Renewed Optimism for Libby Loggers on Timber & Mining

It's more than a political revival, it's a faith revival all across America. A renewed sense of optimism that high wage jobs in the mining and timber industries will finally come back to Northwest Montana. That's what I found in Libby Tuesday and Wednesday.

We got to attend the Charlie Kirk remembrance ceremony in Libby on Tuesday night, and then we got to hang out at the Seven Seeds Coffee shop on Highway 2 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Wednesday.

It was very interesting talking to the Libby Schools Superintendent Ron Goodman. The schools in Libby have gone from having 3,000 kids in their schools to only 1,000 now. And even with the lower numbers of kids, good luck finding teachers.

That's why it is so important that we get these high wage mining and timber industry jobs back up and running here in Libby. It's not just about the economy, it's also about getting more kids in your local schools.

We caught up with former Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Libby) and longtime local logger Bruce Vincent and so many other great guests.

I was chatting off air with Bruce off air before we kicked off our on-air conversation. "You know what makes so optimistic?" Bruce asked. "The next generation." He then told me about being at the Charlie Kirk event last night, and how his grandkids WANTED to be there for the event.

Bruce Vincent: "I think what excites me about what's going on right now is that Gen Z, the next generation, is searching, and has been for a while, for a reason to have hope and hope for them, personally, hope for humanity, particularly hope for our country. And it reminds me a lot of my generation, because when I was growing up here in Libby, the President got shot. His brother running for president got shot. Martin Luther King got shot. 58,000 of our peers coming home in body bags from Vietnam, the Watergate scandal. Politics were ugly. Everything was ugly, and we ultimately, personally me- I went on a search for a reason for hope, and I ended up on my knees. I found Christ. This generation is in the same search, and my grandkids are the ones that wanted to go to the thing last night, because Charlie was who they looked to for finding a way forward, and he had courage to speak his piece. He did it civilly. He wanted to talk to people that he didn't agree with."

It's not just optimism about the next generation that I heard about while here in Libby, it is also optimism for the return of the mining and timber industries here in Northwest Montana.

Bruce says there's a lot we can do in this country if we get creative. " We have to get our head down, our ass up, and head for a goal post."

You can listen to all 4 hours of our conversations in Libby this morning on the podcasts below (Bruce Vincent was on in the 9a hour).

Also, check out the photos of the Charlie Kirk event in Libby shared by Alyssa Wanders who also joined us on the radio this morning.

(By the way- if you notice the eggs and the box of fruit on the Montana Talks car in the photo above...that's what happens when you show up in great towns like Libby- you go home with gifts from some incredibly kind listeners/readers!)