Building Around Nature

At Home on the Range
There’s a cowboy lurking somewhere inside all of us. He might be buried beneath thick urban layers of lattés, skyscrapers, and art openings, but he’s in there. And he yearns. He yearns for quiet, pristine land, and for commune with Aspen trees, elk, and trout streams. He wants (or needs) the Great Wide Open.       

Three new conservation developments, one in Montana and two in South Dakota, understand this yearning. They are creating architecturally vibrant wilderness preservation communities for a new generation of second-home and vacation-property buyers. The Wilderness Club , in northwest Montana, is taking reservations for first-phase offerings of seventy-five home sites starting at $250,000, and five luxury cabins, starting at $700,000. Situated near the Rocky Mountains and Lake Koocanusa, the Wildnerness Club offers hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing, and, for the golf addict, an 18-hole Nick Faldo Championship golf course.

In the Black Hills, Hidden Canyon Ranch is also in its first phase of development. Owner Randy Miller, a longtime rancher wanting to spare his land from unsightly and irreversible development, created a system of protective covenants and deed restrictions to ensure the 1,500-acre ranch will stay as close to its natural state as possible. Miller has 150 acres slated for fifty-six home sites to be designed by the renowned Bitterroot Group, a firm that specializes in building unique, environmentally sensitive mountain homes. The ranch’s namesake “hidden canyon” doubles as an awe-inspiring limestone landscape and as a historical buffalo hunting ground of the Lakota Sioux.

Tatanka Spirit, also nestled in the Black Hills, is a wilderness preservation community offering custom lots for sale or fractional ownership in homes that are critically sited for privacy and density-level protection. Tatanka Spirit’s responsible approach to land use and stewardship includes a variety of low environmental impact activities and amenities like hiking, nature viewing, communal stables, and a furnished outback tipi camp. At day’s end, you can stroll up to the three-story Ranger’s Tower for a cocktail and a deep sigh of relief. Serenity now.