Isolated, So Much to Do

One day when I was in a chat room on the internet - one of my favorite places to go - the topic of conversation was centered around shopping. Not surprising since at that time everyone in the room was female. When a comment was made about going to a large department store, I said I didn’t often get to a store of that chain.

“How far are you from that store?” I was asked.

“Oh, about 130 miles one way,” I replied.

“What?! How do you live without going to that store every day?!” came the question.

“Actually, quite well. If I can’t find what I’m looking for where I live, I can always resort to the internet,” I answered.

“Well, I don’t know how I’d live if I couldn’t go to that store every day.”

I’d heard of a couple who left this area after being here three months, because, according to the wife, there wasn’t anything to do in this area or anywhere to go. And that set me to thinking. No, there aren’t any large stores in the area where I live. But I really don’t need them in order to be happy. For me, there are so many places to go and things to do, I’m quite content.

In the summer we have live theatre. The plays presented are fantastic. And the local talent is awesome. There’s no better place to go camping and boating than at Fort Peck Lake, or fishing for that matter.

When you have friends or family visiting, how could you ask for anything more fun and interesting to do than go to the Fort Peck Interpretive Center and/or the fish hatchery? The Interpretive Center even offers activities for children to do on the weekend.

Speaking of that, the Children’s Museum is a great and fun place for children. There’s baseball games to watch. And then there’s the Valley County Pioneer Museum, which is filled with an unbelievable amount of history about Valley County history. More history can be seen at the pow wows and at Scobey, which has Pioneer Town. Even more history can be observed at things like the demonstrations of threshing using threshing machines from 70 to 80 years ago.

If classic cars and pickups are your interest, you can usually attend three or four car shows throughout the summer.

Fishing enthusiasts can take part in several fishing contests every summer, including the Montana Governor’s Cup, a two-day event that offers a pretty hefty first-place prize. There are even fishing tournaments for women and children. And there are also all the other activities surrounding the fishing tournaments that offer a fun time.

Of course, there’s the county fair that takes place every summer that includes fun free shows, a huge array of entries from residents, and the 4-H and FFA livestock sale as well as a rodeo and demolition derby. And to top off everything during the summer, there are yard sales.

Moving on to fall, there’s high school football, volleyball and cross country track. Once harvest is over, you can usually find a dance or two on the weekends. And there are the craft bazaars.

Winter brings a host of activities - a lot of them based, of course, on how much snow we get.

So, you see, there really is a lot to do in this area some call “isolated.” All it requires is taking the time to look it up.