Marc Kloker was born here. Grew up here. Went west for college and then returned here first chance he got. If there is a better testament to the draw of Missouri River Country, someone will have to direct us to it. “I know there's an old, often-quoted line — anyone can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love a prairie. It’s different,” says Marc.
“But I love the isolation of it, particularly during non-hunting season. You can drive 10 minutes from Glasgow and be on public land and not see a soul, whether that's to walk your dog or just stargaze or whatever. It's pretty incredible.”
Still, for many the draw is not necessarily immediate. You hear it again and again — the magic of this part of Montana doesn’t scream at you. It’s not as obvious as a wall of mountains staring you in the face. Discovering it requires slowing down, listening and absorbing. It’s a story Marc is personally familiar with. “My dad's from western Montana. When he moved to the eastern side of the state, he thought he'd always go back to the mountains, but he fell in love with it and never left. He’s still here.”
If anyone should know the many things that make this part of Montana special, it would be Marc. As the communication and education program manager for Region 6 of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, it’s pretty much his job. And as far as he’s concerned, it’s a dream job.
“Being able to see all the sunrises and sunsets that aren't blocked out by mountains is something that I'm used to, but I think a lot of folks that visit here don't realize how awesome it is until they really experience it.”
For the record, there are a lot of ways to experience Missouri River Country. From his perspective with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Marc sees the gamut of opportunities. “Fort Peck has really been discovered as a recreational destination whether for just families having fun or for folks fishing, in particular. We have a world-renowned walleye fishery, and salmon and lake trout have also been a big draw,” he says. It appears the word has gotten out. “I tell folks now that a typical weekend in Fort Peck is like the Fourth of July was back in my day.”
Some of the increase in visitation and enjoyment is a product of recreational pursuits being more accessible now than they used to be. Travel is easier and faster. Vehicles are infinitely more capable and thankfully, reliable. Experiencing the energy of remote places still requires desire, but not necessarily a complete disregard for risk. It allows more people to see these unique attractions of the prairie. “The ability, because of our wide-open spaces, to spot and stalk is very different. I've hunted in the mountains for elk, and you get to that park at sunrise or sunset, you might see them, and then they're in the timber and you don't see them again. Here, it’s just sparse enough that you can really see the animals.” And that’s true whether you’re hunting or simply spending time on the prairie. “You can take an hour drive early in the morning and potentially see white-tailed deer, mule deer, antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, maybe even a moose, if you’re lucky, along the Milk [River],”Marc says. “It’s pretty incredible within a couple-hour drive you can see all those big game species, not to mention the birds we’ve got.”
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Vast. Expansive. Sparsely populated. Remote. It would seem intimidating could be added to the list, but Marc insists there are many tools to help anyone looking to get deep into eastern Montana. There is an almost unfathomable amount of land open to exploring — if you know where to go. And that’s important. Because with so many different programs working to make access available to public users, knowledge is king. “We have a lot of opportunity with public land, but there's a lot of good private land — you can get out and make some phone calls to check into that as well. Also, we have 1.3 million acres of private land enrolled in block in our region,” says Marc, referring to block management, a cooperative program between private landowners and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks that provides the public with free hunting access to private and isolated public lands. Kloker points out that a little “eScouting” can get you prepared so you maximize your time here and can manage any challenging road or weather conditions. The wealth of information is almost as vast as the prairie itself.
“You can do a lot of that at home. You can find out ‘where do I want to go, where can I camp, what can I get to that's maybe gravel or pavement in case I run into tough conditions when I'm out there,’ just to kind of have a decent idea where to go.”
Marc suggests checking “any of the good hunting apps like onX. And we have a great mapping system on our Fish, Wildlife & Parks website that onX actually draws a lot of their information from. It's called the Hunt Planner. You can see roads, public land, private land, block management, even by district where you could be expected to find different species and relative abundance and so forth.”
Kloker is an irresistibly enthusiastic booster for eastern Montana, so it would be hard to imagine he has ever found anyone who didn’t fall for Missouri River Country charms, wouldn’t it? “My wife's from the East Coast. I definitely think eastern Montana had to grow on her,” Marc says. Fortunately, it did. And now they’re raising their two children in a community where kids can still take off on their bikes and be out until dark, and Marc can continue to spread the good word about this part of Montana that he loves. That’s home.
“Obviously it’s something I'm very passionate about and I want to pass on to the next generation, because as we know, kids are getting more and more into devices and less wanting to be outside. And I’m trying to get them excited and into all the things that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, or even just that Glasgow and northeast Montana has to offer, particularly outside. It’s just unlimited opportunities.”
