Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Welcome to Issue 6 of our Field Notes Newsletter – the place for neighbors, community members, Montanans, and anyone curious to get to know us through boots-on-the-ground updates, storytelling, and information. This issue features updates from the field, a Q&A with our hunting caretakers and campground hosts, a poem from this year’s Field School, and more.
Fall is here, and I am grateful for another season change in Central Montana. As a hunter and lover of wildlife, the prairie has provided me with so many special memories. I killed my first elk here and proposed to my wife, where she called in her first elk. When we were expecting our daughter, we spent the first trimester on the Lower Musselshell as the hunting caretakers on the 73. My wife also took her first antelope on the prairie and we have spent countless hours drinking coffee and sharing stories with our friends who have deep generational ties to this amazing place. Enjoy this look into the latest from the prairie. We’re glad you’re here and hope you jump at the chance to explore American Prairie.
Stay well, play well, and be in touch,
Paul Kemper
American Prairie Marketing Manager
2023 Visitor Season Review
American Prairie is Your Backyard
A core part of American Prairie’s work is welcoming the public to our properties. Over 137,000 acres of our private land are open to recreation, along with over 337,000 acres of adjoining public land. For more than 20 years, visitors from Montana and beyond have been hiking, taking scenic drives, wildlife watching, hunting, camping, biking and paddling all across American Prairie.
During the COVID pandemic, like managers of publicly accessible open space all around the country, we saw an increase in visitors. Most of those visitors were Montanans who chose to explore close to home rather than leaving the state. Since 2020 and 2021, the rate of growth in our overnight visitors has stabilized and remained relatively constant for 2022 and 2023.
Reflecting the growing interest in the open spaces of Montana’s grasslands, we expect our overnight visitor facilities and educational programs to continue to attract more people in the coming years. As neighbors, we’d like to take some space in these pages to provide more detail on how many visitors we’re seeing, and where people are coming from.
National Discovery Center
The National Discovery Center saw about 5,500 visitors in 2023. Notably, more than 80% of these people were from Montana, and nearly half of in-state visitors are residents of Lewistown. During 2023, we welcomed nearly 2,000 attendees to special events ranging from musical concerts, to a film premiere with revered documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, to live animal exhibitions by staff from ZooMontana in Billings.
Overnight Accommodations
The Myers Family Hut System, Buffalo Camp, and Antelope Creek campgrounds collectively hosted over 6,000 overnight visitors in 2023. The huts were particularly popular among Montanans, with over 80% of reservations made by state residents. The campgrounds saw a balanced mix of users, with approximately 50% coming from within Montana and 50% from other states. The most frequent out-of-state visitors were from Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota. June and September are the two months with the most overnight visitors.
Field School
Our Field School education programming hosted more than 500 students from around Montana for day and overnight programs in 2023. These programs are designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities outdoors that introduce students to the beauty and complexity of the prairie ecosystem. Programming is provided at no cost to schools and meets State curriculum standards for science. Teachers interested in learning more about participating can contact Education Manager Dusty Rixford at [email protected].
Hunting Season
We offer hunting access on over 80,000 acres of deeded land through the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Block Management Program. Last year, we hosted more than 4,600 hunter days (one hunter for one day) on 10 properties. In addition to access to our deeded acres we allow access to adjacent public land, including previously landlocked public acres. Hunting has been, and will continue to be an important part of public access on American Prairie.
Looking Ahead
While American Prairie grows each year, and is a work in progress, it is a place you can visit right now. Whether it is a trip to the National Discovery Center on Main St. in Lewistown, a day trip to Antelope Creek Campground to walk the two-mile interpretive nature trail, or an overnight trip to view bison from Buffalo Camp, American Prairie is open for choose-your-own-adventures.
In the coming years we’ll be adding huts to the Myers Family Hut system, new ways to learn about prairie ecology and the region’s human and natural history, and suggestions for itineraries to explore our properties. As we work to improve the habitat on our properties, for everything from antelope, to elk, beaver and prairie dogs, we promise that American Prairie will be wilder with each visit.
