Back twenty years to... Thursday, June 15th, 2006. Day 68. A skirmish with some very mean dogs, the Miracle of America Museum and the fabled 'Big Sky'. The Blackfoot Indians, the exquisite Roxy movie theatre, and a Friday-night shindig at the VFW.

"I get talking with a very smartly turned-out, grand old war-veteran, who endorses the notion that Montana is indeed – the 'Big Sky Country'. "Just look all around you." He says. It’s true. I’m experiencing it as we speak. A while later, I look it up: 'A relatively recent nickname, 'Big Sky Country' originated with a 1962 promotion by the Montana State Highway Department. It's a reference to the unobstructed skyline in the State that seems to overwhelm the landscape, and at times – the senses'.

As the fourth largest State, Montana is defined by its diverse terrain. From The Rockies in the west – to the western Great Plains, its wide-open spaces include Glacier National Park, a wilderness preserve that extends northward and into Canada. A small section of Yellowstone also pushes-in from the south.

Now. Browning is one hell of a place, in the heart of the Blackfeet Reservation. Native American, 'Red-Indian raw', and wholesomely hardcore. It’s election year. But gone are the professionally printed-on plastic signs of Oregon and Washington, and here are the hand-daubed on, warped hardboard variety: 'Elect Chief Joe'. 'Vote for Mad Martha'. I park-up roadside and check my insurance. Guys are gunning the engines of their pickups as they let their wheels spin away from a stop-light, and there’s shouting all around. Skinny dogs are skulking here and there, slurping from stagnant puddles. I move fast around the place, getting pictures of the fading store signs, the broken-down homes – and finally, the broken-down people of the Blackfoot Tribe.

Today, the 'Montana Big Sky' – is extraordinarily big. Huge and wide. Massive. Vast. Enormous. Immense. Now from my thesaurus: Gigantic, mammoth, monumental – and finally now, gargantuan. The firmament above me is all of the above. There are grey storm clouds out to the west, puffy, high-up white ones to the east, threatening black ones in my mirrors – and whitish-grey layers right ahead of me. As I rip-along the road, I decide that although I’m no meteorologist or forecaster – I would probably report the overall weather conditions today – as being, Cloudy."

In Search of Small-Town America: Volume 1 is a free-of-charge Pdf digital download – available from our shop. A table of contents, the introduction, the route-map – and featuring content on the first two States travelled: New Mexico and Arizona.

Jeremy Hammond I am a British writer and photographer, and have travelled through India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia, but most extensively in North America. In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked as lighting crew, and later designer, for many top-named British bands, on tours through Europe, Japan, and the USA. I’ve worked as a cruise-ship photographer, in office and store design, database design, visual arts book publishing and as a London-based freelance photographer, specialising in interiors and architecture.