Michael Howell, former publisher of the Bitterroot Star, has written a book titled “Saving the Mitchell” which has just been released by Stoneydale Press of Stevensville. The non-fiction book was authored by Howell, who for the past 35 years worked as the publisher of the Bitterroot Star located in Stevensville. Howell spent 10 of those years in a legal battle to save a branch of the Bitterroot River from privatization by a group of wealthy landowners who wanted it for their own exclusive fishing paradise.
The Mitchell Slough, originally known as the Right Fork of the St. Mary’s Fork of the Bitterroot River, is a 16-mile-long spring-fed stretch of the Bitterroot River that meanders from just north of Corvallis to just south of Stevensville. In the early 1990’s two young men, who had fished the waters of the Mitchell all their lives, decided to test Montana’s Stream Access Law by fishing in this area that had been closed to the public by landowners who put up barbed wire and “No Trespassing” signs along its banks.
Howell got involved when the two men came to him at his newspaper office and asked for some publicity about the issue. Howell wrote some articles about an incident in which the two were cited for trespassing and later acquitted and that is the beginning of a fascinating saga of the fight to save Montana’s river and streams from privatization. The case gained national attention as it morphed into one of the landmark cases in the history of Montana’s Stream Access Law. The fight involved numerous legal complexities that were ably sorted out and addressed masterfully by the late Jack Tuholske, the legendary environmental attorney to whom the book is dedicated. The author’s account in “Saving the Mitchell” helps us track the crucial roles that a free press and an active citizenship play in a functioning democracy and how, working in tandem and with a great deal of luck, they were able to achieve both social and environmental justice in this case.
“No one else could have told this story with as much clarity, accuracy and insightful nuance as Michael Howell has done,” writes Greg Pape in the Introduction. “If the news is a rough draft of history, then Michael’s work over the years as a reporter has helped produce that rough draft. But ‘Saving the Mitchell’ is not a rough draft. It is a clarification, a well-written and well-vetted true story, a book that will take its place among the significant books of Montana history and literature. It is also a reminder of the vigilance that is necessary to good citizenship.”
The poetry of Greg Pape, a former Poet Laureate of Montana, is sprinkled throughout the 145-page book, which also contains a number of photos, maps and other related material. The book retails for $19.95 and can be purchased by contacting Michael Howell directly at michaelonburntfork@gmail.com or Stoneydale Press, 777-2521. The book is also available at Browsing Bison bookstore in Stevensville and Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton.