Montana Best Times July 2015

MONTANA

July 2015

A Monthly Publication for Folks 50 and Better

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The road to Makoshika
Fishing guide builds memories
Dog Town
He’s a rock star

INSIDE
Savvy Senior.............................................Page 3
Opinion.....................................................Page 4
Book..........................................................Page 5

Volunteering..............................................Page 19
Calendar....................................................Page 21
Strange but True........................................Page 22

News Lite
California hospital sees trio
of triplets born in June

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Doctors at a central California hospital have seen a trio of triplets born this month and expect the
streak to continue.
The Fresno Bee reported that one set of triplets was born at
Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno the week of June
7, followed by another set June 18 and the third set three days later.
Dr. Steven Elliott says he can’t remember in his 30 years as a
neonatologist when he has had a trio of triplets under his care. He
says all nine babies were born by cesarean section and are doing
well.
The newspaper reports that another mother who’s expecting
triplets in late August is receiving care at the Fresno hospital.
Triplets occur in about 120 of every 100,000 live births in the
country.

Syracuse Ironman event hands out
medals featuring wrong city

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — The medals awarded to winners in
last weekend’s Ironman event in Syracuse are engraved with an
outline of the Rochester skyline.
The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that the medal’s for the
June 21 Ironman 70.3 Syracuse feature a scene that depicts an
arched suspension bridge over the Genesee River, which runs
through downtown Rochester. And the skyscrapers on the medal
match those in Rochester.
A spokesman for the Ironman didn’t have an immediate explanation for the error.
The race started with a 1.2-mile swim in Jamesville Reservoir,
then a 56-mile bike course that wound through Syracuse’s Highland Forest and parts of Onondaga, Madison and Cortland counties. The event ended with 13.1-mile run in and out of Jamesville
Beach County Park.

Choice
Matters.

New West Medicare offers plans
that keep Montanans in mind.
AT NEW WEST MEDICARE, WE ARE MONTANANS, JUST LIKE YOU. And we know you value
the freedom of choice. So when it is time to start looking at Medicare coverage, remember,
you have the right to choose a company and a Medicare Advantage plan that is right for YOU!
We offer monthly premiums as low as $25 and an exercise and healthy aging program in
every plan. And, as a Montana company, you can be assured we are looking out for your best
interests. Let us make Medicare simple for you.
888.873.8044 · TTY 711
newwestmedicare.com
Find us on
July 2015

—2

New West Health Services is a PPO plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in
New West Medicare depends on contract renewal. Phone hours of operation 8 a.m.
to 8 p.m. daily. The benefit information provided is a brief summary, not a complete
description of benefits. For more information contact New West Medicare. Benefits
may change on January 1 of each year. H2701_NW#2015_605_6-2015 Accepted

15-NW
New W
Senior
Monta
6.10.1
AD:MG
7.25x4
4-colo

Jim Miller, creator of the syndicated “Savvy
Senior” information column, is a longtime
advocate of senior issues. He has been featured in
Time magazine; is author of “The Savvy Senior:
The Ultimate Guide to Health, Family and
Finances for Senior Citizens”; and is a regular
contributor to the NBC “Today” show.

Looking for simplified cellphone for your
hearing impaired senior? Here are tips
Dear Savvy Senior,
Can you recommend some basic simplified cellphones for
seniors with hearing impairment? My 82-year-old father needs
to get a new cellphone for occasional calls or emergencies, but
he needs something that’s easy to use and one that he can hear
on.
— Looking Around
 
Dear Looking,
There are several simplified cellphones on the market today
that are specifically designed for seniors, or for people who just
like things simple. These are basic cellphones – primarily used
for talk and text – that come with big buttons, easy to navigate
menus, SOS emergency buttons, enhanced sound and are hearing aid compatible too. Here are some top options.
 

»»Senior-friendly phones

If your dad isn’t locked into a cellphone contract, there are
three senior-friendly options to consider, all from no-contract
cellphone companies.
 
One of the best is GreatCall’s Jitterbug5 (greatcall.com, 800918-8543). This custom designed Samsung flip-phone offers a
backlit keypad with big buttons, large text on a brightly colored
screen, and “YES” and “NO” buttons to access the phone’s
menu of options versus confusing icons. 
 
It also offers voice dialing, a powerful speakerphone, a builtin camera, and a variety of optional health and safety features
like the “5Star” medical alert button that would let your dad
call for help and speak to a certified agent 24/7 that could identify his location and dispatch help as needed. “Urgent Care,”
which provides access to registered nurses and doctors for
advice and diagnoses. And “GreatCall Link,” which keeps family members informed through your dad’s phone activities. 
 
The Jitterbug5 sells for $99 with a one-time $35 activation
fee, no-contract, and calling plans that start at $15 per month.
 
If you’re looking for something a little less expensive, the
Doro PhoneEasy 626 sold through Consumer Cellular (consumercellular.com, 888-345-5509) is a new option. 
 
This flip phone offers a backlit, separated keypad that can
speak the numbers as you push them, which is a nice feature for

seniors with vision problems. It also has a big easy to read color display screen that offers large text with different color
themes. 
 
Other handy features include two speed dial buttons, shortcut
buttons to texting and the camera, a powerful two-way speakerphone, and an ICE (in case of emergency) button on the back of
the phone that will automatically dial one preprogramed number. 
 
The Doro 626 sells for $50 with service plans starting at $10
per month, and no long-term contract. They even offer discounts to AARP members. 
 
Another budget-friendly cellphone you should look into is the
Snapfon for seniors (snapfon.com, 800-937-1532), which costs
only $10, with a $35 activation fee, no-contract, and monthly
service plans that start at $10. 
 
This is a bar-style phone that provides big buttons, a color
screen, enhanced volume with a speaker phone, a speaking keypad, and an SOS emergency alert button on the back of the
phone that can sound an alert when pushed and held down for
five seconds. It then sends a text message to as many as five
emergency contacts and calls those contacts in order until the
call is answered. Or, for an additional $15 per month you can
subscribe to their SOS monitoring service that will dispatch
help as needed.
 

»»Shared plan options

If you want to get your dad a simple cellphone through your
cellphone provider, most carriers – like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
and T-Mobile – still offer a few basic cellphones that are inexpensive and hearing aid compatible.
 
If you’re an AT&T customer the option is the “LG A380.” For
Verizon users, there’s the “Samsung Gusto 3” and “LG Revere
3.” If you’re a Sprint customer there’s the “Kyocera Kona” and
“Alcatel OneTouch Retro.” And for T-Mobile users there’s the
“LG 450.”
Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443,
Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org.
July 2015

—3

Opinion

Time to check out state’s often little-known gems
you could visit tiny Greycliff Prairie Dog
Town, at 98 acres probably one of the
state’s smallest.
This range reflects the diversity of all
55 — yes, there are that many — of Montana’s state parks. The parks range from
the historical (Bannack State Park near
Dillon), to the natural (Giant Springs
State Park near Great Falls), to the cultural (Chief Plenty Coups State Park near
Pryor), to the water-based (Tongue River
Reservoir State Park) near Decker; from
the nationally famous, like Lewis and

Letters Policy
Montana Best Times welcomes letters to the editor expressing opinions on any issue
of a public interest to our readership. But in order to be published, the letters must:
• Include the writer’s first and last name, home address and daytime phone number. Addresses and phone numbers may be used for verification, but only the name
and hometown will be published.
• Be kept short and, if possible deal with one topic. Montana Best Times reserves
the right to edit for length, taste and libel considerations.
The address for emailed letters is [email protected].

