It's a role that longevity and spending life in place has bequeathed him though don't be fooled. He's not very old. He still hikes into the mountains with his grandson on autumn hunts.
When McMillion says that Livingston is my kind of town the statement is more than a declaration of nostalgia for small-town America where heart-felt empathy for the past doesnt hold as much currency as it used to. Livingston has a reputation for defiance. It welcomes newcomers with open armsespecially those willing to buy the first round of drinks at the bar and yet it collectively sneers at anyone who dares move there, asserting a boastful intent to change the local culture.
Livingstoneans do not believe their little burg needs much improvement and the attitude serves as a sharp contrast to whats playing out today in the large booming neighbor on the side side of a mountain pass crossed by Interstate 90: Bozeman. Livingstoneans know they don't need unscrupulous developers to teach them what it means to live in a place that's "arrived" as a worthy destination.
McMillion, being a sound example of a local kid done good by his town in adulthood, is perhaps a model for the maxim that in order to fully appreciate the place that brung you along you need to leave it for a while to get ones head straightened out. After graduating from Park High School, he did two things. He got a degree in English from the University of Montana and traveled around the world.
But home kept calling him home and once he returned to Livingston, a railroad town and gateway to Yellowstone Park located along the Yellowstone River, he served as a longtime reporter for The Bozeman Daily Chronicle. It was out on thetrail of covering environmental stories, including crossing paths during the 1988 Yellowstone fires, that we became friends, setting aside the hard-wired drive to out-scoop one another.
Important to point out about Livingston is that its authentic character speaks to authentic people who go by the beat of their own drummers. The local yokels, unimpressed with anyone who projects airs, do not need outsiders validating what they do or don't do. Over the last half century, along the prospect of being able to be treated as just another person free of stalking sycophants, has attracted people of enormous talent who come to Paradise Valley and Livingston and want to be left alone. If the names McGuane, Brokaw, Bridges, Fonda, Harrison, Chatham, Hjortsberg, Kidder, Brautigan, Keaton, Peckinpah, Cahill, Peacock, Quaid and Ryan, among others, ring bellsand you appreciate their artthen you comprehend the reference and, if you dont, dont worry because you probably never will.
Following in their wakes have come new generations of world-class writers, photographers, flat artists, sculptors, playwrights and filmmakers. To have such a constellation descend upon your town could be paralyzing for a local writer yet McMillion has proved himself worthy to be counted in their company.
Montana Quarterly and non-profit Mountain Journal share these values. In this age in which America is being dumbed down by shameless purveyors of alternative facts, whose false assertions are going unchallenged, and as newspapers struggle for survival and perish, honest storytelling rooted in truth matters more than ever.
When we make a strong recommendation like this, that you supportMontana Quarterly by purchasing an eminently affordable subscriptionand maybe a second one for your kids or grandkids so that they will know the delights of tactile media arriving in real tactile mailit isnt out of some misguided sense of nostalgia. We also suggest you buy a subscription for any newcomer to the state whom you suspect might not quite understand that we do not want to become "the next" Portland, Denver, Bend, Oregon or Vail.
Montana Quarterly has earned your patronage and youll look forward with delight to each new issue. In addition to supporting the Quarterly there are other publications, below, operated by mutual friends of Scott and me. This is in addition to, whenever you have theopportunity, alsothink of local booksellers. Indeed, we vote our values whenever we open our wallets.
McMillion, right, with the late great Livingston-based novelist and non-fiction writer William "Gatz" Hjortsberg. In recent years Livingston has coped with the painful passing of Hjortsberg, Jim Harrison, Margot Kidder, Peter Fonda and Russell Chatham. Photo courtesy John Zumpano
A MoJo Chat With Scott McMIllion of Montana Quarterly
Todd Wilkinson: You are a seasoned journalist and author. Whats the most satisfying thing about publishing your own magazine?
Scott McMillion: Probably working with young writers. Over the past few years, weve lost a lot of virtuoso writers whose work has appeared in the Quarterly. Jim Harrison, Ed Dobbs and Gatz Hjortsberg, most notably.
I miss those guys, but I also cherish working with young writers like Todd Burritt, Sarah Rau Peterson, Alexis Bonogofksy, Adam Boehler and many others. I also work with writers who, like me, arent exactly spring chickens, like Kim Zupan, but Id probably never get to know them if I didnt have the magazine.
