Squashing the Competition
A University of Montana version of "Iron Chef America" pitted three teams against each other in a battle royal. The main ingredient - winter squash in all its glory.
I am the digital director of the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, MT. This site features some of the projects and the backstories of my work as a reporter in rural Western Montana and around the world. The west is facing incredible pressure as people continue to move to the last open spaces. These are the stories, the faces, the emotions, and the visual record of the people who live here, the people moving in and the people who've always been here.
A University of Montana version of "Iron Chef America" pitted three teams against each other in a battle royal. The main ingredient - winter squash in all its glory.
The man whose dream helped create the Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery was finally laid to rest there. Steve Koski, who passed away in 2002, believed that western Montana veterans deserved to be buried right here in Missoula.
The historic 2008 election. As seen through the eyes of Missoulians.
We beat television news by responding to the announcement of a derailed train in Plains, Montana as soon as we heard it. The BNSF train lost 19 cars, and 37-tons of soybeans were spilled into the Clark Fork River. The video was edited on the return trip and posted immediately.
Auctioneers sped through the old buildings of the Bonner Mill site, as bidders from around the west came to find deals at the 122-year-old mill. I was able to write this story, shoot a video and post it all before 12:00 p.m., to beat television news.
Montana Conservation Corps volunteers installed a recycled plastic playground made from old milk bottles for the kids at homeWORD this week. Crews often give back to the community this time of year after spending months digging trails around Western Montana and Idaho.
Four guys have been carving together in Chuck Kaparich's garage for 19 years. But their relationship transcends carving, in fact, it transcends normal, every day relationships. Find out what makes these friendships special.
Lakeside, Montana is not exactly Nashville, but there is some great music coming out of the seasonal resort town on the shores of Flathead Lake. Studio 501 is a project of Youth With A Mission, a non-denominational missions organization, but the studio caters to people of all faiths.
Malachi Cryder's goal is to rid the Clark Fork and the Bitterroot rivers of the dreaded northern pike. Along the way, he's perfected a new fly and caught some of the biggest game fish in western Montana.
University of Montana students answer random questions about everyday life ast they begin a new semester at UM.
Bill Galloway is walking from Seattle to New Jersey. But he's not walking for charity. He needs to get to New Jersey to get treatment for his cancer. The Missoulian caught up with him in Clinton, MT.
There is a new bocce ball court at Lake Missoula Cellars in west Missoula. The owners built it with the hopes of starting a bocce league in town. Drop-in bocce night starts next Wednesday.
Missoula's fashion-forward kickball league is entering its second season. Follow the competition through the first two weeks.
Follow around two of Missoula's garbage men as they complete their Olympic-like tasks of collecting the city's trash.
See the sights and hear the sounds of the 2008 River City Roots Festival.
The Missoulian talks to Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis about her new play, "The Other Side of the Island," an adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Dukakis stars in and directs the play.
U.S. Highway 2 between Columbia Falls and West Glacier is a constant line of tourist traps, RV parks, golf courses, fun centers and other odd attractions. Take a tour down the Road to Glacier with Missoulian reporters Michael Gallacher, Vince Devlin and Tim Akimoff.
Take a helicopter tour of Glacier National Park with Glacier Heli Tours.
A cooling pond at the Stimson Lumber site in Bonner contains cancer-causing PCBs, according to a new Montana Department of Environmental Quality study. The director of Montana DEQ, along with Gov. Brian Schweitzer, talked to reporters about the problem.
Hank Green, of Missoula, along with his brother John Green, of Indianapolis, decided to communicate only through video blogs for one year. The experiment brought them closer together, it also made them Internet famous.
Jerry Black does more than make lemonade from lemons. He figured out that moose poop actually smells like willow incense when dried and burned. Now he sells his "Moose Cense" at the Missoula Farmers Market when he's not out collecting more "raw" material.
Tyler Boshae, a 23-year-old Bitterroot Valley resident, suffers from brutal tics brought on by Tourette Syndrome. A dangerous surgery could give him a normal life. This is home video shot over the course of his childhood.
Jase and Dylan Lewis figured out a unique way to make some back-to-school cash this year. They sell Kool-Aid to Hells Angels attending the motorcycle club's stay at Marshall Mountain, part of their annual USA Run.
A fast-moving 300+acre fire moved up Mount Sentinel late Wednesday afternoon. Fire crews battled the blaze from the ground with limited air support as Missoula's tankers are in California helping to fight fires in that state.
Two sub-adult grizzlies had some springtime fun in a field below the Grand Teton. Snow in the high country has forced many Northern Rocky grizzly bears into lower areas, making it a great year to spot them.
