultural injuries was $10,878 for medical care, $4,735 for lost work time, and $15, 613 in total injury per case. The total national agricultural injury cost estimate was $11.31 billion per year; 11.3% higher than the earlier benchmark using 1992 data; both in March 2024 dollars. The cost burden was...
A Special Thanks in Advance to our Chouteau County 4-H Fair Superintendents 4-H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for a career tomorrow. 4-H programs help develop nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4-H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA. Cooperative Extension serves every county and reservation in the U.S. through a network of...
By Kelsey Jencso Record-breaking January and February temperatures, early snowmelt, thawed soils across the plains, rain-on-snow flooding, and earlier-than-normal streamflow peaks have producers, water managers, and firefighters concerned about the rest of the year. Their concerns highlight an important gap between what we know with high confidence about Montana’s changing climate and what we can predict in any given season. The current US Drought Monitor shows approximately 86% of Montana in...
In the early days of the Soviet revolution, the Bolsheviks persecuted the Russian Orthodox Church. They shut down and destroyed churches, sent priests to gulags, and decreased the total number of operating churches from tens of thousands to a couple hundred. The remaining churches mainly continued to exist because they were remote and rural, thus difficult to keep closed. In the early days of WW2, a strange thing took place. In the face of repeated defeats at the hands of the Germans, Stalin revived the Russian church. He allowed its...
History is often remembered through great events, but communities are built through ordinary days. The pages of The Mountaineer tell the story of Big Sandy through schoolchildren and teachers, ranchers and merchants, weddings and anniversaries, harvests and holidays. Each week we revisit those pages, not simply to remember the past, but to celebrate the people whose lives became the foundation of our community. This week’s journey reminds us that whether constructing a new water tank in 1926, celebrating a ninth birthday in 1951, welcoming...
