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Hello and Happy
Holidays,
As one year ends and
another begins, it gives us pause to reflect
on our activities for the year. The
staff at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky
Mountain West want to wish you a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year.
From all of
us at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, The University of
Montana
Fort
Owen at Christmas Time
provided
by William Farr
Fort Owen
Saturday,
December 23, 1854 - Snake Indians
arrived.
Monday, December 25, 1854 - Mr.
Burr's Snake Wife left.
Sunday, December 31, 1854 - Christmas
is over and gone, and the year
too. We had quite a Merry time.
Mince Pies and Cakes that would have
done Credit to a table in a More
Civilized part of the World. There was
but one thing to Mar our pleasure and
that was the departure of Mr. Burr's
Wife, who left his bed and board without
just and Sufficient provocation.
She was visited by her parents on the
23rd and when they left she took the
opportunity of going also. Most of
the past Month the weather has been
quite unpleasant--Not on account of the
Severity of the Cold or Snow but the
general Blusterytime.
Friday,
December 21, 1855 - Mesrs. Harris and
Adams returned, finding the Snow too deep in
Hell's Gate defile and the Weather too
Severe for travelling.
Tuesday,
December 25, 1855 - [no entry]
Monday, December
31, 1855 - Mr. Adams and Judge Barr gone
out hunting. Another Year has Closed upon
us. The last ten days the Weather has
been quite Severe, but at present has the
appearance of Moderating. We had a
pleasant Christmas, with Some of the good
things of this World--Sufficient Brandy for
Punches and Mince Pies, which were got up in
very good Style, at least we all thought So
from the demonstrations Made when the Cook
placed them before us at dinner. We
unexpectedly had the pleasure of Mesrs.
Harris and Adams to pass the Christmas with
us, they being Compelled to return from
their trip to Beaver Head.
Fort Owen
Journals, 1854-1867 as
found in
Christmastime in Montana, compiled by
Dave Walter,
1990 American Geographic Publishing, p. 7.
recent activities
On
Dec. 13th in
Billings, Mont., Center Director Larry Swanson spoke at a breakfast forum organized
by Celebrate
Billings.
The forum was
entitled “Economy and Education” and explored education-related
issues in Billings’ economic future.
Swanson and the Center were
contracted with by the Billings-based
Foundation for Community Vitality in
cooperation with the Billings Gazette
newspaper to develop and write an 8-page
informational piece related to the forum
that was distributed in the Gazette’s
Sunday paper on Dec. 10th.
On Dec. 9th in Kalispell,
Mont., Senior Fellow Bob Brown spoke at the annual meeting of
the Montana Logging Association. He
spoke about the rise of
China
in the world family of nations and the
possible effects of an emerging on
Montana and the Montana
economy.
On
Dec. 5th in
Missoula,
Mont., Brown spoke at the new
officers installation dinner of The
University of Montana Rotaract Club. He is the UM campus advisor to
Rotaract which is the college student
affiliate of Rotary Club International.
On
Dec. 4-5th in
Cody,
Wyo., Swanson
gave several presentations on a recent study
the Center and he did of the Park County
area economy. He spoke at noon at the luncheon of
the Cody Chamber of Commerce on the 4th
and that evening at a community session at the Buffalo
Bill
Historical
Center
auditorium. On the 5th, he
spoke to the Cody Economic Development
Council. The larger area surrounding Yellowstone
Park
is seeing an increase in population growth and
communities in the region are attempting to
better position themselves for challenges
and opportunities associated with this
growth.
On
Dec. 2nd in Butte,
Mont., Senior Fellow Pat Williams addressed the Montana
Wilderness Association Convention at
their 48th gathering. Williams’ speech was title
“Restoring Montana’s Land, Water, and
Economy.”
On
Nov. 28-29th in Missoula, Mont., the
O’Connor Center, with major support from
the Cinnabar Foundation, hosted a conference
at The University of Montana on
“Challenges Facing the U.S. Forest
Service.” The conference
drew participants from the agency and from
many interest groups affected by the Forest
Service’s decisions and featured
presentations by (among others) Professor
Char Miller, a biographer of the Forest
Service’s first Chief Gifford Pinchot, by
a recent Chief and recently retired UM
Professor Jack Ward Thomas, by Mark Rey,
Undersecretary of Agriculture with
jurisdiction over the Forest Service, and by
Center Senior Fellow Pat Williams.
On
Nov. 16th in
Missoula,
Mont., Williams addressed the Missoula Kiwanis on
the subject “The Meaning of Tuesday’s
Election.”
On Nov.
15th in
Missoula,
Mont., Swanson gave a presentation at a meeting
of the 2006-07 Leadership Montana
class on “Growth and Change in Montana
– Demographic and Economic Trends in the
State and Region.”