July 2015

—4

MONTANA

This month’s issue of Montana Best
Times contains two stories about Montana state parks — the Greycliff Prairie
Dog Town just east of Big Timber and
Makoshika near Glendive.
As the height of the summer season
approaches, it’s a good time to think
about getting out into the state’s often little known gems — it’s state parks. You
could start with Makoshika, the state’s
largest at 11,000 acres, a place filled with
the harsh beauty of Montana’s badlands
and, we might add, dinosaur bones; or,

Clark Caverns State Park, to the obscure,
like Brush Lake State Park in the far
northeastern corner of Montana.
To find a state park near you to visit this
summer, visit the very user friendly state
website, http://stateparks.mt.gov.
You don’t have to see the “big guys”
like Yellowstone or Glacier National Park
this summer to get out and have fun.
Chances are there’s an undiscovered state
park right in your own back yard.
— Dwight Harriman
Montana Best Times Editor

A Monthly Publication for Folks 50 and Better

P.O. Box 2000, 401 S. Main St., Livingston MT 59047
Tel. (406) 222-2000 or toll-free (800) 345-8412 • Fax: (406) 222-8580
E-mail: [email protected] • Subscription rate: $25/yr.
Published monthly by Yellowstone Newspapers, Livingston, Montana
Dwight Harriman, Editor • Tom Parisella, Designer

Bookshelf
“Yellowstone Summers: Touring with
the Wylie Camping Company in
America’s First National Park”
• By Jane Galloway Demaray
• Washington State University Press,
April 2015
• Softcover • 6” x 9”
• $24.95 • 230 pages
• ISBN: 978-0-87422-327-9

Visiting Yellowstone
‘the Wylie Way’
By Montana Best Times Staff
The early days of our Yellowstone National Park are a
source of endless fascination, and one of their most intriguing aspects of those days is the companies that took early visitors into the park.
A brand-new book, “Yellowstone Summers: Touring with
the Wylie Camping Company in America’s First National
Park,” by Jane Galloway Demaray, tells the story of one of the
most legendary of those companies — the Wylie Camping
Company.
“Yellowstone Summers” describes how the unswerving
efforts of the company’s owner helped develop, define and preserve tourism in Yellowstone Park, according to a news release
from the book’s publisher, Washington State University.
Congress established America’s first national park in 1872,
and its vast wonders mesmerized early sightseers. One of them,
William Wallace Wylie, visited in July 1880. The school superintendent was immediately smitten and he returned to Bozeman, Montana, and arranged his first tour group a few weeks
later, the release says.
Wylie’s initial endeavor evolved into a full-fledged business,
and from 1896 to 1905 the Wylie Camping Company fed, sheltered and guided thousands through relaxed weeklong tours of
geysers, hot pools, waterfalls and trails.
Previously only for the rich, vacations were a burgeoning
trend among the Victorian middle class. Wylie wisely kept
accommodations simple and affordable — canvas tents clustered around a fire pit where guests gathered to sing, swap stories and enjoy other impromptu entertainment. But he also
offered luxuries like fine mattress beds, covered buggies and
delicious meals in special dining tents. Today, that fusion of
glamour and camping is often called “glamping,” the release
says. During Yellowstone’s stagecoach era, the combination
was known as “The Wylie Way.”
Drawn partly from an unpublished manuscript written by
Wylie himself, the book’s anecdotes include observations of
wildlife, the arrest of a bison poacher, and an altercation with

the park’s game warden, Buffalo Jones. There were also hungry
bears, runaway horses, and cantankerous stage coach drivers.
Ever a teacher at heart, Wylie hired staff who utilized Yellowstone as an outdoor classroom, a precursor for the emphasis
on education that now exists in many parks.
Operating the Wylie Camping Company was a formidable
task, and the book also details the difficulties Wylie faced as he
contended with park superintendents, railroad officials, Washington, D.C., legislators, and various other political personalities. Without his persistence, Yellowstone’s leisure industry
might have been closed to competition and be very different
today, according to WSU Press.
Author Jane Galloway Demaray has a personal connection to
“Yellowstone Summers” — William Wallace Wylie was her
great-great uncle. She first read his autobiography over 20
years ago at her grandmother’s home in Bozeman and immediately realized it deserved to be more than a family account.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Demaray currently serves on the personal staff of the Montana Secretary of
State.
“Yellowstone Summers: Touring with the Wylie Camping
Company in America’s First National Park” is available from
WSU Press by calling (800) 354-7360 or visiting wsupress.
wsu.edu, as well as through bookstores nationwide.
July 2015
—5

The road to Makoshika

Eastern Montana park ranger shares love for the outdoors

MT Best Times photos by Jason Stuart

Above and on the cover: Tom Shoush, a Makoshika State Park ranger, looks out over the park’s badlands while on duty June
11. Makoshika, which is more than 11,000 acres in size, is located near Glendive in eastern Montana.

By Jason Stuart
Montana Best Times

GLENDIVE — Tom Shoush’s road to
becoming a Montana State Parks ranger
wasn’t a straightforward one, but at 16
years and counting, it’s a road he’s still
walking.
Shoush has spent his entire career as a
ranger at Makoshika State Park. He will
mark his 16th year at the park this fall.
But it’s a long way from where he
started. Shoush was on an entirely different path in an entirely different place
until a road trip and a subsequent work
injury set him on an entirely new journey.

Twin Cities.
Nature and the outdoors were a big
part of his upbringing. His home was
located on a protected cattail marsh and
his father was a Boy Scout leader and
former Eagle Scout.
“So I was raised with a great love of
nature and the scout sense of life,”
Shoush said.
Making a career out of his love of
nature wasn’t in the immediate offing
when Shoush reached adulthood, however. Reflecting on the background he came
from, Shoush didn’t go to college immediately after high school and joined the
working week in a blue-collar job.

Early love of nature

Injury leads to ‘refocus’

Shoush was born and raised in Minnesota, growing up in the suburbs of the

July 2015

—6

Then years later, life took a turn.
He sustained an on-the-job injury that

forced him to “refocus my efforts and
aspirations,” Shoush said.
But where to start?
Rather than his native Minnesota,
Shoush turned to Montana. He had taken
an extensive road trip through the West
in the early 1990s and Montana — both
its land and people — left a profound
impression on him.
“For whatever reason, Montana just
felt comfortable,” Shoush said. “Montana had that same sense of connection
with nature.”
So after his injury, Shoush enrolled at
Montana State University. Already nearing 40 at the time, he became the first
member of his family to go to college.
Tapping his love for nature, Shoush
pursued a degree in fish and wildlife science to “gain a better understanding of

Shoush gives a tour at the Makoshika State Park visitors center to a group of students from Fairview Elementary School in Fairview, North Dakota. In the foreground at right is a triceratops skull discovered at Makoshika.
nature,” he said, and earned a Bachelor
of Science in 1999.
“I chose that degree because my love
of nature to that point had been naive —
it was just wonderment,” Shoush said.
So at age 40, Shoush started his new
career. After an initial internship with
Montana State Parks at Lewis and Clark
Caverns, he was recommended for and
hired as the park ranger for Makoshika
State Park in November 1999, where he
has been ever since.

Makoshika grows on you

That’s not to say he was initially exuberant about the idea of being stationed
at Makoshika. Living in the vast, empty
expanses of eastern Montana was not the
ideal Shoush had in mind when he made
the move to the state.
“When I came here, I was a little
unsure about the duty station,” he said.
“This seemed like a foreign land. It
didn’t fit that vision and dream I had all
those years.”
But the area grew on Shoush, who said
he has since “developed a great love and
appreciation for it.”
He added that for most people, the
Northern Plains just doesn’t immediately
catch the eye the way the mountains of
western Montana do. But the beauty and

grandeur is there, Shoush points out — it
just looks different, and you need to look
a little harder to uncover it.
“The plains ecosystem has incredible
beauty — you just have to spend some
time around here to appreciate it,” he
said.
The badlands of Makoshika are definitely eye-catching, however, and in his
years there, Shoush has come to have a
deep and abiding affection for the place,
which he recommends that all Montanans visit.
“It’s like an island,” he said of Makoshika. “It rises up out of the Great Plains
with a uniqueness that’s only found in a
couple of places. You come across an
area that almost seems like it shouldn’t
be there. It’s a tremendous outcropping
of wonderment and natural beauty.”
And for people like Shoush who love
to lose themselves in nature, Makoshika
is a perfect place to do so.
“It gives you a sense of immensity —
you feel small,” he said of spending time
in the badlands. “The immensity
becomes apparent.”

Rewards of the job

In all his years at Makoshika, Shoush
has interacted with literally tens of thousands of visitors. He said his “greatest

satisfaction” in his job is to learn he
helped inspire someone during their visit.
However, he said what is equally
rewarding is the thought he might have
had a positive impact on a visitor, even if
he never actually knows it.
“The greatest reward for me in this job
is not knowing how I’ve positively
impacted people,” Shoush said. “Even
though I’m not aware of it, I have to
believe (the people he has heard back
from) are just a couple of many, many
people who had a positive experience
that’s carried forward for their whole
life, and that’s very rewarding.”
And if you are a Montanan reading this
article right now, Shoush hopes you visit
Makoshika someday soon and find inspiration with him. Or if not Makoshika,
then at one of the other “bracelet of
gems,” in Shoush’s words, that make up
Montana State Parks.
After all, in this state, people who love
nature have a lot going for them.
“From the temperate rain forests and
the mountains to the Great Plains and
badlands,” Shoush said, “Montanans
have much to be proud of and much to be
protective of.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@
rangerreview.com.
July 2015

—7

Fishing guide builds memories
By Justin Post
Montana Best Times

LIVINGSTON — A spiral staircase
winds down into the first floor of Dale
Siegle’s home, where a shag, lava-carpeted room features a pool table and bar
topped with smooth travertine.
Upstairs, large picture windows look
down on Livingston and the Yellowstone
River, where Siegle has worked as a fishing guide since the mid-1980s.
Siegle’s home is impeccably neat and
everything has its place, including his
pride and joy parked outside the back
door: The Mackenzie River drift boat he
purchased in 1982 shortly after floating
the Yellowstone River for the first time.
The boat is a 16-foot-long burly blue
and white model that looks like it could
survive a trip over Niagara Falls.
Siegle hasn’t considered replacing the
boat. Why would he? Siegle’s quick to
point out that the boat is not only func-

tional — it’s also been a sturdy and trustworthy drifter.
“It’s durable as heck and there’s a lot
of room,” he said. “You feel safer with
the high sideboards and it’s stable.
Here’s my philosophy: The fish don’t
care.”

