There are no windows on the south wall to let the sun’s heat into a hot summer room, but a 3’ x 5’ L. E. Rea painting framed of Mt. Tam I thought was Montana when I was a boy in my grandfather’s house hanging above the mantle over the blazing, hairy arms of grapevines pruned, hauled and piled for the winter by the barn with the remains of corrals for draft horses and mules back in the day—that my sister and I damned-near burned down playing with matches. The fire trucks came at dusk from town, sirens screaming closer before I ever saw the flames.
Sunlight through mottled clouds on the hillside near begs my eyes to stay. Its bare, steep peak drawing me from my desk to the south wall like a window to a better place.
I live within minutes of the Dutton Ranch. It was/is a cartoon of itself long before Hollywood “found” it . As it was “built” on the same mythology before “Yellowstone” it is NO surprise Hollywood found it perfect for the perpetuation of the myths. That it is in the Bitteroot Valley, portrayed as Paradise Valley actually on the Yellowstone River , not the Bitterroot River is the least egregious offense of artistic license.
Yes, the perfect set and backdrop to advance the mythology and to pump in enough cash for a few years to “jazz up” a very poor local economy, enriching a few while leaving them detritus of unaffordable housing and other long term burdens that go with ALL boom and bust cycles.
That the “series” collided with a pandemic driven, house bound, binging viewership was an unfortunate coincidence. That, along with the ridiculous home prices in some places fueled a mass migration to seemingly cheap relocation opportunities. The migrants arrived with mountains of cash and the beatific notions of their new “home” grounded in the mythologies absorbed from a screen that they continue to be glued to as the beauty of the real Montana is paying the exorbitant price for simply being beautiful; as if there are NO other considerations.
drycrikjournal 