As our neighbors, American Prairie is your backyard. If you haven’t yet had the chance to make the trip we hope to see you soon. If you’ve been we appreciate your visit, and we’re always interested in suggestions and feedback on making the experience better.
For more information about visiting, please bookmark our website. You can also contact us contact us at 406.585.4600 or [email protected].
Mike Quist Kautz
Vice President of Access and Infrastructure
Caretaking Together
Host Highlight
Each year American Prairie hires Hunting Caretakers and Campground Hosts on our 73 property as well as Antelope Creek Campground. These welcoming folks are a resource for neighbors and visitors, while also serving as the point people on the ground. Caretakers monitor hunter activity and road use, keep an eye on facilities, engage public visitors, provide information, check in campers, and much more. My wife and I were the first volunteer caretakers at the 73 in 2022, and I sat down with the newest caretakers and campground hosts, Owen and Theresa Barker, who have worked at both the 73 and Antelope Creek, to learn more about their time in the Breaks at American Prairie, the many visitors we’re seeing, and where people are coming from.
How did you all prepare for your time as Hosts at American Prairie?
Theresa: We did a lot of driving around up there. I hadn’t really been out in the Breaks or the prairie since we moved to Montana from Michigan. That was pretty cool for me.
The scenery is just spectacular. We saw turkeys, coyotes, pheasants, mule deer, whitetails, bald eagles – the wildlife viewing was crazy.
Owen: For me, it was definitely the wildlife viewing. Oh, my goodness. I don’t know if there was hardly a stretch of two or three days that we did not see elk in the pasture just north of the house. The best I could count was over 270 at one time in the field. I’ve done a lot of elk hunting over the years, but sitting and looking out the living room window at them is a whole different deal. This is way more fun. You’re just watching them interact and the coyotes out there with them and just all the different wildlife.
What were your favorite parts of being campground hosts at Antelope Creek?
Theresa: It was pretty cool to meet all those different people and talk to them. To hear all their stories, where they came from, where they’re going, and what they’re up to. That was a lot of fun for me.
Owen: For me, probably when the school kids were there [for American Prairie’s Field School]. I think there was just a lot more excitement. You know what I mean? As far as, man, they were having fun!
Did you get to explore much of the area around the campground?
Owen: We put on quite a few miles. We checked out all the paddle-fishing folks. That’s all new to me. It was neat to see all those folks and chat with them. But we put quite a few miles on just going up along the north side of the reservoir. It’s a very cool area up there. We participated in first aid training at Sun Prairie. We got a chance to get around and see quite a few of the other American Prairie properties. We drove down to the PN one day to check things out. We got an excellent chance to explore.
What was it like interacting with the public when you were at Antelope Creek?
Owen: We received positive feedback from everyone we met. You never know who’s going to show up. We talked to folks from all over the country. There was a couple there from Norway. There was a couple from Germany that spent some time, and so it gives you a chance to really meet a lot of diverse folks, and some had no clue what American Prairie was. Others were super interested in getting out and seeing as much as they could and learning more about what was going on. We had quite a variety of folks.
Do you have a favorite stretch of the route you drove around the 73 and the surrounding area?
Owen: We went up to the CMR quite often. That’s where I guess we visited with most of the folks we talked to. It is just such a vast area when you’re up on top of those bluffs looking down, you wonder, man, this had to look like this 200 years ago. It’s just neat as heck.
How did your interactions with visitors differ from your time at Antelope Creek compared to your time at the 73?
Owen: I think it was all hunting-related over at 73. Well, for the most part, that’s why folks are coming there. We’ve hunted our entire lives, so we’re used to chatting with hunters. Since the transition of that property being purchased by American Prairie, many people seemed shocked that it was open to the public, that they could go hiking and hunt. It seemed like some folks asked us three times, “Are you sure we can just walk across?” And we’d let them know, yes, yes you can. But it was totally opposite at the campground. Those folks are there just camping, enjoying the summertime, they’ve got kids with them. They’re out exploring, and just completely different mission than the people we met at the 73.