I meet a lot of young people through our annual Big Snowy Contests for young writers, which has helped a few of them jumpstart careers. And the number of venues for publishing just keeps shrinking, which adds importance to what we do.
Wilkinson: As national magazines have struggled, Montana Quarterly has maintained its spirited focus, sense for finding good stories and empathetic portrayals of regular people. Where does that instinct come from?
McMillion: The stories are actually fairly easy to find, mostly because Montanans tend to be a pretty chatty bunch. Everybodys got a yarn, and most folks are willing to tell it. Picking the right story, matching it with the right writer and photographer, is the challenging part. Its part instinct, part 30 years of experience, and mostly just a love of the state and its people. Our philosophy is pretty simple: Montana is a cool place that hasnt been screwed up yet. Weve got a community of writers, photographers and readers that want to keep it that way.
Wilkinson: This puts you on the spot but what are a few of your favorite pieces youve written and a few favorites by other writers in the Quarterly stable?
McMillion: Some of the favorites Ive written:A profile of the town of Saint Marie, which is the old Glasgow Air Force Base. Thousands of people lived there in the sixties, but now the place looks like a set from a zombie movie, with hundreds of houses and other buildings that havent seen a new shingle or a coat of paint in decades. A group of Sovereign Citizens the kind of guys who like to make their own license plates bought most of it for back taxes.
Spending a few days inside the mens meth prison in Lewistown. Talk about stories to tell! These are hard cases, but when photographer Thomas Lee and I walked in the gym, 200 cons stood up and sang You are my Sunshine. That stuff just doesnt happen every day.Covering the longstanding, expensive, and, sadly, probably futile effort to restore blackfooted ferrets to Montana. I got to hold one the rarest carnivores in the world in my lap. It was exciting enough that I didnt even mind the fleas crawling all over me.
This photo of a female mountain lion ran in the winter 2019 Montana Quarterly as part of story about new ways to study the elusive big cats. Photo courtesy Ryan Castle
Some of the other highlights:Sarah Rau Petersons hilarious and poignant depictions of ranch life in Eastern Montana. Shes not afraid to talk about ovine dingleberries and Im not afraid to publish what she says.Jeff Welschs story about the Blackfoot Challenge, which shows that ranches and predators can coexist, when smart people decide to make it happen.Pretty much anything Alan Kesselheim writes.And of course Tim Cahills gripping account of his own death in the Grand Canyon. But the big hoss is tough. He whupped death and lived to write about it.
Wilkinson: You wear your pride of Livingston residency on your sleeve. How does having a vantage from Livingston on the rest of Montana differ from, say, if you were based in Bozeman?
"Montana, Warts And All" is a volume featuring some of the magazine's most resonant stories in recent years.
Livingston is a little bit Bohemian and a little bit working class, and sprinkled with millionaires, but most people get along, though we do have a few soreheads. Were close to the mountains, close to the prairies, and the Yellowstone River is always a marvel. The wildlife lives among us, right in our yards. And while they say the wind blows now and then, if you put some rocks in your pockets youll probably stay earthbound.
As for Bozeman, if Id grown up there I dont think Id still be living there. I enjoy what it has to offerthe restaurants and the performancesbut the older I get the slower I move. I think that town has outgrown me. Livingston hasnt.
Wilkinson: In times like these, the late Russell Chatham said, art speaks to drama and anxiety in the air. Why does storytelling matter especially now?
McMillion: Storytelling has always been central to being human. Its how we figure out who we are and what we need to do. Our country is so divided and bitter these days, with half the nation accusing the other half of drinking the Kool-Aid.
At Montana Quarterly, we try to focus on what unites us and excites us instead of what divides us. We find a curiosity, a marvel, a marvelous person. Then we tell that story. I think it matters more than ever.
Remember: Support Your Local Newspaper. It plays a vital role in covering issues that matter to your community. Of course, if you have it in your heart, Mountain Journal is profoundly grateful for your support too. It is the only thing that enables us to exist.
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Great Storytelling: It Pulls At Our Heartstrings And Holds Communities Together - Mountain Journal
