“The Art of Survival”
By Scott McMillion
The Montana Quarterly
Winter, 2009
Photography by Thomas Lee
Against all odds, after barely surviving the Bataan Death March, Billings artists Ben Steele went on to make his life an act of generosity.
“Land Snorkeling with Clyde Aspevig”
By Scott McMillion
Montana Quarterly
Fall, 2009
Go outside. Walk Slowly. Pay attention. Listen. Smell the air. Taste it. Look at the soil and see how it responds to your step. Notice which grasses shine brightest in the morning dew. Compare birds, the differences in wing and shape and flight pattern. Maybe kick over a rock, see what’s under there.
This is land snorkeling. Doing it could take you almost anywhere, even if you never leave your own neighborhood.
Think of it like snorkeling a reef. You drift over mysterious turf. You keep your head down, mostly. Everything is cool, so you look it all over, and you wonder. You come back smiling.
“Swimming with Giants”
By Scott McMillion
Western Art & Architecture
Winter/Spring 09
Every afternoon for 10 days, John Banovich went to the banks of Botswana’s Khwai River, where families of elephants gathered to eat and drink and bathe. With 25 trips to Africa under his belt, he’d seen a lot of elephants, but he wanted to see more, to learn more.
Then, on the eleventh day, he decided to join a group of 12 bulls in the river, slipping into the chest-deep water, among the hippos and crocodiles, trying not to think about mysterious bugs and parasites.
“The Day the Music Died”
“The Day the Music Died”
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
April 14, 2005
Wayne Skertich was a builder by trade, but music was his passion. With it, he made friends around the world. With his fiddle and piano, his bass and guitar, he spread a lot of joy, lifted a lot of spirits.
On Saturday morning, at 2 a.m., after police had surrounded his home for 26 hours, after close friends and his wife had pleaded with him to come outside, he put his gun to his head and the music was over.

