Author

Kim Briggeman

Kim Briggeman

Hurry back, Timberjack

By: - December 13, 2021

Gentle suggestion, dear reader: Before plunging into what comes next, warm up in the bullpen by Googling “Timberjack movie song.” (Or click on the link here.) Or don’t, if you don’t want to have the song bouncing between your ears for the next few days, or weeks, or years.  Ready? Maybe you heard that former […]

‘New’ Milltown ‘Black Bridge’ turns 100 today

By: and - November 9, 2021

“The new bridge across the Blackfoot river at Milltown is now open to traffic, according to an announcement yesterday by the county commissioners. The old bridge was closed last February and a detour was made necessary. Another bridge several hundred feet north of the present structure was used. … Work on the bridge is not […]

COMMENTARY

An ode to the (free) official state highway map

By: - June 13, 2021

His name was going to be Robert Jordan. It was my nod to Hemingway’s hero in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” His Jordan was a fictional young man who left his job teaching Spanish at the University of Montana to blow up railroads and bridges during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Coincidental […]

The mystery of the Ringing Rocks

By: - April 4, 2021

PIPESTONE – Thanksgiving and Butte were in the rearview mirror. There was no snow on the last Sunday of last November, but it was beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. After a bumpy 4½ -mile drive up from the Pipestone Exit of Interstate 90, it seemed only natural for a nimble girl and her […]

COMMENTARY

The map of Montana doesn’t always make sense

By: - February 28, 2021

Missoula is the seat of Missoula County. Wibaux is the center of government for Wibaux County on the other side of the state. The towns of Cascade, Fergus, Musselshell and Rosebud all reside in counties of their name fellows. Makes sense, right? Ah, but one of the charms of the Treasure State is its whimsical […]

COMMENTARY

A meteor, aliens or just a magnificent view?

By: - January 20, 2021

CADOTTE PASS – This is big country up here on the Continental Divide, even bigger if you’re searching for the skid marks of an 1865 UFO. Whether or not James Lumley, “an old Rocky Mountain trapper,” was telling a tall tale when he got back to St. Louis, his story thrust this low crossing over […]