Margaret E. Davis: Peaks and Valleys
Explore Margaret E. Davis’ Peaks and Valleys column, where she captures Northwest Montana life through reflective storytelling, local history, community events, and everyday experiences across Northwest Montana. Her writing blends curiosity, humor, and insight into Montana’s people, landscapes, and culture.
Education starts with information
At the first class of the eight-week “Biblical Citizenship” course at Sykes Diner in Kalispell on March 17, host Ben Konkel announced there wouldn’t be enough time for a Q&A.
Culinary students leave it all on the table
AI can’t do this: create a gourmet meal for dozens of people, pacing it over five courses and making it an education for all.
Young bards tread the boards
Hanging out around teenagers always proves enlightening. Even better when they get poetic.
'Megafires' spark fresh thinking
Surrounded by forest, we should get fired up about fire.
Bob Weir tribute hit all the notes
A few weeks after Bob Weir died Jan. 10, I went to “A Grateful Gathering" at the Montana Tap House to pay my respects, alongside many others.
We heard the call of the wild
No one understands this better than wildlife biologist Diane Boyd, who came to Montana from Minnesota in 1979 and started with one collared wolf in the North Fork. After decades in the field and watching the gray w…
Dance the winter blues away
It took a lot of cajoling of my lazy self to travel up U.S. 93 on a gray weekend morning in mid-December, but I finally made it to Afrofusion. I may never miss it again.
Blending the old and new in China
Nearly unrecognizable from my last trip there 13 years ago, I found the place at the end of 2025 to be fluidly modern and easy to navigate. Despite the rush to embrace technologies and alternative energy sources, s…
History makes a capital trip
The centerpiece exhibit mixes the universal and the particular as it makes a grand tour of our state’s people, including 13 sovereign nations and immigrants, and a land of incomparable beauty and industry.
The story of two cultures meeting in the Rockies
“I want to learn about De Smet!” said outgoing President Ed Byrne at the Nov. 17 meeting of the Northwest Montana Westerners as he introduced ethnohistorian Sally Thompson.
Learning to avoid scams is a good investment
“We can work together to be smarter than the scammers,” emcee and Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, told a capacity crowd at Immanuel Living ready to learn about scams — and how to avoid them.
Nature knows how to nurture
"The no. 1 question the office receives about this class is, ‘Do I need to bring a towel?’” instructor Ellen Horowitz said as we gathered at Flathead Valley Community College, which offers forest bathing through it…
The dead can dance all right
“It’s OK if you come in late,” Joy Bartel said to us dancers in rehearsal about the cue to a move. “It just means you’re more dead than everyone else.”
Finding community in a time of isolation
If Robert Putnam was worried enough to write a book about it 25 years ago, he’s even more so now.
That trek was for the birds
“The birds are kind of flying right in your face,” Jess Garby of Flathead Audubon said, referring to Jewel Basin Hawk Watch.