Big Sky Blog

County #1 in Montana, according to our license plates, is Butte-Silver Bow. There are about 35,000 people in the 715 square miles, most of them concentrated in the historic mining town of Butte, also known affectionately as “Butte, America.” Butte has a large Irish population, as evidenced by the world-class St Patrick’s Day celebration. Butte is also famous as the birthplace of the greatest American daredevil: Evel Knievel. Also of note is the Berkeley Pit, which functions as both an environmental cause and a tourist attraction. And if there’s a movie with the words “Psycho Sheep” in the title, well…you know it just has to be “Psycho Sheep Of Butte!”

Don’t forget to check out the Google Map of Butte!

The roster of all of the Big Sky Bloggers! Please let me know of anyone that I have missed, and keep me posted of new bloggers. If you ever run out of blogs to read, come on over here and just start clicking!

The 2008 Montana H.O.G. Rally will be held in and around Great Falls on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week (June 26-28). H.O.G. stands for “Harley Owners Group,” by the way. This year, the H.O.G. is going for a pirate theme:

Arrrr matey – Hoist anchor and set sail to join us in Great Falls, Montana on June 26-28, 2008, for a few days of swashbuckling merriment. This will be the time to show off your gleaming galleons as the “Chromed Armada” passes through the heart of the city.
We’ll party at pirate’s cove and venture out to the “Barbary Coast” for evenings filled with grub, grog, lively chanteys, and the fellowship of your comrades.
Test your wit in the pirate’s quest or decode the clues for a chance at the treasure chest. We might even make you walk the plank.
Sift through the shifting sands to find buried gems or eat like a king at the Captain’s Feast.
You won’t want to miss this – Montana’s gathering of buccaneers, cutthroats, & wenches.

Events scheduled for the 3-day party include Poker Runs, Treasure Hunts, Parade of the Chromed Armada, and more. Even if you’re not a registered participant, it should be fun to see the HOGs out & about Great Falls!

Got an e-mail from Cynthia, a soon-to-be-nurse who wants to relocate to Montana and is looking for information:

Hey there from Delaware!!! I am planning a move to Montana next spring/summer after I complete my Nursing degree!!! So I will be coming with skills!!! (Second Career) I would like to get some feedback regarding your opinions about the hospitals/med centers. I am thinking of Kalispell, Great Falls, Missoula. Any feedback would really be appreciated! I have read your comments about all the “out of stater’s” and really do understand! That is what has happened here and not for the better!! I don’t want to move to Montana to change it or increase anyone’s expenses, I NEED elbow room!!! We are packed in here like sardines!!!! Any feed back on the hospitals would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!

Of course, I’m biased towards Great Falls, which serves as the medical hub for a huge swatch of north and central Montana (and southern Alberta!). We have the largest single hospital in Montana, Benefis, and also the Great Falls Clinic, in addition to many smaller ambulatory care, residential, and specialized facilities. And Benefis is expanding, so will likely need more nurses soon. You can also check out the listing of MT Health Jobs – pretty good search function. So…anyone else want to offer advice on the medical community in the other towns? ALSO: check out the other Moving To Montana threads (more, more)!

We have a new Miss Montana: Jennifer Hepner, a student at UM in Missoula, was crowned Saturday night!

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Miss Hepner; she’s a good kid. She represented Great Falls at the 2007 pageant and the 2006 pageant.

Related: Miss Montana 2007; Miss Montana 2006; and Miss Montana 2005.

For all sorts of population statistical break-outs by county, city, town, unincorporated area or ZIP Code:

1. First go to: FactFinder @ Census.gov

2. At the top of the page, where it says, “Get a Fact Sheet for your community…”, enter the name of the county, city, town, unincorporated area or ZIP Code (if using the ZIP Code, bear in mind that the borders of ZIP Codes are not the same as the borders of the community whose name that ZIP Code “shares”) in the box labeled “town” and select Montana for “state”, and then click “GO”.

You will be able to access tables that show how many and, except for counties, maps that show where the different races and socio-economic groups are in that city, town, area or ZIP Code. Here’s an example using Bozeman.

How many of you got snow yesterday? We did in Great Falls – nearly seven inches! On the other side of the Divide, Tall Pines saw a dusting, too.
A husband and wife blogging team.
Want to know who is Twittering in your vicinity? Try Twitter Local.
If you like “Ghost Hunters,” then you might enjoy learning more about the Montana Association of Paranormal Studies.
Scan Montana allows you to listen to police and fire radio channels; only Billings so far, but maybe they will offer other communities soon.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying too much attention to the Republican primary a couple of days ago, but now that the dust has settled, I’m…uh…surprised that the Republican nominee for US Senate is perennial candidate Bob Kelleher (official site). His nomination has even garnered attention from some of the blogosphere big boys, including the folks over at the Volokh Conspiracy and Wizbang Blog. If you’ve never heard of Kelleher, here’s a little background:

For the last 44 years, Kelleher has run for office 16 times and lost 15. His only taste of victory came in 1971, when he was elected a delegate to Montana’s Constitutional Convention. There, he helped replace the state’s century-old territorial constitution with one of the most progressive governing documents in the nation. Kelleher’s political passion then, as now, is unique – and largely unpopular: He wants to replace the U.S. Senate, House and presidency with a parliament. Kelleher, an 85-year-old attorney from Butte, will challenge Democrat incumbent Max Baucus in November. The new nominee’s views are far from the mainstream Republican party in Montana. He has run as both a Democratic and a Green Party candidate.

If you’d like to see Kelleher in action during a previous election – and see how he compares to former Blue Man Candidate Stan Jones – check out this Comedy Central interview. In other Kelleher news: some Ron Paul devotees want to adopt Bob, and a Daily Kos blogger (from Great Falls) offers some thoughts.

I’m not sure what calendar she is referring to, but Tara from Ohio has posted a blog entry about “Montana Appreciation Day!” I did some light Googling and couldn’t find any references to such, but I sure like the idea of having a day of appreciation for our wonderful state! Tara, we might have to make you an honorary Montanan :-)

UPDATE: thanks for the comment, Tara! Folks, check out some of Tara’s other calendars, such as this one for May 2008.

Police need your help; information from the GF Tribune:

Anaconda-Deerlodge police are searching for an Anaconda woman who has been missing for two weeks. Detective Bill Sather says 45-year-old Helena Gracia’s sister reported her missing last Saturday.

Her family last saw her on May 23, when she went to the store to get groceries and fill a prescription for her mother. Police say Gracia was last seen later that day with a man at an Anaconda bar. Gracia’s brother, Mike, says the family wasn’t immediately alarmed, because she had talked about going to Missoula to look for a job. However, when calls to her cell phone went unanswered for days, the family called police.

Gracia’s car was found behind the bar last Sunday. The car was locked, the groceries were inside, rotting, and Gracia’s purse and her mother’s medication were also found in the vehicle.

More details are at the Montana Standard. Note that there are different spellings given for her last name, Gracia and Garcia; not sure which is correct. If you have any information about her whereabouts contact your local police or sheriff’s office.