Volunteers work to restore the Mineral Peak Lookout, one of only a few tall towers left in Montana. Lookout lovers feel the towers and mountain-top lookouts are a vital part of the U.S. Forest Service's history and should be restored and protected.
Enrique Marquez Banda has traveled to Missoula every year for the past three years. He spends his days and nights on Mount Jumbo tending a herd of weed-eating sheep for rancher John Stahl This is his story.
Mobash Skatepark was one stop on a 10-city, 43-day tour attended by some of the top pros in skateboarding. Omar Hassan and Emmanuel Guzman talk to the Missoulian about the experience.
The residents of the Larson Apartments in Hot Springs have paid their rent faithfully. Still, they faced eviction and having their water turned off because the property owner was foreclosed on and neglected to pay the water bill.
Father's Day often means a new pair of socks, a tie or maybe a new barbecue for dad. But dads mean a whole lot to the people of Missoula. Here are a few Missoulians to talk about dads.
The Seeley Lake Food Bank is flat broke. That's because of a huge influx of users since January. And although this is occurring all over the state, remote areas like Seeley Lake are seeing the brunt of the problem.
The Jocko Lakes fire near Seeley Lake should have been fertile ground for a spring bonanza of morel mushrooms. but a long, cool spring has kept the prized fungi under ground so far.
The last logs rolled through the longest continuously operating sawmill in America this week. Stimson Mill in Bonner, Montana, will close indefinitely. These are the stories of those who were the last to leave.
The largest snowpack in recent memory has contributed to high water levels on Western Montana's rivers. City workers struggled to remove bridges in Greenough park ahead off surging flood waters.
Anna LaCroix is a cheerful two-year-old who is hearing for the first time. Medical technology has allowed Anna to hear the sounds of birds, dogs barking and her family for the first time.
Colony collapse disorder seems to be wreaking havoc on bee hives around the world. Montana bee keepers needing to replenish their hives after a particularly bad year did so in Missoula recently.
When Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey tried to keep the lid on secret meetings between the nation's largest landowner and the U.S. Government, the Missoulian broke the news. This is Mark Rey's apology in Missoula.
The University of Montana Woodsman Team hosted the Western Forestry Clubs Conclave in Missoula. Woodsman's games are no joke, they involve throwing axes, climbing poles and running with a chainsaw in hand.
Faculty and students, including members of the Griz football team, donned high-heeled shoes to bring awareness to the issues of sexual assault, rape and gender attacks on women.
One of the oldest student-led powwows in the country, Kyi-Yo brought in dancers and big-time host drums from all over the country to celebrate the 40th year.
The Strength Team, based out of Missoula, MT., and with another headquarters in Dallas, TX., performs feats of physical strength to get the attention of young people. But the team lauds strength of character over physical strength as a way to encourage kids.
Kate Davis' birds travel all over Western Montana to educate youngsters. Check out the big birds of prey as they take some time off at the ranch.
The hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. are considered high-risk behavior hours for school kids in Missoula. Writing, and other after school projects tend to keep kids busy and away from risky choices.
Barack Obama drew thousands of Missoulians to the Adams Center as the rarely visited state of Montana saw a barage of stump speeches over the weekend.
Hillary Clinton stumped in Missoula after a boisterous weekend of campaigning by both candidates in a state that rarely sees this kind of attention.
The Milltown dam was breached to make way for the cleanup of the world's largest superfund site. The breaching opened the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers to upstream fish movement for the first time in 100 years.
There are angels at St. Patricks Hospital in Missoula. Patients swear by it. Angels indeed. These three women have been washing hair at the hospital for many years. And that simple service makes a big difference to those who must spend time in the hospital.
This two-year-old black bear can't seem to stay out of trouble. A recent relocation placed the bear in a high-tech bear den wired with cameras on the rural property of a land owner from the East coast. The cameras are intended to serve for educational purposes for the Montana Departmen of Fish and Wildlife. The web feed will be available to the land owner as well.
A dozen bighorn sheep were removed from Wildhorse Island on Flathead Lake in an effort to keep the large herd on the island healthy. The sheep were moved to a smaller herd in northwest Montana.
Snowmobiles were banned from Yellowstone National Park in 2005 in an effort to cut down on noise and pollution. Watch and listen to the park in winter three years after the ban went into effect.
Gelande, a form of ski jumping, is not as prevelant as it once was, but a group of hard-core Montana jumpers have been fanning the embers in hopes of a return to glory.
BlogI started blogging about craft beer while I lived in Oregon. The idea was to create blogs that might appeal to the under-40 set. The Grizzly Growler is truly new media. It is part news, part entertainment. It is comprised of video, audio and text posts with a strong photo base. Check it out. Grizzly Growler.