There are reasons for the ‘Montana mystique’

Few states can equal Montana when it comes to mystique.

Like Idaho, it has stunning mountains, world-class trout streams, idyllic ranches, colorful cowboys. Montana is world famous for them, however, while much of the world continues to equate Idaho with potatoes. Montana is the romance of the West; Idaho is spuds and microchips.

I’ve often wondered what it is that people find so captivating about Montana — especially after making a 1,000-mile loop on an assignment there in 2004 and seeing little but bleak, wind-swept plains.

True, it has spectacular national parks. But they aren’t what sets hearts aflutter about the place. I once asked some members of a Boise club for homesick Montanans — there actually is such a thing — to explain the attraction. Instead of natural beauty, they talked about the small size of the towns and their old-fashioned Western character.

Tim Woodward
The Idaho Statesman

Full Story: http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060210/NEWS010701/602100342/1002/NEWS01

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Wall St. Journal Case Study – A Human Touch For Online Customers – Printing for Less in Livingston, Montana http://www.matr.net/article-17346.html

Featured "Come Home Montana" Community~LIVINGSTON http://www.matr.net/article-16233.html

New studies paint disturbing picture for Montana and for other parts of the West. http://www.matr.net/article-16172.html

Andrew Field of PrintingForLess.com in Livingston, Montana named a Best Boss 2005 – Fortune Magazine Announces 2005 List of Best Bosses http://www.matr.net/article-16165.html

Livingston company’s tool opens door to ecofriendly river restoration – THI Riverworks, Inc. http://www.matr.net/article-14179.html

Long road home – Some Montanans lured away by jobs finding their way back to state – "Come Home Montana" http://www.matr.net/article-13682.html

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Connecting in the Rockies: It’s Different Here

By Liz Ryan

Our neck of the woods here in the West is second only to the Southwest for the percentage of non-native inhabitants. For many of us who are new to the region, it’s a new experience to live among so many transplants. (Other Westerners who have already been on the Circuit – from Austin to Seattle to Berkeley to LA to Santa Fe – are well acquainted with the none-of-us-was-born-here sort of ecosystem.) There’s something exhilarating about meeting so many people from so many places, every day – meetings that you wouldn’t be as likely to be having in, say, Elkhart, Indiana.

So why is networking different here? For me, it’s partly because of this phenomenon – the "no one assumes you’re from here phenomenon" – that makes it very easy and natural to jump into conversation about who six-degree-connections in some city a thousand miles away. Partly, it’s because so many of us, as transplants, don’t take our networking for granted here – we left well-established networks behind when we made our individual leaps. And partly, I think, it’s associated with the things that got us transplants here to begin with – a spirit of "let’s start over, and get something going" that drives the openness of Western networking. Networking among other new arrivals, you don’t assume that your acquaintance has thirty years of established business contacts – and he or she doesn’t make that assumption about you – and you figure out how you can help one another, nonetheless.

Full Story: http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/6045/