Sweeping views of the Spanish Peaks, the Madison Range, and the Gallatin Canyon provided a magnificent setting for Augustus Frank Crail to locate his ranching headquarters. Crail carved out a 960-acre ranch purchasing three homesteads, school lands, and railroad property in 1902. He, his wife Sally, and their three children all contributed to the family business. They settled in the small log cabin while they built the main house, establishing a water-powered sawmill nearby where they milled lumber for private and commercial use. Crail grew a special kind of wheat he developed and raised sheep. By 1934, the Crails’ success allowed them to close the sawmill and switch to raising cattle. Most area ranchers who weathered the Great Depression turned to dude ranching, but the Crails continued to run their working ranch until 1950. For fifty years, the ranch structures were the only evidence of human habitation in this meadow valley. Today, the house and cabin are the sole survivors of the once-sprawling complex. The older log cabin has a unique roof of rough sawn lumber three layers deep. The sturdy main residence, built with care and skill circa 1905, is of hand-hewn logs chinked with mortar. The marks of the ax used to flatten the dove-tailed logs are plainly visible. The two dwellings, now nestled among modern residences, are a rare monument to early homesteading and a poignant reminder of this bygone era in the Gallatin Valley.
]]>Eastern clients visited dude ranches for authentically western experiences in complete comfort or, as one rancher put it, “home-made bedsteads but forty-pound mattresses.” The B Bar K was no exception. Wealthy Chicagoan J. Fred Butler bought the ranch from homesteader Clarence Lytle in 1927. The historic irrigation ditches, a spring house, fence lines, and horse trails are all that remain of Lytle’s original 1910s homestead. Butler and his daughter and son-in-law, Florence and Don Kilbourne, named the property the B Bar K. The families spent some $110,000 (over $1 million in today’s currency) on their summer playground. Trees felled nearby provided logs for the Rustic style buildings, designed to fit an idealized vision of the West. Native stone fireplaces further reinforced a connection to the surrounding wilderness. Florence decorated the cabins with Navajo rugs, Indian beadwork, and hand-crafted furniture, while the bathrooms were “supplied with everything from hot water to shower caps.” A business downturn led the Kilbournes to take paying guests. They were among 150 Montana dude ranchers operating during the Great Depression. Although some impoverished ranchers opened their homes to guests, many dude ranches were run by transplanted Easterners, like the Butler/Kilbourne family, who could anticipate the expectations of their wealthy visitors. After 1947, the ranch briefly became a boy’s camp, and then headquarters for a logging operation. In 1955, Jack and Elaine Hume purchased the property, renaming it Lone Mountain Ranch. Owners today continue in the long-standing tradition, offering a magical combination of comfortable accommodations and outdoor recreation.
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