What’s next for you both? Will you be back as hosts or caretakers again?
Owen: Oh yes! We’re taking a little time off between our stays, but we’ll be back at the 73 this fall just in time for the start of archery season.
Paul Kemper
Marketing Manager
Do you have skills and time to contribute?
In 2025, American Prairie is building a corps of volunteers to contribute to the conservation organization’s work on Montana’s grasslands. Led by native Montanan Jess Eggers, the program has opportunities to contribute in a number of ways, time commitments and seasons.
-
- Place-based
Spend three months living in one of the most remote and wild parts of North America; these roles include Hunting Caretakers (Sept-Oct-Nov) and Hut, Camp and Trail Caretakers (May-June-July). Volunteers must be competent driving rough roads and living in remote settings. Some roles come with housing, others require an RV and are provided with sites with full hook-ups. High speed internet is provided for applicants looking to work full or part-time remotely. - Program Support
Interact with students in our education programs, visitors at the National Discovery Center in Lewistown, and provide on-the-ground support to our wildlife-friendly ranching program. Volunteers must live in the Lewistown area (or be willing to secure housing for 1-3 month assignments, RV spots are available). - Field Work Crews
Work weekends and work weeks that focus on providing field support for our habitat and public access efforts. Tasks include spring opening maintenance for the Myers Family Huts (work weekend), riparian restoration and fence removal (work week).
- Place-based
All volunteer roles are posted at americanprairie.org/careers. We will add information on the above volunteer roles to our website in 2025.
Our Volunteer Manager, Jess Eggers, can be reached by email at [email protected] with any questions.
Poets on the Prairie
Over the last year, we have been fortunate to work with many members of Montana’s arts community through partnerships like our artist residency with Open AIR, as well as through diverse public programming at the National Discovery Center. Dear to my heart among these many wonderful opportunities has been working with not one but TWO Montana Poet Laureates.
Melissa Kwasny has written seven books of poetry in addition to several non-fiction collections, and was Montana’s co-poet laureate along with ML Smoker from 2019-2021. Melissa joined us as part of a cohort of three artists last fall, during our partnership with Open AIR, to spend two weeks on the prairie for an artist residency. Melissa stayed on both the PN and the Sun Prairie property – where she took long walks, observed wildlife, read, wrote, and visited sites like the Indian Lake Medicine Rock and Sleeping Buffalo Stones. This May, Melissa returned for an additional 10-day stint at Sun Prairie, as well as to teach a full day of poetry workshops at Fergus High School, and to spend a day with the 5th grade class from Lodgepole at the Field School. Together, the Lodgepole students wrote a joint poem about the prairie (see page 8). Melissa was also kind enough to share an excerpt from an essay she’s working on about her time on the prairie. She writes:
“Today, all the being of the world seems to be singing as I stand in the midst of a meadowlark migration, their calls multitudinous, the melody bright and fresh, part dream and part elixir of the greenage. It is a song with origins in April, fresh and bright, that will carry all summer over the rolling hills, which I can see for fifty miles in each direction. It is not difficult to interpret its language. It sings to find a mate. It sings of return to and celebration of the prairie. Prairie, from the French, praierie, from the medieval Latin prataria, a meadow, a savannah, a grassland. One of the most endangered biomes on earth.”
We have also enjoyed learning from Montana’s current Poet Laureate, Métis storyteller Chris La Tray. With deep ties to Lewistown and its Métis founders, Chris has been roaming in and around our community over the past few years, and it’s been an honor to get to know him.
Chris also joined this year’s Field School to spend time with students from Poplar, and in August at the National Discovery Center we celebrated the release of his book Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, which chronicles his journey to connect to and learn about to his family, Métis culture, and the past and future of the Little Shell Chippewa community.
