[Boquillas]

I've done a few threads on Bozeman and Butte, but I haven't yet given a thorough tour of Billings, Montana's largest and arguably most important city. Billings has around 100,000 people, is home to Montana's only zoo, and offers the only real skyline in the state, such as it is. It's about 2 hours from Bozeman where I live, in "rimrock country," a canyon-filled area along the Yellowstone River where the Montana Rockies meet the beginnings of the Great Plains. Following the Billings tour are some shots of Montana State University in Bozeman, where I just completed my Master's degree in painting.

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This sculpture in front of the Yellowstone Art Museum is by Gary Bates, a friend of mine who lives near Bozeman.

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The following are all shots of Bozeman and Montana State University I took recently.
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looking southwest from my studio in Bozeman

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looking northeast from my studio in Bozeman

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looking due west from my studio in Bozeman

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Montana Hall

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a quickr pickr (http://quickrpickr.com) post

[HomeInMyShoes]

Cool. I always remember listening to Regina Pats hockey games when they'd hit the road and hit Billings. Curse you Jim McGeough and Andy Moog.

The Montana Power Company and Kress Building are great stuff.

[JackStraw]

Very nice photos! THat is a western city I got to visit.

[glowrock]

Awesome photo tour! Billings kind of looks like a larger version of Rapid City. I barely remember passing through Billings once on a huge road trip I took many moons ago, but it looks like it's grown up quite a bit since then!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Don B.]

Nice photos! Thanks for sharing.

--don

[Zblackerby]

Thanks for the photos, I've never seen Wendy's in an old building.

[dawickham]

Wow! Thanks for sharing those awsome pictures! Billings is no were what I thought it would look like. I always wondered what it looked like when I was a kid as it was quickly growing and passed Great Falls as the biggest city in the mid 80's. Now Great Falls is third behind Missoula and Billings.
Thank you and keep up the great job! Hope to see more of that beautiful state!
DW

[RockMont]

Spectacular! Makes me more proud to have had roots there.

[stepper77]

Looks like pretty dry country, but, I am absolutely astonished at how dense Billings is and how diverse in buildings are. Great photos.

[Thundertubs]

Neat. It's good to see Montana cities on here, I've always been curious.

[daniel_t]

very nice pics, but the city looks so bland!!

[RockMont]

Looks like pretty dry country, but, I am absolutely astonished at how dense Billings is and how diverse in buildings are. Great photos.


It is fairly dry, but not desert. Plenty of wheat farms, to the east and irrigation from the water runoff from the snowmelt of the mountains to the west. I don't know if I would call it the biggest little city around, since that title belongs to Reno, but Reno looks like it could outgrow that title any time.

Billings is in a nice part of the country if you like traveling open roads, with a minimal amount of traffic in the country side and going many miles without seeing even a little town of significance sometimes. Not quite the outback of Austrailia or the wide open spaces of Alaska, but plenty of open spaces to spare. Those little towns look very nice, when looking for even a little bit of life and action in Big Sky Country.

Great weather in the winter for sled dogs.

[kcexpress69]

Great pics!! I have never been to or seen Billings before. It looks like a great place to live. :yes:

[Magnus1]

Beautiful!

[boden]

Cool mini-skyline.

[denveraztec]

Love the deco Kress building! Thanks for the post!

[dharper6]

Haven't been to Billings since the early 80s. I found it to be a very clean and pleasant city then. I really liked flying into the airport, which is up on the bluff above the city.

I also liked driving from Billings to Glasgow, where I was on a job at the time. You could drive for miles and miles without seeing another vehicle, and the countryside was beautiful (open rolling plains with mountains in the distance in a few places along the route).

[TXLove]

nice photos.....looks live a very relaxing place!

[ltsmotorsport]

Interesting geography. Kress always seems to have some nice buildings too.

[artvandelay]

Very nice photos, felt like I was looking at shots of Southern Alberta.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2433496654_aaa399d3be_o.jpg
^This thing looks pretty cool, what is its purpose?

[phillyskyline]

Thanks for these unique pics, i like how you captured the shadows at sunset.

[Austinlee]

Billings, struttin it's stuff.

[RockMont]

Pretty high praise, for this little bitty city, out Northwest from a couple of Pennsylvanians.

[Boquillas]

Thanks everyone! Billings' reputation in Montana suffers from its more industrial character and its size, which a lot of "smaller town" Montanans find off-putting. In this state, even cities like Bozeman are viewed as pretty large, when there are only about 30-40,000 people here. But I like the scale, and, compared to a lot of other western small cities, Billings' sprawl isn't yet that bad, except on the west side.

[gatt]

never heard of Billings before.i never really made a connection with urban life and Montana.look like a cool place.

[sopdx]

Nice shots, but outside of the topography, I think it's an unattractive town, especially when compared to Bozeman or Missoula.

[Philtower]

Thanks for the excellent photography. However, although the surrounding countryside is specatacular, the town itself does not impress.

[Surrealplaces]

Very nice photos. Reminds me alot of Medicine Hat, Alberta, but bigger.

[Evo5Boise]

Very nice! I have been through both cities. Bozeman is a nice area.

[alphawolf]

Thanks for the photos, I've never seen Wendy's in an old building.

Exactly what I was thinking. I've never seen a more urban-minded Wendy's before.

Thank you Boquillas. I can't remember if you've done a Billings photo thread before, but its been long overdue for me to see an update of where my mom was born. I still have a lot of family in Bozeman still and I've always enjoyed your threads about it as well.

[Fiat Lux]

Wow! Thanks for sharing those awsome pictures! Billings is no were what I thought it would look like. I always wondered what it looked like when I was a kid as it was quickly growing and passed Great Falls as the biggest city in the mid 80's. Now Great Falls is third behind Missoula and Billings.

Great Falls is now behind Kalispell and Bozeman too in county population. I wouldn't be shocked if Billings gets passed in the next quarter of a century. My $ is on Kalispell-Whitefish.

[Red UM Rebel]

Some really incredible shots. Thanks for sharing

[innov8]

I like Montana and Billings... thanks for the tour Boquillas.

[degausser]

I live in Billings and go to school in Bozeman, so I really enjoyed this thread. You capsured downtown Billings pretty well, but you should take pics in the spring when everything is green!