Where in Montana (Missoula, Kalispell, Havre: appointed, houses, to buy)

[LSUTigers]

Whitefish is a great place.... if you're a multimillionaire and like high society. It might be great for some, but it's not for me.

[jimj]

That's why you live outside of Aspenfish! Columbia Falls, Many Lakes or in between. Being a tourist and driving through is one thing and most times your vision is set to a certain mode but when you live here you see things in a different light.
Aspenfish is just one little bit of the Flathead and you are out of it's grip in about 10 minutes from city line to city line, then it's county which gets rural real quick.
Where I live you'll see jeans and boots and flannel before any foo foo and furs.....

[Carolina_Belle92]

C. Falls isn't so bad... along those lines, neither are Thompson Falls, St. Regis, or Troy. Libby is nice, but I still don't know what the deal is up there with the asbestos. Might want to look into that.

LSU, no offense, but as a tourist, you're not really going to get any good picture of what it's like living in Montana. I visited the state before I lived here, and it was very different than I had imagined (in a wonderful way).

St. Ignatius also has some great things going for it... very small-town atmosphere, lots of open land, Mission Mountains (oh-so-gorgeous), and not a bad drive to Missoula should you ever long for an urban experience.

Central and Eastern Montana *might* give you a "more rural" experience... if what you're talking about is more sheep. But the scenery is very dull... reminiscent of North Dakota. Yuck.

[LSUTigers]

on the contrary, i think parts of central Montana are even prettier than western Montana. There are some spots just north of the Little Belt Mountains between Great Falls and Lewistown that have both great mountain views and great open space views.

[Carolina_Belle92]

again, depends on your taste and where you are. Western Montana is just a personal pref for me... if you like the area around the Divide, more power to ya.

personally, I like the Tobacco Root area a lot... very open, very rural. My kind of place.

[mtnmom5]

I have to agree that Whitefish is really a 'tourist trap' anymore. We live way off the map in the beautiful West Kootenai area of Montana.

There are always places for sale up here as people from the 'big cities' move in and then can't take it after a year or so of being 30 miles from the nearest gas station, 2 hours from the nearest Walmart, McDonalds or stop light!! LOL

We lived in Libby for about 7 years and have lived here for almost 7 years now - beautiful and yes, I am biased as well but we DO have awesome scenery here!

Viola

[TristansMommy]

Originally Posted by RemingtonTx

Hey all....... I'm am Thinking about moving to Montana and I've never even been there...I'm Wanting to find a Small Town...Where I can find a house and enjoy the country life as I know it.. My problem lyes here though I'm not going to have a chance to go see where i want to live before i move it's kinda gonna be an adventure.. LoL.... So I was Curious if anyone knew of some Nice small towns in a good area with good country people that I might like....

Fairfield is an awesome small town with a lot of umph and growth. My mom lives there now and my family has lived there a long time.. I'm from NY.. My mom originally from MT who married an airmen moved to NY when he was finished and now moved back after my father passed (I'm grown and have stayed here). It is about 40 minutes from Great falls. The next town over is Choteau (where David Letterman owns a home.. he talks about it alot on his show). it's also the Beer Barley capital of the world and has some good employers there (it's in Teton county)... liek Budweiser, Three Rivers. The sense of community there is awesome.. the town follwos their teams everywhere.. as a matter of fact the football team made the state championship this year (although they did loose) but their basketball team is poised to bring it home this year!

Anyway..i don't live there..but I visit my mom often (she is the town clerk_) She's lived their now 6 years!

[TristansMommy]

Oh.. I forgot to add that there is skiing in Choteau (although it depens on how much weather there is) and it's not that far from Glacier national Park , great fishing hiking, etc.

[anothercalifornian]

When we first drove through Kalispell and whitefish the thought that came to mind was TOURISTS. Coming from the yosemite area of CA., I know something of the sourt. We decided to settle in Hamilton, about 4 hours south of Kalispell. Hamilton is a nice little town of around 4,000, but it seems that a job that will pay anything upwards of $8 dollars an hour is hard to find. I drive for a local trucking company and it happens to be one of the higher paying jobs in the area. The Bitteroots are on the front doorstep and "getting lost " is not hard to do, along with camping, fishing, etc.
If you are from Ca., if I recall you aren't, do not go around announcing it. As a matter of fact, if you are from anywhere other than MT, disclose that info. on a need to know basis.
The first summer we spent here was basically in the smoke from the wild fires, unfortunately living near the trees brings fires, and has gotten worse up and down the whole state.

Montana is a great state, the people are awesome, the only problem is the wages - be willing to take a hit, get used to spending more time indoors during winter, and often during summer because of the air quality resulting from the fires.

[ranchwife2b]

Like the original poster, I, too, am moving to Montana to escape from Southern California. I was born and bred here in the southland, but I gotta tell you, it isn't like it was growing up. Thank God, my fiance was left a 120 acre ranch in the Flathead Valley near St. Ignatius, so I will have a place to lay my head for the rest of my life. I want peace and serenity, room to stretch out, trails to ride my horse when I can, ponds to fish trout out of, and lots of green grass and blue skies to play on and under with my dogs. I cannot wait. I hope the rumors I heard about MTs not liking SoCal transplants. I'm not a city girl at heart - I'm a country girl and about to live my dream. So what do you think of the St. Ignatius, Ronan, Kallispell and Polson area?