Among the vast number of small, close-knit communities in Montana local pride is a value which is often very important to many of the people that make up those communities. Family often plays a integral role in local pride, as does Love of Place. A sense of local pride can breed friendliness as well as cooperation in communities.
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Local pride is often evidenced through a community's support for the activities of it's local high school.
In small communities the number of social activities available for residents are often very limited. As a result many of the social activities available to residents are provided by the local high school. High school sporting events not only provide a sense of pride for many residents but they also provide a means for the growth of local pride through interaction with fellow townspeople. These sporting events provide an excellent picture of the local pride of the residents who follow the teams. Many people travel to games far from home to watch their local high school teams play often when they have no relatives playing and nothing at stake in the games except for their sense of local pride.
A good example of local pride can be found when searching the web for high school booster clubs. In many communities the sense of local pride in relation to high school athletics is intense enough to warrant extensive websites in support of the school's athletics. One example is that of the Katy High School booster club's website (http://katyathleticboosterclub.org/).
Many smaller communities are often either directly or indirectly reliant on a specific resource as a means of subsistence. Examples of this are logging, ranching, or farming communities. This common bond among the residents of a community is often a key factor in determining the level of local pride among the people living in a given area.
Consider the example of a town which relies strongly upon the logging industry. Many families in such a community rely directly on the harvesting of logs. Once the logs have been harvested they must be milled, therefore many more families are reliant on jobs within the mills. In a small logging town the number of families that rely directly upon the harvesting and milling of logs as a means of financial security can often make up as much as half of the population. As a result, the rest of the residents also rely on the money created from the logging industry. This type of heavy reliance of a community on a single resource unquestioningly leads to a strong sense of local pride.
