Opinion
Searching for opinion based articles? Below we'll share opinion news articles on a wide variety of topics.
Life at 20 below
There is something about being out in weather that is colder than 20 below that is both alarming and exhilarating.
Advice to new residents
To the multitudes now moving to and visiting Montana, please resist the temptation to recreate, the chaos and unsavory aspects and expectations you left behind.
The worst birthday
A classic G. George Ostrom column from July 2009...
Remembering Duke
Another action-packed, mostly fun-filled weekend on the North Fork. It all started on Friday with a big memorial for Duke Hoiland. Although this was not technically a fun event, it was a solemn tribute to a man w...
Rosendale defends vote against Juneteenth
In theory there is nothing wrong with a celebration of emancipation. The freeing of the slaves was one of the great steps forward for this country, an end to the darkest chapter in American history. But we don’...
Traffic
Without a doubt, summer is the busiest time of the year on the North Fork—at least for the human animals. Before the Fourth of July we have already had a history tour in Glacier Park conducted by the McFarland an...
GOP defends outdoors record
The rights to hunt, fish, and access our public lands are ingrained in Montana’s Constitution, our state’s heritage, and in the hearts and minds of the people you elect to represent you in Helena. Republican le...
Is he from the Deep South or Montana?
I think it was the 1977 Montana Republican state convention, and the speaker standing before the delegates was newly elected Congressman Ron Marlenee. Facing criticism from some of the hard right element of his ...
Thoughts on Inside Road
For years Glacier Park swore that they would repair and reopen the Inside Road. This went on for so long that I, and others, believed they were just kicking the can down the road until they could just abandon the...
Fistfight with a griz
Human conversations are amazing in the way odd or forgotten subjects pop up out of nowhere. That’s the way it is in my coffee chats with Over the Hill Gangers. Someone last Tuesday recalled the Glacier Park hiker...
Of ribs and rescues
A classic G. George Ostrom column from 1994. Beside the trillion wild flowers, billion trees and shrubs, million displays of lichens and moss, hundred thousand rills, riffles, and waterfalls, Glacier Park has t...
Firefighters deserve a decent wage
“It’s like having gasoline out there,” said Brian Steinhardt, forest fire zone manager for Prescott and Coconino national forests in Arizona, in a recent AP story about the increasingly fire-prone West.
Cold comforts
So the other day I rolled out of bed early and me and the kid went to Glacier. It was not warm outside, but the sun was shining so it wasn’t bad, either.
Historic road trip
Since I turned seventy years of age I have not been fond of birthdays and now, at 84, I really dislike them. Nevertheless, this year I received one of the best birthday presents I can remember.
Vain justices?
Do you remember reading The Emperor’s New Clothes in grade school? It was about a vain emperor who gets exposed to his subjects.
On losing the seat
Thirty years ago, Montana lost one of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives we had held for 80 years. The mathematical formula that was used to determine the distribution of Representatives after Census ...