Rural heart of Montana confronts change at Lewistown conference

Even here, in the heart of rural Montana, life is quickly changing.

There’s now a rock radio station where once only country singers crooned on the lone AM channel. An old feed store has been remodeled into a microbrewery and restaurant, its massive wooden beams that once supported cattle and horse feed now lightened under the load of diners and drinkers. To the south, billionaire brothers Dan and Farris Wilks have bought thousands of acres of ranchland on their way to becoming the second largest landowners in the state, and to the north the nonprofit American Prairie Reserve has begun work on eventually creating a more than 3 million-acre wildlife conservation area that caters to educational and recreational tourism.