Browning (sex offender, stores, safety)

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by cxray73

I know that doing the research is really my own problem, but a little help would be wonderful. That's what this forum is for, right? Helping others who are in desperate need of information?...
In return for all the help, I promise an acknowledgement in my book to all of the wonderful people on this forum. I have no idea when my editor and publicist are going to finsh hacking up my book and suggesting changes, but when that daunting process is done I'll be sure to post the release date and any other relevant information. Hell, I'll even ship a copy out to anyone who wants it. It's sort of a local thing, though. I'll probably end up as one of those novelists who has their books on a rack in a supermarket, and everbody just walks by them without a sidewards glance. Lol. It's such a sad fate. Maybe I'll make it big, though, who know?

I don't know what businesses are in Browning right now, haven't been there in 30 years. But if I were to imagine it as similar to any other isolated edge-of-the-prairie town with a lot of dust and not much money coming in... okay, I'm making up all the details because the only things I really remember are the Indian Days in the open middle of town, and the museum, but the idea is to transmit the character of the town as something you can use.

There might be a used-book store. It'll be a little narrow shop, just one of a dozen small shops in a row in an old brickfront single and two-storey building. There might be a cafe on one end of the block and what used to be JC Penney's on the other, but is now a flea market. (Remember this is a marginal economy, it does not attract urban-style business.) The other shops might be a thrift store, a hardware store, a laundrymat, a crafts store that sells native products to tourists, another that sells leatherwork to richer tourists. On the next block (downtown being only two blocks long) we might find a couple standalone buildings done in log-cabin style -- one is the library and the other is the museum. Four or five bars, an IGA grocery, and another cafe can be found in a scatter of other buildings. That mysterious clutter around a shed at the other end of the street used to be an A&W stand, back in the day.

The middle of town is a wide open plaza landscaped mainly in dusty brown grass. During Indian Days it's bright with dancers in native costume and there are a couple gaily decorated teepees along one side, and a number of crafts booths. Everyone moves slow and easy, no hurry. The sky is wide and the sun sparkles off the dust blown up by the endless prairie wind.

On the edge of town we might find a McDonalds, a couple gas stations, a Chevy dealership and a mechanic's garage, a run-down but earnestly hopeful motel with a fanciful sign. Town ends and prairie begins, with no "urbanization" whatever, in fact nothing but the odd farm or abandoned homestead all the way east to Cutbank or north to Alberta, while if we go west it's only a short drive into Glacier Park and a total change of mood from old-west to tourist-trap. The state roads are two-lane blacktop, the local roads are gravel, all sprinkled with traditional spring potholes.

Summer is hot and dry, winter is cold like nowhere else (often the nation's low). Spring and fall can't make up their minds, it might snow one day and be sunny the next. In July, prairie thunderstorms can come from a clear blue sky to hail and back to clear blue in just half an hour. The wind seldom stops, you don't notice it anymore but you tie everything down. The rolling prairie is golden in the fall and the view is worth the climate, without a human artifact in sight to break the flow of the high grass, and hardly a tree to be seen either, but the distant buttes look like hills broken off by a vengeful god. It's easy to imagine that Browning is the last town on earth, with no other humans anywhere.

=========

Anyway, if I were writing something set in Browning, that's the feel and mood. It seems bleak but look again, it has character and depth.

As to the newer school and tribal life, that I can't tell you about even from imagination -- use the Blackfeet links someone else posted, there's info and someone there might be more who you need to talk to for that.

And I wouldn't mind having a copy when it's done -- might be fun. Good luck!

[Gman2007]

If you're looking for pictures, the town of Browning has a website with past and recent pictures:

Images of the Past and Present of Browning Montana and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation

[rickers]

Originally Posted by jimj

Please do a search as there's plenty of climate and other info already posted about Browning.

Ditto that ^ and keep in mind the ratio of sex offenders there (according to the City-Data's "Browning" page) is 76 to 1.

[cxray73]

Thank you so much. That really did help! I found everything that I was looking for and more.

