Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 5 - 2 0 2 6 10 COVER PHOTO Based in Montana, JASON SAVAGE works as a freelance and commercial photographer, specializing in travel and outdoor photography. His work has been featured in National Geographic Traveler, Time, Outside, Audubon, Outdoor Photographer, The Nature Conservancy and many others. His images have also been featured in numerous advertising campaigns, books, and calendars around the world. A STAY AT THE SAGE LODGE PAGE 12 SHERMAN CAHILL is a freelance writer who lives in Butte, Montana. He enjoys film, westerns, crime fiction, and residing in the best city in America, if not the world. THE OLD BROKE RANCHER PAGE 22 GARY SHELTON was born in Lewistown in 1951 and has been a rancher, a railroader, a biker, a teacher, a hippie, and a cowboy. Now he's trying his hand at writing in the earnest hope that he'll make enough at it to make a down payment on an RV. Hell, scratch that. Enough to buy the whole RV. LUCIA DARLING PAGE 26 CHRIS ENSS is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing about women of the Old West for more than thirty years. She has penned more than fifty published books on the subject. Her work has been honored with nine Will Rogers Medallion Awards, two Elmer Kelton Book Awards, and a Willa Cather Award from Women Writing the West. Her recent works include The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier and An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood's Most Notorious Bordellos. A DAMN "GOOD ROAD": HIGHWAY 200 PAGE 36 MICHAEL J. OBER is three generations deep into Montana's history and lore. Born in Havre, Montana, he graduated from the University of Montana with a BA and MA degree American History and, later, a Master's of Library and Information Science from the University of Denver. He is the author of Glacier Album, (Riverbend Press, Helena) a showcase of vintage photographs of Glacier Park. He recently released his new title, Montana Historic Places on the National Register: From Banks and Barns to Bridges and Battlefields (Mountain Press, Missoula). He has written numerous articles in state and regional periodicals about Montana's culture and history. A LONG-AGO WINTER IN BLACKFEET COUNTRY PAGE 42 SALLY THOMPSON received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Colorado in 1980, the same year she moved to Missoula. Her dissertation, ironically, focused on human adaptation to climate change on the Great Plains. One highlight of her decades of collabora- tive work with indigenous communities in Montana and New Mexico, was to conduct interviews with more than 250 elders. Her recent books, Black Robes Enter Coyote's World and Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo, have received national recognition. Black Robes won the Big Sky Award and the Will Rogers Medallion Award for best western nonfiction. Sleeping Buffalo won the Next Generation Indie Award for historical nonfiction. CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS OUR 2025 o f BEST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F BE S T BILLI A RD & G A ME SUPPLY IN MON TA N A Bob Marshall Wilderness Horse Pack Trips Dave Hettinger Outfitting www.heingeroutfiing.com daveheingeroutfiing@gmail.com 307-709-0153 W ith over 40 years of outfiing and guiding experience, Dave Heinger offers summer scenic and fishing pack trips into Montana's Bob Marshall/Scapegoat Wilderness. Experience life in a true western seing and continue an American tradition of horse travel and fishing in the Rocky Mountain West. Superb Fishing!

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