Early days on the river

Siegle, 64, has spent a lifetime fishing
Montana rivers. The Glendive native
grew up chucking bait for catfish and
paddlefish, but moved to Livingston in
the late 1970s to manage the Livingston
Job Service office, including in 1986
when Burlington Northern closed its
shops in Livingston.
“I was the guy running the Job Service
with 13 percent unemployment,” Siegle
said.
Siegle still has a vivid memory of his
first float trip on the Yellowstone River
in the early 1980s near Livingston.

Siegle was invited to float the river on
the drift boat of Livingston attorney
Bruce Becker — the current Park County
attorney — and eagerly accepted the
offer.
“There were four of us in the boat and
we limited out,” Siegle remembers of
that day more than 30 years ago when
he, Becker, John Hayes and Karl
Knuchel hit the Yellowstone.
Siegle earned the nickname “Tarpon
Dale,” for his propensity to set the hook
with all his might and gusto, as one
might expect when hooking into a hulking tarpon.
“He would literally almost pull the fish
out of the water,” Becker remembers.

Becoming a guide

Siegle’s passion for fishing Montana
streams, and especially the Yellowstone
River, swelled in the years to follow that
first day on the river.

MT Best Times photo by Hunter D’Antuono

Fishing guide Dale Siegle is pictured June 4 at his Livingston home next to the Mackenzie River drift boat he purchased in
1982.
July 2015

—8

Above: Dale Siegle, from left, John Hayes and Bruce Becker hold a string of trout they caught on a Yellowstone River fishing trip
more than 30 years ago. Photo courtesy of Dale Siegle
Right: Siegle talks June 4 in his home about his times out on the Yellowstone. MT Best Times photo by Hunter D’Antuono
The sport soon enveloped his life like a Mother’s Day caddis
hatch.
Becker’s uncle Harold Shanstrom, who is known as one of
the first guides who worked in the Livingston area, convinced
Siegle he should try his hand behind the oars with clients in his
boat.
Siegle obtained his Montana guiding license, #363, in 1982
and took on clients referred to him by Shanstrom, who guided
for the Dan Bailey fly fishing shop.
It’s been a part-time gig for Siegle, who mostly takes clients
on the Yellowstone River but is also licensed to guide in Yel-

lowstone National Park.
He’s guided the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first
woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, but said he views
his clients as equally important regardless of whether they’re
an executive with General Motors in Detroit or a teenager
flinging flies for the first time.
“The most important (client) is the next one,” Siegle said.
“To me, it’s about building memories.”
Justin Post may be reached at [email protected] or (406) 2222000.

2043 Grand Ave.

406-869-0123

www.jurosmedical.com

July 2015

—9

Dog
Town

Prairie Dog Town Park is a unique,
furry piece of state park system

MT Best Times photos by Olivia Keith

A black-tailed prairie dog keeps a careful watch on visitors at the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park, recently.

By Olivia Keith
Montana Best Times

BIG TIMBER — Located 9 miles east
of Big Timber is a small town. It’s inhabitants are busybodies, so trying to snag a
photo with them is next to impossible
without a bit of patience. They keep their
homes incredibly clean and organized, and
always make sure everyone is accounted
for at any given time. They’re exceptionally timid toward strangers, but that’s probably because they’re not human.
They’re prairie dogs.

Just off I-90

This busy community is Greycliff Prai-

July 2015

— 10

rie Dog Town State Park. The Montana
State Park spans 98 acres and is found
mere seconds from Interstate-90.
Its convenient location attracts nearly
1,200 visitors a month in the summer, and
80 to 100 visitors during winter months.
Jenny Alexander, manager of Greycliff
Prairie Dog Town State Park and Cooney
State Park 88 miles to the southwest, said
management of the prairie dog park
requires minimal effort.
“We manage it as a primitive park,
which basically means it’s minimal
resources,” Alexander said. “… It’s so
people can come here on a self-serve basis
and enjoy the dogs.”
Alexander has been managing the prai-

rie dog park for two years now and enjoys
every minute of it.
“It’s a neat area for people to come and
see prairie dogs in their natural setting,”
she said. “I think it’s a quiet spot for people to actually see them and it’s not too far
off the interstate.”

A park is born

In the late 1970s, photographer Edward
Boehm, of Livingston, teamed up with
Montana State Parks, the Nature Conservancy and the Montana Department of
Transportation to set aside the 98-acre
spot. Now, the area is cared for by Alexander, another maintenance worker and a
warden. Together, they fix the park

Left: A black-tailed prairie dog hesitates
near its front door, its curiosity of visitors
getting the best of it. This prairie dog
species is prevalent in Montana and lives
in larger communities called towns.
Above: A group of prairie dogs poke their
heads out of their burrow at the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park, located 9 miles east of Big Timber.

Prairie dog specs

Jenny Alexander, manager of the Cooney
and Greycliff Prairie Dog Town state
parks, does her routine cleanup at the
prairie dog town. During the summer, an
average of 1,200 people per month visit
the park.
benches, picnic area and update the information kiosk.
During Alexander’s routine checkup of
the area, she picked up garbage and litter
left behind by visitors and checked the visitor counter.
Occasionally, Montana State Parks will
team up with Sweet Grass County to take
care of the weeds in the area.

A small brown head pokes up out of a
burrow. The prairie dog looks right, then
left, then quickly right again before slowly
inching out. A tail wag and some barks is
all it takes to let his friends know the coast
is clear.
Greycliff Prairie Dog State Park is home
to many small communities of the blacktailed prairie dog, which is located in the
Great Plains. This species, a member of the
rodent family, can grow up to a height of
16 inches when they stand on their back
legs, according to the National Wildlife
Federation.
Prairie dogs serve as a source of food for
various predators, including black-footed
ferrets, rattlesnakes and coyotes.
They have incredibly well-kept living
quarters. Prairie dogs build a front and a
back door, and have burrows that are 14
feet deep and with multiple little rooms.
They have a main living room area and a
second one rests right on top of it in case
their main area is wet, according to Alexander. They even have a bathroom chamber.
Their communities are built in ecosystems with minimal vegetation so they can
see their surroundings easily, which makes
the 98-acre spot at Greycliff perfect for the
dogs.

‘Whoa!’

For Montanans, entering the park is free
— the cost is included on your license
plate registration. For nonresidents, there is
a small fee.
A trip to the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town
is definitely a must.
“It’s one piece of the whole Montana

state parks,” Alexander said.
While Alexander was cleaning, two
women from Mexico drove into the park.
“It’s incredible,” Carla Verea, of Mexico
City, said of the park.
Verea and her co-worker Francisca Rivero-Lake were taking a road trip following
the Colorado River for a story and photo
project, and on a whim decided to travel
further north. The sighting of the prairie
dog town was shocking to the two women.
Where they are from, prairie dogs, as well
as other animals, have left due to the lack
of water and the disappearance of the Colorado River.
Verea was excited when she saw the sign
pointing to the park.
“We said, ‘Whoa, prairie dogs are here!’
The ecosystem is not lost because they still
have water and everything protected,” she
said as she gazed in awe at the little town.
Francisca, like Verea, was delightfully
surprised with their discovery.
“Just the whole idea of preserving the
area … it’s fantastic,” she said.

