Before barbed wire many ranches raised cattle free range, meaning without fences, and cowboys would drive herds of cattle up to halfway across the country. This ranch helps preserve a few elements of that iconic way of life, as a working ranch with beaver-slide hay stackers (invented nearby) and a variety of animals. The displays depicting the cowboys put real faces on the young men whose lifestyle was romanticized by books, radio, TV and film.

When I stay in state park campgrounds, like Bannack near here, I’ve been reading Louis L’Amour’s books which helped mythologize the West. I often find I’m following the same routes and seeing the same places he did. One of his scripts could easily have come from the history of Bannack where a corrupt sheriff and his gang, ”the innocents”, killed over 100 people and robbed even more before the townspeople figured it out and hung him from his own gallows.

Another local site is the Anaconda copper mine smelting tower, site of a horrific pollution scandal. There’s still a large Superfund site cleaning up here. The mountains, valleys, forests and rivers here are stunning, but greed often drives men to devastate both their communities and their environment. We must look deeper than myths, see what’s going on behind the scenes and act before damage becomes irreparable.