Corrie Williamson
Director of Community Outreach
NORTHERN PRAIRIE SONG
Written by the Hays-Lodgepole 5th Grade Class at Field School
I am a bird flying in the middle of the sky like a pupil in the middle of an eye.
I am a young eagle in the sky flying in my eye.
I am a burrowing owl in the ground.
I am the grass because I want to wave and feel the breeze flowing through me.
I am a blue horse that roams the night and eats grass.
The world I like is blue, even the food is blue here, and sweets, and basically everything in the entire world.
I am a hummingbird singing in the distance.
I am a deer that runs away when you are close to me.
I am a prairie dog and I build my home out of dirt but inside the ground.
I am a flower. I grow and I shine.
Bison and Our Communities
For thousands of years, bison have been a part of the interconnectedness of people and place. As bison return to American Prairie lands, they begin to reconnect the web of ecology that almost disappeared with them. And another often overlooked connection begins to take place: connection with people and community. After being absent for nearly six generations, we strive for our herds to once again be part of the community, benefit locals, and give people an opportunity to experience bison. We do this through education, recreation, and our work sharing bison with Indigenous communities, where they have numerous cultural, economic, and food sovereignty uses.
As the herds have grown so too have the opportunities for people and communities to interact and reconnect with bison again. Through viewing, harvesting, eating, and learning about bison, people and communities are once again reconnecting with and experiencing these animals.
Since 2017, more than 120 Montanans, including six veterans, have had the opportunity to harvest bison from American Prairies herds. An additional 16 bison harvest opportunities have been donated to Montana non-profit organizations to raffle or auction off. These include Legion baseball clubs, soccer clubs, hunting and fishing organizations, search and rescues, wildland fire foundations, ski foundations, ice skating associations, Boys and Girls Clubs, and medical organizations; these have raised more than $85,000 for these organizations. Additionally, American Prairie has donated over 20,000 pounds of bison meat to food banks and organizations across Montana and in our local communities of Glasgow, Lewistown, Malta, Chinook, Hays, Lodgepole, Harlem and Dodson.
As of this writing, our two bison herds numbers around 900 animals, who have access to a combined 57,000 acres. Five years from now, our goal is that 1300-1500 bison will roam across 75,000+ acres. As our herds continue to grow sustainably and rebuild the web of interconnectedness on the landscape, American Prairie plans to utilize its bison program to benefit not only the landscape but the communities and people of the region.
Scott Heidebrink
Director of Landscape Stewardship
What’s New At the National Discovery Center?
Stop in Thursday – Saturday 10 am – 4 pm
We’ve had a busy year of wonderful programming here at the National Discovery Center. From world-class pianists to groundbreaking scientists, programming at the NDC is sure to provide something for everyone.
We are so grateful for the outpouring of support from Lewistown and beyond during this year’s Chokecherry Festival. Throughout the day we poured over maps, talked ideas for future programming, handed out stickers and did our best to stay cool in the shade! More events are coming down the pipeline and we have fresh hats and shirts available in the NDC shop, so stop by for a visit and check out what’s going on in downtown Lewistown.
Upcoming Programming Schedule:
-
- Eco-Critters with ZooMontana
October 5, 2024, 10 am to 4 pm - “Bring Them Home”: A Screening at the NDC
October 29, 2024, 7 pm - OpenAIR: the Art of the American Prairie
November 9, 2024, 1 pm - Strings Attached: An Ensemble from Baroque Music Montana
January 7, 2025, 7 pm - Music from the Basque Country with David Romtvetd and OSPA
January 17, 2025, 7 pm
- Eco-Critters with ZooMontana
Thank you for your interest in American Prairie! Learn more at AmericanPrairie.org, and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns, or to share ideas for future newsletter topics.
Want to view this newsletter as a PDF? We’ve got you covered in our Field Notes Archive!