Leadership
Montana is in its third
year and provides leadership education and development for a select
group of people from across Montana
each year.
On
Nov. 10th in Missoula,
Mont., Brown presented an analysis of the
election to the Missoula Pachyderm Club.
On
Nov. 9th in Missoula,
Mont., Swanson made a presentation entitled
“Clark Fork Basin Economic and Demographic
Trends” at the Clark Fork River Basin
Ground Water Policy Conference.
The conference was organized and
convened by the Clark
Fork River Basin Task Force,
University of Montana Dept. of Geography,
and Montana Department of Natural Resources
and Conservation.
On
Nov. 8th in Missoula,
Mont., Brown appeared before the Missoula
Sunrisers Rotary Club on a panel of
presenters that included Missoula Mayor John
Engen and Washington Corporation public affairs
representative Mike Halligan to discuss the
outcome and implications of the midterm
elections.
On
Nov. 3rd in Helena,
Mont., Williams met with the Montana
Historical Society selection committee
for choosing the Gallery of Outstanding
Montanans. The committee chose eight Montanans
from a list of 36 nominees.
Those chosen will have their picture
and biographies displayed in the Montana
State Capitol, two individuals every second
year through the year 2015.
On
Nov. 2-3rd, in Eugene, Ore., the Grantmakers
of Oregon and Southwest Washington held
their annual meeting where Senior Fellow Daniel Kemmis
gave a keynote address on how philanthropy
can help communities overcome rural vs.
urban or old economy vs. new economy
divisions.
On
Oct. 31st in
Missoula,
Mont., Brown presented a lecture on the
United States’
political system to a delegation of the All China Youth Federation
at the Mansfield
Center for Asian and Pacific
Affairs. ACYF delegations regularly include the
Mansfield
Center in their travel itineraries as they
tour the United States.
The delegations usually number about 30 and are
made up of outstanding young Chinese men and
women in the fields of government
administration, academics and business.
On
Oct. 24th in
Missoula,
Mont., Williams spoke at a forum hosted by the Northern
Rockies Nature Forum. The discussion was about Montana’s possible restoration economy.
During
the week of Oct. 23rd, Swanson
traveled throughout a three-state area
surrounding Yellowstone
National Park
making presentations on the area’s economy
on behalf of the Yellowstone
Business Partnership (YBP).
YBP is an association of more than
200
hundred businesses “dedicated to
preserving a healthy environment while
shaping a prosperous and sustainable future
for communities in the Yellowstone-Teton
region.” Meetings were held in
Livingston,
Mont.,
(Oct. 23rd); West Yellowstone,
Mont., (Oct. 24th); Rexburg and
Pocatello,
Idaho, (Oct. 25th);
Jackson,
Wyo.,
(Oct. 26th); and Cody,
Wyo.,
(Oct. 27th).
Swanson and the Center are doing a
detailed analysis of the region’s economy
under contract with YBP and Limelight
Consulting.
On
Oct. 20-21st, Utah
State
University
hosted the
Utah
Bioneers Conference in Logan,
Utah, on issues of environment and
sustainability. It featured keynote addresses by Salt
Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson on the role
cities in combating global warming and by Kemmis on the link
between sustainability and the livability of
communities as a key factor in economic
vitality in the
Rockies.
On
Oct. 18th in
Missoula, Mont., Swanson gave a presentation at a meeting
of the Tri-State
Water Quality Council, an
organization with representation from
western
Montana, northern
Idaho, and eastern Washington
working in areas of water-quality
protection.
On
Oct. 17th in
Billings, Mont., Swanson was the featured speaker at
a Community Leadership Economic Breakfast
organized and hosted by Celebrate Billings.
Partners in Celebrate
Billings include the
Billings
Gazette, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings
Clinic, and Montana State
University-Billings.
His
talk was entitled “Investing in a
Better Billings” and examined area
spending on city and county services and
infrastructure and on workforce
development and education.
Swanson’s recent research and other
work for Celebrate Billings is being funded
by a $10,000 grant to the Center by the
Billings-based Foundation for Community
Vitality.
On
Oct. 10th in
Missoula,
Mont., former Congressman Williams and former
U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Tom Daschle
of South Dakota
spoke at a health care forum sponsored
jointly by Forward
Montana and the Center
for American Progress in Wash., D.C.
On
Oct. 7th in
Missoula,
Mont., Williams spoke in support of an increase
in the Montana
minimum wage at a rally sponsored by the
area’s Interfaith Committee.
