B Bar K / Lone Mountain Ranch
Eastern clients visited dude ranches for authentically western experiences in complete comfort or, as one rancher put it, “home-made bedsteads but forty-pound mattresses.” The B Bar K was no exception. Wealthy Chicagoan J. Fred Butler bought the ranch from homesteader Clarence Lytle in 1927. The historic irrigation ditches, a spring house, fence lines, and horse trails are all that remain of Lytle’s original 1910s homestead. Butler and his daughter and son-in-law, Florence and Don Kilbourne, named the property the B Bar K. The families spent some $110,000 (over $1 million in today’s currency) on their summer playground. Trees felled nearby provided logs for the Rustic style buildings, designed to fit an idealized vision of the West. Native stone fireplaces further reinforced a connection to the surrounding wilderness. Florence decorated the cabins with Navajo rugs, Indian beadwork, and hand-crafted furniture, while the bathrooms were “supplied with everything from hot water to shower caps.” A business downturn led the Kilbournes to take paying guests. They were among 150 Montana dude ranchers operating during the Great Depression. Although some impoverished ranchers opened their homes to guests, many dude ranches were run by transplanted Easterners, like the Butler/Kilbourne family, who could anticipate the expectations of their wealthy visitors. After 1947, the ranch briefly became a boy’s camp, and then headquarters for a logging operation. In 1955, Jack and Elaine Hume purchased the property, renaming it Lone Mountain Ranch. Owners today continue in the long-standing tradition, offering a magical combination of comfortable accommodations and outdoor recreation.
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