Shot in Montana: A History of Big Sky Cinema

For nearly a century, movies have been made in Montana. The state played itself in Cattle Queen of Montana, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Winter in the Blood, and the iconic A River Runs Through It, and it doubled for an Arctic ice pack in Firefox, Nebraska in Nebraska, the authentic Old West in Heaven’s Gate, and even heaven in What Dreams May Come.

Montana’s Kootenai River swallowed up Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep in The River Wild, a stunt double for Leonardo DiCaprio tumbled d...