Montana's Flathead Lake
People love celebrities and they love reading about Montana celebrities.
Most these days are people that head here to get away from it all, and can you blame them? The land is beautiful, the sky is clean, and the people don’t give a damn about you. Talk about paradise!
That said, there’s still many people that think these celebrities should be left their privacy, even in cases when they’re not living here anymore…and sometimes haven’t in decades. Perhaps it’s that kind of attitude and mindset that’s one reason so many famous people come to Montana – the fact that we’ll leave you the hell alone, and expect you to do the same.
That’s the attitude many have encountered in Montana, and many have been flummoxed by it. Perhaps none more so than Hollywood legend, Steve McQueen.
Most these days are people that head here to get away from it all, and can you blame them? The land is beautiful, the sky is clean, and the people don’t give a damn about you. Talk about paradise!
That said, there’s still many people that think these celebrities should be left their privacy, even in cases when they’re not living here anymore…and sometimes haven’t in decades. Perhaps it’s that kind of attitude and mindset that’s one reason so many famous people come to Montana – the fact that we’ll leave you the hell alone, and expect you to do the same.
That’s the attitude many have encountered in Montana, and many have been flummoxed by it. Perhaps none more so than Hollywood legend, Steve McQueen.
Steve McQueen
If you want to find out about Steve McQueen in Montana, you’ve got to read this wonderful article called “McQueen, the backstory” that appeared in the February 2014 issue of Montana Pioneer. It’s from there that much of the following Montana information comes.
Terence Steven McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, on March 24, 1930. When the Depression hit he moved onto an uncle’s farm until he was 8-years old, then moved back with his mom and step-dad. The latter beat him, and he began running away and getting in trouble. Another marriage followed, as did the beatings. By the time McQueen was 14-years old he threatened to kill his step-father if he laid hands on him again, and that got him sent to reform school in California.
Terence Steven McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, on March 24, 1930. When the Depression hit he moved onto an uncle’s farm until he was 8-years old, then moved back with his mom and step-dad. The latter beat him, and he began running away and getting in trouble. Another marriage followed, as did the beatings. By the time McQueen was 14-years old he threatened to kill his step-father if he laid hands on him again, and that got him sent to reform school in California.
Steven McQueen issue of Montana Pioneer, 2014
Terence Steven McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, on March 24, 1930. When the Depression hit he moved onto an uncle’s farm until he was 8-years old, then moved back with his mom and step-dad. The latter beat him, and he began running away and getting in trouble. Another marriage followed, as did the beatings. By the time McQueen was 14-years old he threatened to kill his step-father if he laid hands on him again, and that got him sent to reform school in California.
McQueen spent two years in the school, then did a sting in the Merchant Marine before eventually joining the Navy, in 1947. "Steve's military training in the late 1940s stuck with him for the rest of his life,” his wife Barbara would later write. “He was very proficient with weapons of all kinds. He knew how to field strip a weapon blindfold and expected me to do it as well.” He stayed in until 1950 and then used his G.I. Bill money to study acting in New York in 1952. To make money he competed in motorcycle races.
In 1955 McQueen moved to California again and started getting bit parts in films. “Steve wasn't a method actor,” his wife wrote. “Instead, he started his research by reading all the material that he could get his hands on about the person he was going to play…Realism was his driving force.” It would be a long and slow slog until 1963’s The Great Escape. The film made Steve McQueen a star, thanks in large part to the daring motorcycle scene which he himself suggested.
McQueen spent two years in the school, then did a sting in the Merchant Marine before eventually joining the Navy, in 1947. "Steve's military training in the late 1940s stuck with him for the rest of his life,” his wife Barbara would later write. “He was very proficient with weapons of all kinds. He knew how to field strip a weapon blindfold and expected me to do it as well.” He stayed in until 1950 and then used his G.I. Bill money to study acting in New York in 1952. To make money he competed in motorcycle races.
In 1955 McQueen moved to California again and started getting bit parts in films. “Steve wasn't a method actor,” his wife wrote. “Instead, he started his research by reading all the material that he could get his hands on about the person he was going to play…Realism was his driving force.” It would be a long and slow slog until 1963’s The Great Escape. The film made Steve McQueen a star, thanks in large part to the daring motorcycle scene which he himself suggested.
Steve McQueen in Montana with wife Barbara, 1977
"McQueen was a true aficionado of America's legendary motorcycle manufacturer," Indian, Barbara said, "once driving 700 miles to view a rare 1915 model. He built up a collection of around 120 classic bikes."
