A letter from Jim Dolan, Founder and CEO

"Dear Friends, Many people ask me about The Club at Spanish Peaks, how it came to be, what is the plan and vision for the Club, the history and background of this magnificent place. I thought I would jot down some of the answers to these questions, so those whom I haven't had the pleasure to meet in person might hear it from the "horse's mouth" as they say here in Montana.

I am also often asked about Montana, what makes it such a special place, such a passionate experience for those who discover it. That one is a little harder to write, as I am a "picture thinker" and Montana is a place where the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies in the extreme. I will try, and I will include a few pictures to help my words along.

So here I sit on the clubhouse deck with John Denver and Jim Salestrom playing my favorite mountain music, a fresh pot of coffee and one of the most beautiful settings in the world for inspiration.

The Vision for the Club

The vision for The Club at Spanish Peaks has been to create an authentic, unpretentious Montana experience for members and our families. This came from my travels to the West with my wife and sons over the course of many ski seasons. We never went to the same place twice, as no place ever offered everything we desired. When we visited Montana on the recommendation of a friend and drove the Gallatin Canyon from Bozeman to Big Sky for the first time, I knew that I was done searching.

The Club is first and foremost a family centered place. In this fast paced world of business demands, social pressures and consumer electronic gadgets, we always seem to want to be somewhere other than where we are. We rely more and more on devices to entertain and escape and we seem to be less and less comfortable "in the moment", with our own families and in our own homes. Spanish Peaks is an oasis of closeness to the land, to nature, to your spouse and your children. The Club is a place to reconnect to the real things in life, a simpler time, a simpler way. This is where your family wants to be, together. It is authentic.

Unpretentious is an important word here. People in Montana don't stand on pretense or position. They are simply who and what they are. Here in Montana we want to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures of friends and family. Spanish Peaks attracts people who are comfortable in their own skin and don't require external validation. Unpretentious does not mean lacking elegance. It's just a quiet elegance, substantial but not forced; impressive, but not striving to impress. The Club is Montana to its core - balanced, grounded, and unpretentious.

Montana represents "The Last Best Place", combining the wonder of the unspoiled American West with a wilderness that catches the heart and soul of those who dream of wide open spaces and the unbridled freedom that defines our American spirit. Spanish Peaks is a human place in this natural element, a place to rejoice in the healthy outdoor activities of the day and then gather around the hearth, with your own family and children, with others who share the same goals and lifestyle. The elements of this experience are the awesome natural setting given to us by our Creator, down to earth people, and a setting that allows and encourages members to interact and share the experience with each other.

The ethos of Spanish Peaks comes from our family's deep appreciation of the majesty of the Rocky Mountains, of the unspoiled nature of Montana, and a desire to create a home for members and friends in Montana. It is a place that is both rustic and refined – providing ways to explore and harmonize with nature and humanity in a setting that is deeply connected to Yellowstone Park, the surrounding wild lands, and abundant wildlife. This is a retreat from the frenzy of modern life, a place to focus on our inner self and our family. We call it the Best of the West™.

The Club has evolved to provide 300 acres of private skiing on our own Spirit Mountain, which is becoming some of the best kid-friendly skiing in The United States. Spirit Mountain is also a private portal to America's Biggest Skiing™, the combined terrain of Big Sky and Moonlight Basin, which provides over 5,430 acres of pristine, uncrowded Montana powder. Big Sky has a 4,350 foot vertical drop, over 200 runs and 400 inches of annual powder. All of us, who have enjoyed the six-mile run from the top of Lone Peak to the Mountain Village, know the beauty of skiing fast on a crystal clear day. Warren Miller told me to think of flying when I was skiing, and the decent from that 11,000 foot peak is as good as it gets without wings. All in all, we are blessed with a place unrivaled in natural beauty and dramatic landscape, and unquestionably America's largest, least crowded ski experience. Anyone who loves skiing and hasn't experienced Lone Peak on a blue sky day is missing one of the top ten ski mountains in the world – and, for our families, the best.

Today we have 241 members in The Club from 32 states and four foreign countries – Canada, England, Singapore and Switzerland. And it's the people who make the experience, the friendship of walking into the Clubhouse after a day of skiing and finding friends, both old and new, sharing the laughs of the day's powder runs, or the long drive on #17 that reached the green (just as Weiskopf planned it), or the story of a moose encountered on today's horse ride. We share great outdoor amenities – golf, skiing, equestrian, fly fishing, cross country skiing, hiking, biking and horse trails, and over two miles of private stream access – but in a uniquely Montana way, we share it together, friends in an environment that both strengthens our independence and at the same time bonds us together. That is part of the magic of Montana, a place that contrasts the power of nature followed by the warmth of a fireplace; or the beauty of being alone in a thousand acres surrounded by the soft silence of wind in the pines followed by the magic of a glass of wine with an acoustic guitar playing. It is something you have to experience, and your soul is better for the gift, your internal compass better able to chart a course refreshed and reset.

