I was looking at my calendar recently, and it says that spring starts on March 19 this year. It is actually some time after sunset, 9:50 pm to be precise, so really, the first “day” of Spring is March 20. By modern definition, spring starts in the northern hemisphere on the Vernal Equinox, the instant the Sun is directly above the Earth’s Equator heading north. It will cross it again heading south at the Autumnal Equinox. The exact day of this can move around – occasionally, it is March 19, but the 20th or the 21st is more common. Actually, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, this is the earliest Vernal Equinox we have had since 1896 – 124 years! [https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox]. Apparently, it is never on March 22. The reason it is so early this year is a quirk of our calendar system. Here is an explanation if you want to dig deeper: [https://www.almanac.com/spring-2020-earliest-spring-in-over-100-years].
Similarly, the beginning of the other seasons are also set to astronomical events – equinoxes and solstices, which all can move a little from year to year. They are completely divorced from the actual weather. In Montana, how often have we had “winter” weather after the first day of spring or before the first day of winter? Also puzzling to me is that, if summer starts on the June solstice, why is it referred to as Midsummer’s Day, and Shakespeare’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream”? Although I understand the need for these definitions of seasons, I find their misalignment with reality somewhat confusing – a lack of “ground truthing,” as they say these days.
I prefer to rely on Nature to send me signals of a new season. Before actual spring, there are other days to note, such as Groundhog Day, or when I notice the first red-winged blackbirds around me – usually around February 9. However, these are just harbingers of the coming of spring, not the start itself. Where I live, at the base of the Mission Mountains in western Montana, the event that I eagerly await as the first true sign of spring is when the first crocus appear and bloom. They tend to bloom sometime around the Equinox, but not exactly. Like the Equinox, the date of their appearance can move around some from year to year. Unlike the Equinox, it is not responding to some predictable, measurable, celestial event, but rather, to the changing seasonal weather patterns. When the weather warms the ground and the amount of daylight per day increases to a certain point, they come forth and bloom. That first crocus sets off a chain of events to begin the unfoldment of spring. It is the first domino to fall, so to speak. After that comes the daffodils, grape hyacinths, poppies, etc., buds swelling on the maple trees, and then all spring explodes!
Spring is such a wonderful time of year. It usually marks the end of “cabin fever” and the return of color after a long black and white winter. It is a world reborn in front of our very eyes. The longer, sunnier days (now greater than 12 hours/day) lifts the spirits. It is a time of year of great optimism, pregnant with possibilities and potentialities. Plans developed during the winter for summer and fall to seem at once, all possible. All those summer backpacking plans researched during the winter [http://www.distinctlymontana.com/node/40745], all the photography plans made to catch the glory of the Montana fall colors, all seem eminently probable. There is no room for thoughts of rain-outs, smoke from forest fires [http://www.distinctlymontana.com/node/40298], or even future impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic at this time of year. No – it is going to be a great summer and fall, and the anticipation that these are now just around the corner begins to build.
I am not a gardener, but I know those who are. They are busy planning their spring gardens and ordering seeds. It will be a while before they can put those into the ground, as the last killing frost is still weeks away. However, they will soon be out there turning over their soil and imagining their future bountiful harvests, as their springtime anticipation builds. (and then there’s the spring cleaning to do – but I won’t talk about that here!)
So much is just about to happen, so much in place ready to be unleashed – like schools of salmon gathering at the mouth of the river waiting for the signal for their mass migration upstream, like race car drivers revving their engines at the starting line of a race – and it all starts with that first crocus!
Spring has long been a season of dread for Montanans. A season of change. The skiers and snowboarders grasp at every last flake of snow before the runs dry up. The snowmobilers begin to grease the tracks and put the covers over the sleds for another season. And the ice fishers put the augers away and ice tents folded for a long spell in the closet until next winter. But the kayakers and fly fisherman rejoice. With the snowmelt comes the movement of both water and fish. And with the coinciding of the ski storage, the fly rod sits patiently next to them in the closet, wagging their tales for the chance of finally getting cast on the waters recently skied weeks prior.
Though summer may take the cake for prime fly fishing with dry fly action, warm days, and sunburned infused smiles, Spring has days of both cold and overcast for the swung streamers as well as the 70 degree sunny days for the blue-winged olives and early caddis.
Now the first day of Spring is March 19, and with anyone who has lived in Montana long enough knows the age-old saying of, “There are two seasons in Montana, winter, and July.” So with this ethos, snow will continue to fall well into April, and the muddied waters of runoff don’t typically show their chocolaty milk face until late April. But that being said, there is a solid month of low and clear conditions on your local watering hole with eager trout just as excited as you are that the days are slowly beginning to change.
With the slow trickle of runoff beginning, worm patterns, larvae, and the typical winter fly patterns will hold firm for most of early Spring. The rainbows begin to spawn, and the egg patterns also become apparent in April. With this, however, please be sure to watch for the spawning Redds as the last thing an angler needs to do is step where trout are breeding.
