Montana is a State of Mind (Part III)

In Moose Country


Visiting Troy in full blown summer is a wondrous experience. Gemstone colors like emerald greens and sapphire blues seem the most accurate description of the Troy’s summer palette. Empty, curvy roads are a motorcyclist's heaven with the only dangers being a deer or a breathtaking view popping out. Many bikers, like the last lone riders of the West, crisscross Montana every summer.

Without exaggeration, there are hundreds of bodies of water around Troy. The deceptively calm Kootenai river, named by the Kootenai Indians, meanders through ravines and valleys. Bull Lake with its crown jewel Angel Island, is a pristine lake full of trout and salmon. The mossy marshes of the Bull River Valley are favorite moose spots where they can be seen munching on grass, almost posing for pictures.


The Yaak River Valley, a wildly beautiful area is also a grizzly bear habitat. However, the local expression “surviving the Yaak attack” has nothing to do with bears. It is a badge of honor for staying alive after drinking copious amounts of alcohol in all three Yaak bars: The Golden Nugget, The Yaak Tavern and the famous Dirty Shame Saloon. A popular drink around here is red beer: a beer mixed with tomato juice and spiced up with salt or Tabasco sauce. It might seem like a weird combination, especially served in mason jars but, it is very tasty and thirst-quenching.

The Land of Purple-Tongued People


Huckleberries, stubbornly wild purple berries that grow on mountain ridges, are in season in summer as evident by mounts of Huckleberry jams, jellies, pies, ice creams and shakes. But the Best Dessert prize goes to my mother-in-law and her Huckleberry Pie. The secret is to throw a handful of fresh berries into the filling. They pop in your mouth like caviar beads, so refreshingly tart in a pool of purple sweetness.


Around the family table, we also enjoyed freshly caught trout and apple wood smoked salmon. The famous “smokies”, elk-meat sausages mixed with pork and cheddar cheese, are already gaining cult followers among our friends in Los Angeles. But, the smokies are in short supply and wholly dependent on my father-in-law’s ability and luck to “bag an elk”. For a more steady supply of pastured beef, they raise their own cattle (now, that’s a burger!).

Wild turkeys, morels in spring, and so many other tasty goodies can be found around here. In a place where a doe and her fawn are garden pests, food gets another dimension. It is a part of an eco-system where man does not always come up on the top of the food chain. But, before you get all romantic, Stein’s Market also sells standard stock groceries as well as imported wines and rarities such as Greek Mizithra cheese and Armenian crackers. Life is full of contradictions, shrug the Montanans. The Dirty Shame has been bought by a priest. Cheers!


In the end, the real question for places wishing to develop tourism becomes what kind of a community they would like to live in rather than what kind of a place tourists would like to visit. With all the marketing buzz-words and focus groups, the conclusion is that happy residents make happy visitors wanting to come back. And what are travels without returns to the places and people we love?

Related links: City of Troy, MT, Troy Chamber of Commerce, The Yaak Community , Yaak River Lodge, Linehan Outfitting Company.