Montana
Best of Montana Moment: Barns of the Big Hole, land of 10,000 haystacks
JACKSON, Mont. — They call the Big Hole Valley “The Land of 10,000 Haystacks.”
The Big Hole Historical Society wrote a book called “History of the Big Hole Valley-Montana Pioneers of the Old West-1806-1930.” It was a mammoth undertaking.
In its 448 pages, the book recounts Lewis and Clark’s visit, the Battle of the Big Hole, stories of the Native Americans who inhabited this land for thousands of years and histories of the Big Hole ranches and their families.
Some of that ranch history focuses on the unique barns that stand on this vast landscape.
We spent time with two of the book’s contributors, Ruth Nelson Little and Bruce Denny, who took us on a tour of some of the majestic barns that frame the large ranches that make up this famous valley.
Along the way, we met Max and Debbie Lapham, who ranch near Jackson.
From its beaverslides for stacking hay, to its cattle and sweeping vistas, the Lapham Ranch offers an ideal picture of the Big Hole Valley.
We met the couple at their ranch and talked to them at their barn.
“The ranch started in about 1888 from homesteads,” said Max. ” My grandfather and my great-grandfather ended up buying out homesteads.”
In about 1910, the Lapham family built the barn that Max and Debbie and their children still use today.”
It’s a haven for all animals.
“When we’ve got cold calves, we put them in the barn and cover them with straw,” said Max.
Debbie said, “We can usually put seven, eight, 10 cows in here on a blizzard night.”
The original support braces holding up the barn’s roof were placed at an angle to keep it sturdy.
“If you have any kind of wind or snow,” said Max, “nothing bothers it.”
“I’ve had a love affair with barns all my life,” said Ruth Nelson Little. “I love barns. Everything about them.”
Ruth was born and raised on a ranch in the Big Hole Valley. She traces her ancestors back to pioneers. Cecile and Frederick Hirschy came to the valley in 1894.
“They were from Switzerland, and they came to make cheese,” said Ruth. “They did that for several years and finally decided to start ranching. Today, several of their great-grand kids are still ranching in the valley.”
Ruth and Bruce Denny brought us to see a beautiful white and blue horse barn in the valley that’s unique for its colors. It’s been in the same pioneer family for more than 100 years.
Ruth said every barn is unique, the workmanship of many cultures.
“Barns from Sweden,” she said. “From Switzerland and Denmark.”
Bruce took us to one of his favorite barns on what he remembers as the old Sparrow Ranch. This huge, unpainted barn is weathered and majestic — a straight-standing granddaddy that’s stood the test of time.
“It’s beautiful,” said Bruce. “It’s in good shape and it’s so big.”
This barn served draft horses, dairy cows, even chickens.
“They did it all in this huge barn,” said Ruth.
“Look at the floor planks,” said Bruce. “You couldn’t find trees that big anymore.”
In the dairy barn, Bruce sat down an old milking stool.
“I’m at the Sparrow Ranch in this monster of a barn,” he marveled.
We climbed into the hayloft where Bruce looked up and all around.
“This has got to be the biggest barn I’ve ever been in,” he said.
On the John Eliel Ranch, now owned by Heidi Hirschy, Ruth and Bruce brought us to another Big Hole beauty. It’s a big red barn that overlooks much of the Big Hole Valley.
We climbed into its hayloft where Bruce showed us an old time hay basket.
“That’s how the hay in these barns,” he said.
Then he opened the loft doors to expose a grand vista.
“Here’s the famous Big Hole right here,” he said. “If you want to know why we love it.”
Barns have always been caregivers, protectors of livestock and ranchers. They’re always there when you need them.
“It’s what keeps the animals alive,” said Debbie Lapham. “It’s where they eat. It’s where they sleep. It’s where they get in out of the cold.”
The Big Hole is magnificent country. But it can also be harsh, and a challenge to those ranchers, past and present, who make their living here.
