Friends moved to Montana?

[TimMurphy]

Born and raised here, same with my parents and their parents.

All I want is my children to be able to afford the life that have. I’ll leave them what I have, but will they be able to afford to keep it? I’m afraid that before long, local wages won’t be able to keep up with the cost of living, and before you know it, you’ve got a Lake Placid or Vail on your hands.

Your tune might change if an organization that was jammed down your throat, that got a free seat at the table, and uses tax payer dollars to effectively increase housing cost and demand.


Edited to add: I don’t recall referring to this people as “riff raff” and they are far from it. These are people with disposable income, buying second homes, or properties for short term rentals.

I’ve got no issue with folks wanting to move here and become a part of the community. Live and work here in the area, not telework from your Potter County cabin every so often.

Dear Cznymph,

As an outsider I couldn't agree with you more. I've spent enough time as a "tourist" in Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, and Tioga Counties to understand.

I'm sick of money moving around and ruining everything. That was what I was trying to get at with my missive above. People with money will never think anything of ruining things and then moving on to the next best place to trash.

PA's population is within 1,000,000 people of my birth year, 1960. I wouldn't even want to venture a guess as to how much acreage has been destroyed forever to house those people. I'll be conservative and say 10 to 15% of the available land in my birth year has been developed, but I think I'm way off.

It's not sustainable, but it won't end until everything goes to crap, and the local are left to pick up the pieces.

I guess I wrote another missive? I'll stand by all the words I've written though. I'm tired of it all.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[wildtrout2]

The sad reality is this progression isn't going to stop, ever. The changes I've seen in just my 66 years make me thankful for the 70's, 80's, and 90's. These are the good old days.

 

[tomgamber]

The sad reality is this progression isn't going to stop, ever. The changes I've seen in just my 66 years make me thankful for the 70's, 80's, and 90's. These are the good old days.

That's what progress is. Moving forward.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

I don’t remember having any PA friends who permanently moved from PA to MT, but during the many times I’ve been in MT I met a number of people from PA that had previously moved there. Several of them were from Amish or Mennonite roots from Eastern Lancaster County. I also met a couple of school teachers from Lititz that had just moved to Livingston and were looking for teaching jobs there. I also met a guy from York County that had moved there and bought a property on the Yellowstone just down the river from where my wife and I stayed.

My first trip to MT was in 1971. Just like the rest of you, I’ve seen big changes and growth every time I’ve gone there since then. However, I sometimes wonder what our ancestors would think if they could see this “progression” over time.

What would my ancestor named Montgomerie think, who was once a large landholder in SE PA, @wildtrout2, if he were to see Montgomery County today?

Or what would a guy named Nelson Story think if he came back to MT now? Nelson came to Bozeman, MT from TX in1866 with just some cattle and only about $10,000.

I wonder what Nelson later thought when his grandson, Pete, bought his first 27,000 acres of land In Paradise Valley along the Yellowstone River in the 1920’s for $30 per acre? (A few years ago, Pete Story told me that his future in laws who were from CA and didn’t want their daughter to move to MT at the time, saying that “Pete is never going to amount to anything”. 😊)

Or, I could tell you what I think about when I remember back to when was in high school in Florida in the early 1960’s, and traveled to a little farming town in south central Florida to play baseball, football and basketball games. I remember their high school fields were converted cow pastures. That little town was Kissimmee, just outside Orlando. Today that town of Kissimmee has Disney World, but not many cow pastures. A few years from now no one will have those memories.

John

P.S. For perspective, PA has nearly 3,000 people per sq. mile. MT has about 7.

 

[Bonzoso]

Born and raised here, same with my parents and their parents.

All I want is my children to be able to afford the life that have. I’ll leave them what I have, but will they be able to afford to keep it? I’m afraid that before long, local wages won’t be able to keep up with the cost of living, and before you know it, you’ve got a Lake Placid or Vail on your hands.

Your tune might change if an organization that was jammed down your throat, that got a free seat at the table, and uses tax payer dollars to effectively increase housing cost and demand.


Edited to add: I don’t recall referring to this people as “riff raff” and they are far from it. These are people with disposable income, buying second homes, or properties for short term rentals.

I’ve got no issue with folks wanting to move here and become a part of the community. Live and work here in the area, not telework from your Potter County cabin every so often.

