OK, so I live in this little tiny town, tucked away from the rest of the world...where you forget the "real world" exists somewhere beyond our boundaries!!! A two lane highway runs east to west, the main hub through our beautiful small town!!! To give you a clear idea of just how small it is, we have:

2 grocery stores, 2 hardware stores, 2 home lumber stores, 1 sports-center, 1 retail/variety

1 movie theater (built in 1910, you can still see a movie for $3!)

3 public grade schools,1 middle, 1 senior high and 1 community college outreach center

1 golf course, 1 bowling alley, 1 athletic club and 1 roller rink (which is rarely open!)
1 McDonald's, 1 Subway, 1 Pizza Hut, 1 DQ (only open several months each year)

2 "fire-safe" hotels, no "chain" restaurants, no taxi cabs, no donut or bagel shops!!!

1 airport ("with a 5,000 foot lighted runway with a beacon") small aircraft only!

1 train station (never "manned" - doors only open 2 hours prior to departure, which is 10:59 pm and 5:26 am .... tough waiting and boarding, during the frigid cold of winter!!)

1 hospital, 1 volunteer fire department, 1 post office, 1 library, 1 dmv, 3 banks, 1 courthouse

2 internet service providers, 2 cable and 1 telephone company

2 radio stations (1 brand new!!), 2 newspapers, printed once and the other twice weekly

AND, Oh my...I just stumbled upon these statistics posted on a detailed profile website regarding my LITTLE town:

Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) -

• Lesbian couples: 0.1% of all households
• Gay men: 0.4% of all households

People in group quarters -

• 83 people in nursing homes
• 25 people in local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups)
• 14 people in homes for the mentally retarded
• 4 people in training schools for juvenile delinquents
• 3 people in other non-institutional group quarters

You just can't make this stuff up people!!!

Montana on the other hand has some of the biggest "things" going:

~ Rock Creek Lodge just outside of Clinton, Montana throws the world’s biggest testicle festival (yep you read that right!!!) every fall attracting more than 15,000 fans to its five day event. Tossing around its motto, “I had a ball at the Testicle Festival,” the festival feeds over 2 ½ tons of bull balls to its many hungry revelers.

~ Montana has the biggest migratory elk herd in the nation.

~ Montana boasts the biggest breeding population of trumpeter swans in United States.

~ North of Missoula, Montana is the biggest population of nesting common loons in the western USA.

~ In 1888 Helena had the biggest population of millionaires per capita than any other city in the world!

~ Flathead Lake contains over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline; considered to be the biggest natural freshwater lake in the west.

~ Montana has the biggest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.

~ Hill County has the biggest county park in the USA...Beaver Creek Park measures 10 miles long by 1 mile wide.

~ The biggest snowflake ever observed was recorded on January 28, 1887...at nearly 15 inches wide!!

~ Giant Springs is home to the biggest fresh water spring in the U.S.

~ Montana holds the world record for the biggest temperature change in 24 hours. On January 14-15, 1972, the temperature went from from -54°F to 49°F, a whopping 103 degree difference!

~ The World's Largest Steer can be found in Baker, at the O'Fallon Museum. Weighing in at 3,980 pounds, he grew to be 5'9" tall and 10'4" long!

AND.... Montana is known, after-all, as Big Sky Country!!!!!

In pondering this entire BIG idea, I began to look around my little town and found some BIG things here too!!! Since pictures speak louder than words, I want to sum up my little hub, by sharing BIG things from my little town: