Crail Ranch Support Building

The Historic Crail Ranch sits in the middle of Big Sky’s Meadow Village.  Originally the home of the Augustus Crail family that homestead this area from 1905 to 1950, long neglect had allowed the buildings to start to fall to ruin.  The Gallatin Valley Women’s Club started the preservation efforts in the 1990s, and these have been continued by the Historic Crail Ranch Committee, a part of the Big Sky Community Corporation.  These dedicated volunteers have done a wonderful job of restoring the cabins, gathering photographs and artifacts and preserving the history of Big Sky.  However, the little one room cabin that served as a home for the first several years of the homestead had to be used for storage of equipment, gardening, and material awaiting restoration.  In order to return this cabin to the ranch exhibit, it was necessary to erect a storage facility near the entrance to the property.

The building, designed and built by Frontier Rustic Designs of Norris, MT, was made to compliment the existing historic buildings on the site.  However, finding the $12,000 to purchase the structure was a problem for this volunteer committee.

The Rotary Club of Big Sky had worked with the B.S.C.C. on the Community Park Climbing Boulders and improvements to Kircher Park.  This extension was a natural fit, and the Homestead Museum project fit with our goal of community improvement.   We were able to pay for the building out of the 2014 Gold Raffle and Auction proceeds and donate it to the preservation committee.