Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 2 12 W E'RE EXCITED TO BRING YOU THIS SUMMER EDITION of Distinctly Mon- tana, featuring our special Lewis & Clark section. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together! We heap a lot of Montana love into every issue that we produce, and our ultimate goal is to preserve little slices of Montana history in all of our pages. We're obviously biased but we do feel like we hit the bullseye in this issue. "April showers bring May flowers" is a cute little saying penned by someone who obviously did not live in Montana. Aside from our notoriously frigid climate (we often top the charts for "coldest temperature in the USA"), our weather is also more unpre- dictable than most places. Even in June, it's not unusual for a rogue snowstorm to roll through Montana. Buy your hanging flowerpots in late May unless you plan on keeping them indoors until then! Anyone who has lived here for a couple of years knows this. Since mid-2020, of course, as almost all Montanans have noticed by now, we've seen an unprecedented influx of out-of-state transplants (with California and Washington states making up the majority—see https://bit.ly/406newcomers for details). This wave of newcomers has caused a complex array of issues for Montana, but the number that most jumped out at me from this survey (conducted in 2021) was that 41% of new residents moved here because they "want to live among people with similar values." That may be good news or bad news, depending on how you slice it. One thing is for sure: the half-joking, half-serious cracks on Facebook about how the Californians will "run screaming after their first Montana winter" have been proven wrong. None of our new residents have run screaming back to either coast. If we're lucky (and I hope that we are), then Montana has changed them more than they have changed Montana. Summer is the season of easy living. There's no snow to shovel. You're not going to slide off an icy road into a ditch (though a friendly Montanan will almost surely quickly come to your aid if you do). Even if you gained a new neighbor who pulled up with Cal- ifornia plates on their car, I'm a firm believer that if we demonstrate our Montana values to them, Montana will change them more than they end up changing Montana. A N O T E F R O M T H E P U B L I S H E R P U B L I S H E R CHRIS MUHLENFELD, PUBLISHER chris@distinctlymontana.com ©2002-2022. Distinctly Montana is owned and published by Thunderstruck Media LLC, a Montana company. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in any form, in whole or in part, without our written permission is prohibited. Distinctly Montana welcomes freelance contributions—please contact us to inquire about submitting your work. DISTINCTLY MONTANA IS DESIGNED AND PRINTED IN THE USA. Published by Thunderstruck Media LLC • 280 West Kagy Blvd, STE D286 • Bozeman, Montana 59715 www.distinctlymontana.com • info@distinctlymontana.com • (406) 600-7660 WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS! The paper content of this publication has been certifiably reforested via PrintReleaf – the world's first platform to measure paper consumption and automate reforestation across a global network of reforestation projects. LEARN MORE AT PRINTRELEAF.COM photo: flickr.com/nicholas_t | CC BY PUBLISHERS Chris & Pattra Muhlenfeld EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joseph Shelton ART DIRECTOR Robert Rath COPY EDITOR Shannon Page PROOF EDITOR Renee Carlson SALES EXECUTIVES Larry Sem, Gary Shelton PRINT MANAGEMENT Pam Koehler, Koehler + Co. fb.com/distinctlymontana instagram.com/distinctlymontana twitter.com/distinctlymt S U B S C R I B E S U B S C R I B E T O D AY T O D AY W E D E L I V E R ! W E D E L I V E R ! SUBSCRIBE TO SUBSCRIBE TO DISTINCTLY MONTANA DISTINCTLY MONTANA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE DISTINCTLYMONTANA.COM/SUBSCRIBE TO SUBSCRIBE BY MAIL, SEND A CHECK FOR $39.95 PER YEAR TO: DISTINCTLY MONTANA 280 WEST KAGY BLVD, STE D286 BOZEMAN MT 59715

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