I was recently doing some relocation research for a consulting client, and I came across a pretty amazing 960 acre ranch in the south-east corner of Montana. It looked quite promising, but unfortunately it is down-wind of Yellowstone (with a remote chance of becoming a super caldera) downwind of Montana’s missile fields, and just a bit up wind of South Dakota’s missile fields. The client decided to pass on this one–given its locale, and his personal TEOTWAWKI scenario. Thus, it put me at liberty to mention it here in SurvivalBlog. If you are not concerned about a full scale tit-for-tat ground-pounding nuclear exchange with the Russians, then read on. Picture this: Carter County, Montana: 5,500 square miles and only about 1,200 residents, about 1/3 of whom live up in the county seat of Ekalaka, at the north end of the county. The main source of livelihood is beef cattle ranching, plus a few “stripper” oil wells. Great hunting. (The county is known for its elk, wild turkey, antelope, whitetail deer, and mule deer hunting.) The ranch is about 30 miles north of Devil’s Tower National Monument. Here is the description from the realtor’s web site: Very scenic ranch with pine covered hills, grassy meadows, hardwood treed draws to rolling grass covered plains. Plenty of water, many of the draws have springs and pools of water, a 130 ft. deep well with a windmill and one very big spring fed reservoir. Cows do not have to walk over 3/4 mile to water. The house is supplied water by a 22′ deep hand dug well. Bass were planted in the reservoir about 6 to 7 years ago and never fished. Very good deer and turkey hunting as the ranch hasn’t been hunted for years. House is older but very comfortable and is in a very scenic area of the ranch. Access is a county road that is graveled to within 3 miles of the road. The property is a little remote but very peaceful and pretty. Has power and phones. All in all a very easy to maintain ranch. At just 960 acres, this is considered a small ranch, for this region (Because of the scant precipitation, the grazing only supports 35 cow-calf pairs.) It is three miles to the nearest hamlet (Ridge), and a bit further to the nearest post office (at Boyes). It is 27 miles to any decent shopping,. (In Broadus.) The ranch presently has just a one bedroom house, but it is probably big enough to live in while you’d build a new house. The asking price for the 960 acres with house is $550,000, with a possible owner contract. I anticipate that you could carve off two or three 120 acre parcels and keep the rest for yourself, free and clear. There are shopping/tax advantages of being in close proximity to four different states. Hmmm…. See: http://www.montana-ranches.com/hurleyranch.htm Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this listing. It just looked neat, so I’m passing it along.
Carter County, Montana–Talk About Elbow Room!
