HAMILTON, Mont. — Scientists are often careful to take off their work badges when they leave the campus of one of the nation’s top research facilities, here in southwestern Montana’s Bitterroot Valley.
It’s a reflection of the long-standing tension caused by Rocky Mountain Laboratories’ improbable location in this conservative, blue-collar town of 5,000 that was built on logging.
Many residents are proud of the internationally recognized research unfolding at the National Institutes of Health facility and acknowledge that Rocky Mountain Labs has become an economic driver for Hamilton. But a few locals resent what they consider the elitest scientists at the facility, which has employed about 500 people in recent years. Or they fear the contagious pathogens studied there could escape the labs’ well-protected walls.
That split widened with the covid-19 pandemic and the divisions that emerged from mask mandates and vaccine development. In 2023, Matt Rosendale, a Republican who was then a U.S. representative from Montana, falsely tied the lab to the origins of covid in an attempt to cut its funding. Now, Hamilton is a prime example of how the Trump administration’s mass federal layoffs and cancellation of research grants are having ripple effects in communities far from Washington, D.C.
On an April afternoon, hundreds of people filled the sidewalks at an intersection of Hamilton’s usually quiet downtown, waving signs that read “Hands Off Federal Workers” and “Stop Strangling Science.” Some driving by honked in support, rolled their windows down, and cheered. Others flipped off the rallygoers and cast insults at them. A passing bicyclist taun …