Where the L Matters Most

Written by Heather Bode • Photography by Jinny Jandron

“We humans owe these creatures of God that perform at our bidding, our greatest respect.”

This eloquent statement, a salute to the horses they breed and race, graces the indoor arena owned by Gary and Dee Hoovestal of Helena. The image conjured by the words suggests a rider bowing to his steed- an appropriate gesture for all who know and love everything equine.

GETTING STARTED

Gary Hoovestal hails from Sanders, Montana, between Hysham and Forsyth, where his father owned Hoovestal’s Country Store. While his dad assisted customers, Gary was out back building and practicing in his own rodeo arena. “My dad always had horses and we had a few cows, too, on rented land on Sarpy Creek,” he says. By the time he was 9 or 10 he owned his first horse and still has the boots and spurs to prove it. “I broke horses when I was young and did rough stock and roped calves in rodeo.”

A Sweet Industry for North Central Montana

Text by Suzanne Waring and Photography by Penny Smoot

A honeybee flits from one flower to another in your garden. Instead of waving the bee away, step back and allow it to do its work because bees are important to our livelihoods. According to the American Honey Producers Association, bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat. Without bees we wouldn’t have that food. For us here in North Central Montana, the good news is that the honeybees at Smoot Honey Company, Inc., are here. They arrived back in Montana from their winter home the first two weeks of April.

Photography provided by Phil Procopio

Skincare has become ever more increasingly important to me as I advance in life. When we ignore our skin, it becomes dull, aged, dry, and acne ridden. Summer is especially important for good skincare as we are in the sun more, exposed to more environmental aggressors and are just too busy to keep it up. So here are some of my favorite summer essentials for skin to keep it radiant, fresh and looking good.

Aveda Daily Light Guard

How a Boat Shop Born in a Basement, Crafted a Family and Shaped a Community

Text by Shane Klippenes and Photography by Darrin Schreder

Prior to my recent trip to Canyon Ferry Reservoir, when I thought of sculling, I pictured Ivy League types, rocketing diminutive custom crafts past ancient architecture on smooth mirrored-glass waters. Other than for muscle building, what practical purpose could sculling serve?

Lisa Kallio, daughter of Helena custom boat builder Alan Kallio, provided an answer I could grasp. “When I was 10-years old,” she said, “my brother and I routinely used our scull to row five miles across Canyon Ferry to Kim’s Marina to play Pac-Man while our parents were at work.”

How a Young Female Chemist was Part of the Manhattan Project

Text by Polly Kolstad and Photography by Sara Young

“I try to begin with a quote,” said Helen Yanuszka. “What would I say?”

“Oscar Wilde, ‘the mind is a diary of memories, some fade, not like a writing, that you can tear out of a page.'”

Yanuszka’s thoughts, calculated and collected, have hardly dimmed even into her nineties. She’s a quiet headliner in her own right, though not an open book, until she verbally pages through decades of her life. And then, there is no shortage of source material especially when she recalls the 1940s; that part of her work was so concealed, even she didn’t know what she was doing.

Her “nuggets of the past” are compelling.

She knew the slogan: “Loose lips, sink ships,” which indicated there was no conversing about your employment experience or what you did.

An Artisan Builder Creates Old World Opulence

Text by Heather Bode | Photography by James Ridle

Home owner Terry Johnson’s life reads like a Western narrative: log cabins and agriculture. Growing up on two small ranches homesteaded by his grandfathers outside of Deer Lodge, Johnson says, “It’s rough terrain over there. But I had agriculture in my fingers early on.” As a child, he grew vegetables, participated in 4-H, and raised hogs and chickens. Eventually, his family donated one of the family’s original log cabins to the Deer Lodge Historical Museum.