Montana (Some Important Details)

• If you ask people in Montana about the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski), you’ll soon discover everyone in the entire state lived “just down the road” from him.    
• Key word: huckleberries.
• In Montana, you don’t need to say “I’m heading to the Big Hole Valley” or “I’m going to the Seeley-Swan Valley.”  You can simply say “I’m heading to the Big Hole” or “I’m going to the Seeley-Swan.”
• A pickup isn’t fully equipped until Forest Service section maps and at least one wildflower identification guide has been stuffed in the glove box.
• In Montana, determining who you know in common from every little town is serious business.
• You don’t qualify as living “remote” in Montana if you can reach the nearest grocery store within an hour’s drive.
• You are either a Bobcat fan or a Grizzlies fan.  You can’t be both.

—Mitchell Hegman

NOTE: My cabin is less than ten miles from where the Unabomber lived in his little shack.