For as long as folktales are remembered, as long as legends survive, travelers will know the landmark ridge along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front as “Old Man of the Hills.” Here the grizzly transitions between the rugged dark-timbers of wilderness and the ranchland beginnings of the Great Plains. It is a place so rich in plant and animal diversity that it is often called “North America’s Serengeti.” A landscape where change comes only from the elements-wind, rain, fire, and ice. A Montana gem that remains uncut because ranches, public- and private-land managers, and conservation groups stepped forward with a reason.

Larry Zabel, internationally renowned artist and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation board member, visited the Boone and Crockett Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. Here, he captures the experience of inhabiting the heart of what is good and right with this wild country in his spectacular masterpiece “Old Man of the Hills.”