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The Missoula Children's Theater put on two showings of Alice in Wonderland this weekend with the children of Big Sandy as the stars of the show. Two volunteers from the Children's Theater came to Big Sandy on Monday, held auditions, gave every child a role in the play, spent the week rehearsing, and finally put on two shows for the community over the weekend. The Children's Theater had been putting on shows in communities all over the world, bringing high production values as well as...
My brother-in-law is a marine, and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He once told me that they would sometimes face an odd challenge when they would experience their first time in firefights. Some soldiers would collect their spent brass in the middle of combat. It seems weird, until you recognize that, in the intensity of those situations, fight-or-flight kicks in and folks replay what they did in training. This includes collecting their spent brass after they finished shooting. It’s a crazy reality that however we train is a strong i...
February 2nd was the 55th anniversary of the Big Sandy Cornfield Bomber's landing in a field north of town. What made the story so remarkable is that the pilot of the F-106 ejected from the airplane to escape a flat spin that would've inevitably resulted in a crash. The act of ejecting seems to have corrected the spin on the aircraft's flight path, causing the aircraft to level out and slowly descend, ultimately executing a near perfect belly landing, with minimal damage done to the aircraft. Tw...
I have been dealing with intense headaches for years and have experimented with all sorts of cures and solutions for dealing with the strange ailment. While Christmas shopping with my wife last December, she noticed that the florescent lights in stores like Sam’s Club or Walmart seem to trigger my headache symptoms. I researched the phenomena and found that it isn’t uncommon for light to cause headaches, particularly florescent lights. I quickly picked up various types of filtering glasses, including blue light and florescent light fil...
The generosity of the community of Big Sandy has shined through in the community's support of the Food Bank over the past year. Now the Food Bank wants to thank the community for their exceptional efforts. In particular, the First Bank of Montana and Big Sandy Schools went above and beyond in their efforts to make certain that locals in need would have both food and paper products over the 2024 holiday season. The Big Sandy Food Bank wants to extend their thanks to the community, First Bank of...
Next week marks the 55th anniversary of the February 2nd, 1970 unmanned landing of an F-106A Delta Dart in a field north of Big Sandy. The story of an emergency landing alone is more than enough to be memorable in small town lore. The event's significance is amplified by the fact that the jet completed its near perfect "belly landing" without a pilot at the controls. Dubbed "The Big Sandy Cornfield Bomber," the jet was quickly collected by the Air Force, returned to Malmstrom Air Force Base,...
Big Sandy Public Library is closed this week for carpet replacement. The renovation work began last week on Thursday and will continue for the duration of this week. The library will reopen next week for regular operating hours. The decision to replace carpeting is based on wear and tear the facility has experienced due to heavy traffic from local patrons. Darlene Cline, the head Librarian in Big Sandy, explained the decision to replace the carpet: “We had the funds to be able to do it. There are rips that create tripping hazard areas and n...
The Fort Benton City Council is considering a proposal to erect an enormous 20' by 38' American flag. The flag is to be donated by the Flying Freedom Forward project, which also proposed the idea. The initiative is the mission of Nate Duram, from Eureka Montana. If the city agrees to go forward on the project, it will be the second in Duram's larger mission to see a large flag flying over every town in the state of Montana. Duram is a physically large man, with an even larger personality, who de...
It is the first full week of 2025. Many of us are setting goals and resolutions for the coming year, in hope of making positive changes to our lives in the coming months. I have written more than a few columns on how to make resolutions and goals that stick and a couple on new year’s observances in Big Sandy history. However, until this week I never asked where the practice came from in the first place. It has always seemed like something we just do because it’s what everyone has always done. Where did the modern practice come from? The mod...
Over the weekend, I was talking with a friend of mine who has an upper management job in a large international organization. He was telling me about a documentary he watched on happiness that featured the story of a Vietnamese rickshaw cab operator. In the interviews, the man talked about his life and was surprisingly positive given the level of poverty he experienced. He spoke of how much he enjoyed his job because he got to work outside and be active. At the end of the day, he had enough money to eat a good meal with his son, who he was...
Big Sandy High School's Christmas concert highlighted the hard work and talent of young musicians last Tuesday evening, December 17th. The High School choir, individual musicians, vocalists, and the full band performed Christmas classics, setting the mood for the holiday season. TJ Bond, the Big Sandy music teacher, opened the program by pointing out that many locals tell him that it isn't really the Christmas season for them until they attend the High School Christmas concert. True to this repu...
In October, a group of Massachusetts teenagers running an Instagram account called “Boys With A Bus” built a four-story raft on the shores of the Missouri River and embarked on a 5-day adventure through the Big Sky wilderness. Along the way, they met Dan Schrock, who invited them to visit Big Sandy High School and share the tale of their adventure. Over the last few months, the Mountaineer has relayed the story of these young men and their modern Huckleberry Finn style journey. Thus far, we have looked at their presentation to the stu...
A 2019 study looking at the work habits of 1000 employees found that nearly half of all employees believe that they could perform better at work if they were not worried about making mistakes. The study found that employees were hampered as much as 40% of the time by fear of failure. As a pastor and counselor, I have spent no small amount of time talking through past mistakes with those who lament their errors in judgement, missteps, wrong moves, and outright mistakes. It seems like the easiest thing to do in life sometimes is to carry our...
