Editors' Note Appended
FOR most Americans, Montana signifies the mythical West, a place to dream of buying a working ranch or a mountain hideaway. And Red Lodge is one of those places where Montana real estate fantasies can come true, and fairly cheaply.
Kids skate at a town park during the last light of a winter's day in Red Lodge, Mont.
Red Lodge is attracting more second-home buyers and retirees, lured by its stark beauty, the Mayberry R.F.D.-like social structure and the wide range of available housing — from in-town condominiums, to miner’s shacks, to Victorian mansions, to contemporary log homes and ranches.
About 60 miles southwest of Billings and 60 miles northeast of Yellowstone National Park, the old mining town is nestled in a high valley. The 10,000-to-nearly-13,000-foot Beartooth Mountains — the jewels of the 943,377-acre Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness — surge from the 5,500-foot valley. There are abundant fly-fishing streams, rivers to float down or kayak on, ranges to ride, peaks to climb and backcountry to explore.
Stand in the middle of a field above town and all you’re likely to hear is the wind whipping past. There are no stoplights; two drive-through espresso shacks and a smattering of upscale restaurants aim to please both tourists and the upwardly mobile second-home owners arriving from San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Tucson, Seattle, Minneapolis and Billings.
Many second-home buyers are counting the days until they become full-timers. Jim and Holly Brian of Chelsea, Mich., bought a five-bedroom house with a guest apartment on six acres overlooking Red Lodge in 2003. A year later, they bought a ranch six miles to the west of town that had an old farmhouse and two newer houses, plus 122 acres, for about $1.8 million.
Mr. Brian, 59, a real estate developer, and Ms. Brian, 51, are now raising bucking bulls for rodeos, and have invested in a local plant nursery. “Jim needs to be outside and busy,” Ms. Brian said, “and this fits the bill.”
Jerry Williams and Vicki Cearcy of Daphne, Ala., came to Red Lodge to ski in 2005. Two weeks later, they bought a three-bedroom contemporary house in an older subdivision southwest of town for $460,000. Both orthodontists and both retired from the military, they considered buying in Durango, Colo. But the people and the ability to enjoy the outdoors and fly their own small plane into the local airport persuaded them that Red Lodge was the place for them.
Mining originally put Red Lodge on the map. The town was founded in 1889, soon after the Rocky Fork Coal Company set up east of town, bringing thousands of Finns, Italians, Croats, Germans and others to work the mines. The railroad followed. Shirley Zupan, who has written a history of the town, said that Red Lodge was a rollicking frontier town where fistfights and gunfights were common. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane came there for trysts.
The town has calmed over the years. It used to be that “a good location was any one you could crawl home to,” said Dennis Meeker, a broker with Coal Creek Realty.
Mining and fistfights have given way to tourism and agribusiness. In summer, motorcycles and R.V.’s are drawn to the roads, especially the Beartooth Highway (Route 212). Opened in 1936, the Beartooth winds 60 miles and as high as almost 11,000 feet from Red Lodge southwest to Cooke City. Skiers pour into town from late November until mid-April, eager to hit the slopes at Red Lodge Mountain Resort.
The Scene
There’s nothing modern about Red Lodge, which resembles a scaled-down version of Park City, Utah, minus the luxury vehicles, designer ski outfits and hyperinflated housing prices. Subaru Outbacks and four-wheel-drive pickup trucks seem to be the most popular vehicles.
Most of the shops — local arts and crafts, mountain and fishing gear, clothing boutiques — and restaurants are concentrated on seven blocks of the main drag, Broadway (Route 212). There are also a 22-bed hospital and a bookstore.
Local residents congregate at the Red Lodge Cafe or the Regis Cafe in the morning. The Red Lodge offers stacks of pancakes and slot machines in the barroom next door. The Regis serves specialty omelets with organic eggs and vegetables, grilled tofu and homemade fruit breads. The day’s end is met with an I.P.A. or a stout at Sam’s Tap Room at Red Lodge Ales.
