August 13, 2025 Inside the Bison Football locker room at Great Falls High School, a testosterone-fueled cheer erupts: chanting, clapping and yelling. It’s not for a win, in fact, it’s mid August and school won’t start for 10 days. The cheers are for something bigger than a scoreboard. At first the room is full of teenage chatter. But when Coach Tchida steps forward holding a gold placard, something shifts. The room doesn't go silent, but the energy changes. Becomes reverent.

Hillary and Haylee Folkvord, the hoteliers behind the RSVP Motel and Farmer's Daughters Cafe in Bozeman, and the Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks until they sold it in 2026. Their newest project, The Cottages at Bigfork, is in a place their family has been coming to for years, long before there was any plan to run a business there. Can you share a brief history of The Cottages and what you saw in it when taking it over? The Cottages were built in 2004, and our family became ste

Chad Swift grew up inside his family's flooring business, Floors & More, without ever expecting to want it for himself. The showroom was in his dad's garage in the early days, samples lined up along the wall for whoever pulled in after work hours. Chad was often there with Neil as a kid, watching him work. "I never even thought of the business as anything successful," he says. "It was just something my parents did during the day." These days, Chad runs Floors & More with a di

Grant Melton grew up in Brookville, Ohio, a tiny rural town outside Dayton. Both his parents were great cooks, and somewhere around 1999, his dad decided that when Y2K hit and civilization collapsed, the family needed to have the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized. Grant doesn't remember the recipe to this day. But he remembers making those cookies, and that feeling stuck with him in a way that would end up shaping everything that came after. After high school

Stu Brumbaugh grew up in Great Falls. He was an imaginative kid with a lot of time on his hands, always outside, always inventing something to do. He hung around the drama department at CMR, working stagecraft, working up the nerve to audition for plays. Then a family friend got him onto the set of Holy Matrimony, a film shooting nearby with Patricia Arquette and Leonard Nimoy. He stood behind the monitor and watched how it all worked for a few hours. “I was immediately hooke

Hollie is a Montana-born artist hoping to make the type of clothing people want to pass down to younger generations. She was born in Great Falls, both of her parents were born in Great Falls, and both of their parents lived there for a long time before that. She has old UM Grizzly shirts her dad wore as a college student that she still wears today. She wants to create new clothing pieces that have a timeless look to them and will last for the next several generations of proud

Sarah Reilley didn’t take the typical road to interior design. She studied opera at the University of Michigan, spent sixteen years climbing the ranks of finance — ultimately as a Managing Director at Apollo Global Management in New York — and renovated a Brooklyn brownstone from the studs up along the way. Now based in Bozeman, she runs Sarah Reilley Interiors , bringing a design sensibility that’s equal parts lived-in and elevated to homes across the Mountain West. We sat d

Liv Longin launched Bozeman Media Design four years ago with $400, a logo she made in Canva, and a hunch that nobody in Montana was doing social media marketing at the level it deserved. She was right. Today BMD works with some of the most recognized names in the state — and plenty beyond it. We sat down with Liv to talk roots, risk, and what it really means to build something in Montana. You grew up here, left for the entertainment world, and eventually came back. What broug

White Sulphur Springs, MT is not the kind of town where people expect to find craft cocktails, a speakeasy, a curated thrift store, a wine society, and a hospitality group with locations across Montana. And yet, that’s exactly what Cassie Coburn and Amber (Coburn) Updegrave have built here — two sisters who grew up in their mom’s restaurant, worked for tips through high school and college, and eventually built restaurants of their own. Amber and Cassie’s story is one that mak

Brandon Braaten, a Stevensville insurance agent, built his career on trust and genuine care—values he shares with his husband, Josh Perkins, a local Realtor. From the agriculture classroom to building their own event venue, the couple has created a life centered on community and connection. They've poured their hearts into The Barn on Pine Hollow , their Bitterroot Valley event space, and Pine Hollow Ranch , their warm and welcoming Airbnb. Both ventures reflect the meaningfu

Photo by Jenna Nord Photography, www.jennanordphotography.com For the past decade, Melissa has been weaving Montana's wild beauty into her floral designs, one locally sourced stem at a time. From her studio in Missoula, she creates ethereal arrangements that mirror the landscape she loves, while her nonprofit work helps women and girls reconnect with the natural rhythms of their own bodies. Can you tell us about yourself and what led you to floral design? I've been working wi

Richard Tieman has never met a microphone he didn't like. It's one of the first things he tells you about himself, delivered with the easy confidence of someone who's spent years performing. But the story of how a touring drummer from Spokane became the face of The F.A.N. Show —Great Falls' most recognizable sports coverage and the reason he was voted Best Entertainment for 2025—isn't the straightforward sports journalism tale you'd expect. The Musician Who Loved Sports Growi

When Kirk Timmer founded Silver Stone Homes , he had a clear vision: bring top-tier custom home building to Great Falls with an approach that treats every project like it’s their own family’s forever home. Now, with his sons Trevan and Trace working alongside him, that family commitment runs even deeper—one carefully selected project at a time. It's Starts With Listening The Silver Stone philosophy starts with something surprisingly simple: listening. Before any blueprints ge

Kate Stephens is a fourth-generation wheat farmer from Montana and the founder of Kate’s Ag, a platform dedicated to bridging the gap between farmers and consumers through storytelling, fashion, and education. Through her YouTube channel and social media, she advocates for family farmers by sharing authentic stories from rural America and highlighting how agriculture connects to both what we wear and what we eat. A senior at Cornell University studying International Agricultu

When Shirstie Gaylord walks through downtown Great Falls now, she sees it differently than she did eight years ago. Back then, she was hauling a six-foot table to the farmers market every weekend, selling Hometana's Montana t-shirts that she'd printed with her last few hundred dollars. She'd look around at the Mighty Mo Brewing crew, the Enbär group, Electric City Coffee (businesses that were saying downtown is cool) and think, I want to be one of them. Now she is. Today, Hom

Montana’s landscapes have inspired countless artists, but for Clay Pape, they are the very heart of his work. A Montana native, Clay’s art reflects a deep connection to the place he grew up—capturing the colors, textures, and moods of the American West in a way that feels both timeless and alive. Known for his impressionistic chalk pastel pieces, Clay creates work that invites viewers to pause, reflect, and experience a sense of place. We sat down with Clay to talk about how