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.
Lessons come over water, wood
"You look like you need to go to the hot pool," the woman said as she bobbed toward me. She beamed a smile, her face edged in white curls.
The sky is never the limit
It set the astronomy world on fire.
Life extends past remote control
My dad taught me how to change the oil in a car when I was a teenager. A lifelong gearhead, he finally admitted after we groveled around on our backs in the driveway, that I “ought to just start going to one of the…
Building up beats tearing down
My brother and I were pressed into the project: schlepping buckets of plaster chunks, clearing out crawl spaces and Brasso-ing doorknobs.
A literary art feels the love
A literary art feels the love
A walk prompts liking to lichen
One of the first things we learned: Lichen is not a plant.
Human nature hunts for sweet life
A couple of weeks after I moved here last fall, a Kalispell resident buttonholed me at an event to ask if people had been kind to me, as a newcomer to the valley.
Music sets stage for wellness
In my first column, I wrote about how much I loved music, especially live music. That was before I learned how good it is for us.
New sawyers cut it up
When our dad suspected my brother and me of late-night carousing, he’d wake us up early to go get firewood.
After the pen comes the pitch
As the minutes speed by until my turn, I am alternately amused and jealous of the quicker wits in this classroom at Flathead Valley Community College, the host venue for monthly gatherings of the Montana Screenwrit…
Marker effort drives for safety
“Someone said, ‘We need to get with this white-marker program,’” Bob Bigler remembers of that American Legion meeting in 2005. “Well, I could help with that.”
Love of trees takes root
Kalispell Parks and Recreation pulled out all the stops for the 150-year anniversary of the tree-dedicated day in the United States.
For officeholders, the ears have it
The 2022 race for Flathead County commissioner has four contenders in the upcoming election. What makes it such a hot seat? I also wondered, What does a county commissioner do all day?
Some jobs start after the buck
“You and I, we could sign up and ride in the rodeo next weekend,” emergency medical technician Kim Vierra told me about the amateur rodeo staged between Kalispell and Whitefish.
Mad skills soar in the skies
The hardest part about attending the Flathead Audubon Society meeting turned out to be finding it.