Ron Brevik was traveling the lonely roads between Billings and East Glacier, clad in leather riding chaps adorned with five-peso coins, the spiny backbone of the Rocky Mountains jutting up to his left and the endless plains of Eastern Montana to his right, when he came across a lone man on horseback.  

The man’s face was hidden behind a thick white beard, and he was tugging along a mule weighed down by packs filled with camping gear and provisions. A real-life high plains drifter, Brevik thought, as the man trotted over to where Brevik had parked his own steel-and-chrome steed, a 2003 Harley-Davidson. The two talked for a long time, until Brevik asked where he spent the nights. 

“He told me that sometimes ranchers and farmers would give him water for his animals and a place to rest, but he also camped near creeks when needed,” Brevik said, his voice slipping into a musical cadence reminiscent of a tall tale told around a campfire under a starry sky. “Why was he doing it? For the same reason that I was: to experience Montana on our own terms, on horseback. We were just out for a ride, and the days they did not matter. What mattered was the ride, one mile at a time.” 

And Brevik did ride, one mile at a time, in an epic journey crisscrossing the state of Montana. Over the course of 16 years, Brevik traveled every mile of paved road in Big Sky Country and, along the way, documented the forgotten people and places along the back roads of the last best place.  

Now 71, Brevik is a mild-mannered and clean-cut Montanan who grew up fishing and hunting in “A River Runs Through It” country outside of Missoula. He worked as a general contractor on high-end projects around the country before finding his way to Bigfork to take on a role as a general manager for commercial operations like Mountain Lake Lodge.  

He doesn’t seem like a man who has ridden motorcycles for more than 50 years, and, conscious of the stereotypes that plague bikers, prefers to think of himself as a modern-day cowboy, his travels in the spirit of the wayfaring horsemen of Montana’s past.  

Brevik is a natural storyteller who tends to answer questions with a meandering anecdote, of which he has collected many over the years. More than two decades ago, Brevik bought a 100-year anniversary Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Springer motorcycle, and, as he tells it, “What started out as a day’s ride in 2003 turned into the adventure of a lifetime.” 

The goal was audacious: to travel all of Montana’s paved county, state and federal roads and highways on motorcycle, through the high mountain passes of the Rockies and lonely outposts in the remote corners of the Great Plains.   

“I just went out and started riding, and pretty soon said to myself, ‘I need to see this whole state. I need to meet all the ranchers, and all the farmers, and all the musicians, all the artists, whoever's out there who will talk to me,’” Brevik said.  “This may be a crazy idea, but I'm going to go ride all of the asphalt in the state of Montana.” 

The project would consume the next 16 years of Brevik’s life, documented meticulously on a road map of Montana hung up in his office. When he returned from each journey, riding out for days at a time, he traced his route with a black marker and placed a push pin in each town he stopped over for the night. The lines slowly spread like veins across the map.  

Over thousands of miles, Brevik weathered fierce storms and battled engine issues and dodged wildlife. More importantly, he discovered a passion for the overlooked communities he passed through and the people who lived there.  

“I started to realize the depth of the history in the people of Montana. I would ride, and I'd meet these people, and I'd stop and talk to them, and some days I'd only get 200 miles because I was sitting, photographing, and talking to these ranchers, these farmers, or these saddle makers, or whoever I ran into. I would ride away and I would think, ‘There's got to be another way to connect to these people more than just passing by.’” 

Without realizing it, Brevik became a historian of sorts, documenting hundreds of stories and taking thousands of photos of ordinary people and weathered buildings from Ovando to Plentywood and Malta to Alzada. 

He wanted to hear stories from people in their own words and started handing out postcards with what had become his motto: “Montana’s treasures can be found on its backroads.” He asked people to write down what made their community unique and mail it back to him. Hundreds of postcards flooded in from the furthest corners of Montana. 

In 2019, Brevik crossed off the last miles of road on his map, capping a journey that spanned more than a decade and 70,000 miles.  

“But the ride’s not over,” he said, “because history is not over. Just as the goal is to try to capture the stories of Montana, now it is to tell them to as many people as possible who are willing to listen.” 

Brevik found himself in possession of 16 years’ worth of Montana stories and photographs. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them, but he knew he couldn’t bear the thought of these vibrant tales gathering dust under his bed at home. 

One day, he gathered up his collection and brought it to the Northwest Montana History Museum. The director looked over the images and stories for a few days before adding everything to the museum’s archives. “What you’ve got here is incredible,” he told Brevik.  

Brevik was invited to present his stories and photographs at events around the Flathead Valley and the state of Montana. 

“My focus was on the small communities. Take Lowering, Montana, population 14. Two of them waved to me as I rode through, so I had to turn around, go back, and talk, you know,” Brevik narrated. “People come to me and say, ‘We want to thank you for talking about the smaller communities, the people that are really the backbone of Montana.” 

Spurred by the impact his presentations were having, Brevik submitted his collection to the Montana Historical Society. In May, after several months of review, Brevik learned that the museum would accept all of it: the images and stories and postcards he collected from more than a decade of riding the backroads of Montana. The collection will be compiled into an exhibit titled “Riding the Big Sky, One Mile at a Time.” 

It was on the backroads of Montana, Brevik said, that he found the lifeblood of Montana. What exactly did he mean by that? As is typical of Brevik, he responded with a story. 

“It was a Friday night deal in Montana at the Klondike,” he began. “This smelly old sheep farmer sits down beside me and orders a drink, so naturally we start talking. Everyone knows everyone, and there's one of the keys right there. So, in walks this dainty little prim and proper lady, pinkish blue hair, little handbag. She sits down at the bar and orders a fruity-looking drink, the little umbrella in it, and she's sitting there sipping her drink, and listening to the two of us carrying on. She turns to the rancher and says, ‘Donnie, you smell like shit.’ He whips around, looks at her, his eyes all aglare, and says, ‘Honey, that's the smell of money.’ We chuckled, smiled at each other, and ordered another drink.” 

For more stories from the backroads of Montana, Brevik’s presentations can be found on YouTube under the titles “Brown Bag Lunch Series: 'Riding the Big Sky, One Mile at a Time' presented by Ron Brevik” and “Aging Horizons ‘Riding the Big Sky.’”  

Reporter Elsa Ericksen can be reached at 406-758-4459 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support. 

    The "high plains drifter" somewhere between Billings and East Glacier. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    Ron Brevik's 2003 100-Anniversary Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Springer motorcycle, with a license plate reading "LUZN U". (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    A flag-adorned barn on Montana 83 in the Swan Valley. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    Ron Brevik outside the closed Polar Bar. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    An old barn in East Glacier. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    Central School east of Ledger. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)
  

    A flag-adorned barn on Montana 83 in the Swan Valley. (Courtesy Ron Brevik)