In 1995, ranchers in southwest Montana lost a long battle to keep the government from reintroducing the gray wolf -- a species that had been exterminated to protect livestock. As the growing packs moved north from Yellowstone Park, ranchers and wildlife experts struggled to keep the wolves from killing cattle and sheep without violating the Endangered Species Act that protected the predator. Set in the soaring mountains and majestic valleys of southwest Montana, "Wolves in Paradise" is a tale of survival as ranchers face the challenge of living with wolves in the decade after the top predator was restored to Yellowstone National Park. (more...)
Montana artist, Gary Spetz, provides viewers with innovative new painting methods, encouraging them to undertake more complex paintings. “Beginning painter’s often get hung up on composition and values,” says Spetz. “I teach a method where key shapes are isolated, at the start of the painting, with a liquid masking material—which greatly simplifies the watercolor painting process. It enables a painter to focus, more incrementally, on smaller segments of the painting—making the process more palatable.” more...
At the start of WWII, different shades of nationalism lead to divergent views on entering foreign warfare. This program explores the different ideas of patriotism through the eyes of four Montanans. Join a conscientious objector who tells of his decision to opt for civilian public service in Missoula over armed combat and hear from a Butte miner who was required to keep working in the mines during the war. Learn what it was like for a Bozeman high school student to interview families of servicemen killed in battle and find out what a Crow veteran took with him to foreign battlefields. Discover how these four individual's perceptions evolved as the war raged on and whether life in Montana would ever be the same. (more...)
In midwinter 1972, 100 grass-roots delegates gathered in Helena to rewrite the century-old state constitution. In less than two months they produced a document that would affect the lives of generations of Montanans. Constitutional scholars rank our constitution among the nation's finest.
Photo: MT Historical Society