A self-professed “blue-collar town,” Kalispell, Montana, doesn’t have the ski-town Old West vibe of nearby Whitefish.
Its main street, with its sturdy brick buildings, reflects an agricultural and ranching center that came of age during the early 20th century. It’s a town where Wilderness Outdoors offers 10,000 gallons of 10-gallon hats and a mile-long shelf of boots, along with any tack you might need.
Tucked away, almost out of sight, is a standing display stacked high with T-shirts branded with logos and mottos from the mega-successful Montana-based TV series, “Yellowstone.”
“We’d just as soon not have ’em at all,” the hard-as-hickory saleslady in the snap-western shirt and well-worn jeans tells me. “But the tourists want it. One woman asked if I had the exact same hat that Rip (“Yellowstone’s gruff enforcer and chief wrangler) wears. I told her I didn’t know. I don’t watch the show.”…