Livingston, Montana: Where Past Meets Present

“The hub of the upper Yellowstone Valley, Livingston is a place where wilderness meets the Wild West. Founded in 1882 by the Northern Pacific Railroad, the town was the original gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Tourists changed trains here from the main east-west line to a spur line that followed the Yellowstone River upstream to Gardiner at the park’s north entrance. The community quickly became a trading center for farmers, ranchers and miners of the Yellowstone Valley, and by 1905 a thriving city of about 5,000 people had emerged.”

That was how John Gottberg described Livingston in his book, Hidden Montana: Where Vacations Meet Adventures.

Today, Livingston’s population hovers around 16,000. But 436 building from that turn-of-the-century boom era are preserved. In fact, some of these buildings still have visible, albeit faded, advertising signs on their sides. This must be the reason why movie director Robert Redford filmed his adaptation of Norman MacLean’s acclaimed memoir, A River Runs Through It in this city.

People here want it that way. In 1997, when the U.S. Postal Service tried to move the Livingston post office from downtown, it took only four days for 1,500 citizens to sign a petition, contact their congressmen and stop the move.

Three residential districts are on the National Register of Historic Places. Among them is a log cabin that once was the home of notorious fronstierswoman Martha “Calamity Jane” Canary. (Stories here said that when a public disturbance led to her being jailed, she became disenchanted with Livingston and left town.)

If you want to know more about the historic city, visit the Livingston Depot Center (200 West Park Street), located in the 1902 Northern Pacific station. The building, in Italianate style, was designed by St. Paul architects Charles Reed and Allen Stem, who were also responsible, in part, for Grand Central Station in New York City. Exhibits include rail history, Yellowstone exploration, blues shows and special events. It’s open daily from the end of May to the end of September and doubles as a performing arts center in the winter.

There are more history exhibits across the tracks and two blocks north at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County (118 West Chinook Street.). Located in an early 20th-century schoolhouse, it’s open daily in summer and by appointment the rest of the year.

Then, there’s the International Fly Fishing Museum (215 East Lewis Street). History, ecology, education and art come together to make the museum a unique experience. Large natural history murals surround aquariums of live fish, allowing visitors to experience the underwater world. From the antique to the contemporary, thousands of flies, fly rods and fishing accessories show the art that is fly fishing. Go see the Redford flick to understand what fly fishing is all about.

Livingston has a pair of noteworthy stage groups. The Firehouse 5 Playhouse (Sleeping Giant Trade Center, Route 89) presents a variety of community musicals and holiday specials throughout the year. The Blue Slipper Theatre (114 South Main Street) serves up comedies, mysteries, dramas and other more serious productions year-round.

I have been to the city twice and each time I love the place. The words of New York novelist William Hjortsberg, who settled a few kilometers away from Montana, come into my mind: “It was so beautiful, and it was so unlike the rest of America… there was this innocence.”

Unfortunately, the last time I visited the place was during winter time. So much so that most of the photos taken in this article were taken during the very cold season. If you can only felt what I went through during those times.

One of the most often-visited places is the Sacajawea Park. “Located beside the Yellowstone River, this Livingston municipal park is one of the nicest in Montana,” writes Gottberg in his book. The park is named for a Shoshoni Indian woman who traveled with the Lewis and Clark expedition.

At the park’s broad riverine lagoon, children can fish or feed ducks and geese. Within the park is Livingston Civic Center, where indoor scenes from Redford’s 1992 picture starring Brad Pitt were filmed. Picnic areas, restrooms, a band shell, tennis courts, a playground and a wading pool round out the amenities. From downtown, follow South Yellowstone Street to its south end.

Just some 5-minute drive south of Livingston is the turn-of-the-20th-century Chico Hot Springs. The resort is a mixture of historic rustic Western architecture and modern buildings and additions that blend into the ranching atmosphere. In the main lodge, the floors creak and the doors are worn around the edges. The décor is reminiscent of an old hunting lodge.

The resort’s big draw is the outdoor pool of 98-degree water drawn from a thermal spring. The natural hot mineral water is fed into two pools: a shallow soaking pool which is maintained at about 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and a larger, cooler swimming pool that seemed very popular with children. The use of the pools is a reasonable US$3 per person in winter, US$5 during the summer. Dressing rooms and shower facilities are available.

Now, let’s go back to the Main Street, which strongly resembles its Main Street of 1900. “Downtown, you’ll find things looking pretty much the same as they did before World War II,” commented one historian.

What is interesting about walking at the Main Street is the fact that you might get lucky to meet painter Russell Chatham. If not, try to catch him at his restaurant, the Livingston Bar and Grille. He also owns a publishing company (Clark City Press) and a thriving lithography press where he personally oversees the printmaking process of his signed limited edition prints. “Some days I spend at the restaurant, some days we print at the press,” he discloses. “And some days I paint.”

Chatham’s paintings are collected by such famous people as William Randolph Hearst III, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Jim Harrison, James Crumley, and James Walch; television journalists Tom Brokaw and Ed Bradley; and movie stars Michael Keaton, Jeff Bridges, Peter Fonda, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford and Jack Nicholson.

Another world famous person you might get across here is Tim Cahill, an acclaimed writer who founded “Outside Magazine.” Back in the late 70s, when Outside Magazine transferred its offices to Chicago, Cahill faced two choices: move with Outside to Chicago, or go to New York. Thinking it over, he had a sudden revelation: “‘Wait a second,’ I thought, ‘as a writer, I don’t have to work in an office, I don’t have to be in the city. I can be exactly where I want to be.’” That place was Livingston, Montana.

“I have the best job in American journalism,” he insists, smiling and reclining on his sofa in Livingston. The house abounds with testaments to a three-decade career of all-expense-paid travel to remote and often dangerous places: a primitive bow and arrow set from Irian Jaya, in New Guinea; an Indonesian penis gourd; ornate clay pots from the jungles of Mexico; and hordes of graven images from native cultures the world over.

But Cahill is not the only author living in Livingston. Another is Thomas McGuane, who has penned several highly acclaimed novels which chronicle the spectacle of characters living on the edge, thus endearing him to a whole generation of Americans. His books have been published in ten languages and his screenplays for the films “Rancho Deluxe” (1973) and “Missouri Breaks” (1976) have been seen worldwide.

Actually, there are more professional writers, per capita, than San Francisco, New York City, or any other literary hotbed you'd care to name in the United States. Quite a few native species, including journalist Scott McMillion, author of Mark of the Grizzly; singer-songwriter Mike Devine and his singer-songwriter son, Sean; magazine writer Lynette Dodson; archaeologist-writer Larry Lahren; and poet Patty Miller, to name a few.

The list of Livingston-area writers goes on and on: novelist and “Time” columnist Walter Kirn, mystery writers Jamie Harrison and Peter Bowen, environmental authorities Doug Peacock, Alston Chase and Thomas McNamee, fishing and hunting writers John Holt and Ben 0. Williams, jazz critic and humorist James Liska, foreign correspondent Thomas Goltz, journalist Steve Chapple. If you have the opportunity of coming to this place, you will have the opportunity of hobnobbing some of them in restaurants, parks, or grocery stores.

Hollywood stars also find Livingston a great place to live, too. Jeff Bridges has a home and owns a coffee shop. Forty-five kilometers east of Livingston, Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton, and Whoopi Goldberg all have ranches. “I like it here since people treat me as I am, not as a celebrity,” replied Dennis Quaid, who owns a house here, when I asked him what has attracted him to live in this city. – ###