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By Erik Sietsema The Mountaineer has been serving the community of Big Sandy since 1911, when it began publishing under the name The Bear Paw Mountaineer. For two years in its early days, the Mountaineer faced competition from a second local paper: The Big Sandy Sentinel. Published from 1915 to 1916, the Sentinel styled itself as the progressive Democratic local paper. Openly political and featuring a substantial German-language section with news of the war in Europe, the Sentinel engaged in an...
By Erik Sietsema Montana Actors’ Theatre brought its summer theater camp to Big Sandy July 20–23, concluding Thursday evening with a student production of Kid Frankie Stein. Twelve local children participated in the four-day camp, along with one high school student who volunteered backstage. Though MAT’s theater camp is a long-running program, this summer marked its first visit to Big Sandy. The event was hosted by the Big Sandy Theater Company and sponsored by Triangle Communications and the Bi...
By Erik Sietsema The 16th Annual Skate Jam took place the weekend of June 26th through the 28th. What started as a loose gathering of friends has evolved into a whole weekend of events attracting attendees from all over the world. The weekend featured competitions, bands playing at Pep’s, an art show, and a panel discussion on the positive impact of skateboarding and skateparks on young people. Josh Danreuther, who has been involved with the Skate Jam since it began, explained: “It’s our 16th...
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...
By Erik Sietsema This year's Big Sandy Skate Jam included an art show fundraiser, a new addition to the annual skateboarding event. The 16th annual gathering draws skaters from across the country - and in some cases the world - and serves the dual purpose of giving skateboarders a chance to share their passion for the sport while raising money for local skate park improvements. The art show was a new feature this year, giving artists and enthusiasts an outlet to express themselves while raising...
By Erik Sietsema The Big Sandy Library Summer Reading Program is in full swing, serving community youth and adults alike. The program features daily activities for various age groups, special events, the reading program with drawings every two weeks, and an end-of-summer drawing for grand prizes. The program is sponsored by Triangle Communications and the Big Sandy Friends of the Library. This summer’s reading program is dinosaur themed. The library itself is decorated with dinosaur-themed p...
By Erik Sietsema This week marks the 115th anniversary of the first Big Sandy School play. On June 30, 1911, the school staged *The Rescue of Princess Winsome* by Annie Fellows Johnston. The performance kicked off a proud tradition of school theater that continues to this day. The production was covered in a brief article in the July 6 issue of the *Mountaineer*, which lauded the show as deserving “all and more credit than we can give it.” Auditions were described as “drills” meant to prepare the children for their roles, and the paper noted t...
By Erik Sietsema The annual Montana Actors Theater (MAT) production in the park and Renaissance Faire is fast approaching. The free faire and production of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors will take place the weekend of June 19–21 at Bear Paw Bowman Campground in Beaver Creek Park. The event will feature vendors, food, a ventriloquist performance, combat games, and other family-friendly activities. Festivities run from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The Renaissance faire has been an ann...
By Erik Sietsema Dust storms swept through the Big Sandy area last Wednesday, creating conditions that vaguely resembled a blizzard for those unlucky enough to be caught out on the highway, piling up “sand dunes” along the edges of fields on the prairie west of town, and knocking out power for the community for several hours. The storm itself was the byproduct of a perfect mix of drought conditions and a severe thunderstorm passing through the area. The result was a dust storm that echoed the 1934 storm, dubbed “The Black Blizzard” by the Mou...
By Erik Sietsema The Big Sandy High School music program closed out the 2025–2026 school year with a string of accolades from district and state festivals, capped by local concerts that showcased a growing pool of young talent. District and state festivals — the music program’s equivalent of competitions — bookend every school year, and Big Sandy had a particularly strong showing this time around, with students earning high scores at every level. The community concerts that followed made it...
The Big Sandy Gun Club held its first trap and skeet shooting event of the year on Monday evening, April 20. Every summer, the Gun Club hosts weekly clay shooting get-togethers on Monday nights, generally drawing between 5 and 20 attendees, largely from Havre. The first shoot of 2026 drew a handful of participants, as many of the regulars had prior commitments. Attendance typically increases as hobbyists work the event back into their weekly summer schedules. Monday night trap shoots start at 5 p.m. and cost $5 to participate, which covers the...
Wealth should be worn like a light cloak—something that provides comfort while you carry out the work God has called you to do. This paraphrase of a Richard Baxter quote shaped much of American Puritan thinking. Hard work often resulted in worldly wealth, but Baxter warned that wealth itself is a temptation. It is far too easy to let what we accumulate—and the comfort it brings—become an idol. The light cloak, he cautioned, can quickly become an iron cage if it traps us into living for worldly pursuits rather than for the purpose God creat...
The Pure Food and Drugs Act was signed into law in 1906 and was a giant leap forward in the war on quack medical cures. The law was passed largely in response to the uproar caused by Upton Sinclair’s brutal novel about conditions in Chicago meat-packing plants. The law prohibited the interstate sale of adulterated and/or mislabeled food and drugs. This regulatory action gave power to the newly established Bureau of Chemistry enforcement to regulate quack cures masquerading as genuine medical treatments. The agency initially policed medications...
