Let’s be honest, when most people think about Montana, they think of mountains, lakes, and National Parks. I mean, it’s called The Last Best Place for a reason, right? While Montana has all of that and more, according to some recent data, we also have some serious crime across the state.

Over the years, Montana has become a hub for illegal activity, especially when it comes to drugs. No, I’m not talking about our friendly hippies baking “special brownies”, we’re talking about the hard stuff.

A recent national article talked about how Montana has become a destination for fentanyl and how drug dealers are making millions of dollars by selling these illegal drugs at a premium price and killing Montanans in the process.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Montana has a crime problem, and according to data, a lot of that is happening in one Montana city.

Which Montana city is one of “the most dangerous” in America?

The website Neighborhood Scout searches cities and towns across the nation and grades them according to their safety and one Montana town didn’t get a very good report card.

The state’s biggest city is also the most dangerous. That makes sense based on population, but according to the facts and figures, it’s a little more alarming than that. As far as the crime index (100 being the safest) Billings scored a 2. What does that mean? Well, according to the website, that means that Billings, Montana is safer than 2 percent of U.S. Cities.

This makes the crime rate in Billings one of the highest in America. In fact, according to the data the average person has a 1 in 19 chance of being a victim of either a violent or property crime.

The good news? There are several neighborhoods in Billings considered safe. Here’s a look at the Top 5 according to Neighborhood Scout:

• West Shiloh
• Lockwood East
• Baseline/Hesper
• Broadview/Acton
• Blue Creek

It’s good information to know, especially if you’re thinking of moving to the state’s largest city. Either way, be safe.

May 27—High-elevation snowpack in the Swan Range has remained near or above historical averages for most of May thanks to a series of cold storms that dumped snow and rain across the region.

The snow-water equivalent measurement registered at 39.1 inches for Noisy Basin on May 26, according to data collected at a SNOTEL weather station located at 6,040 feet. The median for that date is 31.6 inches. The snow-water equivalent is the amount of water held in the snowpack.

Likewise, about 83 inches of settled snowpack remains at Noisy Basin, considerably more than the median of 65.5 inches for May 26.

While a dry winter fueled by an El Nino weather pattern kept Northwest Montana’s mountain snowpack below average through the beginning of May, late-season snow storms have maintained and even added to the snow depth in some areas.

The Noisy Basin snowpack actually peaked for the season on May 9 at 108 inches. The peak depth normally occurs in mid April before completely melting out by late June.

It’s a similar situation for Northwest Montana’s other mountain ranges.

A weather station on Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park showed a snow depth of 72 inches on May 26, slightly below the median of 80.5 inches. Snow depth at Stryker Basin in the Whitefish Range was 50 inches, while Big Mountain’s upper reaches still held 53 inches of snow.

Overall, the Flathead Basin snowpack was 85% of normal on May 26, and 79% in the Kootenai Basin.

In the valley, Kalispell has seen measurable precipitation on 15 days so far this month. Between May 22-25, about 1.13 inches of rain was measured at Glacier Park International Airport. Precipitation month-to-date for Kalispell is 1.89 inches, slightly higher than the average of 1.42.

The Flathead River at Columbia Falls crested at 8 feet during the recent rainy spell and was expected to rise to 10 feet by mid week. Flood stage is 13 feet.

Potent and potentially dangerous thunderstorms could affect the Flathead Valley on Tuesday. Heavy rainfall of half an inch in 30 minutes is possible. Urban areas could see ponding of water in poor drainage areas if they take a direct hit from a storm, according to the National Weather Service in Missoula.

Temperatures will run 5-10 degrees below normal, with overnight lows dipping into the 30s Wednesday night through Friday.

High pressure returns by the weekend with pleasant temperatures in the 70s.

The Montana Veterans Memorial Association hosted its annual Memorial Day ceremony on Monday with guest speakers Anthony and Janet Seahorn.

Anthony was deployed to Vietnam in 1968 and returned home 11 months later with mental and physical wounds from combat that he is still living with today.

“We always really appreciate military communities and the veteran presence, and what we’ve found in in our experience, since we wrote the book, [is] people want to talk about our story. Our story oftentimes is their story,” said Anthony.

Anthony’s wife Janet co-authored the book “Tears Of A Warrior” from her perspective as a wife who has lived 50 years with a veteran who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“It isn’t just the veterans who come back and serve, the families serve, and that is parents and spouses especially and children, and we forget the children,” Janet explained. “If that family, especially those that support the veterans, if they aren’t intact, if we don’t mentor to them and make sure that they are solid, it is going to increase the trauma and the dysfunction, which is not what people fought for.”

The book is their experience of living with post-traumatic stress after returning home from combat. They travel and share their story with veterans, first responders, and families, hoping to make a difference in their healing process.

With their overall message being “if we send them, then we must mend them,” Anthony and Janet shared part of their story during the Memorial Day ceremony, encouraging the community to honor and remember those who never returned home and those who did and are living with PTS.

“Memorial Day is really in remembrance of and honoring those who never returned home. I mean, so many of our young Americans have not returned home,” Anthony said. “We were just in Normandy and all of the white crosses of the young Americans who died there during D-day, it pulls at your heartstrings. We have friends that are buried in Arlington, and to go there and see the thousands and thousands of headstones, you know, certainly gives you more of an appreciation than ever of the privilege and the freedoms that we have.”

MTN

Their story is meant to encourage veterans and their families who are also living with PTSD and to support their healing journey.

“For those of us that have served in combat, even if you do return back home, your life is never the same again. You’ve experienced things that you had never experienced before. And when you’re talking life and death situations, I mean, that definitely changes and impacts who you are.”

For more on their story, click here to visit the website.

Since it opened in 2006, the Montana Veterans Memorial has placed more than 7,400 tiles honoring Montana veterans, both living and deceased. About 200 new tiles are added every year before Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

The Montana Veterans Memorial is at 1025 25th Street North in Great Falls.

For more information, or if you would like to honor a veteran, click here to visit the website, or call 406-454-9070.