Agree Brando. The exaggerations on how bad it is in Montana are pathetic. In almost 50 years have never, ever, seen it -40F for weeks, never experienced weeks of isolation, most summers have minimal forest fire smoke or a few weeks of it, etc.. There are exceptions to everything of course, like -49 at my house a few weeks ago and the smoke can get horrible, but people from Billings to Boise just deal with it.
Tens of thousands of people come here and adapt just fine even though I wish they wouldn't. I write it too much, but winters here aren't as bad as many places. We had a bunch of staff stuck in their homes outside of Lewistown for a few days 25+ years ago. It dumped about 3.5' in short order. The MT natives mentioned that it happens about every 10 - 15 years, it's no big deal, don't be dramatic about it and people from Buffalo, NY and the UP in Michigan deal with it all the time.
I hate the population growth, get bummed when there are more people in places I enjoyed myself for 30+ years of not seeing another human but can't blame anyone for moving here. I was fishing a bend in the Yellowstone close to one of the movie sets for River Runs Through It in '91 and had no clue how that movie and now Yellowstone would bring so many people here. Sucks but they're all making it just fine.
