News / The Montana Gap
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Through Boom or Bust – Sisters Maintains Identity
SISTERS, ORE. - The drive from Portland to Bend weaves through a few towns offering a chance to pause for food and gas on your way to somewhere else. Sisters is a good place to stop. Arriving in the...
Tourism Gives Philipsburg New Life - Brought Few Families
PHILIPSBURG - As the holiday season gets its start on a clear morning in late November, Main Street here looks like something out of a Hallmark movie. A window washer cleans down storefronts along...
Boulder Aims For a Brighter Future Economy
BOULDER, MONT. – When the Montana legislature decided in 2015 that the Montana Developmental Center would close within two years, it was a blow to the community of Boulder. For more than 125 years,...
Summer Festivals Worth Weight Shouldered by Civic Groups
Many small rural communities in north-central Montana — like Dutton, Conrad and Choteau — put on summer festivals that raise funds for a variety of community programs. As the population in these...
Cooperative Craft Breweries: A New Approach to Revitalizing Small Towns
RONAN - About 12 miles south of Flathead Lake, the town of Ronan is a community based largely on agriculture. With several schools, banks, a golf course and an active business community, Ronan is...
Solving the Affordable Housing Crisis
Story & photos by Jan Anderson Editor, Boulder Monitor BOULDER, MONT – When fire destroyed two mobile homes in a Boulder trailer court and damaged two others in June 2016, it underscored what...
Examining the Disparity of Urban and Rural Growth
Look at statewide numbers and Montana's economy seems to be doing well. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of jobs in the state of Montana grew 20 percent, according to a report released last year by...
From Stopping Point to Destination
CHALLIS, IDAHO – Mining and ranching is the main economy of Challis, Idaho. When the Thompson Creek Mining Company, a molybdenum mine west of Challis, ended their mining operations in 2014 the bust...
Rural Towns Capitalize on Cycling Tourism
Leigh Ann Valiton watched a customer meander the aisles of the Blackfoot Commercial Co. in Ovando, Mont. Valiton's store, and attached Inn, is open until seven every evening, but it was 10 p.m. and...