The Clark Fork tavern (Greenlights)

Unnamed roadside tavern and campground on the Clark Fork River in western Montana, about fifty miles from Missoula. In Greenlights Matthew McConaughey spends a long night there with the locals.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Greenlights	Matthew McConaughey	setting	Looking for a trailer park, he stops at a tavern off the highway and spends the night drinking and rolling dice with the locals.

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Greenlights — Matthew McConaughey (2020)

Source: Original · Readwise highlight

It was just after sundown somewhere along the Clark Fork River in western Montana.

• Role: setting
• In the book: Driving his Airstream, he pulls off at dusk at a campground sign somewhere along the Clark Fork and ends up in the bar with Ed the bartender and a cast of locals. Barmaid Donna says she works at the Humane Society fifty miles away in Missoula, and the night ends with dice against the wall with the hotel manager Josie.
• Why it matters: A portrait of his years on the road, when he could still be anonymous among strangers; the specific spot matters less than its remoteness.
• Where is it?: ⚠️ Best guess. Clues: “somewhere along the Clark Fork River in western Montana”; “the last town too far behind me and the next one fifty miles ahead”; a campground sign off the highway and a dirt road; Donna works “fifty miles from here in Missoula”. No source names the place. Pinned at Drummond, on the Clark Fork about fifty miles east of Missoula; main alternatives are the stretch west of Missoula around Superior or St. Regis.