Russell Rowland is a Montana author, journalist, pod caster and radio personality. His radio program, 56 Counties, broadcasts on Yellowstone Public Radio. That’s also the title of one of his non-fiction books. His novels include In Open Spaces, The Watershed Years, High and Inside, Arbuckle, and Cold Country.
His latest book is a memoir, BE A MAN: RAISED IN THE SHADOW OF COWBOYS. In it he reflects on what it means to grow up in the West from boyhood to manhood, how he came to be a writer, and why he chose to return to his roots here in Montana after so many years away.
We spoke with him in our Beyond the Deep End studio on June 6, 2025.
Why are liberals so scary? https://dailymontanan.com/2025/05/20/why-are-liberals-so-scary/
Montana’s history gives insight into controlling the narrative by controlling the press https://dailymontanan.com/2025/05/06/montanas-history-gives-insight-into-controlling-the-narrative-by-controlling-the-press/
Mental health resources often ignored in rural, ranching Montana https://dailymontanan.com/2025/04/22/mental-health-resources-often-ignored-in-rural-ranching-montana/
When sedition came to Montana … https://dailymontanan.com/2025/04/01/when-sedition-came-to-montana/
Flowers emerges as a leader by finding common ground https://dailymontanan.com/2025/03/19/flowers-emerges-as-a-leader-by-finding-common-ground/
We could learn about better care of natural resources through our Native American communities https://dailymontanan.com/2024/09/24/we-could-learn-about-better-care-of-natural-resources-through-our-native-american-communities/
THE LAST BEYOND is an intimate western set in Montana during the Great Depression about death, love, and rebirth. It follows a rancher named Stratton Eiseley who loses his father to illness and his ranch to foreclosure setting him adrift. 
Shortly after he meets three people and they change each other’s lives. Joe Running Elk and his grandfather, Flying Bear, are Pend o’Reille Indians who like Stratton feel like they’re living in a world that has left them behind. They become fugitives from twentieth century America and take to the mountains to make whiskey and restore their connection to the land. 
Noah Watts, who plays Joe Running Elk, is a member of the Crow and Blackfeet tribes and grew up in Bozeman, MT. 
Stephen Small Salmon, who plays Flying Bear, is a Pend d’Oreille elder from the Salish-Kootenai Reservation. They converse in Salish with English subtitles.
As Stratton falls in love with a writer named Gracie Loren it seems that their lives are improving, but trouble follows them.
THE LAST BEYOND was filmed in Livingston, the Gallatin National Forest, Paradise Valley and other locations familiar to the Gallatin Valley community. 
Husband and wife filmmakers, writer/director, Graham DuBose, and editor/producer, S.K. DuBose, will be attending the screening of THE LAST BEYOND, which will be having its premiere at the upcoming BZN International Film Festival on June 7, 2019 at 3pm in the Rialto Black Box.
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