Montana – The New Frontier

It may not be the last frontier, but it unquestionably is the best. Montana has been discovered in the last 10 years, and represents tremendous value and opportunity to people who have experienced the Rocky Mountain West. Montana's vast landscape includes the Paradise Valley spreading north out of Yellowstone National Park, the blue ribbon fishing rivers of the Gallatin, Yellowstone and Madison Rivers, the Beartooth Wilderness, Glacier National Park, The Bitterroot Valley, The Missouri River Breaks, the Charles Russell Wilderness and the Lewis & Clark Trail. These remain amazing unspoiled areas, largely unchanged since Lewis & Clark explored them over 200 years ago. 

Today, ski experiences fall into two primary types – the urbanized mountain town, where dining and shopping are prime components of the ski week, or a more nature focused experience wherein the open air of skiing on a clear, cold mountain day, with family and close friends, lets one celebrate the uniqueness of nature and the outdoors. Montana defines the second type. Southwestern Montana represents the last frontier of our American West. The discovery process is underway, where the expansive ski terrain is a jewel to those accustomed to the crowds of California, Colorado and Utah resorts. With its vast open spaces, its uncrowded setting and natural beauty, it is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Couple this ski experience with summers that bring trout fishermen to the heart of the best trout fisheries, the Gallatin, the Madison, the Yellowstone and to the site of Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It". Teamed with access to our first national park, Yellowstone National Park, and the millions of acres of wilderness and wild animals surrounding us, and the people who know this part of Montana know something about the essence of a long life.

As a reference point, the Big Sky Valley is comprised of about 80,000 acres of land.  Today, the largest landowners are three entities; Spanish Peaks, Moonlight Basin and The Yellowstone Club.  These three entities own and control close to 45,000 acres of land and open space in the valley. Under current zoning, the three are entitled to less than 5,000 homes and homesites on the 45,000 acres. At build out, that is roughly one home for every ten acres, and in fact the clustering of residences will be such that vast areas of open space and wildlife corridors will be protected and untouched. The very nature of the approved master plans for these properties will mean that the ski experience at Big Sky and Moonlight Basin will remain uncrowded, as the bed base and density will not reach anywhere near the levels of other ski towns. Big Sky Resort controls about 4,500 acres of land in the valley, mostly dedicated to ski terrain, with residential and commercial parcels near its base village.

Montana today enjoys a reputation and caché as the last unspoiled place in the American West. With 900,000 residents inhabiting over 145,000 square miles, Montana is the least populated western state and the most natural. Lewis and Clark began their epic exploration of the American West in 1803. They explored the Madison, Gallatin, Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers of Montana in 1804 and 1806. Much along those wild and scenic rivers has not changed in the intervening 200 years. Today, there exist vast stretches of natural prairie, spectacular mountains, and an abundance of the world's best blue ribbon trout streams. We offer our members and guests guided horse pack trips into Yellowstone National Park. This experience combines America's premier national park with food and wine services from the Club, truly the Best of the West™. Over three million visitors pass through the entrance to Big Sky each year en route to Yellowstone National Park and the natural wonders of the Yellowstone Basin. Less than one tenth of one percent of these visitors journey more than 100 feet off the roadway. One cannot really experience the wonder of Yellowstone, unless they journey into the backcountry on a horse, far from the road and the interruptions of modern "civilization".

The recreational attraction of the Big Sky area of Southwestern Montana is immense.  The combination of diverse, challenging ski terrain, access to Yellowstone National Park, fishing, hunting, horseback riding, kayaking, camping, hiking, biking, golf and white water experiences provide a four season recreational experience that is unmatched in the United States. 

An Invitation

In his book Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck wrote, "The next passage in my journey is a love affair. I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love... the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda... it seemed to me that the towns were places to live in, rather than nervous hives. People had time to pause in their occupations to undertake the passing art of neighborliness."

We, too, are in love with Montana, with Steinbeck's sense of neighbors, with this place that is not a "nervous hive". The Club at Spanish Peaks is a place to enjoy the majesty of this Last Best Place, to pause long enough "to undertake the passing art of neighborliness" with your own family and our friends, to softly sip the simple elegance of time well spent.

I invite you to visit us, to see this most beautiful of God's landscapes, to adventure in this wilderness, and, most of all, to meet our members and sample our brand of friendship.

Warmly,
James J. Dolan