Ok.. who knows about Montana?

[Sal316]

This desert heat is too much for me. I can't take another summer of 115+ days!

Thinking of Montana.... for a few reasons which are only known to a select few.....

So.. anyone know what it's like?

[FloridaPat]

1. No people and 3 days of summer.

Close to Canada if you have to leave the country in a hurry

[kaitykaity]

2. Don't like heat?

Come to Oregon/Washington.

It rains here over six months of the year,
it never snows, it gets over 100 maybe once a year,
and Portland/Eugene are especially liberal/progressive.

The bad news is the economy sucks big fat rotten
eggs, but if you're persistent . . .

Montana is Big Sky country. My dad grew up there,
and I've been three or four times. It's very white,
very conservative, and very empty. The winters are
really bad, too.

Dawn

[AntiCoup2K4]

3. Montana, where men are men...

...and the sheep are scared :scared:

But that's okay. Because it's easy to get out of the state when you can drive "Any reasonable speed" on the freeway in the daylight. And even if you get pulled over, just pay the cop $5 and you're outa there.

[Ediacara]

4. I live in Montana

But not a native. It's pretty neat, but no cities over 100,000 people. Missoula is awesome, Bozeman is cool too, Billings is gross, and everywhere else is just small town hell.

It can get hot here in the summer, it's been in the 90s and 100s this past week, and if you're in the prairie, it's REALLY hot.

It can get cold here too. Really fucking unbearibly cold! Like, it's -30F and people say stuff like, "man it was cold when I walked to school this morning."

MAN IT WAS COLD!

WALKED!!

SCHOOL IN SESSION!!!

PEOPLE ACTUALLY FUNCTION IN TEMPERATURES THAT ARE AS FAR FROM FREEZING AS 90F IS FROM FREEZING!!!!!

Speaking as a native Seattleite, with a usual anual temperature range of about 25 - 85, the hot and cold extremes are pretty extreme, although, I hardly notice 100 degrees

[ibegurpard]

12. I grew up here and live here again after being away for years.

I respectfully disagree with Dinoboy about Billings...it WAS gross when I was growing up but it has changed a LOT. It's the only place in Montana that even feels CLOSE to a real city. There are a lot more cultural opportunities here now than there were 13 years ago (when I left) and I would venture to say has much more to offer on that front than Bozeman. Downtown Billings has revitalized with a number of interesting restaurants, shops, and galleries moving in in recent years. Older buildings have been converted to housing with more under construction and in the planning stages. Billings is close to 100,000 people...92,000 as of the 2000 census with close to 130,000 in the metro area (Yellowstone County). It IS more conservative than Missoula but I'm not so sure about Bozeman...Bozeman has been overrun with latte-swilling yuppies who have dragged the area further to the right than it used to be. I have family that are natives of the Bozeman area and they lament the rightward trend of recent years. The only thing that Bozeman has over Billings, in my opinion, is a better natural setting and better outdoor recreational opportunities
It can get pretty hot here in the summer (although rarely over 100) but there is no humidity to speak of. Winters CAN be brutal for sure (and they are worse in Bozeman AND Missoula than Billings)...however, I would take a cold Montana winter anyday over a Texas or Louisiana summer (I lived in both places for a while). The state's nickname is no exaggeration...the sky really is bigger here. :D

[Sal316]

16. Thanks for the info.

I'd much rather deal with winter than the summers here. They say it's a dry heat, but so's a blast furnace and you don't see me sticking my head in one!

Peace

[Sal316]

15. Thanks Dinoboy.

I grew up in Detroit before moving to AZ.... so I remember walking to school in below 0 temperatures in the winter.

100 isn't all that bad, that's spring here. Once it hits 105, that's when we call it 'hot'.

[Phoenixtongueof fire]

5. He is a football player.......

with a cute ass.......
Oh, wait, you're not talking about Joe Montana, are you?
They other Montana........who cares?

[Spirochete]

6. All I know...

is that it's been touted as a good place to raise up a crop of dental floss.

[mrbill]

9. lot of dental floss tycoons......

.....riding little ponies.

the capital is helana.

custer ran into trouble in montana.

[Kat45]

17. with a pair of heavy-duty zircon-encrusted tweezers

edit: spelling

[Coffee Coyote]

19. gonna get a cup of cawfee...

And give my foot a push!
Me and the pygmy pony over by the dental floss bush! :D

[sandnsea]

7. How cold is it?

Find a walk-in freezer and sit in it for half an hour. Then know that's like a WARM day during a Montana winter.