Swing by

So Montanans, next time you find yourself traveling on I-90 between Big Timber
and Billings, swing by the park and walk
around for a bit. Its furry creatures may be
wary of the presence of humans, but this
natural park is a sight to behold and
shouldn’t be missed.
And if you stay still for long enough,
you’ll see dozens of prairie dogs going
about their daily chores.
Olivia Keith may be reached at news@
bigtimberpioneer.net or (406) 932-5298.
July 2015

— 11

Rock star

Fossil hunter loves finding treasures on his land
By Eleanor Guerrero
Montana Best Times

DEAN — Marty Flanagan surveyed his
family’s ranch house in Dean on a recent
sunny afternoon. All the rooms as well as
lawn and garage were filled with one of his
passions: his collection of rocks and fossils.
“I’m a fourth-generation Montanan,” Flanagan said proudly.
Flanagan, who lives on a ranch outside of
Dean, a tiny community 30 miles southwest
of Columbus, grew up by Trout Creek in
Stillwater and at Lion Heart Ranch below
the Boulder River. He went to school in Big
Timber.
On his ranch, he follows old migration
trails walked by early man and before that,
by dinosaurs.
“They used to come right down the front
of the Rockies — large dinosaurs traveling

up and down the east face, he said with a
sweep of his hand over the land.
As he talks, you can feel the drama, as if
the great beasts were making dust down the
road.
“Some of the people here were really
ancient,” he said, pointing to a high butte
directly across from his front door.
He believes early indigenous people did
vision quests there.
“They found an old medicine bag up
there and it had whales on it!” he exclaimed.
Rocks, fossils and archaeological items
are his passion.
He often visits his neighbors to see their
finds and ask if they are willing to part with
them. He has increased his collection this
way, Flanagan explained, pointing to a huge
mortar bowl in his living room. He doesn’t
know where it was collected, since the own-

er was no longer living. He can only wonder.
“Each piece has a story,” he said.
Flanagan finds that the joy of discovery
only makes him more eager to see what is
over the next ridge.

Tree man

Flanagan also has another unique interest:
preserving the genetics of Champion trees.
He is the western district representative
for the Champion Tree project and works in
his spare time to find the oldest, largest trees
of various species throughout Montana.
“I’m a champion and so are you!” he
smiled.
For his living, Flanagan digs up trees on
his land and sells them to various nurseries
and sites. It made him start thinking about
how he could contribute more to the land.

MT Best Times photos by Eleanor Guerrero

Marty Flanagan is pictured in front of a tiny part of his vast collection of fossils, rocks and artifacts on his ranch, recently.  In
the room through the door behind him, he shapes and polishes minerals and rocks.
July 2015

— 12

crucial nine to 12 weeks.
From Bridger, the plants are picked up and taken to the Special K
Ranch in Stillwater County, where they are grown for up to two
years until they are ready for transplant. At that point, Flanagan takes
the trees for delivery all over the region, where they can be nurtured
into the next generation’s giants.
“I feel that gives me a legacy in the future,” he said, thinking of his
children.
Flanagan said he welcomes help finding Champion trees.

Survivor

Above: Colorful flints show off their glassy splendor.
Below: Flanagan points to holes in some of the rocks he’s
found. He ponders the reason why a couple of other rocks in
the photo were “worked” with incisions.

Fossils and Champion trees keep Flanagan occupied. He said he is
17 years sober and a cancer survivor. He has seen his demons and
survived.
“I have to keep busy,” he resolved. He said the urge to drink “mysteriously left” him.
“I could see all the hurt and pain going with it,” he said. “All of a
sudden, I got sick and scared.”
He was helped by one kind woman.
“I knew 20 years before I had to stop drinking but it wasn’t until
then I simply did it,” Flanagan said.
His first year sober, he whittled sticks constantly.
“It kept me out of the bars,” he said.

Rock man

“I was sitting at home and saw this thing on TV about a guy in
Michigan who worked to preserve the genetics of the oldest, biggest
trees,” he said, and he knew that was what he wanted to do.
The nonprofit Champion Tree project was founded by David
Milarch and his son Jared, who are shade tree nurserymen based in
Copemish, Michigan. In 1996, they set out to clone and create a
genetic archive of each of the nation’s largest trees, which includes
some 850 different species.
The archive has grown into a national interest with records kept by
American Forests. American Forests is the oldest national nonprofit
conservation organization in the country, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Flanagan said there are also international records.
The largest of each state’s tree species is known as a champion.
Largeness is determined by a point system using a formula that
includes the tree’s circumference, height and crown spread. The trees
measured are often hundreds of years old.
Flanagan is a one-man show in Montana, running around from
county to county, looking for the widest, oldest and hardiest trees
from which to take samples — cuttings and seeds — to save their
genetics.
For the next step, Flanagan brings samples to the federal Plant
Materials Center in Bridger. There, they start the growth of these
potential giants, carefully nurturing them into little saplings their first

Flanagan replaced his desire for alcohol with his passions for trees
and rocks. He strides the ground around his ranch, always on the
lookout for special rocks and other finds.
“It started when I was 3,” he said. “A sheepherder from the mountains gave my mother a fossil. She was so delighted; I knew that I
wanted to do that for her as well.”
Flanagan collects whatever strikes his interest: ancient mortars and
pestles, fire holes in rocks, fossils, obsidian rocks and blades, colorful minerals, various agates and cherts. Chert is a fine-grained, silicarich microcrystalline quartz, a sedimentary rock that often contains
small fossils. 
Flanagan makes the agates into beautiful pendants.
“I sell some of them, but I’m not really set up to do it on a big
scale yet,” he said, looking at his vast collection.
The rocks and minerals spiral out all over the lawn and up and
around yard features. He hopes one day to have them all “ready to
go.”
In the meantime, he collects and he polishes. He runs strictly on
intuition.
“Sometimes, I get a feeling to search an area,” he said.
Recently, he found a huge rock set inside an ancient circle of a former dwelling or ritual site. There were markings showing that the
circle of poles or posts existed.
“Who were these people?” he wonders.
He tries to imagine how they lived, what they worshiped, what
drove them to place that particular rock in that particular place. Like
the first archaeologists, he is driven by pure curiosity and spirit to
meld with these ancestors on his land.
Flanagan’s love for his vocations is tangible. His eyes are always
scanning his land for interesting rocks and investigating new regions
for old trees. It is in his search that he has found himself.
To reach Flanagan about Champion Trees, call him at (406) 3287733.
Eleanor Guerrero may be reached at sports@carboncountynews.
com or (406) 446-2222.
July 2015

— 13

Boomer Adventure:

Senior sailors complete
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Photo courtesy Charlie and

Cathy Simon/TNS

-mile circumnavigation of the
pleted their 14-month, 26,000
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St. Lucia, West Indies.
Spokane, Washington, reside
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globe on their sailboat, Celebr

By Erica Curless
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)/
TNS
SPOKANE, Wash., — Charlie and Cathy Simon
completed their global circumnavigation April 11
when they arrived in Rodney Bay Marina in St.
Lucia, West Indies.
Charlie Simon couldn’t imagine a better way to
turn 60 than to sail around the world with his wife.
July 2015

— 14

So that’s what the retired Spokane
couple did. They named their semicustom ocean-going Taswell 58 sailboat “Celebrate” and headed out in
January 2014 on a 15-month, 26,000mile journey that took them to five
continents, 16 countries and across
three major oceans and many seas.
Before the big bon voyage, the
Simons threw a birthday party in St.
Lucia, attended by a few Spokane

friends and the other sailors who
were also participating in the World
Cruising Club World ARC 2014-15
Rally.
“These are mega memories we’ve
had,” said Cathy Simon in a recent
cellphone call from aboard Celebrate
near the British Virgin Islands. “It
was just a grand adventure. You’ve
got to put those adventures in life.”
The Simons were the oldest sailors

in the group of 40 boats that started out
together. Only 18 boats completed the full
circumnavigation in April, which isn’t rare
as sailors decide to stay longer in one destination or opt for a shorter route. Many
people take years to do the world circumnavigation. The Simons did it quickly —
all on their own with no hired crew or captain, only an occasional deckhand when
friends would come aboard for a leg or
two and help. The couple joked that at
their age, they don’t have the luxury of
endless time.
The World Cruising Club’s first ocean
crossing rally was in 1986. Today, according to its website, more than 450 boats and
1,200 people attend one of its nine rallies
each year, ranging from the round-theworld adventures to social cruises and
island hopping.
Charlie Simon’s love for sailing is
genetic. His father taught him to sail at age
5. His great-grandfather was a shipper.
Cathy Simon began sailing when she met
Charlie. They married 36 years ago when
they were both working in the San Francisco Bay area. Charlie Simon co-founded
three technology companies and Cathy
Simon worked in banking. Their main
sailing club remains in San Francisco.
Although Charlie Simon is known as the
passionate sailor, it was Cathy’s idea to do
the circumnavigation. Why not? The couple bought a new boat for their 25th anniversary and sailed to Alaska. Then they
sailed the Pacific Coast to Mexico and
then through the Panama Canal and to the
East Coast. Following summer around the
globe on the warm trade winds didn’t
seem impossible or even all that difficult
especially if they had support from the
World Cruising Club, which sets up the
routes, plans port parties, and tracks all the
ships and keeps in communication in case
of an emergency or breakdown. During
the previous rally, a boat was lost in the
Indian Ocean but the crew survived.
“It’s like any sport,” Cathy Simon said.
“You want to reach the epitome of it.”
Running a sailboat is a 24-hour a day
job. The Simons take 6-hour watches and
utilize an electronic “Watch Commander” — a small device that alerts the onduty captain every 15 minutes to do
checks inside and outside the boat,
including checking the gauges and navigation system to scanning the horizon for
other boats. A majority of smaller fishing
boats don’t have automatic identification
systems that would show up on the electronic screens. Another big duty is listen-

The Simons’ sailb
Photo courtesy
Charlie Simon/T
oat, Celebrate, is
NS
pictured at anchor
in Fiji.

ing for noises.
“Almost everything that goes wrong has
a sound that goes with it,” Charlie Simon
said, adding that even a slight wind change
will cause the sail to flutter in a different
way.
If the watch commander isn’t reset, an
alarm sounds throughout the whole boat to
alert others that the captain may be asleep
or having trouble.
“On a sailboat, things break all the
time,” Simon said. “It’s just routine, nothing extraordinary.”

