Montana’s Valley of the Moon Ranch!

Montana’s Valley of the Moon Ranch!

Montana's Valley of the Moon Ranch!

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Valley of the Moon Ranch is antithetical to the typical rustic ranch retreat given over to cows, horses and rough and tumble ranch hands and log estate homes. Instead, it’s an artists’ retreat with the structures looking almost like space ship fragments scattered over a quiet green valley. Designed by award-winning Argentinean architect and industrial designer, Emilio Ambasz, who was also curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1970 to 1976, one can expect something a little different. Ambasz was one of the early pioneers of green architecture and was able to experiment with his ideas in perfect freedom away from opinion, nay sayers or yea sayers within his 1,400 acres in this private green valley.

According to historical records, the earliest recorded history on Gilbert Creek that flows through the ranch, dates back to 1909 when William Gould, a 60-year old bachelor from Georgia, applied for a patent on his homestead where he had been living for the previous 16 years. The story of Valley of the Moon Ranch specifically is even more recent. Historical documents show that James Finlen, Sr., a mining financier from Butte, Montana, bought Valley of the Moon Ranch from the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1921, some years after the railroad had received a large congressional land grant. A politician by the name of McDowell bought the property from Finlen, Sr. only to later sell it to Finlen’s son, James Finlen, Jr. in the 1930s. Finlen, Jr. sold the ranch in 1959 and since then it has only had a couple of owners.

Just outside of Clinton, Montana, the ranch is surrounded by forest lands at the end of a very discreet road, with extensive frontage on Rock Creek, one of Montana’s most famous blue ribbon trout fisheries. The five-bedroom, eight-bath, 10,300-square-foot main house is partially subterranean, helping to maintain a steady year-round temperature and contains kitchen, dining room with fireplace, living room, a library with a fireplace, recreation room, office with fireplace, and an exercise room with an indoor swimming pool. An art gallery on the other side of the lake with its circular sculpture garden entryway is also partially subterranean. The 1,800-square-foot guest home has multiple glass walls for viewing the mountains, creeks and meadows and an in-ground sculpture by James Turrell emitting a slow motion light show. A manager’s home is stationed as a "gatekeeping" structure along the drive to the owner’s compound. For more information.

Designed in 1993 by award-winning architect and former curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Emilio Ambasz, the 1,400-acre Valley of the Moon Ranch in Clinton, Montana is now for sale, priced at $12.5 million.

Source: hallhall.com