On
Oct. 6th in
Missoula, Mont., Swanson participated in a panel
discussion on the importance of open space
and lands conservation in Missoula
County
hosted by City Club of Missoula. The session was in advance of a
recent ballot proposition for open
space bond
financing of $10 million in the county,
which passed. A similar bond initiative also passed
in Ravalli
County
.
On
Oct. 2nd at
Tamarack Resort in Idaho, Swanson gave an invited presentation at an
executive business meeting of the Potlatch
Corp., examining regional trends in
population growth and migration.
project
activity
Larry
Swanson and Doug Lawrence recently completed
work and submitted a study report to the
Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Bozeman
entitled “Park County Economy –
Restructuring and Change in a Growing
Region.”
Work continues on a study of the economy of the
larger 3-state region surrounding Yellowstone
National
Park
for the Yellowstone Business Partnership.
Swanson and the Center are working
with Limelight Consulting on a baseline
study of the region’s economy and an
assessment of possible options for reducing
the impacts of seasonality on area
businesses.
Larry
and the Center also are completing work
examining the changing economy of the
Montana-Canada cross-border region and
related
U.S.
– Canada
business and trade in the region.
The study is
being done for the Consulate General Office of
Canada
and its regional office in Denver.
In
early January the Center’s Institute for
Indian Leaders is planning an issue
symposium for the newly elected Indian
members of the Montana Legislature. Ten Native Americans were elected to
the Montana Legislature—the most in the
state’s history.
During its more than two
years of operation, the Institute has
conducted a symposium for Indian students
from both the Salish-Kootenai College and
The University of Montana, held a conference
concerning the Indian Education for All law,
conducted a planning conference for the
Blackfeet Tribal Conference, hosted
discussions on Indian and Tribal leadership
and sovereignty. In addition to the three symposiums
for Indian state legislators, the Institute
also provided the 2004 legislators with an
American ndian intern.
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regional
trends
25-County
Yellowstone Region
The population of a 25-county area
surrounding Yellowstone National Park has grown from 556,000 people
in 1990 to over 690,000 today. More...
center
in the news
Mark
Rey: Public land laws are due for an
overhaul - The Clark Fork Chronicle,
Dec. 12, 2006
Seasonal
business finds laborers outside U.S. - Helena
Independent Record, Dec. 11, 2006
What
could a resort tax do for Billings and
Yellowstone County? - Billings
Gazette, Dec. 10, 2006
Flathead
Valley employers search the globe for
workers - Missoulian, Dec.
10, 2006
Report:
Prepare for Park growth - Casper Star
Tribune.net, Dec. 8, 2006
Communities
urged to plan for regional expansion - Billings
Gazette, Dec. 5, 2006
Experts
say Forest Service facing tough future
- Missoulian,
Nov. 30, 2006
Economic
report focus of meeting - Billings
Gazette, Nov. 16, 2006
Former
Superior lumber mill now home to three wood
products businesses - Missoulian,
Nov. 14, 2006
Signs
of the Times — Inside Helena’s labor
crunch - Helena Independent Record,
Oct. 29, 2006
Pat
Williams pitches restoration to create jobs
for Montanans - The Clark Fork
Chronicle, Oct. 26, 2006
Gazette
Opinion: Timely lesson taught at local
economics talk - Billings Gazette,
Oct. 23, 2006
Economist:
Billings lags in city spending - Billings
Gazette, Oct. 18, 2006
Property-rights
measures on ballot in 4 Western states -
The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 16,
2006
Measures
on ballot in 4 Western states - Helena
Independent Record, Oct. 15, 2006
'Don't
zone me in:' Property-rights measures on
ballot in West - Seattle PI.com,
Oct. 14, 2006
Cows
with room: Ravalli County voters to decide
on $10 million open space bond - Missoulian,
Oct. 11, 2006
In
the run-up to the 2006 election several
western newspapers carried an AP
story on the rash of initiatives showing
up on ballots throughout the region
attempting to limit “regulatory takings”
of property rights.
Interviewed for the story, Senior
Fellow Daniel Kemmis argued that such
initiatives could undermine the West’s
ability to protect the quality of life,
which has become such a key factor in
economic prosperity in the region.
In
a post-election analysis of the significance
of the 2006 election for the Rocky Mountain
West, two Center Senior Fellows, Bob Brown
and Daniel Kemmis were quoted.
An article entitled “The New –
Blue? – West” in the NewWest.net analyzed whether the
election signaled a partisan realignment in
the
Rockies. “It
probably is a mistake to read too much into
this,” says Center Senior Fellow Bob
Brown, a Republican, former Montana state
representative, senator and secretary of
state, was quoted as saying: “I think this
election, coupled with a tide that is
rolling across the country, gives Democrats
more strength across the Rocky Mountain West
than they would have had otherwise. But I
think it’s way too premature to say it’s
a change of politics in the Intermountain
West and 10 years from now it’s going to
be way more blue than it is now."
