Lone Mountain Ranch celebrates centennial

Long before a tram took skiers to the top of Lone Mountain, or before Big Sky even existed, Lone Mountain Ranch was showing off to visitors what Montana had to offer.

Lone Mountain Ranch was homesteaded in 1915 and is celebrating its centennial this year.

The ranch, located in Big Sky, offers Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, horseback riding, fly fishing and tours of nearby Yellowstone National Park.

It was originally homestead by Clarence Lytle as a working cattle, horse and hay cutting ranch, but would go on to be a dude ranch and the birthplace of Big Sky Resort.

Before creating Big Sky, Chet Huntley owned Lone Mountain Ranch and used it to entertain possible investors.

"That's where all the planning happened," said Paul Makarechian, current owner of Lone Mountain Ranch.

In 1927, J. Fred Butler, a paper mill tycoon from Chicago bought the ranch for $50 an acre and used it as a vacation property.

Bulter, along with his wife, Lillie, and daughter and son in-law Florence and Don Kilbourne, spent around $110,000 constructing numerous buildings on the ranch. Some of those still stand today, including some guest cabins on the main lodge.

"Even part of the original barn has been rebuilt to be part of the outdoor shop," Makarechian said.

The Butlers and the Kilbournes changed the name to the B-K Ranch.

In the 1930s after Butler passed away, his daughter and son in-law started operating the B-K as a dude ranch, with visitors from the East Coast looking for a "cowboy" vacation. The ranch offered horse rides, fishing, campfires and ranch meals.

In 1946, Earl and Louise Risser from Springtown, Penn., and Henrietta Joyce from Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased the ranch for Joyce's nephew, Robert Turner.

Turner was an ambitious minister who wanted to instill values into young men by bringing them to Montana to hunt, fish, camp and ride.

That venture was short lived. The young men weren't easy on the ranch, and when Earl Risser saw the impact they were having he decided to stick to "dudes," rather than men in need of values.

In the 1950s, the ranch was purchased for a logging operation. Timber cut at the ranch was dragged by teams of horses to where it could be loaded on trucks. It was then trucked to Gallatin Gateway and moved by rail to Minnesota for processing.

During its logging days, families lived on the ranch in tar paper shacks, and two cabins were turned into schoolhouses for nearly 80 children living in the logging town.

The property was first called Lone Mountain Ranch when it was purchased in 1955 by Jack and Elaine Hume, who returned it to a dude ranch.

In the early '70s Huntley, along with Chrysler, Conoco and other corporations, purchased the ranch. They used it as a basecamp while developing the nearby ski resort.

Big Sky Resort opened its lifts in 1973, and in 1977 Lone Mountain Ranch was once again for sale.

Anyone interested in the property was required to submit a proposal for how they would run it.

Bob and Vivian Schaap had the idea to turn the ranch into a year-round operation with cross-country ski trails.

"They were very avid cross-country skiers," Makarechian said.

The Schaaps ran the ranch for more than 30 years and cultivated its winter business.

Two years ago, Makar Properties, a real estate investment company purchased the ranch.

"It has this rich, deep history," said Makarechian, founder and CEO of Makar Properties. "We're pretty honored to be a part of it."

While Lone Mountain Ranch continues to operate somewhat as a dude ranch, "we've kind of transcended beyond that," he said. "We probably fit in a much broader category than just dude ranch."

Winter time continues to be an import part of the ranch's business, but rather than coming specifically for cross-country skiing, visitors, more and more, are looking to take advantage of multiple activities.

Lone Mountain Ranch will offer a series of events this summer to celebrate the centennial.

"We're hoping to do some things sprinkled throughout the summer," Makarechian said.

Erin Madison is the outdoors writer at the Great Falls Tribune. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_EMadison.