What Is Montana Like? Read This New L.A. Times Article

This might be one of the most brutal and honest opinions about Montana's small towns, and it's hard not to argue.

Montanans don't take kindly when people judge Big Sky Country. Anytime a national publication says anything about our fine state, people tend to get a little upset. We have seen articles from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and others write about what life is like in Montana, and it's usually wrong.

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Locals get upset over these articles because most of these articles skim the surface of what life is like in Montana or try to glamorize the Last Best Place to outsiders. It's hard not to read an article from a worldwide publication and not hesitate to get frustrated.

Well, there's a new article from the L.A. Times, and it's a little eye-opening.

This opinion piece from Jamie Harrison titled The West is dotted with places trying to survive. My Montana town is one of them, and it's a brutal reality check of what small-town Montana life has turned into.

Jamie has been a resident of Livingston since 1987 and talks about how, over the past few decades, the town and other spots like Livingston have drastically changed from what they once were.

It starts as a beautiful love letter about how Jamie came to Livingston with her car and a handful of items, but how she fell in love with the town and the surrounding area. Jamie brings up how the area used to be filled with cowboys, writers, and free-spirited individuals that made Livingston what it used to be.

Jamie brings up how the town's soul changed with new personalities and ideologies over the past twenty years, and it hasn't been for the best.

Her ending line is one of the most honest lines we have seen about small towns in Montana.

I wish I could remember more of his stories, and I wish Livingston could reclaim more of its wayward spirit, its humor and its humanity.

If that doesn't hit you in the heart, I don't know what will. I grew up in a small town in Montana and have seen it change over the past thirty years, and this article is brutally honest about what small towns in Montana are now like.

Many locals who have lived here for decades have proclaimed that many of these places, like Polson, Three Forks, and Livingston, are shells of their former selves, and you can't deny it.

Over the past decade, many small towns in Montana have become getaways for the rich and famous and the local economies into unlivable situations. Rising rent and house prices and higher taxes have pushed out locals who can't make a living in Big Sky Country anymore.

Many locals are never happy when a publication talks about Montana, but this one might be the most honest review of our state we haven't seen in a while.

There was a Business Insider article about an influencer from New York City who moved to Paradise Valley and caused an uproar among locals. That article was something many Montanans hated about what had been happening for the past few years.

Montana has changed, and small-town residents are feeling the massive change. Can Montana reclaim its former glory, or is it too late?

We might be past the point of no return and deal with what Big Sky Country has become.