CZ sorry you took my post personally. Just trying to make the point that things change, which is the nature of things. Although you were born and bred I'm sure your people moved to your area at one time when they were newbies. Maybe the folks there didn't like it that they came from somewhere else. I bought my 40 acres getaway upstate 15 years ago and maybe some folks didn't like that I was not a local. I'm not keen on the idea that I should be looked down upon because I'm an outsider. I just wanted a place of my own to wander, hunt, and fish. It's sad that things don't stay the same as we want them to, but it's a fact of life that things change and it's better for our mental health to accept it with as much resilience as possible. The original poster was asking about friends moving to better outdoor opportunities. I think that all of us on this site dream of that and some as lucky as you have lived close to that all of your life.

 

[dudemanspecial]

Overpay for a house in LA, or overpay for a house in Bozeman?

If you were going to overpay for a house, which one would you choose?

 

[wildtrout2]

The Serenity Prayer fits right in with this conversation. Read it and live by it, you'll serve yourself well.

 

[afishinado]

The Serenity Prayer fits right in with this conversation. Read it and live by it, you'll serve yourself well.

 

[troutbert]

I was driving north towards Missoula and was surprised and disappointed at the amount of cabin developments sprawling across the landscape.

That was in about 1975.

 

[AVL]

All of us came from somewhere else at some point, unless you’re a Native American. That said, I’m sending a bunch of PNW folks that recently moved here up to y’all, enjoy!

 

[Cznymph]

All of us came from somewhere else at some point, unless you’re a Native American. That said, I’m sending a bunch of PNW folks that recently moved here up to y’all, enjoy!

Everyone on the North American continent came from somewhere else, even native Americans.

 

[PennKev]

I was driving north towards Missoula and was surprised and disappointed at the amount of cabin developments sprawling across the landscape.

That was in about 1975.

The recent development taking place ain't no cabins.

 

[Phillyfisher]

Yep, Eyler's was in Ardmore right across Lancaster Avenue from the old Ardmore trolley station and Taylor's Restaurant. Cox's was down the hill in Bryn Mawr.

I bought my first fly rod at the Ardmore store, a custom one piece graphite 5' 4wt "Tommy Forward Special" built on a Lamaglass graphite blank and a CFO II reel. I still have the reel but unfortunately, not the rod. In those day Alice's dad, Mr Eyler worked at the store too.

I bough a TON of rods & reels from Eyler's over the years and spend many, many hours hanging in the shop with Tom & Alice even years after I moved away.

They were my go to shop for everything because if they didn't have it, they would order it for me and ship it to my house, something that most shops, even today, won't do.

Here's a picture of Tom & Alice I took just before they sold the Penn Street store and moved to Montana. I was smart enough to take a bunch more and I have a few mementos from the store as well.

I have a ton of memories and miss them and Eyler's a LOT!!

Yep, Eyler's was in Ardmore right across Lancaster Avenue from the old Ardmore trolley station and Taylor's Restaurant. Cox's was down the hill in Bryn Mawr.

I bought my first fly rod at the Ardmore store, a custom one piece graphite 5' 4wt "Tommy Forward Special" built on a Lamaglass graphite blank and a CFO II reel. I still have the reel but unfortunately, not the rod. In those day Alice's dad, Mr Eyler worked at the store too.

I bough a TON of rods & reels from Eyler's over the years and spend many, many hours hanging in the shop with Tom & Alice even years after I moved away.

They were my go to shop for everything because if they didn't have it, they would order it for me and ship it to my house, something that most shops, even today, won't do.

Here's a picture of Tom & Alice I took just before they sold the Penn Street store and moved to Montana. I was smart enough to take a bunch more and I have a few mementos from the store as well.

I have a ton of memories and miss them and Eyler's a LOT!!

View attachment 1641224230

Always loved Eylers- miss that shop and Tom and Alice. Nice people - always helpful.

 

[Phillyfisher]

I got side tracked on Eylers. I find that most of my friends are starting to think about where they want to live in their next phase of life. My wife and I grew up in the Philly burbs, and stayed to be near our families, and now we stay to be near our kids. But if our adult kids wanted to relocate, we would too. As we grow older, living near good healthcare becomes important too. Doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like finding all my favorite spots to fish around here now crowded or posted. Or that our family’s favorite place to vacation is now so incredibly crowded (blame that on the internet) that I no longer find it all that enjoyable.

My close friends who fish/hunt are looking to for where to move away from it all, to be closer to where they can enjoy hunting and fishing daily and get away from the crowds and crime where they are now. Hard to believe how some of the places they live now have changed, and neighborhood breaking and high tech car thefts are becoming more of the norm. They are thinking East Coast - NC, FL, ME. I’m just glad we have open invites to come and visit whenever.

Thought of a place away from it all near some water is certainly enticing. Except we don’t want to be away from it all if it means being away from family.