Come late April when the rivers do blow out, don’t think the fishing has stopped. Add a slightly longer leader and a bit of weight and get those flies down faster as the water is deeper. Be safe as the waters can rise rapidly and without warning, depending on where you are fishing. Waterdata.usgs.gov has most stream flows throughout the state. So be advised before you wade your favorite stream and be knowledgeable about air temperatures and potential runoff heights. Fish will hold close to the banks and are still eating throughout the runoff until summer.
The lakes will begin to break their ice coverage if they haven’t already, and trout will start to look up to the first of the flying insects as well as the pre-emerged. They have been locked under the ice for the last couple of months and will be eager to check out what is going on near the surface. Check out your local fly shop to see which patterns to use for your nearby lake or pond.
Spring, to me, is an exciting time as you can still combine your favorite winter activities while getting a taste of your summer ones. Yes, the lifts in Montana are closed, so what better time to hit the river than now? The solitude of the water bouncing down the boulders and peace of nature during this hectic time is a remedy of therapy irreplaceable to any prescription from a shrink. Get away from the media and get away from everyone in the depths of Montana’s wilderness and enjoy the change of the season with fly rod in hand!
Readers Are Leaders: Montana Authors Join Together To Celebrate National Reading Month
March is National Reading Month, a time to motivate families and people of all ages to read every day. At Distinctly Montana Magazine, we like to celebrate reading all year-round by bringing you thought-provoking, fun and interesting stories and articles so you can learn more about what makes Montana unique.
Designated as a time to celebrate reading, three local authors joined together to kick-off National Reading Month and shared their stories on Montana’s popular 100.7 XL Country radio station.
Local authors include recently voted 2020 Bozeman’s Choice, ‘Favorite Local Author’, Dave Wooten for his book, ‘Crazy Horse: Where My Dead Lie Buried’, Kyle Steiner, award-winning author for his children’s book series including, ‘Patched’, ‘The Legend of the Squiger’, and ‘Snow Ghost’, and Joe Flynn, author of, ‘The Miracle of Bubba’, a heart-warming story about his beloved Black Lab, Bubba that has been quickly grabbing hearts nationwide.
The three authors discussed the positive benefits of reading regularly and their individual paths of becoming authors. All agreed that reading regularly was the key to becoming writers and authors. Each with a unique background, Dave Wooten’s passion is for history, Kyle is writing creative children’s books and Joe’s love of dogs and the outdoors led him write Bubba’s story. All three wrote their books in Montana.
‘The path for authors is so unique. I’d encourage anyone who loves to read and has an interest in becoming an author to start writing. Just start’, says Joe Flynn.
The benefits of reading include expanded vocabulary, stronger analytical skills, memory improvement and stress reduction, even from as little as 15 minutes of reading a day.
‘There’s so much access to content now days,’ says Dave Wooten, ‘You can digest stories books in audio version, from your kindle, magazine, or my favorite, an old-fashioned book’.
For young children and students, reading is critical for comprehension, education and entertaining. There are even apps available for kids to track their reading, test their comprehension of the book they read and set goals!
Among parents of children 6-17, almost three-quarters (71%) agree, “I wish my children would do more things that did not involve screen time.” The child who is a ‘frequent reader’ reads an average of 44 books per year versus a child who is considered an ‘infrequent reader’ who reads an average of 22 books per year (source: Forbes).
Adults average less than five (5) books per year. Yikes! A great way to get your kids reading is to model the behavior! Make reading enjoyable and find a genre you like or a specific author or series. Many movies also start as books and it’s always fun to compare the book version to the movie version.
To encourage reading and learn more about these Montana authors, Dave Wooten and Joe Flynn will be sharing their stories at the Belgrade Library on Tuesday, 3/31 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
For ideas on how you can celebrate reading or if you need tips on how start good reading habits, here are a few easy and fun ways to keep reading fun:
Use a Reading App: Listed as one of the ‘Top 23 Life-Changing Apps’, Bookling is a mobile app which helps you keep track of your reading habits and motivates you to read more.
Authors Kyle Steiner, ‘Patched’ (left), Joe Flynn ‘The Miracle of Bubba’ (center) and Dave Wooten ‘Crazy Horse’ (right)
‘If you’re dedicated to print books, Bookling is a fun way to see your progress overtime and keep a personal log of the books you’ve read. It’s like a personal Goodreads for introverts! You can set alarms to remind you to read several times a week or daily, which is a fantastic feature for people who claim they’re “too busy” to read. I love the bright, animated interface and that it keeps me accountable to crack open a book instead of opening Facebook.’ BuzzFeed staff member (source: https://misterbumbles.com/bookling).
Choose a theme: Whether you enjoy history, animals, biographies on interesting people, fairytales, outer space, or sci-fi, pick up a book on a theme and enjoy reading!
