Sherry Devlin

Tales of Montana Christmases past show years of sadness and struggle, joy and celebration.

Missoula is one of the wickedest, most raucous, meanest towns in America! As I noted in my book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was/Headline Stories of Montana’s Early Days, Vol. 1,” one local resident shared that view of the Garden City with a newspaper reporter in 1883.

In 1923, the Treasure State News reported on a Worden-area farmer who claimed his tobacco crop was “equal, if not superior, in quality to that grown anywhere else.”

“Lack of Houses Greatest Problem Facing the Nation,” declared the headline. No, it isn’t today’s headline, though it could be; it’s from 1920!

One hundred years ago, it looked like the Missoula City Band was done. Kaput. All washed up. Finished. Out of business. Down the drain. Wiped out. Or as announced in the local paper, “The Garden City Band has disbanded and presented its instruments to the University Band.”

By Jim Harmon/Missoula Current A Missoula Current reader recently asked, “Has there ever been a story about the Blue Mountain Trailhead south of Missoula? We hike there a lot and know that it was part of a ranch and then the Army? Used it for a range?” ...

Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission voted unanimously to require auto manufacturers to begin producing and delivering a growing number of zero-emission vehicles to Oregon beginning in 2026, so that they make up 100% of new vehicles sold in the state by 2035.