Lindbergh Lake
Montana has lots of famous people.
Some were born here, some came later.
Some had to leave to get famous; others came here as fame was upon them…and sometimes fading away.
Please remember that there’s an alphabetical listing of 50 famous Montana celebrities in this post.
Now, let’s add a few more.
Some were born here, some came later.
Some had to leave to get famous; others came here as fame was upon them…and sometimes fading away.
Please remember that there’s an alphabetical listing of 50 famous Montana celebrities in this post.
Now, let’s add a few more.
Howie Long
Howie Long Montana
I’ve been told that Howie Long has a place on Flathead Lake and comes in every summer with his family.
He’s also been seen several times in the Polson area.
Howie Long rose to fame in 1981 when he signed with the Oakland Raiders. He’d stay with the team until retiring in 1993. He was in eight Pro Bowls and helped win Super Bowl XVIII for his team.
Now Long does commentary and other networks stuff, and also comes to Montana.
He’s been spotted at the Polson Safeway, for instance. The same person saw him on a 3-person wave runner jet ski, and Howie made the thing “look small.”
He’s been spotted at the Missoula Target store as well.
Back in 1996 while filming Broken Arrow, Howe admitted in an interview that he had a place in Montana.
He also sounded like a Montanan. “I’m not a jet-setter. I have a nice car, but I have a truck. I have a home that’s paid for.”
Sounds like he’s doing alright and that he’s enjoying the state.
He’s also been seen several times in the Polson area.
Howie Long rose to fame in 1981 when he signed with the Oakland Raiders. He’d stay with the team until retiring in 1993. He was in eight Pro Bowls and helped win Super Bowl XVIII for his team.
Now Long does commentary and other networks stuff, and also comes to Montana.
He’s been spotted at the Polson Safeway, for instance. The same person saw him on a 3-person wave runner jet ski, and Howie made the thing “look small.”
He’s been spotted at the Missoula Target store as well.
Back in 1996 while filming Broken Arrow, Howe admitted in an interview that he had a place in Montana.
He also sounded like a Montanan. “I’m not a jet-setter. I have a nice car, but I have a truck. I have a home that’s paid for.”
Sounds like he’s doing alright and that he’s enjoying the state.
Dwan Edwards
Dwan Edwards Montana
One Montana celebrity that few know about is Dwan Edwards…even though he was in the Super Bowl.
Unlike fellow Montana Super Bowl alum Howie Long, Edwards was born in the state, in Columbus on May 16, 1981.
He went to Columbus High School and lettered in football, basketball and track. He was also the senior class president.
After that Edwards went to Oregon State College as a Duck. He had a good career there, racking up 12 sacks, 159 tackles, and a business administration degree to boot.
Football was Edwards’ real passion, however, and he was drafted by the Balitmore Ravens in the 2nd round of the 2004 draft. His first NFL game was September 12 of that year.
Edwards did well with the Ravens but was injured in the 2008 season and had to sit out that year. By 2010 he was ready to move on and he signed with the Buffalo Bills. That lasted until 2012 when he signed as a free agent with the North Carolina Panthers.
He’s played with them ever since and was in the 2016 Super Bowl, though the Panthers lost to the Broncos, 24-10.
Unlike fellow Montana Super Bowl alum Howie Long, Edwards was born in the state, in Columbus on May 16, 1981.
He went to Columbus High School and lettered in football, basketball and track. He was also the senior class president.
After that Edwards went to Oregon State College as a Duck. He had a good career there, racking up 12 sacks, 159 tackles, and a business administration degree to boot.
Football was Edwards’ real passion, however, and he was drafted by the Balitmore Ravens in the 2nd round of the 2004 draft. His first NFL game was September 12 of that year.
Edwards did well with the Ravens but was injured in the 2008 season and had to sit out that year. By 2010 he was ready to move on and he signed with the Buffalo Bills. That lasted until 2012 when he signed as a free agent with the North Carolina Panthers.
He’s played with them ever since and was in the 2016 Super Bowl, though the Panthers lost to the Broncos, 24-10.
Liz Claiborne
Fashion giant Liz Claiborne had a ranch in Condon called the Tranquility Ranch.
There were two small lakes on the property and after a small stand of trees behind them you’d get to Lindbergh Lake.
It was quite the spot, as you can see.
There were two small lakes on the property and after a small stand of trees behind them you’d get to Lindbergh Lake.
It was quite the spot, as you can see.
Liz Claiborne property near Condon, Montana
A nice ranch house sits on the property, described like so:
“The ranch complex sits on a private lake, Tranquillity, and includes a two-bedroom main house of close to 9,000 square feet (excluding basement), with an indoor pool.