Every boat carries spare parts and also
has a water maker to convert salty sea
water into drinking water.
Besides the 6-hour shifts, the Simons
also split duties. He does the cooking and
the mechanical work and she cleans. Yet
Cathy Simon is an educated sailor, completing a captain’s course before the trip to
learn all the mechanics, from changing the
oil to working the sail and monitoring the
systems.
While sailing, the Simons have a strict
July 2015

— 15

no-alcohol policy because they have to be
fully functioning at all times. The parties
at the ports along the way always include
cocktails, good food and dancing.

High seas adventure

“We had a rolly night, with winds
behind pushing us down seas of 2-4
meters,” the Simons posted to the rally’s
log blog on Jan. 16, 2014, the sixth day of
their trip.
After the trip’s first leg, a nine-day,
1,110-mile passage from St. Lucia to Lemon Cays in Panama, the Simons reflected
in the log on the highlights: the sendoff
with their friends, the snapping of their
“whisker pole” at the mast fitting that
launched the 12-foot pole across the deck,
and the day a flying fish landed on the
deck with a flapping thump.
“Beautiful full moon during the passage,
so bright and clear you could almost read,”
read one log entry, followed by, “After the
moon set, the sky was so dark that the
stars were unbelievable. Cathy was first to
identify Orion.”
Although the Simons love sailing, they
also enjoyed reaching land and taking a
break — anything from a few days to
nearly a month depending on the weather
and hurricane predictions. Charlie Simon’s

favorite stop was Vanuatu, where he
walked to the Mount Yasur Volcano, one
of the most active volcanoes in the world.
“You can walk up as close as you can,” he
said. “It’s really interesting to see the power of the Earth.”
In March, about eight months after the
Simons visit, Cyclone Pam devastated the
South Pacific Island nation.
Cathy Simon was surprised by Cape
Town, South Africa, which was cosmopolitan and rich with shopping opportunities
and wineries.
After completing their voyage April 11
when docking at Rodney Bay Marina in St
Lucia, the Simons attended a large finale
party with the other rally sailors who completed the trip.
One of the couple’s final logs on March
26 read, “A huge pod of Dolphins with
babies jumping all around the boat stayed
with us for quite a while. It was so entertaining.”

What lies ahead

The couple is sailing back to the United
States, to port in the Chesapeake Bay.
They will spend the summer on the East
Coast and then spend December in Spokane before wintering in Mexico. For now,
the Simons haven’t figured out their next

Pictured is the Simons’ world route as captured by their satellite tracking system.

July 2015

— 16

adventure. Charlie Simon is excited to do
several speaking engagements about their
journey.
Always interested in philanthropy — they
were recipients of the City of Spokane’s
Individual Benefactor Award in 2010 — the
Simons said their world trip provided them
with a global connection and perspective.
“We have to help our next door neighbors,” Charlie Simon said, adding that they,
along with the World Cruising Club, donated to the people of Vanuatu after Cyclone
Pam. “Our neighbors are the world. We’re
just one big neighborhood. It’s easier to see
that now from our vantage.”

• To read the Simons’ daily
logs from their voyage

aboard Celebrate, go to www.
worldcruising.com/
dailylogs.aspx#

• To learn more about the

World Cruising Club, go to
www.worldcruising.com

Photo courtesy Charlie Simon/TNS

The summer’s best movies for

grownups

By Bill Newcott
AARP Media/TNS

Summer will always be the season for kidcentric films but there’s still room at the
multiplex for grownup movies. What’s
more, even some of this year’s biggest
blockbusters offer surprising treats for adults
in the audience.
Here are the movies we’re most looking
forward to through Labor Day.

June 5: ‘Love & Mercy’
A feel-good playlist of Beach Boys classics contrasts with the dark story of the
band’s troubled songwriter Brian Wilson.
Paul Dano is uncanny as the young Brian; as
older Brian, under the control of a parasitical
therapist (Paul Giamatti), John Cusack is
heartbreakingly childlike.

June 12: ‘Jurassic World’
Anyone who was at the movies in 1993
will remember “Jurassic Park’s” rocky start,
what with the carnivores chomping down
on the staff and all. But now, 22 years later,
the park is up and running just great. What
could go wrong? Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas
Howard and Judy Greer are about to find
out.

June 19: ‘Inside Out’
With films like “Up” and “Wall-E,” Disney/Pixar has proven time and again just
how grownup animated films can be. A
young girl is at the center of “Inside Out,”
but the main characters are her emotions: A
squabbling team inside her brain who help
get her through daily life: Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill
Hader), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Anger
(Lewis Black, natch).

June 19:
‘Infinitely Polar Bear’
Mark Ruffalo draws tears and laughter as
a manic-depressive dad who’s convinced he
can win back his wife (Zoe Saldana) if only

Photo courtesy Sundance Institute/TNS

Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in “A Walk in the Woods.”

he can prove he’s capable of caring for their
two daughters.

June 26: ‘Big Game’
Would-be assassins have brought down
Air Force One, forcing the president to fend
off murderous villains in an Arctic wilderness. Of course, Samuel L. Jackson plays the
prez, so we’re pretty much feeling sorry for
the bad guys.

July 1: ‘Terminator: Genisys’
When Arnold Schwarzenegger said “I’ll
be back!” in The Terminator more than 30
years ago, we really didn’t think he meant
now. But here he is doing battle not only
with a new batch of bad guys but also with
his own 1984 “clone, sweet clone.”

July 10: ‘What We Did on
Our Holiday’
A loving dad (the always wonderful Billy
Connolly) copes with the crumbling marriage of his son (David Tennant) and his wife
(Rosamund Pike, who still has us creeped
out by the psycho she played in “Gone
Girl”).

July 10: ‘Self/Less’
Dying New York real estate mogul Ben
Kingsley has his consciousness transferred
into the body of a young man (Ryan Reynolds). But is there enough room in there for
the two of them? From visionary director
Tarsem Singh (“The Fall” and “Mirror Mirror”).
July 2015

— 17

July 17: ‘Mr. Holmes’
A favorite at the Movies for Grownups
Film Festival in Miami, this imaginative
mystery stars Ian McKellen as Sherlock
Holmes, long retired to a rural British village. He remains haunted by one unsolved
mystery, and with the help of the young son
of his housekeeper (Laura Linney), Holmes
summons every remaining fragment of his
once peerless mind to crack it.

July 24: ‘Irrational Man’
Woody Allen is notoriously tight-lipped
about his upcoming films. Here’s all we
know from the studio: “A tormented philosophy professor (Joaquin Phoenix) finds a
will to live when he commits an existential
act.” We’re also told it’s a mystery. And
with Emma Stone and Parker Posey along,
we’re totally sold.

July 24: ‘Pixels’
Our kids may have mastered their ultrarealistic video games but when Earth is
attacked by highly pixilated 1970s arcade
characters including Pac-Man and Donkey
Kong, only a crack team of old-school gamers (Peter Dinklage, Adam Sandler and Josh
Gad) can save us. Directed by Chris Columbus (“Home Alone,” “The Goonies”).

July 29: ‘Vacation’
Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) decides to
succeed where his father, Clark, failed more
than 30 years ago (in 1983’s “National
Lampoon’s Vacation”) and take a fun family
trip to Walley World. Chevy Chase and
Beverly D’Angelo return as Clark and
Ellen, and Leslie Mann (“This Is 40”) plays
Rusty’s sister, Audrey. We really, really

want this to be funny.