Cars were big too with him. In my mind, the best McQueen film is 1968’s Bullitt. It earned him an Academy Award nomination, and the enmity of Warner Brothers. The film had gone over budget, so they cancelled the contract for the next seven Steve McQueen films. The film proved a huge success, however, but McQueen wouldn’t have anything to do with the studio’s groveling to get him back.
It’d be about 10 years later that he started coming to Montana a lot. He eventually got a cabin outside Monarck, Montana. He also had one in Hailey, Idaho.
Cars were big too with him. In my mind, the best McQueen film is 1968’s Bullitt. It earned him an Academy Award nomination, and the enmity of Warner Brothers. The film had gone over budget, so they cancelled the contract for the next seven Steve McQueen films. The film proved a huge success, however, but McQueen wouldn’t have anything to do with the studio’s groveling to get him back.
It’d be about 10 years later that he started coming to Montana a lot. He eventually got a cabin outside Monarck, Montana. He also had one in Hailey, Idaho.
Steve McQueen in Montana, 1977
McQueen had first come to Montana with his second wife, actress Ali MacGraw. They’d married in 1973 but divorced in 1978. (McQueen’s first marriage had been to actress Neile Adams, which lasted from 1956 to 1972). Here’s how Mike Art, the owner of Chico Hot Springs, remembered the Hollywood movie star:
At the time, McQueen sported a long beard, making him barely recognizable, and dressed down, Art told us, making himself look more like an over-the-road trucker than the superstar he was. Mike Art said thought that McQueen’s “bright blue eyes” were unmistakable as they shone through his shaggy beard and curly mane.
The main problem with McQueen is that he didn’t give a damn about what he looked like. This led to problems, such as the time the police in Whitefish ran him out of town, for no respectable man flashing $100 bills would look as bad as he did.
“Unless he was doing a movie he looked like a homeless guy. He had the beard, the mustache, long hair, and terrible clothes (often from K-Mart). Nobody recognized him unless they looked really hard….If he shaved, he looked nice.”
“The Steve McQueen I knew was a man of simple tastes,” Barbara wrote. “He wore blue jeans, flannel shirts, chukka boots, T-shirts and truckers hats.” Still, McQueen loved Montana, and particularly the Livingston/Paradise Valley area, as Barbara makes clear:
“I think he loved the wild ways and that there were no rules—he was a no rules kind of guy…His love for Montana was very true. He liked the way people thought, acted, and dressed, and everything about Montana.”
David S. Lewis wrote a long piece about Steve McQueen in Montana for The Montana Pioneer magazine in February 2014. He tells how McQueen met his last wife, Barbara Minty, in 1977. The two were on a film set and soon drove McQueen’s truck up to Montana. “We drove to Livingston, and stayed at Tom McGuane’s house,” she said. “We stayed at Chico Hot Springs, hung out there a bit” and also “went horseback riding with Becky Fonda.”
He liked being unrecognized, something that rarely happened anywhere else. At one point the couple was driving around for a few days before they “accepted the hospitality of a western Montana man” and stayed at his Lolo Hot Springs home for four days fishing. It wasn’t until they went to a restaurant in town that they were recognized and the jig was up.
McQueen had a good heart, too. He made it a point in his film contracts that he get toiletries and other basic household items, which he then funneled back to the Boy’s Republic Reformatory school that he’d attended. He also donated heavily to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
He liked being unrecognized, something that rarely happened anywhere else. At one point the couple was driving around for a few days before they “accepted the hospitality of a western Montana man” and stayed at his Lolo Hot Springs home for four days fishing. It wasn’t until they went to a restaurant in town that they were recognized and the jig was up.
McQueen had a good heart, too. He made it a point in his film contracts that he get toiletries and other basic household items, which he then funneled back to the Boy’s Republic Reformatory school that he’d attended. He also donated heavily to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Barbara McQueen had lots to say about her former husband, and she’s got quite a few old and rare Steve McQueen photos too. Many are from out west, show McQueen looking anything but Hollywood-like, and tell of his regular, everyman ways.
The pair married in January 1980 and honeymooned in Mexico. By that time, McQueen’s illness was beginning to show itself. Steve McQueen was a huge pothead, smoking marijuana everyday. He drank a lot and smoked a lot of cigarettes and had done his share of blow in the early-70s. “Whenever Steve travelled, it was always with a six-pack of beer in a cooler,” Barbara wrote. His mesothelioma, however, can be traced back to his Navy days, when he worked on asbestos-laden ships.
