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On July 11th, near the sleepy working-class Flathead Lake village of Lakeside, Montana (population 2730), residents crammed into a county planning board meeting. Outside, the day was sweltering, a record 97 degrees, and that meant that just down the road in the heart of Lakeside, people of all sorts were escaping the heat; frolicking in the water along the expansively beautiful public beach donated to the town fifteen years ago by altruistic residents who cared about insuring community access to Flathead lake, the 126,100 acre crystal clear crowning centerpiece of Northwest Montana famous for summer vacations and picturesque cherry orchards.
The citizens inside that planning meeting were hot too, for more than two hours, they stood and waited their turn to express overwhelming opposition to a proposed 1700+ acre ultra-exclusive billionaire resort on the southern edge of their little town. One after another, they gave emotional testimony about legitimate fears: deteriorating water quality (Flathead Lake is among the cleanest on earth), traffic safety on the already-dangerous two lane highway 93, taxpayer-funded infrastructure needs, loss of hunting access, razing of historic orchards and landmarks, and most of all, the maddening and accelerating destruction of a century-old social compact in which wealth is rarely acknowledged and rank is never pulled. The same social compact under which those local benefactors donated the public beach, instead of developing the valuable property for their own profit.
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The planning board, all of whom are appointed by staunchly MAGA Republican County commissioners who all detest zoning, land use planning, and environmental protections, took it all in.
Then, just a few days ago, on Aug 13th, the board reconvened to make a decision. Again, the meeting drew a nervous standing-room-only crowd. Many concerned locals showed up, crossing their fingers for a miracle.
There had been new developments giving them hope. A pending water quality lawsuit from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, which owns the southern half of the lake, might stop the project. A separate lawsuit challenging plans for a private-jet runway might throw a wrench in the works. Another round of emotional pleas might do the trick. But soon it was apparent none of that would be enough. The board agreed to allow additional testimony, but it was a formality. As the meeting wrapped up, they announced a 4-1 decision, the massive “Flathead Lake Club” subdivision would get their approval.
Montanans are right to be angry and fearful about what another project from Discovery Land Company [ [link removed] ] means for our state. These corporate developers, who own 39 other exclusively gated communities across the globe, including billionaire-favorites in Saint-Tropez, Tuscany, and Perthshire, Scotland, where they own a massive castle, already have big tracks in Montana.
Recently, Discovery Land, with the energetic help of Senator Steve Daines, successfully conspired to take our public land around the Crazy Mountains and lie about what they would do with it. During the process, Discovery told local activists that no significant changes would come. Still, the truth was they intended to convert prized wild elk pastures that we all owned into a perfectly manicured, helicopter-accessed golf course and gated resort for a few dozen jet-setters. Ben Ryder Howe’s excellent New York Magazine article “To Buy A Mountain Range” details the entire infuriating process, and his subtitle sums up the issue:
“A Goup of Billionaires is Maneuvering to Secure Acres of Prime Public Land in Montana for Personal Use. Can Anyone Stop Them?
To answer Ben’s question, NO. We did not stop the Billionaires. Daines made sure Discovery got our public land. But in the Crazies, Discovery did not stop with just land. Turns out that their golf course also needed water from the Shields River, so Discovery did what billionaires do. They just took it and have since been embroiled in another war over their theft of our public water.
The Montana Free Press detailed the new legal battle and provided essential context for the original betrayal felt by local ranchers and citizen groups who were lied to about what Discovery planned to do with the land around the Crazies. Tim Sundling, a nearby Shields Valley rancher, explained the broken promises like this;
“They told us, ‘it’s going to stay a ranch, it’ll have no community impact, blah, blah, blah. We’ll maybe plan on building a golf course, but it’ll never be like the Yellowstone Club. … In retrospect, it was just propaganda to keep us quiet.”
Tim Sundling is more than justified in hoping no other place in Montana would “be like the Yellowstone Club.” The YC (Billionaire slang for Yellowstone Club), which is Discovery Land’s most infamous and exclusive development in Montana, is a ski-mountain themed, invitation-only community just up the road from Big Sky, boasting only a few hundred residences, including homes worth more than $150 million and condos valued at more than $30 million.
If prospective workers around lakeside wonder what is coming their way, the YC was recently sued by Jamaican staffers who successfully claimed they were stiffed on wages and tips by people who pay $50 just to get on the prospective membership list.
