Fifty-Six Counties A Montana Journey by Russell Rowland

• 126 pages
• Local Montana author
• Published in Montana

“This kind of open country seems to attract two very different types of people and create two kinds of towns. First there's a town like Fort Benton, where every place you go, people greet you like a long-lost relative … The other extreme is a little harder to grasp, and to the outsider I'm sure it can be intimidating. But in most of the smaller towns in Eastern Montana, what you're going to encounter when you first walk into the local cafe is "the stare."

-from Chapter Seven: Plants

Everything about Montana is big – its skies, its mountains, even its plains. There’s a reason it’s called the Big Sky Country! Yet despite this scope and scale, Russell Rowell has managed to capture the landscapes, the people, the towns, and the culture of this vast state in his newest book. This book is a big-picture version of Montana without sacrificing the details that make this state so human and do interesting. Rowell currently lives in Billings, Montana, and is the author of three best-selling books on Montana history and culture.

Based in beautiful Helena, Montana, Farcountry Press has been an award-winning local publisher since 1980. Specializing in full-color photography books, locally written children’s stories, guidebooks, cookbooks, and regional history stories, Farcountry Press’ staff produces about 25 new books annually. This wonderful company also serves as a distributor for several other smaller book publishers, including The University of Montana Press.