The Complicated Truth About Montana

Here's my entire Mountain West Roadtrip Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq-_cmf3H6yq836p_Frch75…

It’s a sad reality for us Montanans. The sickness has made its way to us and it’s truly changed our state for the worse.

My husband was killed by a drunk driver 3 months ago on Father's Day (I was left badly injured with our 3 children under 6 who also survived the crash), and he used to LOVE your channel. He always told me when you'd upload a new video. I bet he would've loved this video, he was always very interested in Montana for some reason. 😅

It's not just Montana. It's happening all across America in places that were once quite, peaceful small towns.

From a french perspective, live in the US is a dream...what we call over here the american dream....unfortunatelly it seems that it worst that living in France....but I notice we face the same pb here: we can afford to welcome migrants with houses, medical care for zero euro....whereas we have more and more french homeless....it is crazy!

The entire country is starting to look like the times of the great depression.

I cringed with horror as TIME Magazine put Bozeman, Montana on it's front page. Calling it the best place on Earth. God help you Bozeman, and Montana. RIP.

That is weird because companies from California came and bought up all the properties in Wichita Kansas too. Double the cost of living by raising ALL the rents within the last four years. Took all the affordable housing, kicked out low income tenants, remodeled it and are renting to higher class. This is NOT an execration. Homeless there is out of control and they are confused like they don’t know why… THEY DO know why

My family settled here in the late 1800s, I grew up on a farm here, was once a beautiful place to raise a family, but kids have all grown & couldn't afford to stay, when I retire I will have to leave! Signed, broken hearted. 😢

My family has been in the valley for 5 generations. Seeing/experiencing what's happening is brutal.

This isn’t left or right. I live in a leftist Fort Collins, Colorado and we have these problems. I work in right wing Wyoming and we have these problems here too. We’re being phased out by the rich, dying with diseases of despair. It’s awful

Don't judge them all by their license plate. I was lucky enough to be born, raised, and lived for all 68 years of my life in Montana. Thirty some years ago I got stranded on the highway with my wife and two young daughters. I sat on the side of the road with the flashers on and hood up...going nowhere. Many a vehicle sped by me without as much as moving over to miss me. Most of them had Montana plates. Finally, a man about my age with a wife and two young daughters stopped and gave me a tow to the nearest town. He had California plates! The repair shop told me they would replace a faulty fuel pump in a couple of hours. I offered to buy this family lunch at the nearby McDonald's while we waited. They told us they wanted to relocate from CA to MT because of the craziness they were experiencing there (yes, it was even crazy in CA 30 years ago). They were looking for real estate to buy in Montana but mentioned that everyone they met were less than friendly once they learned they were from California. We were in a bit of a resort area where real estate prices were high (by MT standards) and they were afraid they weren't going to be able to fine a home here. I offered to take them to my hometown area where prices were more reasonable (Great Falls) and show them around... they stayed with us for 3 days and made an offer on a property in the Little Belt Mountains which they could never quite get closed. A few years later, they bought a place in another western state and are happy as clams. We exchange Christmas cards to this day...wonderful people who came from California. So this is one native Montanan who gives most "out of staters" a bit of a break to let them prove themselves before I cuss them out for ruining the state we all love.

I live in Billings Montana and have for the last 26 years. It is the ugliest place now. A company called blackstone bought up a lot of rental properties. Then they hire a few management companies to run them. Rented has doubled in the last 2 years. Automobile accidents everyday. The housing being built will at least bring in 300 people driving. You can’t drive the streets anymore.

Basically, if they put a Whole Foods in your town, it's OVER 😅

I'm from Bozeman. I've got personal memories from almost every shot you took. My first job delivering newspapers was on Main Street. One of my customers was the sherrifs office which is now a museum. Even the lots with all the new houses, we used to snowmobile in those fields. There were no homeless. The police would take them to the bus depot and the city would buy them a ticket to Billings for $8. When I was a kid, I Montana $100,000 would buy a mansion. What pisses me off is the property tax goes up when people pay more, so the real Montanans can't afford to keep the land that's been in the family for generations. Those Californian's used to make fun of us! I now live in Ecuador. I miss Bozeman, a lot. I miss it more when I go there.

I have lived in Montana since 1997. I have seen an EXTREME agonizing change in its behavior. What was once a free and happy way of life has been destroyed by DEI politics. I thought I left that back in Cali but like any cancer it spreads. I just pray that Montana can hold out a bit longer before bending the knee completely to liberalism.

I work at the Bozeman Yellostone Airport during the Tourist season. I call it BROKE Man because the Rents are Outrageously high. I won't feed the GREED so i stay in dispersed camping sites in the Gallatin National Forest. My vehicles and my property in Idaho is paid for, and I'm jeeping the $$$ that i earn instead of wasting it on overpriced housing.

There are two types of people. One type moves to a town because they like the town and they want it to stay the same. The other type moves to a town and they want to change everything about it.

I'm interested in seeing how many of these Californians actually stay in Montana several years from now after they've experienced some harsh winters and have to deal with real snow and bitter cold.

I moved to the Flathead Valley in Montana with the hopes of working hard, buying property and building a life. What I found was exactly what you described.