Center Senior Fellow Daniel
Kemmis, former Missoula mayor and Democratic
speaker of the Montana House, Kemmis maintained:
“Democrats have been paying closer
attention to some of the changes taking
place in this region, and I think they have
managed to present a program that voters
believe is more promising in terms of being
able to meet the challenges of change in the
region.”
In
another in-depth post-election
analysis of partisan realignment in the
West, USA Today pointed to population growth
in western states and resulting congestion
and sprawl in some cities as one force
driving political change. That points Westerners toward
Democrats who say government can manage the
problems, quoting Daniel Kemmis: ‘There is
a growing awareness among Westerners that
these growth pressures ... require
thoughtful responses, not ideological
responses.”
Looking
toward the 2008 election, High
Country News analyzed efforts in several
Rocky Mountain states
to hold simultaneous presidential caucuses
or primaries, to give the region more clout
in the presidential selection process. The article quoted Senior Fellow
Daniel Kemmis: "If
either party’s nominee owed his or her
selection in part to the West, it would give
the region a much greater voice in the
candidate’s platform, and a greater say in
cabinet appointments and policy
proposals."
upcoming events
On.
Jan. 13-14th in
Missoula,
Mont., Senior Fellow Pat Williams will host the
Montana Emerging Leaders Conference. A group of two dozen Montanans are
selected each year to be involved in four
weekend-long session of progressive policy
consideration and discussion.
On
Jan. 16th in
Missoula, Mont., Swanson will speak to executives and
staff of Lambros Real Estate, discussing area growth trends in the
Missoula
area.
On
Jan. 17th in Clancy, Mont., Swanson is scheduled to speak
to the Jefferson Local Development Corporation discussing a report
the Center and he produced for the economic development organization
on the Jefferson
County
economy.
On
Jan. 18th in
Missoula, Mont., Swanson will speak at a workforce
development planning meeting of the Missoula
Job Service Employers Council, discussing
employment trends and patterns in the
region.
Senior
Fellow Bob Brown
will be the luncheon speaker for the annual
UM Bureau of Business and Economic Research
sponsored Economic Outlook Seminars in
Helena on Jan. 23, Great Falls on Jan. 24, Missoula on
Jan. 26, Billings on Jan. 30 and in Bozeman on
Jan. 31. The seminars will continue in other
Montana
cities concluding in early March.
The 2007 seminar series theme is
“Rising Asia: Becoming Closer
Neighbors.” Brown’s illustrated presentation
will be on his impressions from his third
visit to
China, which occurred spring semester 2006 when
he guest lectured at Nankai
University
in Tianjin People’s Republic of China.
On
Jan. 31st in
Missoula, Mont., Swanson will speak at the annual
meeting of the Montana Soil and Water
Conservation Society.
He will discuss economic and
population trends in Montana
and explore related issues in conservation.
Milwaukee Station, home of
the
O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West
recent
quotes from the region
as provided by Headwaters
News
"We
came here for all these jobs. Now we've got
the work, but no place to live."
Kathleen
Daye,
who moved from Nova Scotia to Alberta
to find work only to discover there's no
place to live.
- Toronto Globe and Mail
10/09/2006
"This
is the finest example of cooperative
conservation that I have seen or heard
about."
Interior
Secretary Dirk Kempthorne,
during a tour of projects undertaken by the Blackfoot
Challenge in Montana's Blackfoot Valley.
- Missoulian
10/11/2006
"It's
gotten out of hand. People are yelling and
screaming at each other."
John
Moser, a
Colorado farmer about the ongoing
water battle between irrigators and
cities.
- Boulder Daily Camera (AP)
10/18/2006
"The
numbers of people that will spend $20
million is staggering to me."
James
Taylor,
a Montana real-estate broker, on the sale
of "amenity ranches" to
wealthy out-of-state buyers.
- USA Today
11/07/2006
"These
are the little guys, and they got stepped on
big-time."
Laura
Sedler,
a hospice worker in Libby, about the
vermiculite
miners and other residents of the
Montana town
sickened by the asbestos in the vermiculite.
- Denver Post
11/21/2006
"I
told you before I'm not a scientist. That's
why I don't want to have to deal with global
warming, to tell you the truth."
Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia,
during arguments
over whether the Environmental
Protection Agency has
authority to curb greenhouse gases.
- Washington Post
11/30/2006
links
Center Web Site
Archived Center Newsletters
Headwater's News
The University of Montana
KUFM Public Radio
The O'Connor
Center for the Rocky Mountain West is a program of The University of Montana in
Missoula.
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