any members in Montana

“Missoula is not your typical Montana town. ”

Curious what this means? Thanks

@grannyring , I think another way to explain that would be by looking at the results of the last presidential election. In Missoula County the democratic ticket won 59% to 37% for the republican ticket. However, overall in Montana, it was R 58.39% to D 38.46%. I’d also say that by and large, Montana is an agricultural state east of the foothills, and I don’t think the economy of Missoula is based on agriculture. The agricultural culture (no alliteration intended) as opposed to to the not agricultural culture.

@immatthewj My neighbor is from Missoula, She'd be interested (more like I'd be interested) in all this Montana analysis. As a geographer, it's fascinating to me. It's the only part of the country I have not been to, but I sure would love to visit. 

I'd agree with the above statistics. Missoula is a college town with lots of outside influence but  beautiful place to live (like lots of smaller towns once were). 

Work as I recall was very competitive because it was a place where people wanted to live for the recreation. I had an Oxford professor that was there because he loved to fly fish. 

While there in the 1990's I was told that "the Californian's were invading the place", driving up property prices, etc. From what I understand this also happened during covid too. California always has been a population center with many moving to Seattle too. Population and money mecca's produce freedom to move and explore.

Sadly I do remember my mom pointing to a book about rape in Missoula, and the average being much higher, and it went on to say the justice system in the town was broken. Society is so complex and changing so quickly, I even here town's like Burlington Vermont are now considered unsafe. Hard to say how bad these places are without some personal imprint of the place- growing up just outside of NYC in the 70-80's, I saw lots of crime too. NY got much better in the late 90's that's for certain.

From an audiophile perspective I would bet Montana has slightly more watts per audiophile than other places. Big Sky big power, but I could be wrong. 

@bjesien I always found Burlington, VT overrated. There are a lot of college towns that are though.

Also. I always wondered why rural America, while so scenic with breathtaking nature is so depressing, abandoned and hopeless, etc. Nothing like central and Western Europe where tourism thrives in these areas.

Thanks for the clarification.  We are planning a trip to Bozeman and was curious about the statement.  I don’t know Montana at all, but Bozeman  looks interesting.