Outdoor Life's 200 Best Rated Places

The periodical Outdoor Life has come out with a list of the 200 Best Places to Live. Many of the communities identified as best are within the Mountain Time Zone. Most of these places have already been discovered by enthusiasts looking to escape the rat race and declining quality of life in urban and suburban America. Change is already impacting some of these communities in the form of higher housing prices, shortages of affordable housing, increased traffic and congestion, and higher incidences of many kinds of pollution. On the positive side, these places are also seeing increased options and diversity in commercial activities and increases in the local tax base. One community I identified as a possibility for eventual relocation and retirement in my future is Lewistown, MT, number six on this list. Lewistown is a remote isolated small town in central Montana and a long ways away from much of what currently defines America. It is at the base of a small ringlet of forested mountains at the western edge of the Great American Prairie. Currently, the population in the community and surrounding Fergus County is less than 15,000. Because it is so remote, growth will be slow but somewhat steady for many years ahead. Another factor working against becoming bigger faster is the weather in that area. Winters are incredibly harsh and long lasting (but very similar to to Cheyenne WY, save the wind) and often getting away to one of the larger communities that are two and one-half hours away like Billings and Great Falls are trips that are ill-advised and very dangerous for extended durations of time. As I get older, this is a kind of place that appeals to me as one has greater privacy, solitude, and freedom from the growing negative elements that are tainting and staining many places in urban and suburban America as well as smaller cities like Cheyenne where I am now. What these places seemingly offer to many people is a simpler life and a return to the past with all its freedoms. I am not sure those ideals are still obtainable and achievable even in these "best places".

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/outdoor_life_best_places_rankings_chock_full_of_western_towns/C41/L41/

http://www.outdoorlife.com/article_gallery.jsp?ID=1000019027&showall=Y

http://www.outdoorlife.com/article.jsp?ID=1000057228

http://www.outdoorlife.com/article_gallery.jsp?ID=1000019027&page=8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewistown,_Montana

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?mtlewi

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