Nature/Environment Travel USA

On the road: Montana, part 1

Bozeman: City gem in the “Valley of Flowers.

“Bozeman has become so expensive,” everyone I meet here tells me. That’s why Nancy moved to nearby Livingston. Bozeman is hip. The summers here are less dry and the winters less cold than in other places in Montana.

Many of the 55,000 or so residents have moved here only in recent years, since Bozeman has become a popular place to live and vacation. Many also just have a vacation home here. In summer there is great hiking and mountain biking in the area, and in winter there is skiing and snowboarding. Yellowstone National Park is only an hour’s drive away.

At the in-bakery “Wild Crumb” people are almost always standing in line. Not to be seen on the photo: The dog’s owner has a purple ponytail to match her dog’s hairstyle.

Mountains, forests, buffalo, lots of land, few people: This is Montana. That’s why I’m here. I didn’t see any bears, though, even while hiking along Bear Canyon Creek. But just in case, I had bear spray, a kind of pepper spray, with me.

While hiking along Stone Creek Trail, I meet David Clay Large. A cultural historian who used to live in Bozeman, he still spends summers here at his second home. The rest of the year he teaches at Berkley University in California – the history of Berlin. One of those traveling coincidences…

David Clay Large has written dozens of books about Germany, which have also been translated into several languages. He helped with the translations into German in each case. Thirty years ago, he once interviewed famous Leni Riefenstahl, he says. Once Hitler’s favourite film-maker, she was already 90 years old at the time – and still flirted with him.

When we meet on Stone Creek Trail, David Clay Large tells me about a Russian family that lived near the creek about a hundred years ago. In the solitude of the wilderness, the family members apparently would have lost their minds and shot each other. Their dilapidated blog huts would still be there today. And indeed: After about twenty minutes of walking I stand down by the stream next to the remains of the huts.

Back in Bozeman, I go to the county’s history museum, the Gallatin History Museum, once the county jail.

Research director Rachel Phillips finds some old articles in the archives about the family tragedy at Stone Creek. According to them, in November 1919, the father shot one of his adult sons in a fit of paranoia and was subsequently committed to a mental institution. Later, his wife and the rest of the family also ended there. Rachel Philipps recounts that it was quite common at that time to place impoverished, possibly even homeless people, with whom one knew nothing to do, in an “insane asylum”.

Bozeman_Montana_USA_Rebecca-Hillauer
Family tragedy 1919 ©Canyon Cookery (a Bridger Canyon history cookbook)

Indigenous tribes that passed through the Bozeman area much earlier gave it the name “Valley of Flowers”. The nickname for the entire state of Montana is Treasure State – because of the abundance of mineral resources (oil, coal, copper, silver and gold). Montana is one of the largest coal suppliers in the United States. This is despite a unique clause in the state constitution that concerned conservationists pushed through in the 1970s:

„All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment.“

Constitution of the US state of Montana

That clause is currently being invoked by a group of 16 Montana children and young adults who have sued their state for environmental and climate damage. Most importantly, they are challenging the constitutionality of a provision in the state’s environmental code. It prohibits government agencies from considering climate impacts when reviewing permit applications related to fossil fuels.

In Bozeman, posters in support of the case “Held v. Montana” – named for the lead plaintiff, Rikki Held – are everywhere.

Rikki Held’s family operates a ranch in the eastern part of the state. At the June trial in Helena, the state capital, Held, now 22, testified that wildfires, extreme temperatures and drought were increasingly affecting her family’s livelihood.

The historic lawsuit could result in similar ones – after earlier lawsuits were dismissed even before the trial. The young people are being represented by the non-governmental organization Our Children’s Trust, which specializes in environmental law. It also represents another group of teenage plaintiffs from various states who have sued the U.S. government in Washington over its environmental policies. That trial is now scheduled to begin soon. The verdict in Held v. Montana is expected by August.

PS: Five U.S. states – Pennsylvania, Montana, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Hawaii – have enacted environmental rights provisions in their constitutions in the 1970s. See also PBS NewsHour.


Addendum, August 14, 2023:

A judge has ruled in favor of the young Montana plaintiffs. See on Substack my news selection of August 19, 2023.

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