The Big Sandy High School music program held its annual spring recital concert on Tuesday, April 7th at the high school auditorium. The event served as preparation for the upcoming Music Festival, giving students an opportunity to show off the pieces they’ve been practicing for months to the community and practice playing them for an audience. The event featured a variety of vocal and instrumental pieces from students across the the grades. TJ Bond, who teaches music at Big Sandy Schools, described the event: “Our recital had 16 events ran...
The Second Annual Big Sandy School Art Show and fundraiser will be taking place on May 2nd from 12 to 3 PM on May 2nd at the Historical Society Building. The show will feature art work from the art students from the 7th through 12th grades. The show will also feature silent auctions to raise money for the art program. The whole community is invited to check out the work of our community’s younger artists and support their art eduction. Jessie Jaramillo, who teaches art at Big Sandy High S...
Great Falls now has a Bricks and Minifigs shop, specializing in new, used, miscellaneous, and hard to find/out of production Lego sets. The shop is a haven for kids, fun loving adults, and families looking for a good time together. Between the bins of mini-figure parts, where my kids have spent hours putting together mini replicas of themselves, their friends, or just fanciful creations, and the variety of sets or loose pieces that can be purchased by the bag, there is plenty for any Lego lover to enjoy. I’ve visited the shop with my c...
Last week, I came across an advertisement for Chlorine Gas, marketing it as a “new scientific discovery for the prevention and elimination of colds” and further boasting that it is “now obtainable at drug stores.” The Indianapolis Star ad from March 1926 fell into a brief period where the incredibly dangerous gas was marketed as “Resprine” and prescribed by doctors. While chlorine gas will generally kill viruses and bacteria, it also has a habit of killing pretty much every form of life. There are a few bacteria, spores, and parasites t...
The Big Sandy High School FFA partnered up with Youth Groups from the community for a service project. The group assembled more than 500 prepackaged dry meals for the Big Sandy Food Bank to distribute in the coming months. This is the first time the FFA attempted this particular project, though they have done other service projects in years past. Mr Taylor, who teaches Ag at the High School and oversees the Big Sandy FFA program, explained that FFA has been doing service projects for years, but...
The 25-26 winter has been a series of false springs, relatively few hard freezes, and little snowfall. For locals, these sorts of weather trends inevitably lead to discussions and speculations as to how the weather fluctuations will affect the coming growing season, weeds, disease, and insect populations. According to Tyler Lane, the Agriculture and 4-H Agent for the Montana State University Extension Office in Chouteau County, the larger impact of the false springs should be minimal in terms of crops, insects, and diseases. “So as long as t...
Big Sandy Theater Company will be performing two showings of the Musical Adventures of Oliver Twist this weekend. The showings are on Friday at 7 PM and Saturday at 3 PM at the Big Sandy High School auditorium. The show features 35 local actors of all ages and experience levels. It is the second musical put on by the theater company since it started putting on shows in 2018. Dianna Keane, who has been co-directing plays with the theater since the start, describes this weekend’s show: ...
Mark Twin once said that “The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.” In my 20 years of working with people as a chaplain and later as a pastor, I have witnessed this phenomenon in so many forms. Most often, I see it in people who can’t be alone with their own thoughts, so they drown out their inner monologue with noise, activity, or chemicals to keep them distracted. I see it in people who say things to and about themselves that they would never say to anyone else in the world. In fact, if they heard someone else treat...
10 years years ago, on March 21, 1944, the United States Army sent a B-17 Flying Fortress loaded with with 250 pound demolition bombs to drop with the mission of saving Miles City, Montana. The rescue operation didn’t involve repelling foreign invaders, despite the fact that the operation took place at the height of World War II. The bomber crew was sent to break up ice jams on the Missouri River, which were backing up the flow of water and causing flooding in the region including Miles City. According to the National Weather Service, M...
This week marks the start of Lent, the 40-day season in the Christian church calendar that runs between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. One of the most visible signs of the start of the Lenten Season is the mark of ashes on the forehead that is received on Ash Wednesday. Though many are familiar with the practice and treat it with reverence, its origins and meanings are less well known. Ritual and practice can be powerful tools in one’s spiritual life, and understanding the meaning behind the practice and its origins are what give it real sign...
Big Sandy Theater Company is rehearsing for their upcoming production of the Musical Adventures of Oliver Twist. The production of Charles Dickens’ work will be showing March 6th and 7th. The choice to perform the melodrama is a departure from the company’s more traditional comedic shows. The large cast of 35 players features a broad range of ages and experience levels, with familiar cast members and new faces. Amanda Hoffman, who has co-directed every Big Sandy Theater Production, explained the rationale behind the choice of an Oliver Twi...
In late December, the Big Sandy Food Bank received a much needed injection of support thanks to the generosity of the community of Big Sandy. The annual Big Sandy Schools’ paper products drive and First Bank of Montana Community Food Drive were a great success. The infusion of goods and capital were particularly well timed given the extra weight the Food Bank was subjected to last year with the freeze on SNAP benefits combined with the typical holiday stress. Terry Grant, who runs the food bank,...