Fifty Years Young 

Where we started, and where we can go 

By Taylor Middleton GUEST COLUMNIST 

“The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there,” Adam Grant writes in his new book, “Hidden Potential.” If this is true—and I believe it is—then the occasion of Big Sky Resort’s 50th anniversary offers no cause for a midlife crisis, and plenty of reasons to celebrate. 

Big Sky has clearly climbed a long way from our beginnings to today. The contrast between then and now is especially sharp because the resort began in a place with so little infrastructure. When the team tasked with creating a ski area arrived in 1970, they immediately realized they would also need to create a mountain town. Just three years before the ski area opened, Big Sky not only lacked lifts and hotels, but also paved roads, municipal water and sewer, a post office, fire department, owners association, and reliable electricity and phone service. But somehow, none of this mattered.  

Fueled by the vision of the immensely popular newscaster Chet Huntley, millions of dollars from deep-pocketed investors, and enthusiastic commitments from early real estate buyers, the bare bones of a ski resort and a tiny town beside it quickly took shape in just four frenetic years.  

But the vision that originally powered Big Sky Resort faded with Chet Huntley’s death in the spring of 1974, and lost its way entirely when a national oil crisis and recession slowed plane and car travel—and thus tourism and real estate—to a standstill. Out of money and enthusiasm, the development group sold the resort in 1976.  

Big Sky Resort has now been continuously owned and operated by the Kircher family and their company, Boyne Resorts, for 47 of Big Sky’s 50 years in business. Big Sky Resort was Boyne Resort’s third ski resort and its first in the West. Boyne also owned a scenic lift in Gatlinburg, Tennessee that did not depend on snow for revenue—a deliberate financial cushion for the weather-dependent ski businesses. 

Everett Kircher, Boyne’s very active first president and founder, understood both the promise and the pitfalls of the ski business. His vision was every bit as grand as those of his predecessors at Big Sky, but his timeline was different. In the early years, his company moved with what at times seemed to many locals to be either maddening slowness, or later, far too much haste.   

In fact, it was neither. Everett simply practiced what he preached to his management team: He never got out ahead of his skis. Everett was constantly aware of the inherent risks in skiing and the ski business, from droughts and fires to avalanches and accidents. Perhaps as a result, Big Sky survived all of these, and more, including a global pandemic, and many economic downturns. In 2008, a real-estate lending crisis created a global recession so deep that it forced a change of ownership at every resort in the area—except Big Sky. Instead of closing, Big Sky actually completed the single biggest ski expansion in the resort’s history when in 2013 it integrated Moonlight into Big Sky ski terrain, solidifying its place as the “Biggest Skiing in America.” 

While Boyne’s fiscal conservatism kept the resort solvent, the company’s deep history in invention and innovation kept it nimble and forward thinking. Everett was himself an inventor, holding three patents in snowmaking and lift technology when he died in 2002. Not surprisingly, Big Sky Resort almost immediately began installing lifts after the Boyne purchase and never stopped. Currently, the resort has the most advanced lift system in North America. Big Sky also quickly embraced changing times: banning smoking, implementing cashless purchasing, joining national ski pass programs and creating a workplace culture focused on servant leadership. 

I frequently hear people say Big Sky is changing faster than ever. But the actual numbers tell a different story. Big Sky has been roughly doubling in residents, second homes, school enrollment, visitation and traffic about every decade since 1973. But when the starting point was nothing, five decades of doubling can seem like a lot. Achieving the balance between too much and too little, too fast and too slow will always be a challenge. I have come to believe that these opposite poles are the two faces of success: One says ‘whoa’ while the other says ‘giddy up.’ Together, they keep us about where we should be.  

I believe history will judge Big Sky Resort as an enterprise that had the discipline to survive the hard times, the perseverance and commitment to be able to endure what so many ski startups couldn’t, and the vision to embrace new technologies and ideas in order to reach for the best. I know that in over four decades of living in Big Sky and working for Big Sky Resort, I’ve seen a steep trajectory of continual improvement in the ski area and the town it calls home. From my vantage, I believe in the potential for much higher peaks ahead. 

What will those mountains of potential look like? I believe we will focus on protecting the beauty and nature around us. Big Sky (and all Boyne Resorts) are on the way to reaching our commitment to net zero atmospheric carbon emissions by 2030. We will also continue to do our part to keep water fresh, clean and plentiful by recycling through snowmaking and golf course irrigation. 

I believe our mountain town will grow stronger when all of our community members—guests, second homeowners, residents, workers—can live here and enjoy it together. Thousands of beds of workforce housing have been and are being constructed in Big Sky, and I believe this will continue with deep and lasting benefits.   

I believe in the potential of our citizens. One benefit of being an unincorporated place is that our current governing structure shares the power and the responsibility among many districts with elected boards. More than 100 people volunteer their time to help govern our community by serving on boards governing the school, fire department, water and sewer services, resort tax, transportation, parks and trails, and zoning. The amazing thing about Big Sky is that anyone—including you—can be one of these leaders. Big Sky has more people, and thus more new ideas and talent, than ever before.   

Finally, I believe in the transformative power of what we do. Our guests and team members frequently tell us how their time in Big Sky—whether a week or a lifetime—changed their perspectives, their goals, their relationships, and their lives in a meaningful way. I’m one of those people, and you may be one too. 

The potential that we all have within us to make Big Sky a better place for the next 50 years is both a joy and an obligation. But one thing is certain: Together, we will keep climbing. 

Taylor Middleton began his career at Big Sky Resort 42 years ago in 1981. He currently serves as the resort’s President and Chief Operating Officer.