MontanaWithKids.com

Terry, Montana
By: Bob van der Valk

I heard an interesting tidbit at the annual Terry Roping Club meeting held recently at the Lazy JD Bar and Restaurant in Fallon, Montana.

Mark Dolatta, describing some of the local colorful Terry history, said that in Montana a gathering of four or more Indians (p.c. Native Americans) is considered a war party and you are allowed to shoot them on sight. (more…)

Landon Pigg and the Troth of Us with Inger Koppenhaver

Landon Pigg and the Troth of Us dropped by the Badlands Cafe and Scoop Shoppe in Terry, Montana on Saturday afternoon November 7, 2009. He and his group were on their way from Minneapolis to Seattle and felt an urge to drink some good coffee. They also picked up a basketball and football at Netzer Trustworthy Hardware store for some athletic recreation to keep them occupied during their road trip. (more…)

The promise of the authentic Terry Badlands look and feel hits you as soon as you enter the Badlands Café and Scoop Shoppe located in downtown Terry, Montana. (more…)

Dateline: Terry, Montana
September 20, 2009 5:30 PM MDT

You will soon be paying under $2 per gallon again for gasoline and diesel fuel In Montana and elsewhere. The crude oil price will go back down into the 40’s. So make plans for that trip to see the grandparents for the holidays as well as give the economy a much needed boost. (more…)

