The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Journalism, as the saying goes , is the first rough draft of history — a rapid accounting of the present delivered with as much accuracy as we journalists can manage within sometimes turbulent moments. As the dust settles on old newspaper clippings, however, the task of helping the public remember the past falls to other professions: museum curators and historians. I was reminded of that this week while touring the newly renovated state museum in Helena, which reopened to the public Dec. 3. There’s no question the $107 million facility is a monument to the second, third and further drafts of Montana history. The product of decades of advocacy, legislative debate and private fundraising, it gives the Montana Historical Society an additional 70,000 square feet to share its 60,000-artifact collection with the public. Supporters hope to see it become a landmark destination for schoolchildren, tourists and anyone else looking to learn more about what makes Montana Montana. As curators let reporters and photographers roam the exhibit halls in advance of a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, one artifact in particular among the hundreds, perhaps thousands, on display in the museum’s main history exhibition stopped me cold: a face mask from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2025, the pandemic is, of course, still within recent memory, the sort of thing that feels like yesterday instead of history. In my case, it was also something I covered as a reporter. Along with other MTFP colleagues, I watched in 2020 as public health authorities tried to assess the unknown risks of the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus, and as then-Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock tried to mitigate the spread by enacting a mask mandate. I watched, too, as backlash to the mask mandate and other public health measures helped derail Bullock’s bid for U.S. Senate in the 2020 election, which opened Montana’s current political era by delivering Republicans the unified control of state government they still enjoy today. As I sat there peering at the face mask behind the museum glass, its black cloth stretched around a mannequin head, I realized two things: First, I’m pretty sure I still have a couple of masks a lot like the one on display scrunched up in the bottom of my work bag. And second, that mundane face mask really does deserve its place in Montana’s history museum, as much a symbol of an era as a Butte miner’s helmet or a pair of Blackfeet moccasins. As history like the pandemic starts to fade into Montana’s past, fresh artifacts like that face mask are a good reminder that many of the tens of thousands of items in the historical society’s collection carry stories at least as complex as the fraught public debates and swirling emotions that rattled many of us through the COVID years — even if the precise details of those stories have been lost to time. In any case, I’m sure I’ll soon be back at the museum for a longer look — on a day when I’m not in a hurry to write a story about its grand reopening. SEE MORE: 5 Montana treasures to see at the state’s new history museum. — Eric Dietrich Reporter’s notebook ✍️ Last month, I spent hours talking to Montanans about health insurance costs. With enhanced government subsidies for insurance plans through the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace expiring at the end of 2025, many Montanans are steeling themselves for price increases next year. I spoke to several people in exactly that predicament. As a born-and-raised Montanan, I wasn’t surprised to hear toughened-up residents express a weary sense of resignation, explaining how they plan to make ends meet even with painful price jumps. I wasn’t even surprised to hear people gripe at their elected officials who, in their eyes, are failing to understand an urgent issue affecting working-class people.  But I was surprised when one person — and then another, and then another, and then another — brought up a proposed policy fix I rarely hear Montanans talk about: the need for a federally created universal health care system. “Why are we the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have universal health care?” asked Kirby Walborn, a rancher near Busby featured in our early December article about increasing health care premiums. “Everybody else can figure it out. Why can’t we?” “We are getting less by paying more,” said Ellie Martin, a self-employed consultant from Bozeman who also purchases insurance through the federal marketplace. “Would we be interested in exploring options in a universal health care system? Absolutely. Because it’s barely affordable now, and it’s going to continue to be a mess.” The phrase “universal health care” triggers wide-ranging reactions, depending on your political and social views. In essence, it refers to health care services (sometimes more comprehensive, sometimes less) that a broad swath of residents can access at little or no cost, typically financed through taxpayer dollars. Many countries have a publicly financed health care program that covers basic services, with the option to access specialized services through the private market. The U.S. has Medicaid, for low-income people, and Medicare, for older adults, but neither program fits the “universal” concept — each has strict eligibility requirements and sometimes costs paid by users, a departure from public health care programs in other countries. Today, most adults in the U.S. pay for private health insurance — including monthly premiums, co-pays for services and annual deductibles — either through their employers or purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Bryce Ward, a Montana economist who has studied health care access and affordability, told me he’s not surprised that Montanans are advocating for a universal health care program as subsidies are dipping.  “Even before the recent shocks, the share of people who support more government intervention in health care was rising, and support for the private system was falling,” Ward said in a Thursday email, pointing to ongoing national polling by Gallup.  A universally accessible, no-cost health program in the U.S. doesn’t appear to be on the political horizon. At the state and federal level, Republicans have pushed to add more eligibility, cost-sharing and paperwork requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. National Democrats, meanwhile, have recommitted to subsidizing insurance companies that sell private plans through the marketplace as a means to affordability for middle-class consumers. But that doesn’t mean that systemic reforms and upheaval to the current U.S. system aren’t on the table. Conservative advocates critical of private health insurers are pushing to move away from an insurance-dominated market, possibly with the help of tax-free Health Savings Accounts.  In Montana, free-market health care reform advocates published a recent op-ed seizing on a November social media comment from President Donald Trump criticizing how much insurance companies benefit from the Affordable Care Act. The think tank behind that piece, the Frontier Institute, endorsed Trump’s call for a “pay the people” system, rather than one that boosts insurers. The executive director of that institute, Kendall Cotton, told me that health reformers on the left side of the political spectrum have done a good job marketing universal health care as a solution for affordability woes. Conservatives, he said, are trying to propose their own systemic reforms.  “I think people want an actual, concrete plan,” Cotton reflected. “On the free market side of things, we’ve been talking about for a long time, universal Health Savings Accounts … That’s like the Republican [version] of universal health care.” — Mara Silvers Viewshed 🌄 Bozeman photographer Beth Moos captured this photo Nov. 30, when four bull elk got stuck in frozen ice at a pond in Manhattan. Here’s her report to MTFP: “The Montana Fish and Wildlife were tipped off at 8 a.m. that bull elk were stranded in the pond. The elk had made no progress in getting out, as the path in had iced over. A private citizen became aware of the trapped elk and offered the services of his helicopter company, Central Copter Inc., to entice the elk to move. They actually had to get a lot closer than I think the pilot anticipated before the elk responded, and I was told they actually touched down momentarily a few times to break the ice. After approximately 10 minutes, the elk made it to the roadway. As a person who enjoys watching wildlife and finding opportunities to photograph it was heartwarming to see the elk rescued.” Verbatim 💬 “We put a person on the moon in the 1960s in less than 10 years. For God’s sake, we should be able to get a train running on existing infrastructure in less than that.”  —Dave Strohmaier, the chair of Montana’s Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, is pushing for a new passenger rail route through Billings, Bozeman and Missoula as part of an interstate line that would connect Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. Strohmaier hopes the new route, which would likely cost about $4 billion, will begin service within the next decade, but coming up with the money remains a significant obstacle. In the early stages of planning, BSPRA is seeking $11 million, most of it federal funding, to develop an outline of the proposed line. Rep. Denise Baum, D-Billings, tried and failed to secure an investment from the state during the 2025 legislative session. And in Congress, U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, is sponsoring a bill that enables the planning to be funded entirely by the federal government. The bill has not progressed since Sheehy introduced it in late September. Opponents of the proposed line point out that Montana already has passenger rail service in 12 northern towns where Amtrak’s Empire Builder stops on its roughly 46-hour path from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. And, like many of Amtrak’s long-distance routes, the Empire Builder isn’t doing particularly well. The number of people boarding and offloading in Montana has decreased by a third since 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation. Strohmaier, though, is undeterred by the opposition or the financial barriers.   “I would not have spent the last five years of my life doing this unless I thought it was something that we could actually achieve,” Strohmaier said. — Zeke Lloyd Three Questions About ❓ On a Friday afternoon in late November, the day after Thanksgiving, Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration announced that it had selected Laurel, the roughly 7,000-person town about 20 minutes west of Billings, as the location for a new state-run psychiatric hospital intended to serve patients in the criminal legal system. That announcement was news to many people, including state and local elected officials from Laurel. Despite the state health department and the Montana Board of Investments trying to fill the information void with letters, legal analysis and other documents, much remains unknown about the new behavioral health facility.  Here are some of the most prominent unanswered questions: Where will it be? State officials have not yet specified the exact location where they intend to build the 32-bed facility. The state’s draft floor plan depicts the facility as having a total area of 32,300 square feet, and representatives of the in-charge agencies have said they are looking for a land parcel of at least 10 acres. Laurel officials have said that a suitable location does not exist within city limits, but could be available just outside the city’s existing boundary. If the state wanted to use Laurel’s water and sewer services, the facility’s land would have to be annexed into the city. When would it be built? No construction timeline for the proposal has been released by state officials, in part because of the unanswered question about a land purchase and annexation request. Laurel’s city attorney on Dec. 2 directed city council members to refrain from making public statements about the facility in case the state submits an annexation application in the future. That process, she added, was likely “months away.” How can the public weigh in? The restrictions on Laurel city council members create a challenging dynamic for constituents who might want to ask elected officials about the future of the facility. But state lawmakers who represent the Laurel area are under no such restrictions.  Kelly Lynch, the executive director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, also told Montana Free Press that locals can read up on Laurel’s annexation policy and other land use regulations to prepare to give public comment at a later date.  — Mara Silvers  The Gist 📌 The Environmental Quality Council on Dec. 2 voted 14-1 to send a letter to the federal government expressing the council’s support for pulling critical minerals from existing mines and mine waste in Montana. The letter highlights Montana’s “exceptional mineral resources” and urges Pete Hegseth, secretary of the U.S. Department of War, to fund a Montana Mining Association-led critical mineral project as part of the U.S. Army’s research and development program. In addition to touting Montana’s “available technologies” and “ready workforce,” the letter names specific critical minerals present in Montana that are used in fighter jets, drones, missile systems and semiconductors.  “By funding this project, Congress can stimulate economic growth, create new jobs and enhance our national security,” the letter reads. “The United States’ overreliance on foreign sources of critical minerals currently poses economic and national security risks.” The U.S. Geological Survey’s official (and recently updated) list of critical minerals includes 60 minerals that are “vital to the U.S. economy and national security that face potential risks from disrupted supply chains.”  The original version of the letter that the council discussed at the meeting didn’t name existing sites. After a bit of back-and-forth over the merits and drawbacks of a more general letter, the council opted to amend the letter to include five sites with a nod to “future phases [that] could include legacy sites.” The list includes the Berkeley Pit in Butte, the Anaconda smelter site, Sibanye-Stillwater’s platinum and palladium mine, the recently permitted Black Butte copper mine near White Sulphur Springs and a contact mill operated by the Antonioli family in Phillipsburg. Matt Vincent with the Montana Mining Association told council members that the project focuses on mines that already have permits because they face a more certain regulatory future. The Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology’s analysis also indicates they have “appreciable amounts” of critical minerals, he said. “The only way for us to meet these critical needs right now is to focus on the legacy sites and the sites that already have permits,” Vincent said. “We can’t ask for the moon all in one funding year’s request. This is the first phase of priority projects in what [could] be a larger program.” The lone council member who voted against sending the letter was Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula, who argued against the reference to future projects. He said the council should have more information on such sites before endorsing them. In a Dec. 5 conversation with Montana Free Press, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Economic Geologist Adrian Van Rythoven said the federal government can facilitate the extraction of critical minerals by expediting permitting timelines and encouraging coordination between government agencies.  