Search Articles:

 

Breaking News......... More than 180 competitors triple-test their endurance in Helena......... Billings youth soccer teams hits road - in Europe......... BREAKING NEWS: Storm knocks out power, ignites wildfires in Helena......... Shakespeare in the Parks hit hard by recession, trying not to fold......... Local News......... Cancer patient completes race in 8 hours, 45 minutes........Changes to GI Bill alters tuition benefits by state........Court ruling doesn't change NorthWestern's plan for power line........PSC commissioner wants to kill NorthWestern project........Fast times in Missoula Marathon; everyone had a ballPosted on Sunday, July 12........Downtown Missoula building will be tall and eco-friendly........

The plane banked one more time at my request. I was taking aerial photographs of a subdivision in Hamilton to go with a story about Ravalli County being one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. Coming out of the bank, the plane leveled off n and then things just shut down. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but I could tell from my seat behind the pilot that he was panicked. We began to descend rapidly, but only for a few seconds. The pilot switched to the reserve tank, which he admitted he wasn’t sure had fuel in it, and after clearing our hearts from our throats, we were back in business.

Not every day has been this exciting in my

25 years at the Missoulian. But I don’t remember many times that I didn’t want to come to work. Most days start with a new story and another Montanan trusting us to tell it. That trust is sacred and I strive every day to be deserving of it.

I knew Missoula was a special place when I rolled into town back in 1971. I was on a

16,000-mile Kerouac-inspired blitzkrieg of America. My traveling companion and best friend, Anthony Durrett, and I parked our 1963 Volvo wagon on a slab of concrete in Hellgate Canyon where the community gardens once presided. We stayed three days. Each day began at the old Park Hotel, shooting pool and eating donuts and washing them down with cold Budweiser. For two 19-year-olds from Western Colorado, this was paradise.



Kids attending a daycare on Spruce Street in January 1988 are young faces in Missoula’s oldest neighborhood.

---

I returned to Missoula for good in 1983 and got a job at the Missoulian. I never left.



Firefighters battle in vain to douse the arson fire that gutted the historic Roxy Theater in 1994.

---

In my career, I have been slimed by slurry bombers, run over by mules and a bucking bronc, threatened by bad guys and almost roasted in a forest fire. I’ve been frostbit, sunburned, blistered and shot at. But the most enduring things about this job are the people and the grace with which they live their lives. After a quarter-century of covering life in Montana, I believe mine to be the best job a person could have.

When Dudley Dana approached me last fall about doing a show at his gallery, I was honored n if a bit apprehensive. Photojournalists like to think of themselves as the fly on the wall: always observing the action without being part of it. So sitting down to write this about myself is way out of my comfort zone. In selecting the photos for the show, I tried to find images that were graphically appealing or humorous and I purposely stayed away from hard news and sports. Hopefully, the final edit will bring a smile to your face or jog your memory about a person or place that says Montana to you.



Zachary Thompson of Missoula multitasks while on a stroll with his grandfather through Missoula’s University Area in April of 1989.

---

Words and photographs by Michael Gallacher, of the Missoulian

---

---

Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)

---