It was reported in March 1980 that McQueen had terminal cancer. He tried a variety of alternative medical approaches, but nothing could slow it. He developed a tumor that was 5 pounds in his abdomen and went to Mexico in October to have it removed. His body couldn’t handle it and on November 7, 1980, Steve McQueen died. He was 50 years old.
The pair married in January 1980 and honeymooned in Mexico. By that time, McQueen’s illness was beginning to show itself. Steve McQueen was a huge pothead, smoking marijuana everyday. He drank a lot and smoked a lot of cigarettes and had done his share of blow in the early-70s. “Whenever Steve travelled, it was always with a six-pack of beer in a cooler,” Barbara wrote. His mesothelioma, however, can be traced back to his Navy days, when he worked on asbestos-laden ships.
It was reported in March 1980 that McQueen had terminal cancer. He tried a variety of alternative medical approaches, but nothing could slow it. He developed a tumor that was 5 pounds in his abdomen and went to Mexico in October to have it removed. His body couldn’t handle it and on November 7, 1980, Steve McQueen died. He was 50 years old.
Steve McQueen at Yellowstone Lake, 1978
You can find lots on John Mayer in Montana with a simple Google search. Here’s how most of that comes together.
John Clayton Mayer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on October 16, 1977. His dad was a high school principal and his mom taught English at the middle school. Mayer grew up like most kids, playing Nintendo, until the film Back to the Future inspired him to learn the guitar.
In 1997 he headed off to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and after two semesters dropped out to form a band. It didn’t work out, and Mayer went solo. It took several years, but then in 2002 he released his album Room for Squares on the internet. Columbia Records discovered it and signed him and the album went on to find major success, winning Mayer Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2003 Grammy Awards.
Success after success followed, and Mayer got caught up in the rock and roll lifestyle. He’d said that he didn’t want to start doing drugs or dating wild women, but he did, big time. All of that began to get away from him, especially around 2010. A change was needed, and Big Sky Country seemed the ideal place…for whatever reason. Perhaps he’d heard that other celebrities could escape the limelight in Montana, or maybe he just wanted to get back to the land, or at least have a bunch of it around him to keep others at bay.
John Clayton Mayer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on October 16, 1977. His dad was a high school principal and his mom taught English at the middle school. Mayer grew up like most kids, playing Nintendo, until the film Back to the Future inspired him to learn the guitar.
In 1997 he headed off to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and after two semesters dropped out to form a band. It didn’t work out, and Mayer went solo. It took several years, but then in 2002 he released his album Room for Squares on the internet. Columbia Records discovered it and signed him and the album went on to find major success, winning Mayer Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2003 Grammy Awards.
Success after success followed, and Mayer got caught up in the rock and roll lifestyle. He’d said that he didn’t want to start doing drugs or dating wild women, but he did, big time. All of that began to get away from him, especially around 2010. A change was needed, and Big Sky Country seemed the ideal place…for whatever reason. Perhaps he’d heard that other celebrities could escape the limelight in Montana, or maybe he just wanted to get back to the land, or at least have a bunch of it around him to keep others at bay.
John Mayer
On May 15, 2012, the Missoula Independent reported that John Mayer now lives in Montana. He gave an interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 14 and said that he’d been in Montana for some time. The reasons for his move were twofold:
The “chill out” part can be traced back to what many now think was a disastrous April 20120 Playboy magazine interview in which he “revealed a little too much about his porn addiction and sex life with the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson.”
- Needing to chill out
- Recover from throat surgery
The “chill out” part can be traced back to what many now think was a disastrous April 20120 Playboy magazine interview in which he “revealed a little too much about his porn addiction and sex life with the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson.”
John Mayer in Montana
In August 2012 Men’s Journal had an article written by Josh Eells called John Mayer’s Montana Makeover. The post goes more in-depth on what Mayer is doing in Montana, and when he got here. To them, the problems were that:
“the singer was a tabloid fixture with a reputation as a bit of a douchebag, thanks to a mouth that wouldn't shut up and a trail of brokenhearted A-listers he'd left in his wake.”
Mayer moved to Montana in March 2012, and he has “15 cottonwood-covered acres in the postcard part of Montana,” Eells writes. It’s the Paradise Valley and Mayer can see the Yellowstone River from the porch of his “log-and-stone cabin.”
Well, it’s a bit more than that – a “multimillion-dollar, 1970s-inspired getaway with a recording studio, gym, and plenty of driveway for his collection of Land Rovers,” Eells says. For the life of me, I can’t find an image of John Mayer’s Montana home.