Read for 15 minutes a day: Set a little time aside, it doesn’t have to be a lot, and read for 15 minutes a day to start a habit. Before you know it, you’ll be finishing that new book!
Visit the library: Libraries are a beautiful place for the community to gather with a wide selection of books and resources. It’s a fun place to spend time with family or hide away and read a good book. Library visits are on the rise and also give you that sense that you're contributing to your civic duty within the community. Enjoy the incredible resources our city has to offer, get a library card and check out some books for the family!
Enjoy an audiobook: Audiobooks are another creative way to get into reading, especially if you’re in the car a lot (spring break road trips, etc.). Introduce your kids to the joy of audiobooks or radio theatre.
Montana is full of independent bookstores and resources, making it enjoyable to dive into a new genre or topic, read an autobiography or go back in time with a historical novel. Get the whole family reading together. Share with us your favorite book or author in our Facebook group.
The story of the “black robes” coming to western Montana in the mid-nineteenth century at the request of the Bitterroot Salish is well known. The Jesuit delegation, lead by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, founded their mission of St. Mary’s in 1841 in the area of what is now Stevensville. Shortly after establishing St. Mary’s, De Smet went on to establish missions with the Couer d’Alenes and Kalispels in Idaho, as well. Among the other early mission sites in Montana was the St. Ignatius Mission, north of Missoula, which was established in 1854, about 7 miles south of Fort Connah. Fort Connahwas a Hudson's Bay Trading Post established in the Mission Valley in 1846. Following the treaty of Hellgate in 1855, this fledgling mission assumed greater importance when the Salish relocated to the Flathead Reservation.
In due course, the St. Ignatius Mission evolved into quite a large complex that included: the first Jesuit theologate and industrial arts school in the Northwest, the first Catholic sisters and Catholic school in Montana, and the first sawmill, flour mill, printing press, carpenter shop and blacksmith shop in the Mission Valley. There was also a hospital in the convent-school and a wood-constructed church on site. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was decided that the church should be a larger, more permanent brick structure. Of the buildings that comprised that early mission, only two small log cabins now remain of the original homes of the priests, which also served as the first chapel and a home for the Providence Sisters. They have been relocated next to the church on the north side, and both now serve as museums. The original wooden church was moved to Arlee in 1961. Much of the land surrounding the church where the Mission complex was located was later donated to build the town of St. Ignatius.
Construction on the church started in 1891 and took about two years to complete. It was a joint effort of the missionaries and the local Indian community. It was built of bricks made from local clay and wood from trees cut locally and sawed in the Mission’s sawmill. It was the first building in Montana to be wired for electric lights.
A short time later, at the turn of the century, one of the Jesuits was tasked with decorating the new sanctuary and began painting the murals for which the church is famous. His name was Brother Joseph Carignano, and he spent many years at the Mission as a cook and general handyman. He had no professional training in art but dedicated his spare time between his jobs to painting the murals inside. His paintings depict scenes from the Bible, as well as some saints, very much in the style of his native Italy. Behind the altar, he painted three scenes from the life of St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and to whom the church is dedicated. Above this is a mural of the Last Judgement and pictures of Mary and Joseph grace either side. Along the vaulted ceiling are paintings of various saints and Biblical scenes. All in all, Brother Crignano painted 58 murals, frescos and medallions during 1904 and 1905. This is, in fact, Montana’s very own “Sistine Chapel.”
Using local materials from an isolated frontier community over 100 years ago means there are to be some expected issues with longevity. Minor earthquakes and just the aging process has taken its toll – not only on the building itself but Brother Carignano’s paintings as well. The plaster, which in some places included bison hair in the recipe, was cracking, delaminating from the supporting lath and sagging. These religious, historical and cultural treasures were at a real risk of being lost.
After an extensive fund-raising effort, a 3-year restoration project was begun in 2018. For the past two summers, a skilled team from Boise-based Custom Plaster, with experience in restoring historically-sensitive plaster and artwork, has been hard at work on the restoration process. They set up necessary scaffolding in the church and painstakingly re-fasten the plaster to the lath, seal its cracks and re-touch paintings with historically accurate materials. It is an intense, long, detail-oriented process, but the results speak for themselves. The murals have regained the vibrancy they had when they were first painted over 100 years ago. In addition to the murals, there is another uniquely Native religious artwork, such as portraits of Jesus and Mary as Native Americans.
The final year of the restoration work begins again in April and will last through September this year to finish the project by working on the ceiling medallions. The project will require constructing a moving scaffolding the length of the aisle to reach the vaulted ceiling. It will be very difficult to view the artwork during these times, so if you haven’t taken the time to detour off Highway 93 to see this Montana landmark, or if you haven’t been to see it in years, it is well worth the stop. Also worth the visit are the “sister” churches – St. Mary’s, outside of Stevensville, and the Cataldo Mission in northern Idaho, just off I-90. It is the oldest building in Idaho still standing and was built by Father Ravalli, from the Montana St Mary’s Mission - without a single nail!
