Summer makes the Montana economy go round

Honestly, what’s not to love about summer in western Montana?

The looong days? Exquisite.

The predictable post-Fourth of July sunshine? A wonder.

The work? No kidding. That’s great too.

By SHERRY DEVLIN

Western Montana InBusiness

Where else can teenagers spend their summer vacations making huckleberry-candied pretzels? Or riding the rapids of a half-dozen rivers, tourists in tow? Or leading nature day camps for great big bunches of munchkins?

Where else can a little town like Bigfork turn a summer theater and its attendant crowds into a year-round, arts-based economy? And where better than the fringes of Glacier and Yellowstone national parks to grow businesses based on scenery?

This month’s edition of Western Montana InBusiness takes a look at the summertime economy, which it turns out, is alive and well and growing.

Reporter Tyler Christensen spent a few days in Bigfork – the month’s most-envied assignment – looking at how the Bigfork Summer Playhouse literally transformed the town’s economy.

There were no tourists in Bigfork when the Playhouse got its start in the 1960s; if you’ve driven past, through or into Bigfork on a summer weekend in recent years, you know what’s happened.

What you may not know is how significant the town’s arts economy has become – and how the summertime economy is pushing into the shoulder seasons. AND how outlandishly wild is the real estate market in and around Bigfork.

Consider this: One waterfront residence on Bigfork Bay sold for $1.6 million three years ago. A year later, it sold for $2.6 million. Then it sold for $3.6 million. This year? Sold again, for $4.6 million.

Reporter Joe Nickell expanded on Tyler’s work and produced an in-depth look at western Montana’s arts economy overall, with a stop at Missoula’s Dana Gallery – host of the recent Oil Painters of America nationwide juried exhibition. By the time the show closed on June 24, the Dana Gallery had sold more paintings than any other gallery in the 15-year history of the event.

On the lighter side, reporter Vince Devlin spent a little time this past month visiting with Missoula notables about their best and worst summer jobs for a story that will get you reminiscing about your own youthful adventures.

Hellgate High School principal Jane Bennett once spent a summer in a Chrysler plant, building dashboards for Plymouth Furys. One summer while he was still a student at Hellgate High, Missoula Mayor John Engen lasted just three days as a door-to-door pet supply salesman.

Hands down, though, Missoula lawyer Morgan Modine got my vote for the best summer job during high school – as a Hollywood limo driver. Of course, he went to Beverly Hills High School, so the work really wasn’t all that glam for young Modine.

Reporter Michael Moore checked in with the summer job we all imagine is the purview of teenagers – lawn mowing – and found real-deal businesses that support real Missoula families. And reporter Rob Chaney checked in with Missoula teachers who spend their summer vacations on the job – another job.

This month, we also have a pair of stories from our bureau reporters in northwestern Montana. John Stromnes took a look at the Flathead Lake cherry business and its many travails, while Michael Jamison went to Columbia Falls for a look at "gateway economies" – the businesses that sprout on the edges of national parks, here and elsewhere.

Suffice it to say, national parks are good – really, really good – for business. Thus Jamison’s conclusion: "Back in 1907, editors at Kalispell’s local newspaper wrote that ‘there may be some local people who favor the park plan, but we know of only two.’ "It did not name which two.

"Nearly a century later, in 2002, that same newspaper was calling the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park ‘our region’s biggest economic engine.’ "

I hope you’ll spend a little time with us this month, perusing western Montana’s summertime economy and the people who make it happen. Then get out and enjoy yourself in the sunshine. Honestly, it doesn’t get any better than this – anywhere.

Sherry Devlin is editor of the Missoulian and of Western Montana InBusiness Monthly. She can be reached at (406) 523-5250 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Full Publication: http://www.mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0607/