“I think you can feel that,” said Max Lapham. “After generations on these ranches somebody sacrificed an awful lot.”
“There’s little babies in the cemetery up here on the corner,” he said, “that were only just a few days old.”
Every corner of the Laphams’ hard-working barn holds a story.
“Max talks to his grandparents a lot,” said Debbie.
“Yeah,” said Max. “I think my granddad is riding with me. I always think that.”
“I have a feeling that he’s here,” he said. “And I’m taking care of something he took care of.”
“The barn takes care of us,” said Max. “It’s part of our life,” ranch life in the Big Hole Valley.
Montana
More Republican leaders say state party is ‘purging.’ GOP says it’s ‘vetting.’ • Daily Montanan
More Republican legislators are finding themselves on the outs with the Montana Republican Party ahead of the 2026 election — even those long considered hard-liners.
Last year, the state GOP disowned a group that party leaders called the “Nasty Nine,” moderate Republican senators who worked with Democrats on significant legislation during the 2025 Montana Legislature.
Last month, the state GOP disavowed 16 Republican primary candidates, including longtime legislators and county committee leaders. The party also released an Honor Roll with candidates it said demonstrate support for the platform, but incumbent Republicans with conservative bona fides were missing.
Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, who earned a score of 100 on the ultraconservative Montana Family Foundation legislative scorecard, didn’t make the cut, nor did the state GOP’s own vice chairwoman Stacy Zinn.
The party’s approach has Republican lawmakers across the conservative political spectrum asking about consequences for the upcoming legislative session — and for democracy.
“I don’t know by the time this is over who is going to be left,” said Rep. George Nikolakakos, a Republican from Great Falls. “It’s going to be a real small group.”
Rep. David Bedey, a Hamilton Republican in the state House since 2019, said state GOP Chairman Art Wittich is trying to “purge the party” of anyone unaligned with “a very narrow, right-wing ideology.”
“It’s obvious that he seeks to set the legislative agenda, and he expects to have a caucus of Republicans who will vote the way he tells them to vote,” Bedey said. “There’s no other way to sugarcoat that.”
Wittich declined an interview with the Daily Montanan through a spokesperson. In responses to emailed questions, Wittich said the party is not undertaking a “purge,” but it does expect Republican candidates to adhere to the platform and be upfront about where they stand.
“The Montana Republican Party is a big tent, but it only remains standing if we have sturdy poles and a solid foundation holding it up,” Wittich said in an email. “ … We don’t want Democrats in our big tent trying to tear it down from the inside.”
State GOP active in primary, but fracturing evident
In the 2025 Montana Legislature, hard-line Republicans were elected to leadership positions in the Senate but lost control of the agenda after a group of nine GOP senators joined Democrats to pass significant legislation.
In red Montana, a primary election can be the determining race for many legislative battles, and Republican Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe said she believes the firm stance the state GOP is taking ahead of June 2 is an understandable reaction to the actions of “The Nine.”
That said, Seekins-Crowe also said actions can have unintended consequences.
The Billings Republican said she will not belittle the state GOP for its Honor Roll, but she also sees effective incumbents with high scores on conservative scorecards missing.
“I can tell you right now there are some really great Republicans that the state (GOP) decided to slight,” Seekins-Crowe said.
She said that Speaker Ler, recently endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, is among them. Ler did fill out a questionnaire the state GOP used to screen candidates for the Honor Roll, a campaign consultant said.
Seekins-Crowe said term limits already mean legislators lose inertia and power, and losing incumbent seats to newcomers means the branch that’s “closest to the people” could become ineffective — or cede power to lobbyists or the executive branch.
“We’re supposed to be one united football team,” Seekins-Crowe said. “Instead it looks like Brawl of the Wild.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Seekins-Crowe didn’t fill out the questionnaire used to screen candidates for the Honor Roll — she said she doesn’t know what the right answers are supposed to be, and she has a voting record if voters or party members want to know about her. She doesn’t have a primary, but she wasn’t alone in not returning the questionnaire.