July 31: ‘Mission: Impossible
Rogue Nation’
We could always rest easy that Tom
Cruise’s Impossible Mission Force (IMF)
was on our side but what if there was
another IMF that was just as effective but
made up of bad guys? Tom Terrific and his
team (Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and
Rebecca Ferguson) go head-to-head with
their worst nightmare.

Photo courtesy of Focus Features/TNS

Aug. 7: ‘Ricki and the Flash’

Ryan Reynolds stars in “Self/Less.”

Meryl Streep stars as a veteran rocker
who realizes too late that she should have
paid less attention to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’
roll, and more to her all-but-abandoned
children (one of whom is played by her
real-life daughter Mamie Gummer). Rick
Springfield costars as Streep’s main
squeeze.

1980s West Coast hip-hop gets big-screen
treatment, with Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre,
O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Ice Cube and Aldis
Hodge as MC Ren. Paul Giamatti plays Jerry Heller, the record producer who made the
guys mainstream.

Aug. 14: ‘The Man From
U.N.C.L.E.’

In this grownup romance, Patricia Clarkson stars as a Manhattan woman who, with
her marriage on the rocks, decides to take
driving lessons. She finds herself behind the
wheel and next to a Sikh driving instructor
(Ben Kingsley) who’s about to enter an
arranged marriage with a woman he has
never met.

Guy Ritchie’s reboot of the 1960s TV
show is set smack in the middle of the
series’ original setting: Cold War America.
As new versions of Napoleon Solo (Henry
Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) venture out to defeat a shadowy international nuclear conspiracy, is it too much
to ask for cameos from Robert Vaughn and
David McCallum?

Aug. 14: ‘Straight Outta
Compton’
The emergence of N.W.A. as pioneers of

Aug. 21: ‘Learning to Drive’

Sept. 2: ‘A Walk in the Woods’
The screen version of Bill Bryson’s bestselling memoir follows the author (Robert
Redford) as he sets out to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends
(Nick Nolte). Unfortunately, Bryson’s harddrinking, overweight buddy is anything but
fit for the journey.

Above left: Meryl Streep stars as Ricki in “Ricki and the Flash.” Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment/TNS
Above right: Michelle Monaghan, Adam Sandler, Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage in “Pixels.” Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures/TNS

July 2015

— 18

RSVP

Below is a list of volunteer openings available through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) in
communities across southern Montana. To learn more about RSVP, call 1-800-942-2677 or log on to www.
seniorcorps.org.

Custer & Rosebud counties

- American Legion: Will need volunteer
ticket takers this summer.
- Clinic Ambassador: Need volunteer to
greet patients and visitors, providing directions and more, two locations.
- Custer County Food Bank: Volunteer
assistants needed for 8 a.m-1:30 p.m., Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to process
donations, stock shelves and more.
- Custer County Sheriff Department: Will
be fingerprinting on Tuesday and Thursdays
3-5 p.m., summer only.
- Gramma’s Ice Cream Shoppe: RSVP will
need help selling ice cream at the Eastern
Montana Fair August 19-22.
- Historic Miles City Academy: Urgently
need volunteers at the thrift store.
- Holy Rosary: Volunteer receptionist needed at front desk.
- MCC: Popcorn maker starting in September on Tuesdays.
- Soup Kitchen: Volunteers needed to greet
(seated position), serve and/or prepare food.
- St. Vincent DePaul: Volunteers to assist in
several different capacities.
- VA Activities: Urgent need for someone to
help with activities.
- VA Community Living Center: Volunteer
with people skills needed to interview CLC
residents on a monthly basis. Must be able to
objectively ask questions, work on a laptop
while doing so, and be accurate. Select your
own hours. People skills and accuracy are
important.
- WaterWorks Art Museum: Volunteer
receptionists needed, 2-hour shifts TuesdaysSundays; a volunteer also needed in cataloging the art collection, one to assist with historic research of the permanent art collection, and a volunteer to assist in summer kids
classes.
If you are interested in these or other volunteer opportunities please contact: Betty Vail,
RSVP Director; 210 Winchester Ave. #225,
MT 59301; phone (406) 234-0505; email:
[email protected].

Dawson County

- Local Farm to Table Store: Someone to
help in and during store hours, 11 a.m.-6
p.m.
- Makoshika Visitors Center: Volunteers
needed to assist on Mondays and Tuesdays. Training provided.
- If you have a need for or a special interest
or desire to volunteer somewhere in the
community, please contact: Patty Atwell,
RSVP Director, 604 Grant, Glendive, MT
59330; phone (406) 377-4716; email: rsvp@
midrivers.com.

Fergus & Judith Basin counties

- Art Center: In need of volunteers on Saturdays.
- Community Cupboard (Food Bank): Volunteers are needed to help any week mornings as well as with deliveries.
- Council on Aging: Volunteers needed to
assist at the Senior Center (Grubstakes) and
with home delivered meals and senior transportation.
 - Library: Volunteer help always appreciated.
- ROWL (Recycle Our Waste Lewistown):
Recruiting volunteers for the 3rd Saturday of
the month to help sorting, baling and loading
recyclables
- Treasure Depot: Thrift store needs volunteers to sort, hang clothes and put other items
on display for sale.
- Always have various needs for your skills
and volunteer services in our community.
- Current RSVP volunteers are encouraged
to turn in your hours each month; your contribution to the community is greatly appreciated!
Contact: RSVP Volunteer Coordinator Sara
Wald, 404 W. Broadway, Wells Fargo Bank
building, (upstairs), Lewistown, MT 59457;
phone (406) 535-0077; email: rsvplew@
midrivers.com.

Gallatin County

- American Cancer Society-Road to
Recovery: Drivers needed for patients
receiving treatments from their home to the
hospital
- American Red Cross Blood Drive: Two
volunteer opportunities available: an ambassador needed to welcome, greet, thank and
provide overview for blood donors; and
phone team volunteers needed to remind,
recruit or thank blood donors. Excellent customer service skills needed, training will be
provided, flexible schedule. 
 - Befrienders: Befriend a senior; visit on a
regular weekly basis.
 - Belgrade Senior Center: Meals on
Wheels needs regular and substitute drivers
Monday-Friday, to deliver meals to seniors
before noon.
 - Big Brothers Big Sisters: Be a positive
role model for only a few hours each week.
- Bozeman and Belgrade Sacks Thrift
Stores: Need volunteers 2-3 hour shifts on
any day, Monday–Saturday 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m.
- Bozeman Deaconess Hospital: Volunteers
needed for the information desks in the Atrium and the Perk, 8 a.m.-noon, noon- 4 p.m.
- Bozeman Senior Center Foot Clinic:
Retired or nearly retired nurses are urgently
needed, 2 days a month, either 4- or 8-hour
shifts.

- Galavan: Volunteer drivers needed Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.  CDL required
and Galavan will assist you in obtaining one.
Volunteers also needed to make reminder
calls and confirm rides for the following day.
- Gallatin Rest Home: Volunteers wanted
for visiting the residents, sharing your
knowledge of a craft, playing cards or reading to a resident.
- Gallatin Valley Food Bank: Volunteers
needed to deliver commodities to seniors in
their homes once a month. Deliveries in Belgrade are especially needed.
- HRDC Housing Department Ready to
Rent: Curriculum for families and individuals who have rental barriers such as lack of
poor rental history, property upkeep, renter
responsibilities, landlord/tenant communication and financial priorities. 
- Habitat for Humanity Restore: Belgrade
store needs volunteers for general help, sorting donations and assisting customers.
- Heart of The Valley: Compassionate volunteers especially needed to love, play with
and cuddle cats.
- Help Center: Computer literate volunteer
interested in entering data into a social services database. Also volunteers needed to
make phone calls to different agencies/programs to make sure database is up to date
and make safety calls to home bound
seniors.
- Jessie Wilber Gallery at The Emerson:
Volunteers needed on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to greet people at the main
desk, answer questions and keep track of the
number of visitors.
- Museum of the Rockies: Variety of opportunities available such as helping in the gift
shop and more.
- RSVP Handcrafters: Volunteers to quilt,
knit, crochet and embroider hats for chemo
patients, baby blankets and other handmade
goods once a week (can work from home).
Items are on sale in our store in the RSVP
office at the Senior Center or on Saturday
Farmers Markets until Sept. 13. Donated
yarn needed for the quilting, knitting and
crocheting projects.
- Three Forks Food Bank: Volunteer needed
on Mondays and/or Thursdays to help with
administrative duties, including answer
phones and questions, some paper and computer work. They will train.
- Your unique skills and interests are needed, without making a long-term commitment, in a variety of ongoing, special, onetime events.
Contact: Debi Casagranda, RSVP Program Coordinator, 807 N. Tracy, Bozeman,
MT 59715; phone (406) 587-5444; fax (406)
582 8499; email: [email protected] 
See RSVP, Page 20
July 2015
—19

