New book captures Big Sky’s 50-year history 

Book celebrates growth of Big Sky’s community and culture, ‘For all who love big ideas and Big Sky’

By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

Writer and Big Sky community member Barbara Rowley wrote the words, and Boyne Resorts executive Molly Kircher arranged the art and photography for a new book celebrating the history and ever-evolving culture of Big Sky. “BIG SKY” is rich with full-page imagery, and focuses on the history of Big Sky Resort from its creation, through Boyne Resorts’ 47-year ownership, and the associated development of Big Sky’s year-round community.  

“BIG SKY” was released this winter by Assouline, a French publisher known for luxury coffee-table-style books depicting culture, brands and places.  

“They are internationally known, and I have long wanted Big Sky to be among their collection,” Kircher told EBS. Aided by a coincident family connection between Bozeman and an Assouline executive, the publisher was thrilled by her proposal.  

Assouline launched the book on Feb. 16 at its store in The Plaza Hotel in New York City, and a private launch party was held on March 21 in Big Sky, including all of Big Sky Resort’s living general managers: John Miller and Bob Fritz, Taylor Middleton, and Troy Nedved. Rowley and Kircher plan to host a book signing event or two in the Big Sky area this summer.  

The book contains roughly 10,000 words—for scale, Harry Potter books range from about 77,000 to 257,000—balanced against sprawling photography and art. 

“My friend Molly Kircher and I thought we needed a book that celebrated the years after Chet Huntley, and that book did not exist,” Rowley told EBS. “And we thought the 50th anniversary would be a great time to do that.” 

It’s been 35 years since Rowley discovered Big Sky.  

In 1990, she was writing about the “small-scale intimacy” of Big Sky Resort for an assignment with Snow Country magazine, and in planning her field trip, she met Taylor Middleton, resort director of sales and marketing; today, he’s president and COO. Middleton later invited her back to Montana, and they would eventually marry.  

On the first page of Rowley’s article, Snow Country noted, “Barbara had so much fun at Big Sky that she moved there after writing this article,” which only validated her article’s praise of the young mountain town.

Three decades of Big Sky living later, with a fresh opportunity to share Big Sky’s story, Rowley said she went “all in” on research and loved the process. It helped to have Middleton as an “original source” with well-kept notes and experience from Big Sky Resort since 1981. Research deepened Rowley’s knowledge and love for Big Sky, and Kircher said Rowley’s talent and writing chops made her the perfect scribe—Rowley said it only took her about a month. 

“You find so much more than you have room to say,” she said. “… I wasn’t trying to get 50 years in 14,000 words, because that’s impossible.” 

Kircher, the book’s producer, feels a similar way. She tackled imagery and art, praising designer and graphic artist Sophie Dupin for helping her sift through the visual archives. Kircher was disappointed by the lack of photos from the earliest days and as she dug for founding-era photographs, she realized the importance of preserving history across Boyne’s resorts. Despite this, Rowley said Kircher was “relentless” in sourcing images.  

“It was a pretty big process. Sometimes you get into things that are much more involved than you expected,” Kircher said. The entire book came together during 2023, between June and October.  

It took a lot of work to decide which narrative thread to pull on and select existing photos of Big Sky’s countless dramatic landscapes and nostalgic artifacts. Both creators were struck by the boldness of Chet Huntley’s concept.  

Visionaries and homegrown leaders 

Kircher became attached to the late Gustav “Gus” Raaum, Big Sky Resort’s first general manager. Rowley and Kircher had access to his entire “fascinating” notebook. Raaum was a former Olympic ski jumper from Norway, who immigrated from Europe in 1947, learned English, and ran Jackson Hole Mountain Resort 20 years later, before Chet Huntley recruited him.  

The assignment: operate a ski resort in the middle of Greater Yellowstone wilderness.  

“It really was insane what they were trying to do,” Kircher realized while studying Raaum. Rowley wrote that his notebook resembled “an impossible to-do list.”  

Cancer took Huntley within months of Big Sky Resort’s 1973 opening. Hurt by the compounding effects of the 1973 oil crisis on tourism and real estate—corporate investors included Chrysler and Northwest Airlines, plus energy and oil companies—the struggling resort was sold in 1976. Raaum journaled that despite offering extensive perks to condominium prospects, “they couldn’t give them away” due to the uncertainty of traveling to such a remote destination.  

Rowley wrote that any buyer of that young ski resort would need “big ideas” and optimism. Boyne Resorts founder Everett Kircher became that buyer. Even Everett’s acquisition was a bold move, Molly Kircher said of her father-in-law. 

“It could have looked crazy at the time,” Kircher said. “It’s not like it’s been an overnight success… It took a visionary to take a visionary’s idea and actually bring it to fruition.”  

That’s the story “BIG SKY” explores, of Boyne and the Kircher family, who brought entrepreneurial history and ski industry knowledge to the dream of Big Sky—its foundation set by a non-skiing Montana native in Huntley. 

“What I want people to come away with is the amount of time, and energy, and vision and investment that this company, Boyne USA, decided to put here,” Rowley said. Even with outside pressures to grow in certain ways at certain times along Big Sky Resort’s slow road to substantial profitability, Rowley said, “they took it from there to a premier ski area in the United States and the world.”  

Rowley emphasized chapter three, “Living in Big Sky: A Do-It-Yourself Neighborhood,” which discusses the way Big Sky developed its own infrastructure. Middleton recalls when resort bellmen would drive to Bozeman, stashing the day’s cash receipts in a bag under their car seat, until a bank finally opened in Big Sky in 1990. 

“Where Big Sky started and where it has gotten to in a pretty short period of time is amazing,” Rowley said. “And I hope I give credit to all these visionaries and leaders—both in the community and in the company… They were eyes-on-the-prize people.” 

The late Everett Kircher said his first time skiing Big Sky was “a romance,” as he’s quoted in the book. That was 20 years before his son and former general manager, the late John Kircher, installed the original Lone Peak Tram with a vision of Big Sky’s “unbounded” ski terrain. Another 20 years gave way to Boyne’s commitment to improve Mountain Village amenities, lift infrastructure, community partnerships and transportation connectivity.  

In “BIG SKY,” Stephen explains that Chet Huntley desired an economically viable resort destination in his home state, and Everett Kircher wanted to own a prosperous western resort.  

“When I wonder what they’d think of Big Sky today, it seems like they’d be proud of all it has become and as excited as we are about its future,” Stephen says. 

Inspired by the vision of Big Sky’s founding leaders, Molly Kircher said the book’s production energized her own sense of pride in Boyne’s long-term development of Big Sky. She said Boyne aspires to guide Big Sky to be more than a business, but a “legacy project.”  

“It’s much more than a financial opportunity,” Kircher said. “It’s an opportunity to create a place.” 

This place has changed a lot in 50 years. A new edition of its past, present and future is now available for coffee tables needing another hardcover.  

Cracking open the book, its dedication affirms its audience. 

“For all who love big ideas and Big Sky.”