[cxray73]

Originally Posted by Reziac

I don't know what businesses are in Browning right now, haven't been there in 30 years. But if I were to imagine it as similar to any other isolated edge-of-the-prairie town with a lot of dust and not much money coming in... okay, I'm making up all the details because the only things I really remember are the Indian Days in the open middle of town, and the museum, but the idea is to transmit the character of the town as something you can use.

There might be a used-book store. It'll be a little narrow shop, just one of a dozen small shops in a row in an old brickfront single and two-storey building. There might be a cafe on one end of the block and what used to be JC Penney's on the other, but is now a flea market. (Remember this is a marginal economy, it does not attract urban-style business.) The other shops might be a thrift store, a hardware store, a laundrymat, a crafts store that sells native products to tourists, another that sells leatherwork to richer tourists. On the next block (downtown being only two blocks long) we might find a couple standalone buildings done in log-cabin style -- one is the library and the other is the museum. Four or five bars, an IGA grocery, and another cafe can be found in a scatter of other buildings. That mysterious clutter around a shed at the other end of the street used to be an A&W stand, back in the day.

The middle of town is a wide open plaza landscaped mainly in dusty brown grass. During Indian Days it's bright with dancers in native costume and there are a couple gaily decorated teepees along one side, and a number of crafts booths. Everyone moves slow and easy, no hurry. The sky is wide and the sun sparkles off the dust blown up by the endless prairie wind.

On the edge of town we might find a McDonalds, a couple gas stations, a Chevy dealership and a mechanic's garage, a run-down but earnestly hopeful motel with a fanciful sign. Town ends and prairie begins, with no "urbanization" whatever, in fact nothing but the odd farm or abandoned homestead all the way east to Cutbank or north to Alberta, while if we go west it's only a short drive into Glacier Park and a total change of mood from old-west to tourist-trap. The state roads are two-lane blacktop, the local roads are gravel, all sprinkled with traditional spring potholes.

Summer is hot and dry, winter is cold like nowhere else (often the nation's low). Spring and fall can't make up their minds, it might snow one day and be sunny the next. In July, prairie thunderstorms can come from a clear blue sky to hail and back to clear blue in just half an hour. The wind seldom stops, you don't notice it anymore but you tie everything down. The rolling prairie is golden in the fall and the view is worth the climate, without a human artifact in sight to break the flow of the high grass, and hardly a tree to be seen either, but the distant buttes look like hills broken off by a vengeful god. It's easy to imagine that Browning is the last town on earth, with no other humans anywhere.

=========

Anyway, if I were writing something set in Browning, that's the feel and mood. It seems bleak but look again, it has character and depth.

As to the newer school and tribal life, that I can't tell you about even from imagination -- use the Blackfeet links someone else posted, there's info and someone there might be more who you need to talk to for that.

And I wouldn't mind having a copy when it's done -- might be fun. Good luck!

You are a saint! Thank you so very much! You have no idea how much that helps. I have the most amazing mental picture right now, after reading your description. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to you right now, Reziac, for all the information that you have given me.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by cxray73

You are a saint! Thank you so very much! You have no idea how much that helps. I have the most amazing mental picture right now, after reading your description. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to you right now, Reziac, for all the information that you have given me.

Thanks I write too (space opera; no terrestrial locations involved) so I know the importance of not only the setting, but getting the FEEL of the setting, so your characters will just naturally behave appropriately (or not, if they don't fit in). And once I got started it just came a'running.

[tinytimandkat]

I to am Interested in Moving near or around browning/Cut Bank/Shelby. Can anyone help with Rental info?

[rickers]

Here is a picture of an interesting church in Browning. It's made from oval river rocks.

[Reziac]

Wow, that's a neat building... kinda funny miscegenation with the clapboard half, tho! Wonder which part was built first?

[rickers]

I'll try to find out for ya, we will be in Browning in about a week from now.
I guess nobody liked my "other picture" on my post about the sex offender ratio in Browning ! Oh well I thought it was cute !