Champs & Chumps: Fall 2025

Water fight in the Crazy Mountains.

From the beginning, Montana has been plagued by rapacious crooks who disregard our laws and lands in favor of personal enrichment. It began with the fur trade, continued with the gold mines, and was damn near codified by the cattle barons and range wars. Then, of course, came the Copper Kings, who pilfered and polluted the hills of Butte before fleeing to their Fifth Avenue mansions, never prosecuted for their wickedness. And while many Montanans have stood strong, refusing to become obsequious servants of the super-rich, others are more than happy to sell their souls and serve as lackeys, lickspittles, and even henchmen. This summer, we witnessed such a dichotomy first-hand amid the Rock Lake water scandal in the Crazies. Let’s dig into the details, shall we?

Chumps
This past summer, the Yellowstone Club’s newest and most contentious development, the Crazy Mountain Ranch (CMR), was served with a cease-and-desist lawsuit by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) for knowingly irrigating their golf course from Rock Creek without proper permits and authorization. Rather than letting their precious sod wither away, CMR began trucking in 100,000 gallons of water per day to keep the fairways green. What’s more, the water was from the City of Big Timber, sold at the bargain-basement price of $14 per 1,000 gallons, for treated drinking water sourced from the ever-shrinking Boulder River.

Luckily, the citizens of Big Twig got together and let their servile city commission have it. Three of the five city officials capitulated, voting to suspend further sales to the CMR—and thereby joining two nearby townships, White Sulphur Springs and Livingston, who also rebuffed the CMR. Alas, while Sweet Grass County narrowly averted being renamed Kiss-Ass County, three other area locales—Boulder, Columbus, and Four Corners—have all stepped up to lick the billionaires’ boot heels. What’s even more appalling is the paltry sum these Three Stooges are willing to accept for the wasteful water usage—by one report, a mere one penny per gallon. For shame!

Livingstonians have worked hard to keep the paradise in Paradise Valley, and they’re not done yet. Kudos to you, our venerable comrades over the hill.

Champs
Unlike their neighbors to the east, Livingston has remained a bulwark against the gluttonous ambitions of developers in Park County. They’re perhaps one of the last bastions of true western identity and they’ve got the receipts to prove it. Over the years, the citizens and the municipal government have banded together to shoot down the plans of avaricious outsiders looking to turn a quick buck in their back yards, at the expense of wildlife, rural values, and natural viewsheds. To date, they’ve helped squash several of the most egregious and destructive proposals in the area, including Ameya Preserve and the Chico gold mine. Worth special mention is the Park County Environment Council (PCEC), which has been instrumental in landing these victories for conservation—most recently, by helping establish zoning to protect Suce Creek from a 100-cabin luxury resort development. Together, Livingstonians have worked hard to keep the paradise in Paradise Valley, and they’re not done yet. Were it not for their sounding the alarm, the DRNC may have never ordered CMR to stop pulling water from Rock Creek in the first place—and when the golf goons came looking for water, the City of Livingston told ‘em to pound sand. Kudos to you, our venerable comrades over the hill. Keep fighting the good fight.