Montana is great, very basic people. No frills. I never found politics, religion or any other attitudes to come into relationships anywhere near as much as they do here in Oregon. People tend to take you for what you are. As long as you're honest and trying to be responsible to your family and community, that's about all they ask. Different parts of the state are changing, but that's how it was when I lived there in the 80's and early 90's. And from my point of view, they went to the right because they lost so many jobs for environmental reasons. They care about the environment, but it's tough when you have no job and see millions of acres of trees just sitting there. I really think that's the biggest issue, guns and local control are important, but not as important as a job. Popular bumper sticker "Montana is not a zoo".

[carpetbagger]

22. Having worked in a walk-in freezer in a past life...

It's not the cold, it's the humidity.

[dawgman]

8. same fucking thing but it's humid tooo..........

[skyzics]

10. Asking what montana is almost like is like asking..

what california is like. Varies greatly from region to region and also place to place within a region. Having lived there for a few years (Great Falls), I will give it a try, though.

The only progressively oriented areas I know of are Missoula, Bozeman.. and perhaps to some degree, Helena.

Most of the state's economy is based on ranching, farming and resource extraction of one form or another (mining, timber, hunting). Therefore, strongly conservative to reactionary political elements predominate throughout the state, with the exception of a few small enclaves (Missoula and Bozeman mainly). There was a strong union presence in the past (especially Great Falls area) and as a result a moderate or conservative Democrat can get elected, but that is the exception, not the rule.

There is a smattering of local environmental elements and activists that wield relatively little influence in the overall scheme of things.

The weather is generally brutal.. but varies considerably between east and west... and even southwest. Daily variations are greater from the Rocky Mountain Front eastward. Winters are obnoxiously cold and long statewide - along with lots of low cloudiness in the western valleys (Missoula/Kalispell) in the winter months. In fall, winter and spring the wind is often incessant along the eastern front of the rockies and points east.. the wind is much less prevalent in the western valleys - while the southwest in in between the too.. but can get briefly very windy. Considerable smoke and haze can build up in the western valleys and southwest valleys with the extreme inversions that often set up in winter - especially in the Missoula area. Sunnier skies and more clear air prevail in the southwest and across the plains.

The reason for the winds.. well, eastern Montana is known to suck.. often at the same time as western Montana blows.

Cowboy types are usually at home there. Traditionally. Montana is a state where the men are men.. and the sheep are nervous.

[Sal316]

14. I know it was kind of a nebulous question....

...but I have absolutely NO knowledge of Montana except that it's next to Canada.

Thanks for all the info.

:-)

[inthecorneroverhere]

21. Missoula is outrageously expensive for travelers

Bozeman was all right. If you're an outdoors person who likes a nice woodstove in the winter you might like Montana.

[SoCalDem]

11. Some celebrities have bought land there

I guess they wanted a place to escape the ratrace:)

[FuriousMNDem]

13. Their Governor is Judy Martz.

:puke:

She's less popular than Gray Davis, apparently.

Other than that, it's beautiful, from what I understand.

[yellowdog]

18. Great Falls, Montana

is one of my favorite places in the country. For the past several years it has averaged 5 to 10 degrees warmer in the winter that it is here in Dubuque, Iowa. If you like the outdoors it is one of the best places in the country. The eastern part of the state is pretty conservative, but the western north-south corridor (Glacier to Bozeman) is pretty liberal. And, yes, Judy Martz truly, truly sucks.

[scucci]

20. It's beautiful, not a lot of people...

and no horrible Midwest summers so to me it's perfect. Hell, I'll move with you! :)

[marigold20]

23. We lived in Montana for 10 years

2 years in Havre "Havre has it!" and 8 in Helena. We received the Butte TV station in Helena and the ever cheerful weather lady would start EVERY forecast with "Well, it's a pretty nice day in Southwest Montana - high today 15 below, low tonight 35 below." Summer or winter it was always a pretty nice day.

I do remember crying once over the long cold spell in Havre but when a Chinook wind took the temp from 20 below to 32 above in 20 minutes, well that did add some excitement to the winter.

I miss Montana so much - maybe we'll retire there.

[sandnsea]

24. Chinookin' - shirt sleeve weather!!!

My daughter was born in Havre in the middle of a February snow storm. We were there for about 4 years. You feel like you can handle anything after a winter in Havre!