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Photo of Ivory Pal by Cheri Prill Tennessee Walking Horse Issue August 2010

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I was born under a wandering star!!! Montana?

But why would anybody wander to Montana? Isn’t that just a cold place up north somewhere? My first encounter happened in sunny Arizona when I met a friendly stone carver in Sedona who carved a frozen sunrise into white marble in memory of Montana. So I moved to California. It got too crowded there, so I moved to Oregon. Here I met a gentleman who had a job on the Oregon Coast, but visited his ranch in Montana every few weeks, what a commute! Was it worth it?

What is so special about that place? My husband and I packed up the car and went to find out. We took one look and never looked back, living here ever since that was ten years ago.

Sometimes we have summer all winter and winter all summer, but regularly we have no rain. Montana is actually high plains with an annual rainfall of around 16” and most of that comes down in spring. In other words it is a sunshine state without the oven heat. Most of the rain and snow is captured by the mountains which send in down to the rest of the state in fast running trout streams and underground aquifers.

The air is clean and clear with deer, elk and big horn sheep outnumbering the human population, which seems to gather mostly in quaint towns and small cities (the largest one is Billings, which just squeaked beyond the 100,000 population mark).

Here we have hardly any unemployment upon which our teenage daughter at that time remarked that’s because nobody is here! On the other hand you find a lot of nice people to talk to! Local ranchers share this beautiful country with Lone Eagles (people who work from home, such as myself), miners and people who appreciate the big sky, snowcapped mountains, open spaces, wheat fields and sandstone cliffs reflecting the sunshine.

The landscape is often surrealistic beautiful with the shadows of the clouds playing tag with sunny patches on the rolling hills of grass. The jagged peaks of mountain ranges are breaking up the horizon in the Western half of the state, while the Eastern half is dominated by waving fields of grass, wheat and the golden glow of barley.

When in doubt, let your Horse do the thinkin. Following that cowboy rule you move to Montana for sure. The grass is extremely nutritious since it doesn’t get watered much, it packs in a high count of protein. Actually the grass is shipped from here all the way to Florida and a lot of places in between. Since the water runs fast, mosquitoes are just about non-existent.

So, what about the cold? Well, if you like skiing you are in the right place, there are 16 downhill ski areas and 33 for cross country. http://montanahereicome.com/Ski/.Big Sky alone has 5,500 acres with over 4,300 vertical feet and 29 ski lifts!

Actually if you don’t happen to live on top of a mountain, the cold is rather pleasant and invigorating, since it is not wet. It is a dry cold and always comes with plenty of sunshine which makes the landscape sparkle. The vast areas of National Forest are not only habitat to a wide variety of wildlife which often wander through town along with the rest of the tourists, but also insure that you can see the stars at night all of them!

Montana is the fourth largest state in the Union and to live here is like living in a small town with very long streets, as our governor put it. People who live here are friendly and helpful and many have long forgotten where the house keys are, because their house is never locked. More than once I went to the local grocery store having forgotten to take my valet, but they always let me take the groceries home, and I bring them the money next time I get to town.

I am a real estate broker and at one time I had clients from Los Angeles, both were working in homicide they could not relocate, because the biggest crime in Montana is still horse thieving. Actually just a few days ago the police did shoot somebody because they stole a car and drove it for 30 minutes; I suppose that falls into the category of stealing somebody’s means of transportation. Not a far cry from the old custom of hanging horse thieves, which has been officially abandoned. The police in our town are mostly concerned with dogs not on a leash.

So, why move to Montana? Because it is a drop dead beautiful and friendly place!

Dorothea Lowe,

http://montanahereicome.com

http://goldandcoal.com

http://minnesotahereicome.com/