Why people like me left California to pursue the American Dream in Montana

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OPINION // OPEN FORUM

Why people like me left California to pursue the American Dream in Montana

Kevin Frazier
Jan. 8, 2023
Updated: Jan. 8, 2023 8:32 a.m.



Small towns like Livingston, Mont., offer the promise of a better future and appeal to big-city dwellers put off by urban living. Ideally, people wouldn’t have to move to fulfill their dreams.

Mark Miller Photos/Getty Images

Last year, when I graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law, I was fortunate to have two job offers. One was a Big Law job at a firm in San Francisco. The other was a judicial clerkship on the Montana Supreme Court in Helena, Mont. The firm job offered greater pay, better benefits and more career stability. But for my fiancé and me, the choice was easy.

We packed up our spot in the Richmond District, got on Interstate 80 and headed for Big Sky country.

Like many other former Californians who have made the trek out of the Golden State since the start of the pandemic, we left our home in pursuit of the American Dream along what I call the “Zoom Trail” — the routes opened by remote work and COVID-induced restlessness.

The Zoom Trail, like the Oregon Trail before it, promises something at the heart of the American Dream: a belief that a better future exists for you, your family and your community. For many, big cities have lost their luster because the problems they face and the solutions they propose land somewhere on the spectrum between foolish and futile.

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