The big draw for John Mayer, and many other celebrities in Montana, is the anonymity, and even the ‘so what’ attitude that many locals give you even if they do know who you are. Mayer “can go buy groceries at Albertsons or wear his new western hat to the local steakhouse and not feel self-conscious about it.” The Paradise Valley is great for that, and Kat Hobza explained why in a June 2013 blog post about John Mayer in Montana on She Knows:
Well, it’s a bit more than that – a “multimillion-dollar, 1970s-inspired getaway with a recording studio, gym, and plenty of driveway for his collection of Land Rovers,” Eells says. For the life of me, I can’t find an image of John Mayer’s Montana home.
The big draw for John Mayer, and many other celebrities in Montana, is the anonymity, and even the ‘so what’ attitude that many locals give you even if they do know who you are. Mayer “can go buy groceries at Albertsons or wear his new western hat to the local steakhouse and not feel self-conscious about it.” The Paradise Valley is great for that, and Kat Hobza explained why in a June 2013 blog post about John Mayer in Montana on She Knows:
“Paradise Valley is situated between oh-so-cool Bozeman and the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone Park, making it home to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. John Mayer is not the only celebrity to figure this out. Ted Turner owns a ranch outside Bozeman and a steakhouse, Ted’s Montana Grill, where bison is on the menu. (Yes, I’ve eaten there, and yes, it’s amazing.) Tom Brokaw bought a ranch in the Paradise region, and Dennis Quaid lived in Paradise Valley for years before listing his ranch in 2011. (Quaid married third wife, Kimberly Buffington, on his 500-acre ranch in Montana. The couple are now divorced.)”
You know that John Mayer is serious about becoming a real Montanan, for he sold his Pacific Palisades home in 2011. He was ready to leave – he sold the home for $425,000 less than he’d bought it for in 2006.
On top of it, in January 2014 Mayer sold his Manhattan bachelor pad for $3.9 million. There was a lot of speculation at the time that Mayer and Katy Perry might be getting serious. The two were at the Grammy’s together at the end of that month. Perry had been divorced from Russell Brand for a year by that point.
On top of it, in January 2014 Mayer sold his Manhattan bachelor pad for $3.9 million. There was a lot of speculation at the time that Mayer and Katy Perry might be getting serious. The two were at the Grammy’s together at the end of that month. Perry had been divorced from Russell Brand for a year by that point.
John Mayer and Katy Perry in 2014
Katy Perry and John Mayer got together in the summer of 2012, stayed together until that August when the broke up, and then they got back together again in September. She wasn’t the first starlet he was with, and you can get a good look at John Mayer’s relationship history here and another look at John Mayer’s dating timeline here.
Mayer stayed with Katy Perry until March 2013, but then they got back together again in July. That lasted until May 2014, at which point Mayer is…single. Is that possible? I’m not sure, and I’m not sure you can keep those two lovebirds apart. After all, in February 2015 it was reported that the two had been spotted in Bozeman together. One lucky person even got a photo with ‘em in the Walmart parking lot.
Mayer stayed with Katy Perry until March 2013, but then they got back together again in July. That lasted until May 2014, at which point Mayer is…single. Is that possible? I’m not sure, and I’m not sure you can keep those two lovebirds apart. After all, in February 2015 it was reported that the two had been spotted in Bozeman together. One lucky person even got a photo with ‘em in the Walmart parking lot.
John Mayer and Katy Perry at a Montana Walmart with a happy fan
John Mayer has been nominated for 19 Grammy awards and he’s won 7 of them. He’s very successful and probably makes more in royalty payments each month than you do all year. So…is he staying in Montana for good?
We already saw how he sold his expensive NY and LA homes. I’m not sure how many homes the guy’s got, but maybe this Montana place is it now. He’s certainly trying to make himself popular with the locals.
In January 2013 John Mayer hosted a benefit concert for Montana firefighters in Bozeman. It was to benefit those that lost everything in the Pine Creek Fire that’d burned more than 8,500 acres that summer around Bozeman and Livingston. Zac Brown was another performer.
The show would prove to be the first concert Mayer did after his throat surgery 20 months earlier, in October 2011. The condition was Granuloma, or an inflammation of his vocal cords. The surgery didn’t go as well as it could, so he had another in March 2012.
We already saw how he sold his expensive NY and LA homes. I’m not sure how many homes the guy’s got, but maybe this Montana place is it now. He’s certainly trying to make himself popular with the locals.
In January 2013 John Mayer hosted a benefit concert for Montana firefighters in Bozeman. It was to benefit those that lost everything in the Pine Creek Fire that’d burned more than 8,500 acres that summer around Bozeman and Livingston. Zac Brown was another performer.