The Honor Roll resolution said 36 candidates didn’t return it, and at least one Republican candidate, Michele Binkley of Hamilton, said she didn’t bother turning it in because “I already knew they don’t like me.”
On her campaign page, Binkley, who served four years in the state House, said she’s a lifelong Republican who believes “first and foremost in limited government.” But she said many Republicans have become beholden to “party bosses” rather than the Constitution and their constituents.
“The state is made up of Republicans that cross the spectrum of Republicanism,” Binkley told the Daily Montanan. “So if you purge that, what are you going to end up with? … Is the end game to take our majority away and give it to the other party?”
Wittich disagreed. The end game, he said, is to ensure candidates who declare they’re Republicans actually adhere to those values.
“Asking Republican candidates about their principles and whether they align with the Republican Party platform expected by voters isn’t making them ‘kiss the ring,’” Wittich said. “It’s a commonsense honesty check.”
Pushback mounts against State GOP
Earlier this month, 10 chairpersons of Republican county committees pushed back against Wittich and the state GOP in a letter that said the state party has historically been a grassroots organization — built from the ground up.
The letter, distributed to news outlets and posted on social media, said admonishments from party leadership were ineffective.
Rep. Curtis Cochran and former Rep. Ross Fitzgerald were among the signers and verified the letter to the Daily Montanan.
“This is not how an effective grassroots Republican operation prospers,” they wrote. “This is how a top-down organization consolidates power. A representative republic is built on local representatives carrying the voice of local people to Helena — not bowing to a party boss or an Executive Committee.”
Nikolakakos said the state GOP can provide limited support to candidates on the campaign trail, some of its endorsements resonate with a certain portion of the population, and the party can “make your life suckier” by spreading misinformation.
But Nikolakakos, one of the candidates admonished by the GOP along with Bedey and Binkley, said the approach of “focusing the guns inward” will have consequences, and he fears it means Republicans will lose legislative seats. The GOP had a supermajority in both legislative chambers in 2023, and it had a majority in 2025.
“What they’re doing is unprecedented at least in recent Montana history,” Nikolakakos said. “If their leadership sends us off a cliff, they should have the accountability to resign.”
But in the closely contested primary, the state GOP is endorsing neither Republican candidate, and both have legislative experience.
Nikolakakos’ primary opponent, Montana Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci, is also on the outs with the state GOP. Pinocci refused to cut ties with a publication that has been critical of the Montana Republican Party, as party leaders demanded.
“When you look up ‘Republican’ in the dictionary, ‘Montana Republican,’ it has to be my picture,” Pinocci said.
State GOP vetting, doing ‘honesty check,’ leaders say
Former state GOP Chairman Don “K” Kaltschmidt oversaw a red wave in Montana the last six years, with Republicans winning all statewide and federal offices. As he passed the torch last summer, he told the Daily Montanan the next party leader would be charged with steering in a new era of GOP dominance.
“It’s really up to the next chairman to take it to the next level, which would be learning how to be a red state,” he told the Daily Montanan.
In June, Wittich was elected as head of the state GOP, and at the time, the former legislator and majority leader from 2013 told his colleagues Montana was a red state that could become “a bright red state.”
In written responses to the Daily Montanan, Wittich defended his quest to ensure elected Republicans cleave to the party platform, and he disagreed the state GOP’s approach could hurt its legislative agenda in 2027.
Former state Sen. Keith Regier, a Kalispell Republican, led the party committee that undertook the effort to name members to the Honor Roll. Regier is the father of two current legislators, including Senate President Matt Regier.
“The state GOP is just trying to identify who the true Republicans are that are running and get that information to the voters,” Keith Regier said.
Regier pointed to the case of Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president who’s running for a U.S. Senate seat as an independent. Regier said he believes Bodnar is a Democrat but doesn’t want to run as one.
“If you can’t win as a Democrat, you try as a Republican or as an independent,” Regier said.
