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Big Sky Montana
Up though 1970, when native Montanan NBC broadcaster Chet Huntley retired from
the Huntley-Brinkley News Hour and formed a consortium to develop Big Sky into
a major ski and summer resort area, there was no discernible real estate
market. Big Sky's economy consisted of subsistence ranching, some farming,
timber harvesting, and guest ranching. Thereafter, small pockets of
condominiums and homes were built as the fledgling ski area struggled for
survival during the unfortunate economy of the early 1970's, with record fuel
prices, inflation and a trend toward limited travel. Huntley died weeks before
the Grand Opening in 1974, and by 1976 when the ski area was on the brink of
bankruptcy, Boyne, USA, a Michigan based resort developer, acquired all of the
assets of Huntley's consortium at a deep discount.
Big Sky is an unincorporated area located 45 miles south of Bozeman, MT just
west of scenic Highway 191 and 18 miles north of the northern boundary of
Yellowstone National Park. Montana has been traditionally known as "The Big Sky
Country" and in 1970, Chet Huntley was granted permission to use the moniker
"Big Sky" for his ski and summer resort development in the Gallatin Canyon, by
then Governor Forrest Anderson. Accessed by Highway 191, a two-lane road that
mostly runs parallel to the blue ribbon trout stream called the Gallatin River
in a canyon formed by the Gallatin and Madison mountain ranges which stretches
from the "mouth of the canyon" to Yellowstone National Park.
Throughout the 1980s, Boyne invested moderately in the ski area by expanding
terrain, updating lifts, and solving many of the issues it inherited from the
previous owners. As a result of these efforts, Big Sky became known as a high
-quality regional ski area.
Since the early 1990s, Boyne has invested over $120 million in Big Sky, while
other developers also discovered the beauty of the area and have dedicated
enormous financial and planning resources to the expansion of the area's
amenities and real estate offerings. The Yellowstone Club, a "private powder"
ski and golf club is located just to the south of Lone Mountain and offers
exclusive vacation alternatives to its 840 members, Spanish Peaks Resort Club,
an new golf and ski alternative, will offer ski in ski out properties on
Andesite Mountain, accessible to Lone Mountain, as well as a variety of
residential property alternatives, and Moonlight Basin Ranch, just to the north
of Lone Mountain, continues to expand its real estate menu and has recently
made Ski Moonlight the newest skiing terrain alternative with its own lift and
ski trail system.
While Big Sky is still unincorporated as a municipality and has only 1,000 or
so "locals," it has become a vibrant permanent community, a summer and ski
vacation area, attracting over 500,000 people annually. It is no longer
considered a regional ski resort as it is now recognized internationally as a
destination ski area.
Call one of us to find out more, and let us show you around.
Take a look at the
big sky area map
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