If you’re a good 100-miles off the beaten path in Montana, you may find yourself in a place like Virginia City, the near-sibling to Nevada City, both of which are historic and interesting. More than that, the drive out there from Bozeman (which is much shorter than you might think) is really beautiful. If you do find yourself in Virginia City, and you’re looking for an ounce of fun, you should check out the Virginia City Players.
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When we set out for the second time to spend a few weeks in Montana, we pledged to ourselves to hit all the big hotspots we missed the first time around. That means we’d hit Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Great Falls, Kalispell and even get up to Havre… but there are just so many things to see, it didn’t happen. From that whole list, the only place we got to was Great Falls, and it was well worth the trip.
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If you’re ever in up-city Helena, Montana and think you might be lost, there’s a good chance you are, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good things to see. By “up-city” I really mean “up-hill” and I know because even though we found a cool little park to revive us, we were already worn down by our uphill trek.
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As a reader on the web, it’s pretty likely you’ve heard of computers, but did you know that computers came from somewhere and they have a history of their own? Apparently they don’t just come from the store or the Fed-Ex guy, as I had previously believed, but there was a whole mega-tastic back-story behind this technology and this museum brings it all in to focus.
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The city of Missoula has really come into its own in the last ten years. I’m only five fingers, so I have to take it on faith and research (more the latter) and I’ve got to say, of all the places in Montana — and they were all great cities — Missoula is the best of all of them. Currents Aquatic Center might not be the best example of what’s great about Missoula, but it’s got to be easily in the top 2-3. Currents Aquatic Center is really fantastic.
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If you live in a city with a wide selection of professional sports, you may think of minor league games as little more than events that make parking difficult at unpredictable times for no good reason, but in pro-sports deprived cities, it can be a lot of fun. Businesses get behind it to do promotions and giveaways and attendance is strong. The people are there for the fun of it, not because they’re obsessive about baseball, but they do cheer for well-turned plays.
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Just west of Missoula, Montana, along the Interstate-90 corridor, drivers may notice signs for the Smokejumper Visitor Center. The name is a bit puzzling until you learn that it’s exactly what it sounds like – people jumping from planes into flames – and then the whole profession itself becomes the puzzle. I know Smokey says “Only you can prevent forest fires,” but these people take that catch phrase WAY too seriously.
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If you aren’t a Montana native, it would seem a bit unlikely you’d be traveling south away from Interstate-90 along the general Missoula-ish swath of the state. Maybe you’re passing by that way because you’re looking for adventure, or your taking a different route to find your way to stones yellow or jelly. I can’t speak to your motivation for driving in such directions, but I can give you advice once you commit to doing so.
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Our editorial board has seen zoos in Shanghai, San Francisco, Seattle, and probably other places for all I can be bothered to recall, so it takes a bit to impress us. The zoo in Billings, Montana did impress us, even if it didn’t knock our collective socks off. It’s a nice place, and a good value, but don’t get too giddy just yet.
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Historically, the train never made it all the way out to Virginia City, and it cost the settlers untold monies, whether they wanted to get goods or even just their mail (more than $1 over 100 years ago, if you can believe everything they tell you on your local tour), but that hasn’t stopped the local chamber of commerce from getting motive with their own chugga-chugga-short-line-choo-choo, and as a kid right in their demographic wheelhouse, I must admit it makes for great fun to ride.
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There was a place we went to fairly early in our travels that struck us so singularly we just didn’t know how to properly cover it short of spending three or four days writing it up. The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana has so much to see, experience and enjoy, it was a real struggle to figure out what to write up to truly pay them tribute. So after much deliberation, delay, and staff meetings we finally decided the single best feature of the place is everything.
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Whether you live in Billings, Montana or you’re just passing through, this oversized funplex has something for kids of all ages. They’ve got a massive laser tag arena, crazy fast go-karts, putt-putt golf, a modern arcade, and even a mega-climbing zone for kids like me that just want to go into a maze of plastic tubes for an hour or so.
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I’m not familiar with the country of Elk, but I’m not familiar with my own country either, no matter how much of it I’ve traveled, so I won’t try to make like I’m some geographical prodigy or anything. I’ll just tell you that we didn’t need passports to visit Elk Country, and the visitor’s center was worth ten times the suggested donation, and even that was only a suggestion.
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The town of Anaconda in Montana has tarnished a bit since the close of the world class smelter operation some years back. The classic homes are still there, and its history is richer for the journey, but today tourists make up a good part of the city’s plan. That’s why they built the Copper Chute Slide, however, I can’t help but think, “Smelter? that’s a funny word.”
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There’s a city in Montana called Butte, and I know what you’re thinking, it sounds like something else (specifically “cute,” — which as far as cities go, it is — but there’s a lot more to the place than just having a great name. Turns out it also has a great history, but I’m not going to spend any time on that either. I’m here to talk about the Berkeley Pit.
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Public parks are supposed to belong to public people, and I know few people more public than us. I’ve been in the spotlight since before I was even born, so I was prepared to be the expert I am on all such things. Seems the public here wants water at their parks, so water they do have.
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Of all the dozens of museums we saw in Montana, easily the most unassuming of all would be the Museum of the North Great Plains. It’s not a super catchy name, and it doesn’t tell you much about what it does. Parking out front, all you can see is that it looks like it used to be a warehouse or maybe a furniture store… once inside, however, you better be holding on to your socks, because they’re about to get knocked off.
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Butte Montana has a solid handful of things going for it. Not the least of which is that an easy majority of the buildings in town are built out of brick, which is odd all by itself, though odder still, you won’t find a brick museum. One of the less assuming attractions in Butte is the Piccadilly Transportation Memorabilia Museum, which is pretty sound, even without keeping the free admission in mind.
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When you’re driving east from Bozeman, Montana, the first real attraction you’ll find along Interstate-90 is quite a grizzly encounter. I’m not passing judgment, that’s what it’s called, the Grizzly Encounter. They buy billboards by the boatload, but don’t tap into the state tourism web site, so it’s an easy one to miss if you don’t have eyes while driving, but it’s there nonetheless.
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In 1988 a man had a vision. It wasn’t of sugar plums, as you might expect, but of an authentic, old-timey carousel ride in his hometown of Missoula, Montana. Spoiler alert: he made his vision big enough for a whole city and now they have A Carousel for Missoula, it’s a carousel like none other in the world.
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To clarify, a dirt devil tour is similar to a whirlwind tour, except a little smaller and a whole lot dustier. We saddled up our four-door pony and headed east towards the famous gold-chocked westerly hills of “them thar” fame. We were bound for Montana and as soon as we crossed the border we found us a town of decent size for our first stop.
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