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Newsletter from Montana
October 2006
Are you looking for a ranch? I have a Cessna 182 and pilot, we can pick you up from any airport in the states where I am licensed, and we can fly to each ranch on our list. I usually charge a flat fee of $ 500 per trip, which will be fully refunded if you sign me up as your
buyer's agent and purchase a ranch within 365 days of the charges occurred.
This is a new service I am offering since my little plane has now been completely overhauled and even has a brand new interior, thanks to my husband who now also added an interior shop to his aviation maintenance station. (KDTL)
Did you know the Eisenhower Interstate System requires that one mile in every five must be straight? These straight sections are intended airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
I sold my house and Tanja and I moved into the apartment of
Hangar 9 at the Red Lodge airport, which I have listed, so she can finish school here. Talking about lush, the granite in the kitchen and for the mantle came all the way from Russia, there is a hardwood floor, tile and a mountain view that can hardly be beat by any other dwelling around town! Of course, I would love for you to throw me out by buying the hangar. It is not a regular run off the mill hangar by far! It has a red wood deck in front of the apartment toward the mountains and besides having room for a couple of airplanes, there is a vault room for your gun collection, a floor safe, a laundry room and naturally it is steel construction with insulation and double strength for heavy snow loads (just in case).
Looking out the window from the hangar, we can watch deer, which is actually not a good thing on an airport, but nevertheless enjoyable. The apartment is bright and sunny, take a look at the website.
There is 100LL and Jet-A available and there will soon be a full service FBO again, since I sold the warehouse to our new operator. He has big plans and eventually would like to build a lodge at the airport with airplane parking and a restaurant. The view most certainly would lend itself to such an endeavor!
I decorated the apartment with five of Paul E. Boswell's oil paintings (originals that will convey along with the furnishings). His art depicts the mountains of the West and he likes to ghost in Native Americans or mountain men, as they roamed the area in times long past. I love his work, and I made a
website for him. Those paintings make a perfect gift for those who harbor a fascination with the mountains and history of the West. Paul said he would give everybody who mentions my name a 20% discount! His paintings are framed, finished and ready to go on the wall. They are very reasonably priced: all 18" x 24" $ 975 and all 24" x 36" $ 1,500. Hey, it is almost Christmas! :-)
One of Boswell's paintings depicts Sacagawea, which loosely translates to "Bird Woman." He had painted it for the Lewis and Clark two-hundred-year anniversary. Everywhere you go around here, you will see markers with a silhouette of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark pointing to some landmark where they had camped or made an important discovery. They had set out in May, 1804, on an expedition across the Louisiana Territory. I suppose you could call them "home inspectors for the Louisiana Purchase" :-)
They seemed to know where they were going, except for Montana where they crisscrossed all over the place. Sacagawea was a Native American Lady, who went with them and was extremely helpful to their expedition. They traveled almost 2.5 years and covered about 8000 miles with all the side trips. When the expedition reached the Pacific, Clark estimated to have traveled a distance of 4,162 miles from the mouth of the Missouri to the Pacific. His guess was within 40 miles of the actual distance! When the expedition reached the Pacific, the party voted on where to spend the winter. York, Clark's slave, was allowed to vote, nearly 60 years before slaves in the U.S. would be emancipated. Sacagawea was also permitted to vote, almost a century before either women or Native Americans were granted full rights of citizenship. By the way, Wyoming was the fist state of the nation to allow women to vote in 1889.
The Louisiana Purchase mainly happened because the United States wanted to acquire the area near New Orleans to guarantee its right to sail vessels down the Mississippi River through Spanish territory and unload goods at New Orleans for shipment to the Atlantic coast and Europe. Moreover, the United States wanted to possess the entire territory of Louisiana because so many American settlers and merchants were already in the region and because of its vital geographic position at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The United States discovered the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France and sent Robert Livingston to France in 1801 to try to purchase New Orleans. Napoleon initially refused, leading President Thomas Jefferson to send James Monroe to secure the deal. However, in April 1803, just days before Monroe was to arrive in Paris, Napoleon offered to sell the United States not only New Orleans but "all of Louisiana". Napoleon's minister of the treasury, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, dealt with Livingston and Monroe over terms of the Louisiana Purchase. The United States purchased Louisiana for $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its own citizens against France up to $3,750,000, for a total purchase price of $15 million. After interest, the final total came to be $27,267,622. That works out to be about 3˘ an acre.
Well, and what is the housing market doing now in the Roscoe - Luther - Red Lodge - Roberts area?
9 homes are under contract - median $ 375,000
92 homes have sold since the beginning of this year - median $ 225,000 (median total $20,700,000)
Last year during the same time 101 homes had sold - median price $ 175,000 (median total $ 17,675,000)
For comparison in 2001 during the first 9 months of the year merely 50 homes were sold with a median price of $ 125,000 (median spent $ 6,250,000)
Vacant land sold in the Roscoe - Luther - Red Lodge - Roberts area 01/01/2006 - 10/10/2006
under 1 acre: 17 lots median price $ 78,000
1-5 acres: 17 lots median price $ 125,000
5.1 - 20: acres 18 parcels sold for a median of $ 150,000
Total median spent: $ 6,151,000
Vacant land sold in the same area in the first 9 months of last year:
under 1 acre: 36 lots median price $ 50,000
1-5 acres: 26 lots median price $ 85,000
5.1 - 20: acres 25 parcels sold for a median of $ 125,000
Total median spent: 7,135,000
All in all less has sold, but the prices are higher compared to the first nine month of the previous year. On the other hand, look at the sold statistic for the first nine months in 2001 for vacant land:
Under 1 acres: 2 lots median price $ 34,000
1-5 acres: 15 lots median price $ $ 60,000
5.1 - 20 acres 6 parcels median price $ 47,000
Total median spent: $ 1,250,000
Makes me wonder if the area is growing....
