Are there times when you just know when something's right?

You discover that despite obstacles, everything turns out fine because it's meant to be.

If that happens, your sense of contentment and happiness may spread throughout your community.

That's kind of the way it was for a Bozeman couple, who in the 1960's, were busy raising a family.

From the very first time he saw the handsome old house in Bozeman, Ray Campeau knew it was here that he wanted to live.

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In last week's Montana Moment, NBC Montana brought you the story of a secondhand store and pawnshop in Libby.

In its tenure of 40 years, this family-owned business may be a reflection of Libby history and its working people.

The late Dave Strand opened 'New To You' as a secondhand store, and eventual pawnshop after a career in logging battered his body, especially his knees.

He'd worked in the industry for years.

“He had a lot of logging equipment," said his wife Peggy Strand, " and that went into the secondhand store.”

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Hard work and smarts are always assets to success.

Doing what you do well, usually brings rewards.

But nothing’s ever guaranteed.

Sometimes, life throws a curve, and you need to change direction.

This is the story of a secondhand store and pawnshop, the generational family that runs it, and the family’s late patriarch who started it all.

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Along Missoula's Hip Strip, off South Higgins is a go-to spot just about everybody knows.

Its back story is about hard work, a love of what you do, and a dedication to local community.

Big Dipper Ice Cream is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Not far from downtown, the University of Montana campus and Hellgate High School, it's been a draw for ice cream lovers for generations.

Customers come from all over to taste new flavors.

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The Payne Family Native American Center on the University of Montana campus houses UM’s prestigious Native American Studies Department.

It’s the first academic center of its kind in the country and was designed by Crow Tribe Member Daniel Glenn.

It provides services to Native students and offers classes and cultural activities to meet the needs of Indigenous students.

It’s named for its primary benefactor and lead donor, UM alumnus and businessman Terry Payne and his wife Patt.

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Montana’s beloved author, the late Ivan Doig, called livestock brands “the classical language of the American West."

Doig and his wife Carol gifted the Montana Department of Livestock a donation to make the history of those brands more accessible to the public.

If you’d like to learn more about your family brand you can acquire a lot of information online.

Brand records have been compiled by the Montana Department of Livestock and supplied to the Montana Historical Society.

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A livestock brand proves ownership.

It ties generations of families to their land and ancestors.

The practice dates to the ancient Egyptians.

But most of us know it as an iconic symbol of the American west.

NBC Montana spent a day late last spring with branding crews at the Cross Ranch in the Horse Prairie Valley near Bannack.

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Livestock brands open windows into history.

They uncover stories.

They fill in missing pieces to events forgotten or left unrecorded.

They shed light on lives long past, and bridge generations.

In our Montana Moment season debut, NBC Montana traveled to southwest Montana where we met rancher Debbie Staudenmeyer Tamcke and her family.

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A thousand years ago, a new life began near present day Seeley Lake.

The only witnesses to his youth would have been the Indigenous People.

He was already 200-years-old when the Magna Carta was signed, and more than 800 when the Civil War started.

But today, this Western Larch tree, affectionately known as Gus, continues to thrive.

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Between Sheridan and Alder stands an inn once known as a major transportation hub.

The building has long since been retired as a place of business, and is now one of southwest Montana's most historic sites.

After gold was discovered in Alder Gulch in 1863, fortune seekers and other travelers rested here before moving on to their destinations.

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