At Travelers’ Rest State Park in Lolo, Montana, rivers, stories and history converge. The Art of the Angle, an exhibit on display from January-April 2026, invites visitors to explore the legacy of the Maclean family, best known through A River Runs Through It.
Paul fishing the Blackfoot River from the Maclean Family Collection
The Maclean family first arrived in Missoula when Revered John Norman Maclean became pastor of the First Presbyterian church in 1909. Norman, his brother Paul and their father spent summers fishing the Blackfoot River, where lessons about life, love, family and loss were learned. Norman Maclean explores all of this and more in his timeless novel A River Runs Through It, a book as much about the complicated bond between Norman and his gifted, troubled brother Paul as it is about the art of fishing and his time spent growing up in Montana. While Norman spent his academic career in Chicago, Montana remained his spiritual home and he returned each summer to the family cabin in Seeley Lake to fish those same waters of his youth. The novel reveals the heartbreaking story of Paul's untimely death in Chicago in 1938, a murder that remains unsolved to this day. Norman's son, John N. Maclean, who followed his uncle Paul into a career of journalism, reflects on growing up in the shadow of his uncle, who was a talented fisherman. He explores that shadow and continues the story of interconnectivity through Home Waters, a deeply researched continuation of the family history which began in his father's novel. His story reflects his lifelong connection to the place where his father learned to fish while striving to make sense of his family's legacy through the time spent in western Montana.
Norman Maclean’s timeless story of fishing and family in Missoula and, the Maclean family's roots in western Montana are on display at Travelers' Rest State Park's exhibit, The Art of the Angle. The exhibit seeks to explore and reveal how fly fishing served as the connective current running through generations of one singular family. The exhibit features original wood engravings, rare illustrations and treasured artifacts from the Maclean family’s fishing life and invites visitors to contemplate the power of place and memory. Discover the legacy of Norman Maclean, his son John and the many stories about fly-fishing in Montana at Travelers' Rest through April of 2026.
On display in the exhibit is the fishing pole that once belonged to Reverend Maclean, Norman's father who was played by Tom Skerritt in the 1992 movie A River Runs Through It. Reverend Maclean's love for fishing was instilled in his sons, Paul and Norman, the latter of whom later instilled that same love in his own son, Home Waters author John Maclean. Fishing in western Montana from the home base of the Seeley Lake family cabin, has been more than a hobby for the Maclean family, instead serving as a family tradition seeped in life lessons.
Fly tying is an art, and perhaps no singular person played a more significant role in providing hand-tied flies to the Maclean family than close family-friend George Croonenberghs. Crooenberghs grew up fishing with Norman and Paul and learned to tie flies from Reverend Maclean. Both Norman Maclean in A River Runs Through It and John Maclean in Home Waters write about the flies tied by him, and his flies were used as models for the Pennyroyal wood engravings. Crooenberghs, who passed away in 2005, played an integral role as an advisor for the movie version of A River Runs Through It, fulfilling his promise to the family that the movie would remain as accurate and truthful to the real events. Crooenberghs was the one who taught the art of fly-fishing to both Brad Pitt, who played Paul, and Craig Scheffer, who played Norman.
On loan from the Montana Historical Society along with Reverend Maclean's fishing rod, visitors can see a fishing shirt belonging to Norman Maclean that he left at the cabin in Seeley Lake. Son John inherited the shirt when his father passed away and later donated the item to the Montana Historical Society. Even though Norman moved to Chicago in 1928 at the age of 26 for graduate school, eventually earning his PdD and working as a professor of English Literature at the University of Chicago, he always thought of Montana as ancestral home and regularly returned to summer in Seeley Lake and fly-fish with his family for the remainder of this life. Norman died in 1990 at the age of 87.
The Maclean Family Illustration Collection includes wood engravings created by three artists. While the first print in each series went to the book publishers, John Maclean collected copies of the prints featured in the books A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, Home Waters by John Maclean, and the 100th anniversary edition of Ernest Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River, for which John Maclean wrote the introduction. The story holds a special place in the Maclean family history: Norman read it to John as a child, forging a special connection with the story.
Fly Tying Clinics
Every Saturday February the Westslope Chapter of Trout Unlimited will host free clinics to learn fly tying (materials included). Be sure to mark your calendars for the special kids program on February 28th.
Winter Storytelling Series
January 24: Austin Haney speaking on Anglers Undaunted, the story of fishing on the Lewis and Clark Expedition'
February 14: Tim Ryan speaking on Indigenous Fishing Techniques
For more information on special events, check out Travelers' Rest website.