Another area that might be on the upswing is good ol' Roundup in the Bullmountains north (and a little to the east) of Billings. The Bull Mountain Land Company announced an initial agreement with DKRW Advanced Fuels on one of the nation's first coal-to-liquids facilities. The proposed facility would be located on the site of the Bull Mountain Coal mine just outside of Roundup. This plant would employ state-of-the-art technology to gasify, rather than ignite the coal. The factory would convert a portion of the synthetic gas into as much as 22,000 barrels per day of diesel fuel, using the rest of the syn-gas to produce "clean" electricity. This type of project could bring thousands of jobs to the region and have a strong overall economic impact on the entire state. In the greater picture, it gives America hope for an alternative to imported oil. The plant could also produce 300 megawatts of electricity using IGCC (Integrated Gas Combined Cycle) technology, the cleanest and most advanced form of power production from coal, and would be outfitted with technology to capture and store carbon dioxide underground, a process promoted by scientists as a way of dealing with global warming emissions from fossil fuel plants. Perhaps most importantly, the gasifier at the facility will remove virtually all mercury, sulfur and particulate matter from the coal. The coal-to-liquids refinery and IGCC plant will take a decade to build and they have not started yet, still a hot tip.
You might want to keep an eye on that area.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns, she could use her own plant!
If you would like to know which gas station sells the cheapest gas in your own neighborhood, check out
Gas Buddy
Tuula found this neat
music animation.
If you live around lakes and like to leisurely explore the great outdoors while doing some low impact exercises, you might want to consider to walk on water with a Sea Jogger for $899.00 (includes shipping). Jeff Solomon is the proprietor of
Sea Jogger Systems Inc. Toll Free: 1-866-550-5053
I do have three new listings here in the drawer, but because of holidays, winter snows and all of that, we will leave it there and pull them out in spring. They are small farms in North Dakota, northern Minnesota and a homesite in the Paradise Valley south of Livingston on the way to the Yellowstone Park.
If you like to hike near Bozeman, the Hyalite drainage is snuggled between the Gallatin Canyon and Paradise Valley in the Gallatin National Forest, approximately a 30 minute drive due south from downtown Bozeman. The breathtaking views of the surrounding peaks, the backdrop to the Hyalite Reservoir, gives one a glimpse of the wide ranging hiking opportunities the Hyalite area has to offer. You can challenge yourself with strenuous trails that head up the towering, craggy peaks, or enjoy easy walking trails to scenic viewpoints. The opportunity to take a dip in the chilly reservoir, fish for a while or to even camp by the water, can top off a great day outdoors.
Grotto Falls/Hyalite Lake:
Directions: From Main Street, head south on 19th Ave. seven miles turn left, it is marked with a sign for Hyalite Canyon. Drive about 10 miles up the canyon to the reservoir and cross over the bridge to the east side. At the fork, turn right and drive almost two miles to the end of the road at the Grotto Falls/Hyalite Lake trailhead and parking area.
Distance: 2.5 miles round trip to Grotto Falls/11 miles round trip to Hyalite Lake
Description: Meandering along Hyalite Creek, the Grotto Falls Trail is a wide, smooth, gravel, handicapped accessible trail with views of surrounding peaks and beautiful stopping points with benches on the way to the cascading falls. After you reach the falls, the trail narrows, and gets steeper as it climbs 2,000 feet towards Hyalite Lake, passing 10 more waterfalls along the way. Once up at the high alpine lake, Hyalite and Fridley Peaks tower before you.
Palisade Falls:
Directions: Once up at Hyalite Reservoir, cross over the bridge to the east side. At the fork, turn left and drive 1.5 miles to the Palisade Falls parking lot.
Distance: 1.2 miles round trip.
Description: A paved, easy walking trail leading to the majestic Palisade Falls. Smaller trails wind up to the top of the falls for an alternate viewpoint.
Emerald Lake/Heather Lake:
Directions: Once up at Hyalite Reservoir, cross over the bridge to the east side. At the fork, turn left and drive two miles to the trail-head parking lot at the end of the road.
Distance: Nine miles round trip to Emerald Lake/10 miles round trip to Heather Lake
Description: The trail follows the east fork of Hyalite Creek, passing two waterfalls on the way, with a steep climb towards the end with views of the Hyalite Canyon behind you. After this accent, the trail leads through two different open meadows - great, wide-open vistas especially delightful during the height of wildflower season. Once you come to an overview of Emerald Lake, the trail splits. The trail to the left circles around the lake, and the trail to the right heads past the lake and up another half mile to Heather Lake.
Sometimes, a hug is all what we need.
Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, a man who's sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. The effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal, but as it spread across the city, police and officials initially banned it. Citizens got it re-instated and now there are quite a few hugging endeavors all around the world.
For those of you who would like a hug, here is one from me until my next newsletter at the end of November - Have a happy Thanksgiving!
:-)
Best Regards,
Dorothea Lowe, Broker
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