Vigilantes of the Mining Days

From a recent Town Crier, an account of the Mining Days in Montana...
On March 10, 1864, vigilantes in the frontier mining town of Virginia City—which doubled as the Montana Territory’s capital beginning just a year later—hung a sometimes-lawless man in a controversial execution. Plagued by rampant looting by desperados and fringe riders of the region, a group of prominent men within Virginia City formed a posse of vigilantes, slaying known and suspected individuals causing terror and unrest throughout the area. They even went as far as to pin the numbers 3-7-77—the dimensions for a standard grave of 3 feet by 7 feet by 77 inches—to the bodies of such victims, as well as their cabins, tents and dwellings as a deterrent and message to leave,…

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Skiing Out West, Cowboy Style

Over 70 teams will compete over 3 days in West Yellowstone for cash and prizes.

Equestrian skijoring consists of a team of a single horse, generally guided by a rider, pulling a person on skis who carries no poles and simply hangs onto a tow rope in a manner akin to water skiing.

Today, equine skijoring is a highly specialized competitive sport, where horses accelerate to over 40 mph in just three strides covering a straight track roughly 900 feet (270 m) in length. Skiers must navigate a series of jumps and gates and capture rings while being pulled by a rope at speeds up to 60 mph as they accelerate around turns. Jumps can reach 7 feet (2.1 m) in height, but are typically lower or roller style which are more friendly to…

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An Interview with our Marketing Director's Grandfather and Conservationist, Paul Roos

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: PAUL ROOS

As anglers, many of us have moments that define us — be it a first fish on a fly rod, bringing a steelhead, permit, or tigerfish to hand, or playing a part in your child’s first caught fish. I’ve been blessed with several of these moments. My first one came more than 20 years ago, during a day I spent guiding outfitter and conservationist Paul Roos.

I was 24, and trying out for my first major league guiding gig. We were on the Blackfoot River in early June. Roos had picked an off-the-radar float and, as I launched the Avon Drifter raft, he said, laughing, “There aren’t a lot of fish on this…

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Montana406 Goes Ranchy!

There is exciting news in the Rocky Mountain West! Our little montana406.com has had a baby! We are now excited to announce that evranchland.com has been brought into the world. EV Ranch & Land is our new ranch division and is a network of experienced brokers throughout the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, California, Idaho, and Washington. We have an incredible line up of properties and brokers that have a combined 100 years of experience in finding recreational ranches for clients that are looking for investments with great memories. 

It was a natural evolution considering the beautiful states we live in. Whether it is a legacy ranch, hunting property or a fly fishing ranch EV Ranch & Land has the website and the brokers to find you the…

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Jeff Bridges is coming to the 2019 Bozeman International Film Festival for the second year in a row.

Jeff Bridges is coming to the 2019 BZN International Film Festival for the second year in a row.  He will be presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday, June 8th to Dave Grusin, an Oscar and Grammy-winning composer.

Buy Passes

Last year Bridges' own film that he produced and narrated, Living in the Future's Past, was featured at the festival.  This year you catch the screening of Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time and the presentation of the award by Bridges at 8 p.m. at the Emerson.

FILM INFO

DAVE GRUSIN: NOT ENOUGH TIME

SYNOPSIS

Millions of people know the music of Dave Grusin, but may not know his name.

Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time documents his journey from Colorado cowboy to Oscar and Grammy-winning…

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Rates Are Dropping, Great Time To Purchase Property!

Last week’s massive dip in mortgage rates apparently pushed homeowners into action. According to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, refinancing was up 39% last week, hitting its highest point since January 2016.

Overall refinances accounted for nearly half of all mortgage applications: 47.4%, specifically. For mortgage lender Better.com, the refi surge was even bigger. The company saw refinance loans make up 56% of its total loan activity last month. In total, Better.com has seen a 500% increase in refinance applications since March 2018.

Last week’s dip into low-4% mortgage rates is the big driver of this uptick in activity. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan as of March 28 was 4.06%. On 15-year…

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Calving Season: Coming of Age on a Montana Cattle Ranch

A teenager helps her family save newborn calves during a snowy spring.

Montana’s harsh winter persists into April. That’s bleak by most metrics, but especially so if you’re a cattle rancher — the snows continue straight into calving season. When I spent a winter there to make this short film, I was astonished by the conditions: Pregnant cows would wander off alone to give birth and drop their babies into freezing ice, and calves would shiver as they struggled to survive their first night. To save the newest members of their herd, ranching families work through the snowy nights in rotating shifts, searching for newborn calves with their flashlights and pulling them into the warming shed.

I met this ranching family after visiting the nearby town of…

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Conservation group buys ranch, sells it back to Montana landowners

Land purchased by The Nature Conservancy near Malta will be sold back to surrounding landowners over three years in a unique partnership. 

North-central Montana ranchers and an international conservation group have collaborated to acquire a neighbor’s 5,000 acres in a unique partnership.

“There was a ranch next to us we wanted to buy and didn’t have the funding to do so … without becoming a financial casualty,” said Dale Veseth, a Malta-area rancher. “So we enlisted The Nature Conservancy, and we’re going to put a conservation easement on the property we bought and our home place as well.”

Veseth said his family has been on their ranch since 1943, although family members have been “running around the community” since 1886. 

…

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WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY ZONE AND HOW CAN IT BENEFIT YOU?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 established a new economic development program called Opportunity Zones designed to encourage long-term private investments in low-income communities. The program provides a federal tax incentive for taxpayers who reinvest unrealized capital gains into “Opportunity Funds,” which are specialized vehicles dedicated to investing in low income areas called “Opportunity Zones” that will allow investors to defer and eliminate capital gains taxes on gains from investments in economically-distressed localities.

The zones themselves are to be comprised of Low-Income Community Census tracts and designated by governors in every state and territory. The program has the potential to direct private capital toward distressed communities…

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May Montana Real Estate Market News

MAY - 2018

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