Musselshell, Golden Valley & Petroleum counties

 - 4-H Fair: Volunteers needed to monitor indoor exhibits in the 4-H
building during the annual 4-H fair July 24th and 25th.
- Drama Camp: Volunteers needed to assist in all aspects of producing a play for grades 1-12.           
- Food Bank: Distribute food commodities to seniors and others in
the community; help unload the truck as needed.
 - Meals on Wheels Program: Deliver meals to the housebound in
the community, just one day a week, an hour and a half, meal provided.
- MVH Museum: Volunteers needed to in many capacities such as
guides, maintenance, yard work, historic preservation, board meetings, record keeping and fundraising.
- Nursing Home: Piano players and singers needed on Fridays to
entertain residents, also assistant needed in activities for residents to
enrich supported lifestyle.
- Senior Bus: Volunteers to pickup folks who are unable to drive
themselves.
- Senior Center: Volunteers are needed to provide meals, clean up in
the dining room and/or keep records; meal provided.
- RSVP offers maximum flexibility and choice to its volunteers as it
matches the personal interests and skills of older Americans with
opportunities to serve their communities. You choose how and where
to serve. Volunteering is an opportunity to learn new skills, make
friends and connect with your community.
Contact: Shelley Halvorson, South Central MT RSVP, 315 1/2
Main St., Ste. #1, Roundup, MT 59072; phone (406) 323-1403;  fax
(406) 323-4403; email: [email protected] ; Facebook: South
Central MT RSVP.

Park County

- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Mentor and positive role models to a

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July 2015

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boy or girl needed, one hour a week.
- Fix-It-Brigade: Needs volunteers of all ages and skill levels for 2
hour tasks on your schedule to help seniors or veterans with small
home repairs and chores, such as changing a light bulb, mending a
fence, cleaning up a yard.
- Livingston Depot: Needs volunteers with people skills as museum
greeter and gift shop attendant with basic math skills through September 13. Training is provided and schedules are flexible.
- Livingston Downtown Builders Association: Needs drivers able to
drive a double clutch vehicle, and tour guides for the Yellow Bus
Tours this summer, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 1and 2 p.m.,
training provided.
 - Loaves and Fishes: Volunteers needed to prepare meals.
 - Main Streeter Thrift Store: Someone who enjoys working with
the public, greet customers, ring up purchases, label and hang clothes
and accept donations.
 - Meals on Wheels: Always need substitute drivers to deliver meals
to seniors in their home.
- RSVP: Has many one-time events, including mailings and fundraising events that require volunteers.
- RSVP Handcrafters: Volunteers to knit and crochet caps and
scarves for each child at Head Start, also as gifts for children of prenatal classes, and baby hats and afghan’s for the hospital newborns;
Thursdays, 1-2 p.m. at the Senior Center.
- Senior Center: Need volunteers, Tuesdays, 1 p.m., to cut unsold
clothing into rags to be sold for proceeds to the center.
 - Stafford Animal Shelter: Kindhearted volunteers needed to socialize cats and kittens, and to walk the dogs.
 - Transportation: Volunteer drivers needed to help patients keep
doctor appointments; some gas mileage assistance may be provided.
Contact: Deb Downs, Program Coordinator, 111 So. 2nd St., Livingston, MT 59047; phone (406) 222-2281; email: [email protected]

News Lite
Utah school creates ‘texting lane’

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — One Utah university is giving students glued to their cellphones a place to call their own: a designated lane for texting while walking.
Utah Valley University spokeswoman Melinda Colton said the
bright green lane painted on the stairs to the gym was intended as
a lighthearted way to brighten up the space and get students’
attention.
And it worked, as a picture posted online created widespread
buzz on social media this week.
Twenty-two-year-old student Chelsea Meza says the idea
touches on a cultural reality in an age of ubiquitous cellphones.
She says some texting students have used it.

Nearly mile-long ‘pie’ in Milan

ROME (AP) — The wait was on the long side for the pizza -18 hours — but this was an extraordinary pie: 1.59545 kilometers, or nearly a mile long.
More than 60 of Italy’s best pizza-makers worked through the
night to create the pizza at Milan’s world fair, Expo 2015. Their
toil was rewarded with a proclamation by Guinness World
Records judge June 20 that it was the world’s longest pizza. Expo
organizers said the record-setting pie, made with 1.5 tons of mozzarella and 2 tons of tomato sauce, weighed some 5 tons in all.
The creation topped the record of a 1.1415-kilometer-long pizza made in Spain.
Fair-goers could eat slices of the Milan pizza for free.

July Calendar
— Wednesday, July 1
• The Abba Show, 8 p.m.,
Alberta Bair Theater, Billings

2015

• Livingston Roundup’s free slack rodeo, 3 p.m., Livingston
• Farmers Market, 4:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesdays through July 29,

Miles Park, Livingston

— Thursday, July 2
• Music on Main, Thursdays through August 13, Bozeman
• Northern Cheyenne 4th of July PowWow, through July 5, Lame
Deer
• 28th Annual Depot Festival of the Arts, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m., through
July 4, Rotary Park, Livingston
• Roundup Rodeo Parade, 2 p.m., downtown Livingston
• Roundup Rodeo, through July 4, Park County Rodeo Grounds,
Livingston
• Home of Champions Rodeo and Parade, through July 4, Red
Lodge
• Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park Interpretive Programs,
Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m., through September 5, Whitehall
— Friday, July 3
• Fourth of July Celebration, through July 4, Laurel
• “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” weekends through July 12, Shane
Center, Livingston
• Farmers Market, Fridays through September 25, Red Lodge
• Roundup Independence Days Extravaganza, through July 5,
Roundup
• The Brewery Follies, weekends through August 30, Virginia City
• Living History Weekends, through July 26, Virginia City
— Saturday, July 4
• Farmers Market, Saturdays through October 10, Glendive
• Parade-VFW Trailer for Veterans up front, Glendive
• Bump-n-Run, Fairgrounds, Glendive
• Custer County Historic Preservation Commissioned Mural
Dedication, Riverside Park, Miles City
• NiedgeFest, 4 p.m.-midnight, Riverside Park, Miles City
• People’s parade, 11 a.m., Celebration with live music, vendors,

barbecue, Riverside Park, Miles City

• VFW Fireworks Display, dusk, Natural Oasis Beach, Miles City

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Gatherings & Meetings

• Nevada City Living History Weekends, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through

September 27, Lantern Tours start at 9:30 p.m., Nevada City

— Sunday, July 5

• St. Timothy’s Summer Music Festival, 4 p.m., Sundays through

August 23, Georgetown Lake, Philipsburg

— Tuesday, July 7

• Farmers Market, Tuesdays through September 22, Bogert Park,

Bozeman

— Friday, July 10
• The Montana Folk Festival, through July 12, music starts at 6 p.m.
• Friday, Butte
• Yellowstone River Boat Float, through July 12, Livingston to

Laurel

— Wednesday, July 15

• Gallatin County Fair, through July 19, Gallatin County

Fairgrounds, Bozeman

— Thursday, July 16
• Rosebud-Treasure County Fair, through July 19, Forsyth
• Independent Press 100 Celebration, Forsyth

— Friday, July 17

• All About the Farm and Ranch Fine Art Show, 5-7 p.m., Two

Rivers Gallery, Big Timber

• Summerfest Along the Yellowstone, through July 19, Sacajawea

Park, Livingston

— Saturday, July 18
• Bannack Days, through July 19, events begin at 7 a.m., Bannack
• Sunset over the Yellowstone Bell Street Dinner, 6 p.m. social hour,
7 p.m. gourmet dinner, Glendive
— Wednesday, July 22
• Central Montana Horse Show, Fair and Rodeo, through July 25,
Lewistown
— Thursday, July 23
• Evel Knievel Days, through July 25, all day events, Butte
• Red Ants Pants Music Festival, through July 26, White Sulphur
Springs
— Friday, July 24
• Diamond Rio and Restless Heart, Lewistown
• Livingston Art Walk, downtown, Livingston
• Cruisen Red Lodge Car and Bike Show, through July 26, Red
Lodge
— Saturday, July 25
• Professional Bull Riders, Park County Fairgrounds Rodeo Arena,
Livingston
— Wednesday, July 29
• Park County Fair, through August 1, Park County Fairgrounds,
Livingston
— Friday, July 31
• Fiddlers Picnic, through August 2, Livingston
• Pig Wrestling Contest, Park County Fairgrounds, Livingston
• MaltFest with concert and Street Dance, Main Street, Miles City
• Smoking Waters Mountain Man Rendezvous, through August 9,
West Yellowstone
July 2015

— 21

By Bill Sones and Rich Sones, Ph.D.

Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at [email protected]

Thank you,

chickens of the world

22 billion

Q. What would the world be like
without any chickens — all 22 billion
(22,000,000,000) of them?

A. “Chickenless, we humans would face
‘a starving world,’” says molecular
biologist Olivier Hanotte, as reported to
Andrew Lawler in “New Scientist”
magazine. Close to one-third of the world’s
meat supply and nearly all of its eggs
would vanish, Lawler adds. “The chickenhuman bond is ancient, forming roughly
3,000 years ago in the Pacific islands. To
the ancient Greeks, the bird was sacred to
their god of healing,” and today chickens
have become “staggeringly abundant,
outnumbering all the pigs and cows on the
planet combined.” There are now about
three chickens for every person on the
planet. Humans gobble about 100,000,000
tonnes of chicken meat and over
1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion) eggs
annually. “On a single day this year,
Superbowl Sunday, Americans ate an
estimated 1.25 billion chicken wings.”
Much of this is relatively recent: In 1950,
Americans ate twice as much red meat as
chicken; today, these numbers are reversed.
This change is not necessarily a bad thing
— actually, the chicken is a sort of
“environmental hero.” Beef, which makes
up about a quarter of the meat eaten in the
U.S., would be a disastrous replacement.
“Kilogram for kilogram, we would need to
find over 1,000 percent more land for beef
than is used to produce chickens.”
Q. Are you old enough to remember
the Rubik cube, that aggravatingly
difficult puzzle of variable-colored
moving cubes. You math lovers might
wonder, when you “play” with it, how
many different color arrangements are
there?

A. In 1974, Hungarian professor Erno
Rubik invented the puzzle, which consists
of a large cube, divided into 27 smaller
July 2015

— 22

cubes, or “cubies,” each one-third the size,
says Ian Stewart in “Professor Stewart’s
Incredible Numbers.” When you rotate the
faces of the cube as allowed, the number of
permissible color arrangements becomes
truly enormous:
43,252,003,274,489,856,000!
“If each of the 7 billion people in the
entire human race could obtain one
arrangement every second, it would take
about 200 years to run through them all.”
Don’t even ask how to figure the number,
since it involves 8! (that’s 8 factorial, or 8 x
7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1) times 3 to the 8th
power. “Incredible numbers” indeed,
Professor Stewart!
Q. If we humans embark on an
interplanetary voyage to Mars by 2050,
as is currently hoped, what things might
be in store for the astronauts?

A. After completing a five-month stay on
the International Space Station, astronaut
Thomas Marshburn had this to say, “Going
into outer space is the most dramatic thing
that can happen to your body other than
being born,” reports Bruce Bower in
“Science News” magazine. The flight to
Mars will require teamwork — ”extreme
teamwork” — with the half-dozen or so
crew members needing to work together to
cope with the constant noise and activity in
“an artificial environment devoid of natural
light, where sleep can easily be disrupted.”
Feelings of isolation can also be a major
difficulty, as the astronauts will be out of
computer contact with family members, but
“virtual families” might come to the rescue:
NASA researchers are working to develop
“head gear that will place crew members in
virtual, 3D re-creations of their family
homes, where they will visit simulated
versions of their spouses, children and other
loved ones.”
Yet space travel has a striking
transcendent upside. After spending four

months on MIR in 1997, US astronaut Jerry
Linenger in his book “Off the Planet”
described “returning home with increased
self confidence, greater appreciation of
life’s pleasures and a newfound sense of
Earth and its human inhabitants as a unified
entity.” Other returned US and Russian
astronauts expressed similar feelings,
including a better grasp of Earth’s beauty.
According to Vancouver psychologist Peter
Suedfeld, they also reported “a heightened
concern for the collective interests of
people around the world, world peace and a
god that exists beyond specific religions.”
Q. Cancers of the breast, prostate,
lungs and colon take their tragic toll on
humankind. But why don’t we ever hear
about heart cancer?
A. Because unlike cells in other organs
that can divide uncontrollably to produce
tumors, those of the heart don’t split and
multiply, reported “Time” magazine. Heart
cells divide only during fetal development,
and then “around birth, the switch that
controls whether they divide turns off and
remains off.” Predominantly muscle cells,
they continue to expand as body size
increases but they don’t multiply.
So when it comes to cancer, the fact that
heart cells don’t divide is “good news” but
on the down side, this means that “after a
heart attack, these tissues cannot
regenerate.”
Q. Why do we gesture as we talk?

A. Gestures not only help us transmit our
thoughts to others but they help us
formulate those thoughts, says psychologist
David McNeill as reported by Arika Okrent
in “Mental Floss” magazine. So profound
are gestures that people use them even if
they’ve never seen them before: people
who have been blind since birth do
gesturing. And people gesture to someone
on the phone even though the other person

on the phone can’t see them do so. “When speech is disrupted —
by stuttering for example--so is gesturing,” Okrent adds.
When there’s a mismatch between gestures and speech, it can
be a valuable tipoff as to the underlying mental processes. For
example, as psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow discovered in
her research, when children until about age 7 are given a tall glass
and a shorter, wider one with the same amount of water, they
think that the shorter glass contains less water. “When asked to

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Crossword

Across

1 NASA program for
aspiring explorers
10 Subject of a 1964
Time article subtitled
“Pictures That Attack
the Eye”
15 Crowded locale
16 Nikon competitor
17 Empty entirely
18 Western formation
19 Furniture wood
20 Clergymanʼs deg.
22 Building __
23 “Peer Gynt” widow
24 Runner-up before
RMN
26 Short-tailed weasel
28 Singer with the 2002
debut hit “Complicated”
31 Dow 30 company
34 Focus of many a
botanical festival
35 Ottoman bigwig
36 Farm newborn
37 When many retire
38 Great

39 Hogwarts redhead
40 1979 sci-fi classic
41 Gibsonʼs “Lethal
Weapon” role
42 Constitution
nickname
45 Sign of anxiety
46 Allowance holder,
perhaps
47 Place to see sea
monsters, once
50 “¿Quién __?”
51 Announcer Hall
53 Dead Sea stronghold
55 Pay
57 Cepheus neighbor
59 Floor in the Louvre
60 Quiet break
61 Corning creation
62 Hog support?

explain their reasoning, some children will say, ‘This one is shorter,’ while gesturing that the glass is wider ..., showing they subconsciously grasp that both dimensions are important. Teachers
who can spot these mismatches can tell when a student is ready to
understand the relationship between height, width and volume.”
Q. When the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued its
new “Brontosaurus” stamp in 1989, it came under criticism
from the Smithsonian Institute and others. What was the
issue?
A. The Institute accused the USPS of favoring “cartoon nomenclature to scientific nomenclature” in rejecting the correct name
“Apatosaurus” (deceptive lizard)--dating back to the 1970s--for
“Brontosaurus” (thunder lizard), says Michael Balter in “Science”
magazine. Recently, paleontologist Emanuel Tschopp weighed in
on the matter with his “dinosaur-sized study,” the most comprehensive one to date of the family tree Diplodocidae, to which both
of these monstrous beasts belong. In examining 80 skeletons and
477 skeletal features, Tschopp found that “USPS got it right”:
these plant-eating dinos with their distinctive long necks and tails
differed from Apatosaurus “in at least a dozen key characters
across the skeleton” and possessed some features that Apatosaurus lacked. His conclusion: These differences are enough for
Brontosaurus to have its own name.
As paleobiologist Philip Mannion sums it up: “Brontosaurus
has a prominent place in the public imagination. It can only be a
good thing that it is back with us... It shows that science develops
through time and that it’s possible to change our minds, even
about long-held views.”

6 Comparatively still
7 Exist
8 Essence
9 Like the ancient
Olympic Games
10 Blakeʼs eye
11 15th-century pope
12 Drive on the way to
Hollywood?
13 Stinker, in more
ways than one
14 Old Testament

pronoun
21 Backup site
25 One whoʼs easy to
take
27 NBA honor
28 Tide alternative
29 Tambur relatives
30 Most spiders have
eight
31 High style
32 Place to make a
splash

33 Sichuan native
37 Separate
38 __ Honor
40 Name from the
Hebrew for “lion”
41 Alters on a desktop,
maybe
43 2002 film with a
mammoth co-star
44 Table linen fabric
47 Fanaticism
48 Dress
49 Cut off
50 Short distance
52 Square root of neun
54 Recipe direction
56 ʼ60s-ʼ70s soul singer
Joe
58 Ink __

Down

1 1978 Toyota debut
2 Looks closely
3 Totʼs song starter
4 Decoratorʼs target
5 Lesotho, for instance
July 2015

— 23

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