There's a two-bedroom guest house, an indoor riding arena, a caretaker's house and other outbuildings. A conservation easement protects about 640 acres.
The couple thoroughly remodeled the seasonal residence. Missoula International Airport is about 75 miles southwest.”
We know from the 2007 Wall Street Journal article that describes the ranch that the price of Liz Claiborne’s Montana ranch was cut by 12%, from $8.5 million to $7.5 million, after staying a year on the market.
Claiborne had died on June 26 of that year. She’d been diagnosed with a rare abdominal cancer in 1998 and battled it until the age of 78.
Claiborne had been born in Belgium in 1929 to American parents and came from a rich lineage – one ancestor was the first governor of the state of Louisiana in 1812.
She came back to the states in 1939, dropped out of high school, and headed to Europe to learn fashion. She won an award in 1949 and then headed to New York.
Years of toil followed before she started her own company in 1976. It had $2 million in sales that year, and $23 million two years later. By 1986 it had retail sales of $1.2 billion.
The Claiborne ranch in Montana came about because of her second husband, Arthur Ortenberg. He was 71-years-old at the time of her death and had co-founded the firm with her.
He’d bought the 720-acre ranch in the 1980s (and another outside Helena) and by the time the couple retired in 1989 they were living there quite a bit…if not full-time. They were devoted to wildlife-preservation causes.
In 1992 they hosted a fundraiser for Montana gubernatorial candidate Dorothy Bradley at their Helena ranch “on a high ridgetop in the pouring rain.”
Despite that, “the hundreds of people that showed up had a great time,” even if they had to seek shelter “under the large cook tent and in the ranch house.”
Also in the 1990s Liz Claiborne’s charitable foundation “underwrote the development and publishing of several interesting reports on Montana’s changing economy,” as well as “in-migration”
In 2014 Ortenberg died at the age of 87 and with the sale of the Montana ranch 7 years earlier, all vestiges of Liz Claiborne in Montana have disappeared.
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton started singing professionally way back in 1958…an amazing 58 years ago!
While we often associate the star with Las Vegas, he’s taken a liking to Montana.
He first visited in 2007 or so after some Beverly Hills friends of his came to Montana and fell in love with it. After Newton joined them one time he came back to visit nine more times.
That led him to buy a place of his own to the south of Lakeside in 2010. The area reminded him of what Lake Tahoe was like in the 70s.
The home is 5,300-sqare-feet and sits on 3 lakeshore acres.
He had a few good years then in September 2014 he got sued by his neighbors for putting “up a chain that blocked access to their land,” according to an article in Business Insider.
The neighbors couldn’t drive from the highway to the driveway to their boat shed as the chain was there.
Despite the lawsuit, Newton was right…although by Montana standards he might have been wrong.
See, “the neighbors had been using the driveway since 1993 and had rights to it, though not explicitly granted.”
The court battle lasted a while and then things got worked out. Perhaps they never would have if the lawsuit hadn’t been initiated.
A settlement was reached that saw Newton adjust his boundary line before selling that strip of land to the neighbors. All that bad press over 12 feet of driveway.
My advice for Montana celebrities?
Don’t use the courts to get your way here…walk on over and knock on the door.
That way you won’t get your names in the paper for silliness and it won’t be recorded for other Montanans to go searching for online.
Thanks!
While we often associate the star with Las Vegas, he’s taken a liking to Montana.
He first visited in 2007 or so after some Beverly Hills friends of his came to Montana and fell in love with it. After Newton joined them one time he came back to visit nine more times.
That led him to buy a place of his own to the south of Lakeside in 2010. The area reminded him of what Lake Tahoe was like in the 70s.
The home is 5,300-sqare-feet and sits on 3 lakeshore acres.
He had a few good years then in September 2014 he got sued by his neighbors for putting “up a chain that blocked access to their land,” according to an article in Business Insider.
The neighbors couldn’t drive from the highway to the driveway to their boat shed as the chain was there.
Despite the lawsuit, Newton was right…although by Montana standards he might have been wrong.
See, “the neighbors had been using the driveway since 1993 and had rights to it, though not explicitly granted.”
The court battle lasted a while and then things got worked out. Perhaps they never would have if the lawsuit hadn’t been initiated.
A settlement was reached that saw Newton adjust his boundary line before selling that strip of land to the neighbors. All that bad press over 12 feet of driveway.
My advice for Montana celebrities?
Don’t use the courts to get your way here…walk on over and knock on the door.
That way you won’t get your names in the paper for silliness and it won’t be recorded for other Montanans to go searching for online.
Thanks!
