The land.
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Sydney walking in the field the very first day we discovered it (Sept 11, 2018)
On February 22, 2019 at 9am I wrote one of the biggest checks of my life. We had received some news I’d been eagerly waiting for. The title for the land I had been arduously working on (jumping through the legal hoops of development, city meetings, and trying to understand the regulations around land divisions) had finally been put in my name. But on that day, what I actually felt was a little annoyance. Annoyed that it took SO long…. Or that it felt like it took so long. Maybe that was just my impatience, because this piece of land was so special. A dream property. Literally a dream, because when I first discovered this undeveloped land alongside Whitefish’s Airport – a grass landing strip that could provide endless opportunities to backcountry adventure just steps from my house – there was no way I thought it could be possible to build a home there.
It all began with passion. A passion for backcountry aviation, for the town and community of Whitefish, for all the adventures that exist in and around this beautiful corner of Norwest Montana, and a passion to someday own my dream home here.
At the end of last summer, Sydney and I were driving back into town from a weekend spent in the North Fork and I decided to take the scenic backroad. I’ve gone this way many times before, but on this day, we noticed a brand-new spec home being built on the far corner of fallow land that used to be an old farm. This land, I knew, bordered Whitefish’s only grass airstrip that I had flown into a dozen times but had no idea that anyone could build out there! Right then, the seed of an idea was planted about someday owning a piece of that land. The dream: a place with views of Glacier Park, Big Mountain, and the Whitefish range.
Whitefish is a small mountain town 20 miles from Kalispell, the place I grew up, and I moved back here in 2015. After spending 10 years in Colorado and traveling the world, it was time to come home. I learned how to fly right when I moved to Vail and it’s since become my favorite passion. So of course, one of the first things I did when I moved back to Montana was start exploring the backcountry skies. Whitefish has long been home to a sleepy little grass landing strip (58S) that, until recently, was just outside the city. That all began to change when Vic, a local developer, purchased the barren farmland that bordered the strip and began the process to get it annexed into our city limits. His goal was to get the land subdivided and sold off in 6 different parcels ranging from 2.5-4.9 acres each. While this was already in motion that day we drove past, it was all unbeknownst to me.
As fate would have it, a few days later I was out at the local watering hole, The Great Northern Bar (aka “The No No”) and ran into James, a local acquaintance. He mentioned he had just purchased some of the land from Vic and was planning to subdivide and sell it. I was ecstatic!
That next morning, I had breakfast with my good friend and realtor, Will MacDonald, and recounted the story. He said, “Let’s go take a look at it!” After filling up on breakfast burritos, we headed to the strip. Upon seeing James’ land, I realized right away that it wasn’t going to work – there wasn’t any access to the runway. But we walked around. I was immediately drawn to a piece of land nearby the windsock that bordered the strip. I just walked right to it. It felt right. I stood there taking it all in and said, “Will, I’m not interested in any piece of land but the one right here that I’m standing on. Can you find out if there’s any way I would ever be able to own this?” Not knowing who owned it, what plans were already in motion for it, or if it would ever become for sale, Will went to work.
Two days later, Will called. “Well, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is, Vic owns that land you want and is planning to try to get it annexed and subdivided. The bad news is, there’s no guarantee that will happen, when that will happen, what the price is going to be, and whether or not you’ll even be the lucky guy who gets it.”
Well, I just blocked out the bad news. There was still hope and I just knew right then that the universe was on my side.
Fast-forward through the next few months. They looked a lot like this: mixed feedback, a rollercoaster of weekly meetings, city hearings, reading through documents, calls with the state of Montana, filings, calling everyone with questions, and thousands of emails. But sure enough, just before 2018 came to an end, the subdivision was approved, and the dream was about come true. Happy New Year!