Students from FE Miley Elementary School were treated to a brief visit from Santa Claus Thursday morning for their last day of classes before Christmas break. At 8:30 AM, the jolly old elf met students at the door with his trademark laugh and candy canes. Saint Nick’s appearance was part of a holiday tradition at FE Miley for the last day of school before Christmas break. Students gathered at the High School theater to watch a movie, eat popcorn, and enjoy the morning together. The High School Student Council made popcorn for the event and h...
Over the weekend, news broke of a possible significant archeological discovery in the Antalya province of Turkey. The limestone sarcophagus could possibly have been the original burial site of the fourth century Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas. Saint Nick is best known for the character his life story elements evolved into: Santa Claus. The recent discovery is interesting on its own, but the story of the bishop and how it evolved into something so different is fascinating as well. The sarcophagus was unearthed near Saint Nicholas Church...
With 2.4 million subscribers watching online, 6 young men on the shore of the Missouri River built the raft they had designed at home in Massachusetts and set sail for their 5-day adventure in the style of Huckleberry Finn along the same waterways that Louis and Clark traveled over 200 years previous. The Boys With a Bus, as they were known from their Instagram account, have been covered in two previous Mountaineer articles. The first highlighting their talk with students at Big Sandy High...
With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, Big Sandy prepares for a short week followed by visits with family, sleepy afternoons after eating turkey, pumpkin pie, and ideally a day of grateful hearts for the gifts and blessings God has provided to us in the past year. Growing up, I remember learning about the Puritans, though they were always called Pilgrims, having their first harvest meal with the natives in the new world while making “hand turkey” crafts for my mom to hang on the fridge. When I got older, I heard all manner of other tales, myt...
In late October, a team of 6 recent high school graduates set sail for adventure on the Missouri River in a boat they designed and constructed themselves. The Boys with a Bus' Instagram account documenting their 5-day journey and other adventures has attracted the attention of over 2.4 million followers on Instagram. Their vessel didn't resemble the barges Louis and Clark used to travel the Missouri River or the raft Huckleberry Finn and Jim used to travel the Mississippi. It's safe to say...
The youth groups at Christ Lutheran Church and Big Sandy Church of God held their annual trick-or-treat food drive to benefit the Big Sandy Food Bank last Wednesday, October 30th. Organizers described the event as very successful, with students collecting around 1,000 non-perishable food items through the course of the evening. The food drive has historically been run as a friendly competition between the two church youth programs; Ultimately, Christ Lutheran squeaked out a tight victory with 6...
The Big Sandy Last Best Ruck Club of Big Sandy held their first official "ruck" to qualify for membership in the national Go Ruck organization. Rucking is simply walking with a weighted backpack. The exercise routine is based on military workouts and is a simple, low impact workout that the Go Ruck website describes as activity that "humans are naturally good at." The fledgling club's first official foray into qualifying for membership was held on Sunday afternoon, October 27th. What was slated...
Big Sandy High School students were regaled by the popular Instagram group, "Boys with a Bus" and YouTube David Rule in a special assembly on Monday morning, October 14th. Their presentation followed the successful completion of a 5-day river rafting adventure on the part of the 6 young men over the preceding 5 days. The group consists of recent high school graduates are taking a "gap year" before attending mostly Ivy League schools next fall. They designed and built a three-story tall river...
The Big Sandy Medical Guild held its annual rummage sale last week, raising money to benefit the Medical Center and the surrounding community. The event itself was a rousing success, attracting a larger than normal quantity of donations of rummage for the sale and more traffic than in a typical year. I spoke with Lisa Sipler, the president of the Big Sandy Medical Guild, about the sale. She reported that as of Sunday evening they had raised $13,000 between the rummage sale, pie counter sales,...
Theodore Roosevelt was once praised by another man for his prowess as a marksman. The man had heard stories of several spectacular shots the president had pulled off while hunting and gushed over the level of skill required, including hitting a pair of pronghorn at long range from the back of a moving horse. Laughing, Teddy responded that he was actually a poor shot. He explained that he had poor eyesight, a fact that was exasperated by a detached retina he suffered in a boxing match at the Whitehouse that rendered him partially blind. Rather,...
Situated on the edge of town, the local shooting range and gun club are one of the best kept secrets of our little community. Though many people know about the range itself, far fewer are familiar with or take advantage of the Bear Paw Sportsman Club's full offerings and facilities. With an archery range, skeet, and clay shooting facilities, safety courses, and other opportunities, the organization is a potential source of fun and education for any local who wants to engage in recreational...
With the recent start of the school year comes the opportunity welcome new Pioneer educators to our small town community. The new FE Miley Fourth Grade Teacher, Brittany Barnett, moved to Big Sandy specifically seeking a small Montana town to call home. The young educator came to our community from Wyoming with her husband, Clay, and Lane, their 11 month-old son. Brittany and Clay grew up in Winnett, MT and were High School Sweethearts. They've been married for two years, but have been a couple...