Others prefer to celebrate at home. The Brians like to four-wheel to the highest point on their property, cocktails in hand, and watch the sun go down. Just before dusk one day, they saw a pack of wolves roaming the horizon.
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Anne Sherwood for The New York Times
Main Street in Red Lodge is dotted with historic buildings that house real estate offices, bars and coffee shops.
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Red Lodge, Mont.
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Three for Sale Pros
Red Lodge’s piney air is so fresh that it could be bottled and sold to cabdrivers nationwide. Recreation opportunities abound and there’s no rush hour. There’s a sense of community, and waving from behind the wheel is encouraged at all times.
Rosemary Stewart, a paralegal who lived in New York and San Francisco, said it has been refreshing to leave concerns about money and status behind. Ms. Stewart, 56, and her husband, Jerry, 65, a physician, own a 3-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot house in the Grandview subdivision. The Stewarts had visited Red Lodge while living in Billings, and after a short stint back in San Francisco, decided to buy a second home in Red Lodge in 2005. Cyclists, skiers and hikers, they were so smitten that they moved into the home permanently soon after buying.
Kelly Dehio, 38, and her husband Peter, 47, are also happy to leave the city — Chicago — behind when they spend summers with their three children at the 4,000-square-foot house that they built for $500,000. Their property is three acres in Grandview that they bought for $53,000 in 2000. The Dehios say they’re pleased by locals’ acceptance. “We used to have a place in Hawaii,” Ms. Dehio said, “and I always felt like a complete tourist there.”
Cons
Big-box stores are almost an hour and a half away in Billings, and sometimes you just need a big-box store.
Snow is a given, from October until April. There are many real estate agents, which means that prices can be unrealistically high, said Mr. Meeker.
There are a limited number of parcels more than 20 acres, which may discourage dreams of a ranchette. The federal government is a large landholder — through National Forests and Wilderness areas. Some residents fret about the amount of land being gobbled up by a few wealthy buyers.
The Real Estate Market
Land prices have increased 300 percent since 1992, and housing prices have gone up 40 percent since 2000. Red Lodge’s prices appear to be holding steady, even as the market cools elsewhere.
Much of the housing in town consists of smaller bungalows and small miners’ homes built around the turn of the 20th century. There are larger Victorians, but few are on the market. Prices in town, Mr. Meeker said, range from $150,000 to $400,000 or so.
There are several subdivisions outside town, one around the Red Lodge golf course, where older town and patio homes run about $260,000. New lots cost about $100,000. Height restrictions are enforced to protect mountain views at most subdivisions. Lots — generally about three acres — in Meadowood run $130,000 to $140,000, and the average price of a house is $400,000, but goes up to $1 million, Mr. Meeker said.
A development in town, the Island at Rock Creek, has sold three of four luxury condominiums in its first building, with two more four-unit buildings under way. The condos are 2,100 to 2,500 square feet and sell for around $500,000, said Jim Moore.
POPULATION About 2,400, according to a 2005 estimate by the Census Bureau.
Lay of the Land
SIZE 2.6 square miles.
WHO’S BUYING Wealthy retirees or those close to retiring, from California, Florida, the upper Midwest and the South. Many buyers have family ties to the area.
LOCATION Red Lodge is about an 80-minute drive southwest of Billings, and about the same distance from Cody, Wyo.
GETTING THERE From Billings, take Interstate 90 west to Laurel. Exit onto Route 212 south. Follow to Red Lodge.
WHILE YOU’RE LOOKING The Rock Creek Resort (five miles south of Red Lodge on Route 212, is at the gateway to the Beartooth Highway and offers a pool, tennis courts and quiet evenings. The resort has conventional hotel rooms, studio apartments and town houses ranging from $100 to $315 a night. A full-service restaurant, the Old Piney Dell, is on site. For a trip back in time, the Pollard Hotel (2 North Broadway, 406-446-0001; www.thepollard.net), has 39 suites and rooms from $85 to $295 a night, depending on the season. The hotel was built in 1893, and its lobby is packed with memorabilia. Locals advise taking a room at the back during summer, to not be awakened by the roar of the Harleys on the street.
