BUTTE — Nestled between Butte and Anaconda, Nicole Qualtieri’s homestead sprawls 20 acres, with a small ranch home curled around a gravel driveway. The rest is land for her animals to roam, with a panoramic view of the Pioneer Mountains.

“This is my scrappy place where I write my scrappy publication,” she said.

Qualtieri, 41, is an Ohio-born freelance journalist whose career spans 10 years across numerous outdoors publications. She currently writes for the large Western culture and Indigenous lifestyle magazine Cowboys and Indians. Before that, she worked on the production team for the television show MeatEater and has also written for the equipment review site GearJunkie.

About a year ago, she decided to start The Westrn, a print and digital newspaper that releases seasonal stories on

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