Our home is located in the southwestern part of the state of Montana about 60 miles north of Yellowstne National Park, and just west of the town of Gallatin Gateway, The town was originally settled as Salesville, in the mid-1800s. It, the river and the valley were named after President Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury, who provided Lewis and Clark with the resources necessary to make their famous trip. The Valley is range land for cattle and pigs, farm land for winter wheat, and wilderness for Elk, deer, rabbits, brown bear, grizzley bear, moose, beaver, fox, coyote, wolf, river otters, bison and other mammals.
It is winter sanctuary for bald eagles and golden eagles, and a migratory stop-off for geese, cranes and many other birds. It is also the native home to cutthroat trout, artic grayling and mountain whitefish. In more recent times, brown, rainbow and brook trout have intruded on the menagerie.
The property we are privileged to shepherd for a time is part of what used to be a much larger ranch encompassing much of the southwest portion of the Gallatin Valley. We have managed to reconnect about 32-acres of the old Plum Ranch, a very small amount by Montana standards, and have left it pretty much as we found it, save for some improvement of the pond fishery that is on the property. The land covers one of two channels of the Gallatin River, which provides tremendous fishing for wild trout. Also on the property is a pond, which is filled via a natural spring of substantial flow. The head of the spring was a gathering point for Nez Perce tribe members in centuries past, and one can find an occasional arrowhead or other trace artifact near it. Even today, we are occasionally visited by members of the tribe, who request and are granted permission to use our land by the river to build a tradiional sweat lodge.
The small farm house was built around 1911 and served as the main family outpost on the larger property for nearly 80 years, before the ranch was subdivided.
To the south is the gateway to the rugged Gallatin Canyon, Big Sky ski destination resort and the entrance to Ted Turner's 112,000 acres of marvelous wilderness, which bridges the Gallatin and Madison River basins. He raises about 2500 bison and provides a home for most of the wild animals listed above. Last time we visited his property for a few hours, we spotted to bears, including one bright red cinammon bear. West of us is the lower, northern part of the Madison range, leading to the Madison River, one of the world's most reknown trout fisheries. Just to the east of the Gallatin Valley is Paradise valley, the defining terrain of the Yellowstone River, the longest undamned river in the United States. Finally, north of us the valley terminates into the Bridger Mountains, named for the explorer Jim Bridger Through a small opening in the mountains to the northwest the Gallatin River joins the Madison River and the Jefferson River to form the Missouri RIver at Three Forks.
