A group called the American Institute for Economic Research ranks Missoula as the ninth best college town in the nation. Some 75 destinations were listed, with Missoula making the top ten, the only Montana community ranked.

According to the report, Missoula and the University of Montana are praised for the arts, entertainment, recreation and high level of "brain gain."

Ithaca, New York; Ames, Iowa and Corvallis, Oregon were the top three choices in the survey. The rankings were based on four categories: student life, culture, economic health and opportunity.

MORE>>>KPAX

For a brief period in the 1860s, camels imported from North Africa were used as pack animals in the gold camps of western Montana.

The camels proved useful, according to Ellen Baumler, an author and interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Society, but they fell out of favor for one simple reason.

“Camels and mules do not get along,” she said. “Mules will smell camels on the wind and bolt every time.”

Baumler will relate the little-known history of the Montana camels during the 2015 Mullan Road Conference in Fort Benton, set for May 22-24. Other speakers will talk about Fort Whoop-Up, the Blackfeet Nation in 1860, the survival of heirloom grains from the fur-trade era and more.

The annual conference explores — in presentations and field trips — the Mullan Military Wagon Road, a 644-mile trail from Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River, to Fort Walla Walla, on the Columbia River in Washington. The road was built by an expedition of 230 soldiers and civilians under the leadership of U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Mullan in 1859-60.

MORE>>>Great Falls Tribune

The conference, held at various points along the trail each year, also deals more generally with the Upper Missouri and the Northwest during the 1850s.

MORE>>>

Kyle Ploehn is an artist, illustrator and writer living in Billings Montana. He likes to spend the few hours he isn't painting hiking the mountains of Montana.

The Dusk Buffalo was the first departure in the beginning of 2013 from doing my more standard realistic animal paintings and instead fell back on my background as an illustrator and surrealist painter. Like the buffalo paintings I had done earlier, "The Coming Storm" and "Fading" I was still mostly exploring the tragedy of the buffalo. Dusk Buffalo took me a on a journey into the twilight hours of a great animal, a history of pain and bloodshed, but maybe with the light of hope shinning over the horizon still.

The motivation behind the painting was born of personal and professional hardship, I was frustrated and stalling as an artist and seeking for a way above my despair. Painting has always been a emotional release, and this painting was an attack on canvas as I approached my own cage walls like those of the buffalo's destruction. Both seemingly shrinking slowly in until nothing was left. A long cold winter slipped into a soft winter wonderland with this painting as all my troubles were painted back into perspective.

The original is still available, an 18x18, framed for $500.

14x14 canvas prints are available for $150. 12x12 prints available for $45. Contact me at [email protected], if you're interested in purchasing a print or visit me at http://kyleploehnart.blogspot.com.

The Montana legislature passed sweeping campaign finance legislation on Wednesday that will require the disclosure of all donors to any independent group spending money on state-level elections.

The bipartisan Montana Disclose Act will effectively end the flood of “dark money” -- electoral spending by nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors -- that has plagued recent Montana elections.

“Montana elections are about to become the most transparent in the nation, requiring those trying to influence our elections to come out of the dark money shadows,” Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who plans to sign the bill, said in a statement. “Our elections should be decided by Montanans, not shadowy dark money groups.”

MORE>>>Huffpost