Grangeville

So in my early days in the Forest Service, I started as a forest technician on the Nez Perce National Forest.

Oh, really? In Idaho? In Idaho, out of Grangeville.

And we had brush disposal crews back then, and we were clearing roads.

And I remember talking to one of the old-timers there, about, you know, I love learning how to use a crosscut saw.

You could almost tell that he'd been through this discussion before, that he's had to tell other crews the same thing because of how, just how easily he delivered it, but how sternly he put the point across.

From that point on, we did streams within Grangeville, Idaho and Lewiston Lewiston, Idaho and Winchester, just small streams that go through towns and stuff.

We, we, we didn't go back into the mountains after that because of our, our season was finished.

And then we all went back to school and that's always

[laughs] Where are you?

I am in Grangeville right now.

Ooh, okay.

You headed, you headed south.

Today, my guest is Dr. Brett Christensen.

Brett is an army veteran who currently owns and operates Christensen Orthodontics with locations in Lewiston, Grangeville, and Moscow, Idaho.

He has been helping treat patients who suffer from sleep disordered breathing since becoming an orthodontist back in 1999.

And his focus, which I love, is on addressing the etiology of the malocclusion, not just treating the symptom or trying to line up and straighten crooked teeth.

He worked for the Forest Service out of Big Timber, Montana.

And so we met in Grangeville, Idaho is where we met and then dated for four years and then got married.

And then I signed my paperwork to become permanent in Yellowstone, and we got married that next weekend.

So it was just kind of a boom, boom.

The shoot started in Montana, and Terrence called home from Missoula to say everything was fine.

On October 4th, the crew crossed into Idaho and checked into a motel in Grangeville, the seat of Idaho County.

And no, you don't have to go back and listen to that again.

The state of Idaho has a county just named Idaho, which I feel has likely led to a lot of confusion over the years.

Terrence had told the production company that his mom needed surgery, but his mother, Valerie Woods, has said she'd already told Terrence she didn't need surgery.

Idaho County covers about 8,500 square miles, which is more than Connecticut and Delaware combined, and it holds roughly 15,000 people.

About four-fifths of it is National Forest, and the Penman Mine sits near Oro Grande, an old gold camp about 40 miles southeast of Grangeville.

It's located in the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest, up dirt roads where cell phones don't work.

Dr.

Told joins us from Grangeville, Idaho, where he serves as assistant chief medical officer at Syringa General Hospital, practicing OB and emergency medicine and surgery.

He also was the inaugural president of ACOFP Mountain West Regional Society and has been recognized as Idaho County Physician of the Year in 2019, 2022, and now for five years running.

Let's

travel through four different states.

We start in Joseph, Oregon, near the Wallowa Valley, and it goes up through Grangeville, Idaho, and over towards Spencer, Idaho, then drops down towards West Yellowstone, goes through...

And then we turn north and head up towards Billings and try to make our way up to the Bear Ball Battlefield in Chinook, Montana.

That's where the ride ends.