Bozeman News

Big Sky Nordic Skiing

Lone Mountain Ranch Sold to Everlands Resort Network

By Lucia Stewart, 1-08-08

Lone Mountain Ranch, the historic and premiere Nordic ski resort in Big Sky, recently sold to Everlands and will soon become a part of the worldwide luxury resort network, available only on a member-basis.

Since 1977, Bob and Vivian Schaap have operated Lone Mountain Ranch as a guest ranch offering fly-fishing and horseback riding in the summer and 80km of cross country ski trails in the winter. Due to the ski trail’s integral part of the Big Sky community, the Schaap’s have made strict agreements with the future owners to continue public access and maintenance on all Nordic ski trails.

Everlands focuses their acquisitions in the world’s historical resorts. Their collection includes thus far: the former Rockefeller estate, The Point at Saranac Lake in Upstate New York and the Oasis at Castle Hot Springs, a historic spa in Arizona, Blueberry Hill Inn in Martha’s Vineyard, and fishing lodges in Alaska, New Zealand and the Bahamas. Their getaway portfolio also includes a wild partridge habitat in central Spain, an Atlantic salmon property in Iceland, an estancia in Patagonia and a game reserve in Kenya.

To become a member, it’s simple: by paying $1 million down, you have full, unlimited access to every boat, plane, horse and resort and yearly dues of only $40,000.

Everlands’ mission is to conserve these extraordinary destinations, which have been selected for their historic importance and storied pasts, for future generations.

The history of Lone Mountain Ranch stretches back to 1926 when the Butler-Kilburn family, Chicago paper mill tycoons, bought the ranch from the original homesteader for just $50 an acre.

In just four short years they built The B-K, an elaborate spread of family cabins, a bath house, gatekeeper’s and cook’s cabins, an ice house, two guest cabins, corrals, and the dining room modeled after the grand elegance of Old Faithful Lodge.

It was then sold a few times after World War II where it became a boy’s camp, a base area for a logging company, and by the mid-1950’s it finally became the Lone Mountain Ranch, a dude ranch and a hunting and fishing camp. It hosted a few owners in its later years, including the Big Sky Corporation. Before it was sold in 1977, Big Sky Corporation required a rigorous review, of which Bob and Vivian Schaap were selected out of 12 proposals due to its year-round plan for the ranch.

Lone Mountain Resort then became a guest ranch and cross county ski resort, hosting family-style, locally-operated and providing horse back riding and fly fishing in the summer months. Lone Mountain Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December of 2006.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.