Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 7 10 ROCKY MOUNTAINS' MILLION DOLLAR TREASURE PAGE 12 KELSEY SINCLAIR is a writer and adventurer from the Black Hills. When her nose isn't in a book, she likes hiking, programming, and exploring abandoned mining towns. QUAKE LAKE'S CRAZY CORMORANTS PAGE 16 CAROL POLICH is a well-published freelance nature photogra- pher/writer and offers photography classes through Adult Com- munity Education during the school year. She also gives travel lectures and offers photo workshops. www.wildnaturetrails.com MONTANA'S WILDERNESS: "AS WILD AS I HAD FOUND IT" PAGE 22 JOHN TODD is the Conservation Director for the Montana Wilder- ness Association. When he's not working to protect our wild backcountry, you can (or can't) find John with his wife, daughters, and faithful bird dog in some of Montana's last best places. WILD WEST WORDS PAGE 46 CHRYSTI M. SMITH was raised on a farm in northeastern Montana and now wrangles words for her daily radio series, "Chrysti the Wordsmith," produced at KGLT-FM in Bozeman; it can be heard on public radio stations throughout Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and worldwide on Armed Forces Radio. www.wordsmithradio.org NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S PUMPKIN PIE PAGE 48 CHEF JIM GRAY is a Missoula-based culinary instructor and food writer. He also teaches for the kitchen store chain Sur La Table in Scottsdale, Arizona. TASTE THE APPLE CIDERS OF BITTERROOT VALLEY PAGE 50 SUSIE WALL is a freelance writer living in Missoula. Her writing and photography has appeared in many local and national publi- cations. Endless curiosity has led her to write about a variety of topics from farming to travel to scat identification but her favorite subjects continue to be the captivating people of Montana. MONTANA AND THE NFL PAGE 55 BRIAN D'AMBROSIO lives in Helena and Silver City, New Mexico, where he writes about architecture, history, travel, and music. He may be reached at dambrosiobrian@hotmail.com. NOT-TO-BE-MISSED DAY TRIPS TO FIVE MONTANA BRIDGES PAGE 58 JON AXLINE, born and raised in Montana, is a devotee of Big Sky Country's history. He works as the Montana Department of Transportation's historian and is the Keeper of the Roadside Historical Markers. Jon has written about a variety of Montana subjects, including dinosaurs, highways, a flying saucer sighting in Great Falls, and the Cold War. He lives in Helena with his wife, four dogs, and large number of cats. FOLKLORE AND MYSTERY UNDER MONTANA'S STREETS PAGE 66 JOSEPH SHELTON lives in Bozeman, Montana, where he received his Masters in English Literature. He loves film, hiking, reading, exploring, and above all, writing. EXPLORING MONTANA'S BEST LAST PLACES PAGE 70 ELLEN BAUMLER has been the interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Society in Helena since 1992. She loves telling Montana's little-known stories. She is a 2011 recipient of the Governor's Award for the Humanities. She is also an award- winning author of many books and articles on a wide variety of Montana topics. RED LODGE: AN URBAN BASECAMP PAGE 72 SARIE MACKAY graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York with a degree in English Lit. Her roots in Montana extend back to 1889, when her great-grandparents homesteaded in the Clarks Fork Valley. A writer, artist, and jeweler, she is the author of two historical novels about Montana: Lode- star and Fair Game. FALLING IN LOVE WITH FALL PAGE 76 SUZANNE MILLER, a native of Butte, owns Dunrovin Ranch, a full-service guest ranch and equestrian club offering unique backcountry adventures on Tennessee Walking Horses. The installation of a web camera led SuzAnne to enable cyber viewing. www.DaysAtDunrovin.com. THE BURNING SEASON PAGE 79 GARY FERGUSON has 24 books on nature and science, including Hawks Rest, which won both the PNBA and the MPIBA Book Award for Nonfiction, Decade of the Wolf, The Great Divide, and The Carry Home. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His lectures on wilderness are a culmination of 30 years researching and experiencing the marriage of wild lands, history, myth, and narrative psychology. Find out more about him at www.wildwords.net FOR THE LOVE OF... THE LIVINGSTON FOOD RESOURCE CENTER PAGE 84 HUNTER D'ANTUONO served as the phototographer for the Livingston Enterprise. He is the Director of Photography of Livingston's Soundcolor Studios, an independent film, art and music production cooperative. D'Antuono's passion for photography began in high school when he started his own nature-photography business, 46th Parallel Photography. His film coverage of Montana wildfires appeared in "Years of Living Dangerously," a Showtime TV documentary series produced by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger. CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS VALERIE HARMS has edited this magazine since 2005 and says it is like throwing a party every season. A writer as well as editor, she is the author of 10 books and numerous articles. A graduate of Smith College, for seven years she was an editor at the National Audubon Society in New York City. She has taught writing and given workshops around the country, plus in Greece and Canada. In 1995 she moved to Montana to see wild animals in their habitats and explore the mountains and rivers. For more info see her Web site at www.valerieharms.com. Email queries to valerie@distinctlymontana.com. ROBERT RATH collects hyphens. Currently, he's an illustrator-designer-author-art director-dog walker living in Bozeman. He's illustrated many children's books, including the award-winning First Dog: Unleashed in the Montana Capitol, and Yellowstone's Hot Legends and Cool Myths. His clients include Lucasfilm, The History Channel, Scholastic Books, Farcountry Press and many others. He isn't allergic to anything, can't remember the names of housing subdivisions, likes to cook, can wiggle his ears, and hates writing bios. OUR ALEXIS PIKE

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