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The Last Best Uniter: In Praise of David E. Lipson

By Nate Schweber, 8-08-05

Let us now praise David E. Lipson. Huckster. Liar. Environmental regulation violator.

Bridgebuilder.

Through his scams and his follies, his fibs and his cheats, Lipson has done the unthinkable. He united Montana.

For anyone yawning and stretching after a snooze with the nightcrawlers and pillbugs, Lipson, the Las Vegas-based owner of The Resort at Paws Up along the Blackfoot, is trying to trademark the phrase “The Last Best Place,� which is also the title of the indispensable Montana literary anthology edited by William Kittredge and Annick Smith.

The blogosphere has been savage to Lipson (sample blog: “Bullshit Artist Lipson Lies to Governor,� sample quote: “Clearly we have an asshole on our hands.�) and newspaper editorials have only omitted the vulgarities. New West is helping to launch a creative campaign to take back the phrase (check out www.savethelastbestplace.org) with other bloggers -- many of who even renamed all their sites last week “The Last Best Place� in protest.

This saga started to get interesting when Gov. Brian Schweitzer smacked Lipson, even before Lipson lied to his face about cooling the trademark application.

Then, when Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg also flogged Lipson, I began to take notice.

Schweitzer and Rehberg, agreeing? Aren’t they supposed to knock heads about snowmobile access, corporate regulations, and drilling on the Rocky Mountain Front?

I made a quick phone call to my old pal Barrett Kaiser, former president of the student body at the University of Montana, who now works for Montana’s Democratic Senator, Max Baucus.

“Max thinks this guy is asinine and greedy and he doesn’t think he’s shooting straight,� Kaiser told me.

It’s not surprising that Baucus would have harsh words for Lipson. According to Federal Elections Commission, in 2002 Lipson and his wife Nadine each donated a thousand bucks to Mike Taylor. Taylor, a Republican, challenged Baucus’ senate seat and quit after Montana Democrats painted him as a fruitcake in a series of hilarious TV spots showing Taylor in his former profession giving haircuts while gussied up in hard core discowear.

In 2003 Lipson greased the Republican National Committee to the tune of $1,100, and in 2002 his company, Knightsbridge Inc. gave $500 to the RNC, so maybe, I thought, Montana’s Republican senator, Conrad Burns, would have something nice to say about him.

I called Burns. He said this:

“‘The Last Best Place’ is community property at this point and it seems like it’s not the wisest notion to try and trademark it.�

Ye gods! There is synthesis on this issue between the two warring political parties.

Next I tested my hypothesis by e-mailing Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association and an outspoken proponent of blasting “problem� wolves. He had this to say:

“I suspect Lipson would not be able to successfully assert or defend any trademark granted on that phrase,� he said. “The only contact I’ve had with Lipson is when I called to inquire if it would be possible to hold a long-range hunter rifle match at his Paws Up ranch. He chose not to return my call.�

Doesn’t sound too positive. I called wolf-activist Jerry Black, a Missoula resident whose daughter is getting married at Lipson’s Paws Up ranch in October. Black had some good things to say about Lipson. He recently held a silent auction for Caring for Critters, which raised money for the Missoula Humane Society, the Rolling Dog Ranch and a dog rescue mission in Thailand. Lipson donated dinner for two and a bottle of wine, Black said.

“He has done some good in the community, but I think he’s going to alienate a lot of people in the state with what he’s doing,� Black said. “I think he’s pulled some things, like opening up without a water permit, and I’m against him trademarking that phrase because it kind of twists the knife in everybody’s back.�

Now I knew it was time to put my thesis about Lipson’s uniting prowess to the ultimate test. The Griz/Cat test.

I contacted Randy Broadbent, founder and moderator of Bobcat Nation, an online-message board for Cat fans.

“(Lipson) is one of the only people I think doesn’t even deserve the opportunity to live in such a beautiful place,� he said.

Then I contacted J.E. Jackman-Brink, a mondo Griz fan and regular on eGriz, the Grizzly Athletics message board.

“Frankly, I think Lipson is a scam artist with a lot of money who thinks he can just push around ‘country lawmakers,’� he said. “I was so mad when I saw that the DEQ caved in on his variance request. He should have to play by the rules like everyone else.�

And so it is true. All Montanans agree that Lipson sucks. With that distinction, Lipson joins the dubious, but rarified, company of viruses and vermin like chronic wasting and whirling disease, brucellosis, and lake trout in Glacier Park’s Quartz Lake. Montanans agree that Lipson is a rat-bastard the way they agree that North Dakota jokes are funny. The only other thing that whips Montanans into such a unified front is a king-hell forest fire, and of the two a pesky twit like Lipson is only slightly more tolerable.

Not even Montana’s last high-profile story involving Las Vegas, the saga of Missoula contractor Rick Tabish who was convicted along with his girlfriend Sandy Murphy of murdering a casino heir with heroin in order to steal his buried silver, was so successful in conjuring the collective wrath of all Montanans. (Tabish and Murphy’s murder convictions, but not theft convictions, were overturned. Tabish is still in jail on other charges and Murphy is free.) Tabish was a Montana satellite who went crazy with girls, drugs, greed and possibly murder. His story played out like something the Fox network would broadcast on Hard Copy into Montana’s TV sets. Lipson’s hustle is far more insidious – he is an invader and he managed to make each and every Montanan feel personally robbed. That’s no small feat.

There are some good things that have come out of Lipson’s treachery. The obvious one is that Montana’s political leaders found common ground and for the past two weeks they’ve been united in their criticism of Lipson instead of their disagreements over taxes, education, and environmental policies.

More esoteric, but no less important, is the fact that for the first time since the Anthology was published in 1988, the phrase “The Last Best Place� is high in the public’s consciousness. From newspapers to blogs to college football message boards, there is dialogue and thought about what “The Last Best Place� means, what makes Montana deserving of the title, and how Montana can stay “The Last Best Place.�

Seamus Clark, a lifelong Montanan, writer and former student of William Kittredge, learned about this article, wrote me, and had this to say:

“Part of what makes Montana ‘The Last Best Place’ is how folks are welcomed here…but the obligation is to live by some of the so-called ‘codes of the West.’ In fact the story reminds me of an old poem my grandmother had on her wall; I don’t remember the whole thing, but in part of it was, “Out where the hand clasps a little stronger, Out where the smile lasts a little longer, that’s where the West begins.�

King-Kong corn, but true. Elder members of my family, muliti-generational Montanans, have similar poems hanging in their homes. Part of the issue that Lipson brought to a boil is the transformation from what Montana was, as represented by those poems hanging in family homes, to what Montana will be, perhaps represented by hustlers like Lipson.

And everyone agrees that he’s not the type of dude who should inherit Montana’s legacy.

But maybe all this meditation and talk about “The Last Best Place,� will lead people back to its source; the book, which gives a whole lot of information on where Montana came from, where it’s going, and where it should stay. I own a copy of “The Last Best Place,� but my phobia of 1,143-page books kept me from cracking it. Until now. This whole hubbub led me to heft the sucker from my bookshelf and start reading.

So thanks for that, David E. Lipson.

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