The show would prove to be the first concert Mayer did after his throat surgery 20 months earlier, in October 2011. The condition was Granuloma, or an inflammation of his vocal cords. The surgery didn’t go as well as it could, so he had another in March 2012.
John Mayer playing benefit concert in Bozeman
That Montana concert was his first after the surgery, and he really got back into touring after that. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more about John Mayer and the Treasure State as the years progress.
Jack Hanna
You might know zoologist Jack Hanna from his many appearances on TV, particularly Late Night with David Letterman. Hanna, like Letterman, has a home in Montana, as someone was nice enough to point out to me in the comments of a previous post.
Hanna splits his time between Montana an Ohio, where he’s Director Emeritus for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He graduated form Muskingum College in 1969 and worked for the Knoxville Zoo. He had a pet shop, petting zoo, wildlife adventure company, and a few other animal-related jobs along the way.
He got his big start with zoos in Ohio, however. That was where he’d gotten his start, in 1978. He decided on the city because his daughter was sick with leukemia at the time. Columbus had a hospital that specialized in that, so he took the job. By 1983 Jack Hanna had his own TV show, called “Hanna’s Ark.”
Hanna splits his time between Montana an Ohio, where he’s Director Emeritus for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He graduated form Muskingum College in 1969 and worked for the Knoxville Zoo. He had a pet shop, petting zoo, wildlife adventure company, and a few other animal-related jobs along the way.
He got his big start with zoos in Ohio, however. That was where he’d gotten his start, in 1978. He decided on the city because his daughter was sick with leukemia at the time. Columbus had a hospital that specialized in that, so he took the job. By 1983 Jack Hanna had his own TV show, called “Hanna’s Ark.”
Jack Hanna first came to Montana in 1982 “when he was invited to speak in Billings,” a 2007 Distinctly Montana article states. This is how Hanna describes it:
“I came out to do some speeches,” he says. “Montana didn’t have a zoo then. The next morning I went to catch my Northwest flight and the plane didn’t work, so I rented a car and drove out of Billings into Columbus...to the little town of Nye. The road dead ends in the Beartooth Wilderness...and I couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was and I knew, even though we didn’t have a lot of money, that I was going to buy some land and build a cabin.”
It wasn’t until 1988 that Hanna got his cabin built. It was near Cooke City on the Montana-Wyoming Border, a couple hours south of Billings. Then three months later it looked like all his hard work would be for nothing. The Hellroaring Fire coming out of Yellowstone that year “stopped within eight miles of the cabin,” he said. The same problem came in 1996 when fire again threatened. Hanna made the decision to move.
He’d found the Flathead Valley that year and Flathead Lake really impressed him. Many celebrities choose eastern Montana, as Hanna had done, but quite a few eventually realize the wonders that western Montana holds as well. Hanna spent the next several years finding the perfect spot, which was “a few miles outside of Bigfork.” The new location was a 400-mile drive from his old spot and across the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains.
He’d found the Flathead Valley that year and Flathead Lake really impressed him. Many celebrities choose eastern Montana, as Hanna had done, but quite a few eventually realize the wonders that western Montana holds as well. Hanna spent the next several years finding the perfect spot, which was “a few miles outside of Bigfork.” The new location was a 400-mile drive from his old spot and across the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains.
Jack Hanna's Montana cabin
A Look Inside Jack Hanna's Montana Home
The place is located “just outside Bigfork,” which is 18 miles from Kalispell and located on the north side of Flathead Lake.
The best place to find images of Jack Hanna’s Montana home is in a November 2011 Hooked on Houses article. The log cabin is 760 square feet and is named Elk Cabin “because it sits on an old elk farm.” It’s built from 8” x 12” white pine logs that were taken from Idaho. There’s no drywall and the place is quite small. Cozy is how we Montanans like to describe it.
Hanna popularizes Montana animals, such as the time he went to the National Bison Range in 2009 to film and in 2014 he was raising funds for grizzly bear research. He does a lot of stuff in Montana, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him when he retires here full time.
The best place to find images of Jack Hanna’s Montana home is in a November 2011 Hooked on Houses article. The log cabin is 760 square feet and is named Elk Cabin “because it sits on an old elk farm.” It’s built from 8” x 12” white pine logs that were taken from Idaho. There’s no drywall and the place is quite small. Cozy is how we Montanans like to describe it.
Hanna popularizes Montana animals, such as the time he went to the National Bison Range in 2009 to film and in 2014 he was raising funds for grizzly bear research. He does a lot of stuff in Montana, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him when he retires here full time.