Bodnar continues to maintain he’s neither a Democrat nor a Republican; as recently as earlier this month, he eschewed party labels, and he said he believed his boss should be the people of Montana, “not party elites, not outside business interests.”
In an email, Wittich said plenty of people support the state GOP’s priorities and platform, contrary to any argument the “big tent” is getting smaller.
“We’re the party of less government and lower taxes,” Wittich said. “We expect some disagreement on how exactly to achieve those goals with legislation, but we don’t want candidates who strive to grow government and raise taxes. It’s that simple.”
Although Wittich disagreed the party is “purging,” Regier said any incumbent who loses an election could say they were “purged” out of that office.
It’s the voters who benefit from the party assessing values, he said.
“If they vote for a Democrat, they should be able to rely that they’re going to get Democratic representation,” Regier said. “If they vote for a Republican, they should be able to rely that they’re going to follow the Republican platform the best they can.”
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 26, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from May 26 drawing
01-05-49-51-59, Mega Ball: 07
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from May 26 drawing
01-17-25-29, Bonus: 12
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 26 drawing
18-30-39-52-56, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
According to the New York Times, 300 individual billionaires spent more than $3 billion during the 2024 election cycle. Keep those figures in mind as you consider I-194 and its potential impact on Montana values.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, and the Billings Chamber of Commerce have taken a clear and united stand against Initiative 194. We believe Montanans deserve a full and transparent explanation of why.
No doubt, I-194 would prohibit Montana businesses and nonprofits from participating in the political process. Under this initiative, family-owned businesses including farms, ranches, restaurants, and retail stores could not respond publicly to a ballot initiative targeting them. A Main Street restaurant could not support a local levy to improve public safety. A small business coalition could not push back against misleading claims that threaten their livelihoods and their employees’ jobs. These are not hypothetical concerns; they are the everyday realities of how Montana businesses engage in the civic life of our communities.
But make no mistake, I-194 does not remove big money from our politics.
While cleverly named “The Montana Plan,” I-194 should be called the “California Plan” since California is home to more than 200 individual billionaires and places no restrictions whatsoever on out-of-state wealthy individuals. Under I-194, a single well-funded outsider could bankroll a campaign to devastate a Montana agricultural practice, a logging operation, or a ranching family, while the Montana businesses under attack would be legally silenced. That is not campaign finance reform. That is a one-sided disarmament of Montana’s own voices.
The supporters of I-194 like to reference the Copper King’s influence that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. And while this initiative would have prohibited the Anaconda Copper Company from supporting candidates, the actual individual Kings of copper–the millionaires that owned those companies–would have still been free to bankroll their preferred candidates, while the rest of Montana’s small business community sat in silence. They would have loved this proposal.
Montana has a proud history of fighting outside influence in our politics, from the battles against the Copper Kings to the Corrupt Practices Act of 1912. But that Act targeted corruption and covert control of government, not the right of businesses and community organizations to have an open voice in the state they call home. There is a meaningful difference between a corporation secretly buying a legislator and a chamber of commerce publicly advocating for its members.
We raised constitutional and legal questions about I-194’s scope before the Montana Supreme Court because those questions deserved an answer. We respect the Court’s ruling. And now we are doing exactly what any organization or individual is entitled to do: making our case openly, with our names attached, and letting Montanans decide.
That is what chambers of commerce do. We advocate for Montana’s businesses and workers—the coffee shops, hardware stores, family farms, and yes, the larger employers whose presence helps keep smaller businesses alive. We are Montanans representing Montana’s economic engine.
We agree that Montanans deserve a political system where their voices matter more than outside money. Silencing Montana businesses while leaving out-of-state billionaires free to spend without restriction does not achieve that goal. It simply changes who gets silenced.
We urge every Montanan to read I-194 carefully—all of it—and ask: Does this make our democracy stronger, or does it make some voices louder by making others disappear?
Montana Chamber of Commerce, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, and Billings Chamber of Commerce
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