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The secret is out – and people are responding.

In the September 1998 issue of Men’s Journal, a well-known and well-read national publication, Lewistown is featured as one of the “25 Great Places” in the United States.

Fresh on the magazine racks around the country, it was obvious people were reading and heeding the publication. Three calls were received the following Tuesday by the News-Argus.

The man who runs a float concession on the Missouri River also received calls.

Mike Gregson, owner of Adventure Bound Canoe & Shuttle Company, said he had quite a few calls. Most callers, he said, didn’t want to admit where they read about our little paradise.

He called Men’s Journal the “Cosmo for guys.”

The article focuses on small, out-of-the-way undiscovered “hideout” towns. Though the towns are not listed in any particular order, Lewistown is third in line in the story.

The article consists of just a few paragraphs but gets across some interesting points.

One of those points is real estate. It claims for $63,500 a person can get a four-bedroom house with a horse barn on 2.6 acres.

Many local residents are wondering how they missed that bargain.

Under the “attitude” portion of the story, the magazine says, “‘Hay/Seed’ is a heading in the town paper’s classifieds, not necessarily a description of the typical resident.”

It says a “bonus” for potential dwellers is the restoration of the Brewery Flats area of Spring Creek. It calls the creek “one of America’s best trout streams.”

Under “bummer,” the article cites: “There’s a McDonald’s on the outskirts of town.” Again, many locals may be questioning the geographic capability of the New York City-based magazine.

The main body of the story says Lewistown is “a verdant oasis sitting smack in the middle of Montana ...”

The story tells readers Lewistown survives as a supply center for Judith Basin ranchers and farmers, as it has for decades.

“It’s out of the way of Montana’s highly touted hot spots,” said the article. “In fact, many Missoulians erroneously call it ‘Lewiston,’ which, as natives point out peevishly, is in Idaho.”

It said Lewistown has avoided the major growth of western Montana because of the great distances to the famed ski resorts.

“And talk about a river running through it,” says the article. “Big Spring Creek, one of the West’s premier fly-fishing streams, flows directly through downtown and supplies ultrapure drinking water. (Note: Any visitor dressed in Orvis gear may stick out like a mayfly in grasshopper season among the locals, who are as likely to fish in basketball shoes as in waders.)”

Other highlights of the story include some outdoors features (including canoeing), the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo dinner train as well as the News-Argus (“covering Central Montana like the stars.”).

One caller said he wanted a subscription to the newspaper and added he had every intention of being the first to purchase property in Lewistown because he knew the article would start a mass migration to the area.

Possibly, but they better bring a reliable vehicle so that if they fail to catch anything in our world-class trout stream, they can at least drive to the far edge of town for a hamburger.