Well it’s been about six months since I moved to Montana, and so far it’s been quite an experience, almost all of it positive.

For those of you who don’t know, I moved to Butte, over in southwestern Montana, in the middle of Missoula, Helena, and Bozeman. It’s a town of around 35-40,000 people and is super historic.

It was founded on copper mining, and in fact, they still mine copper in the mountains around town. If you like history, come visit, the area I live in, Uptown, is a national historic landmark district.

I moved out because there weren’t many job opportunities available in Michigan, or the Mid West in general, and I always loved being in the mountains. So when The Montana Standard in Butte offered me a position, I packed up everything I had and drove 1,500 miles in three days.

As you could have guessed, I work as a sports reporter. We cover roughly 12 high schools, two NAIA colleges, and junior league hockey team. In every place I’ve been, I’ve never seen an area as passionate about their local teams as Butte and the surrounding areas are.

I’ve been lucky so far in that I’ve gotten to cover two state championship games, a state champion golfer, and even done some play-by-play for the junior league hockey team.

I’ve even managed to sneak in a little bit of fishing, which is amazing out here. Seriously, trout as big as your leg. I’ve had the best luck on the Jefferson, but the Big Hole, Clark Fork, Madison, and Beaverhead are all within distance for a day trip.

Oh and the beer. For there being barely over a million people in the state, Montana brews some amazing beers. Nearly every town, big or small has at least one brewery. Topping my list is Cold Smoke by Kettlehouse Brewing. Or Irresistible Amber by Madison River Brewing in Belgrade.

Butte’s breweries are a little lacking so far, but there are two new ones coming soon and a distillery that blows any liquor I’ve had out of the water. Headframe Spirits is just a couple blocks away, so it’s dangerous that I can walk to a craft distillery and have a bunch of samples at less than $5 a pop.

But yeah, I bought a car, and the weather is starting to warm up, so I’m hoping to travel around the state and visit some state parks. Yellowstone and Glacier top the list.

That’s about it so far. Don’t feel like writing much more, so yeah, anything you want to know about Montana, or if you want to visit, get in touch.