The current approach to ore mining in the U.S. leads to useful material sitting in tailings piles rather than moving into the manufacturing process, he said, describing it as an irresponsible use of natural resources. “When you shoot a deer, you can be a bad hunter and just take the antlers, and leave the carcass to rot, and that’s incredibly wasteful,” Van Rythoven said. “We kind of do that with our ore deposits in that we’ll look at an ore deposit and just take the most valuable thing off the top, usually gold, and leave other things in there. … That’s where our government is coming in and incentivizing, seeing the bigger picture.” The council issued a similar letter to Congress last year, describing the Berkeley Pit as presenting a “unique opportunity” for the extraction of rare earth elements, an especially hard-to-find subset of the critical minerals list. It was originally set to receive $8 million,  but Congress’ budget process effectively eliminated that funding, Vicent told MTFP.In addition to Hegseth, the letter lawmakers discussed this week will be sent to Montana’s federal delegation, the U.S. Army, the National Energy Dominance Council and Gov. Greg Gianforte by the end of this week. —Amanda Eggert On the Road 🚘 The Montana Department of Justice unveiled a redesigned Montana driver’s license this week, incorporating what it says are additional security measures as well as a U.S. citizenship marker to comply with a law passed by the state Legislature earlier this year. Among the changes with the new licenses noted by the justice department’s Motor Vehicles Division are black-and-white photos and a “Montana sapphire,” including the licensee’s initials and year of birth. The division says the new cards include laser-engraved images, multi-color ink, “color-shifting elements” and “raised tactile features” to make unauthorized duplication more difficult. The citizenship marker, a black eagle, is required by the new law for licenses issued to U.S. citizens after Jan. 1. As has been the case previously, the license redesign also includes an optional star-inside-circle marker for licenses that comply with federal REAL ID requirements. Those enhanced licenses, once resisted by Montana elected officials over privacy concerns, are increasingly being enforced by the Trump administration as requirements for commercial air travel and accessing certain federal facilities. Obtaining a full-fledged REAL ID remains optional for Montana drivers. — Eric Dietrich Highlights ☀️ In other news this week — Montanans brace for health insurance increases as federal subsidies come to an end.  Montana Family Foundation is raising money for a Christian advocacy center in Helena. More parking issues in downtown Great Falls. On Our Radar Nick — I’ll be frantically switching channels this Saturday as both the UM Grizzlies and MSU Bobcats begin their quests for the FCS football championship. Both games kick off at noon. I’ll be shocked — shocked — if the Cats don’t trounce Yale, but my beloved Griz have a tough matchup against Big Sky Conference nemesis South Dakota State, which I fear is still ticked about 2009 when Havre’s Marc Mariani led UM’s legendary comeback. My goal is not to swear at the TV. I make no promises. Holly — Is the plot realistic? No. Does it take a hot minute to get to the action? Yes. But did I still enjoy every single page of “The Librarians,” by Sherry Thomas? Very much so. Engaging characters who all work at a library solve some murders — what more could a nap-trapped parent ask for in a book? Tom — I’ve never been a Black Friday shopper, but when Specialized teased that their $279 double BOA gravel cycling shoes were just $219, I bit hard. The hook, the shoes are blaze orange and neon red, which you get a lot of in a size 46. If you see an ad for a deeply discounted handle-bar gun rack, send me a link.  Nora — I can’t stop thinking about this story about a man who goes missing after kayaking on a lake in Wisconsin. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling the ending, but this story is full of twists and turns. It’s a fascinating read, and as a writer, I’m jealous of how it’s told.  Zeke — The Holdovers, a 2023 holiday comedy about boys who remain at boarding school over winter break, features Paul Giamatti in his magnum opus role: being an absolute grouch. Mara —  My colleague Lauren Miller and I have likely been scrolling through the same digital holiday treasure trove: Cookie Week from New York Times Cooking. The recipe names are almost as tantalizing and provocative as the photos. Introducing Coconut Cake Snowballs, Vietnamese Coffee Swirl Brownies and Dark ’n’ Stormy Cookies featuring (you guessed it) warm rum. The holiday season is officially here.  Eric — As your occasional reminder to appreciate at least some parts of the modern world, here’s a guy on YouTube demonstrating just how much work goes into making a piece of linen from scratch. He literally starts by planting flax seeds. *Some stories may require a subscription. Subscribe! The post Fresh history at the revamped state museum appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less