Stories like this detailing what actually goes on inside the club are rare, and allowing anyone into the YC who might snitch or not be up to snuff (i.e, normal Montanans) is prohibited by a strict “100 guests-days per year rule.”
There are, however, exceptions for the right people, such as residents proudly hosting a high-dollar campaign event for Donald Trump last fall. Just like most of the other people at the Yellowstone Club, Trump flew in to Bozeman on his jet, avoided being sullied by distasteful interaction with normal citizens, and was waited on by servants at an extravagant YC gated residence.
Discovery Land’s new Flathead Lake Club will be golf-focused, with two courses, 359 residences, multiple shops and restaurants, and a private airstrip (they won’t even have to see us leering at them at the airport). Insider reports from the YC shed further light on what is to come in Lakeside.
Ski passes are not required at Yellowstone Club, and members and guests have unfettered access to 2,700 acres of what the resort has trademarked as Private Powder™ across 18 ski lifts and over 100 trails [ [link removed] ]. Attendants are everywhere.
“If you are seen carrying your skis, somebody runs up to you, grabs them for you, carries them for you, and puts them in the snow for you.”
These people are not from Montana. For most, a home along Flathead Lake will be their 4th or 5th extravagant home, and jetting between them is a kind of sport. A report from a YC member about their private chat groups gives us a glimpse into their lifestyle.
“I’m in four different private jet chats,” said a member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the club’s small number of members, “Yellowstone Club New York area travel, Yellowstone Club Florida travel, Yellowstone Club Southern California travel, and there’s one more.”
For Montanans like my family, the worst part of this story is the loss of our community, decency, and access. The 1700 acres involved in this development were open to public hunting until just a few years ago, and it was a great whitetail spot, I know, because I hunted there. For Montanans, this is the sort of loss that is deeply unraveling.
I want to be clear, this story is not some anti-wealth diatribe. There have long been wealthy people in this state, and many are personal friends and great people. For more than a century, these more fortunate Montanans have allowed people like us to hunt on their ranches, and they drank beer with us at the bar. Scores have been quietly generous, often taking actions like donating valuable property to a town for a wonderful public beach.
Now, as working people struggle in the least affordable state in this nation, Montanans are trapped, despising the change brought by the billionaires but needing jobs like the few that will emerge from this new development. But everyone knows this is a dangerous catch-22, because this new breed of plutocrats is locking up access, flaunting wealth in an almost unimaginable way, and thereby destroying the compact under which this state has operated for more than a century.
Nothing could be more illustrative of this breakdown than what is happening at Hockaday Orchards, the key 12-acre parcel in Flathead Lake Club development. Without it, Discovery Land has no lake access. It’s a chess piece for them, but the old farm has a rich history and is important to many in this community. Several old buildings remain, including a century-old livery and the 114-year-old apple trees planted by Roger “Weight” Hockaday, which, to this day, still produce fruit.
In the 1940s, Weight’s son, Hugh, planted Lambert and Royal Ann cherry trees, which yield a rare but highly sought-after tart dark ruby fruit. Hugh was also a renowned Montana painter, and he converted a building in the orchard to an artist studio, where he painted highly valued landscapes for decades, including this 1963 watercolor “Peaceful Valley Ranch, Lakeside, Montana,” which depicts the center of the Hockaday orchard in winter.
There was one other thing special about the Hockaday orchard: it’s long been a “u-pick” spot for locals. There’s that valuable Montana social compact again; fortunate people with valuable resources sharing with other Montanans. For years, kids and parents picked the perfect little heirlooms and then jumped in the lake for a swim.
My family was among the hundreds who enjoyed this place and this social compact. This is a picture of Sara and the boys in that orchard on an August day not so long ago, and it’s illustrative of a time in this state before greed overtook it all.
Looking at this picture is a joyful thing for me, but thinking about what is about to happen to this orchard and what is already happening to our state is a different matter.
Discovery Land Company is preparing to bulldoze this place; they’ll rip these old trees from the ground and stack them up in a burn pile. The historic buildings are but a nuisance to them. Public access is a foreign language. They need space to build a fancy marina and docks for dozens of big yachts for people who care so little about this place that they spend only a week or two a year here.
I’ve got some of the last Hockaday Royal Anns in our refrigerator right now, and I’m sad that future Montana kids will never pick or taste these gems. I’m angry that we may never again know a state without greedy people who are indifferent to such incredible loss.

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