Missoula in Fight to Be Crowned “Most Flannel City in America,” Needs Votes

Right now, the city of Missoula is a “flannelist” in the quarter finals round of the Flannel City Face-Off, a competition ginned up by the folks at the Duluth trading company. Last week, Missoula edged out Burlington, Vermont and is currently going head-to-head with Duluth, Minnesota. Flannel city face-off spokesman Scott Deruyter explains why they picked Missoula as one of the original 16 contestants.

"One of the reasons we chose Missoula is because our friends at STIHL Timber Sports pointed out that the University of Montana is in the area, and that their woodsmen team is one of the top competitors in their college lumberjack competition," Deruyter said. "Also, from what I undersdand, it's one of the best Forestry and Conservation programs in the country, something that would make Paul Bunyan very proud."

Deruyter said that the Missoula smoke jumpers would also impress Paul Bunyan because "they're basically firefighters/lumberjacks that jump out of planes and keep forest fires in check."

If Missoula wins there will be a special ceremony for the city, but it will require Mayor John Engen to don some flannel.

"We've talked about having a ceremony in each of the cites, and getting the mayors involved, although I'm not sure the Mayor of Cleveland is a flannel wearer," Deruyter said. "Is the mayor of Missoula a flannel wearer? I'll tell you this, if Missoula can pull off a win, we'll outfit the Mayor, the city council, and we'll even hand out some gift cards to the public."

Cities like Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington have already been chopped out of the competition, leaving Missoula to represent the northwest. If Missoula wins, it will most likely face off with Denver, Colorado in the semi-finals.