Local man shapes Montana history

Frank and Carol Crail visited the Crail family homestead, which has become a Montana historic site. Crail, a

long-time Sisters resident, is a descendant of Montana homesteaders.

Last May, Sisters resident Frank Crail took a long distance phone call that brought memories rushing back and made him a celebrity in Montana.

"Are you Frank Crail?" a woman on the phone asked. When Frank answered yes, the woman said "we have been looking for you for the past two years."

It's a story that began more than 100 years ago and culminated with Frank, his wife and family members traveling to Big Sky, Montana this August to visit an old family homestead that is being preserved as the Crail Ranch Museum.

This historic site now sits in the middle of the Big Sky Resort development. That resort is one of the top seven ski resorts in the world, located about 48 miles north of Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana.

At the center of all of this attention are the buildings of the former Crail homestead. For the past several years, the Gallatin Canyon Women's Club has been restoring the buildings, one a one-level, small log structure built by Frank Crail's grandfather, Augustus Crail, in 1902. The other building is a two-story log house built later by Frank's father, Eugene Crail, and co-owned by Frank's uncle, Emmett Crail.

As this restoration got underway the organization began a search for Frank, whom they knew was the last male descendant of early day settlers, Augustus and Sally Crail. After Frank was contacted, he supplied the group with some of the family heirlooms from those early days, including an old clothes wringer, his granddad's clock, an old saddle, a homestead deed signed by President Woodrow Wilson and a scrapbook of three generations of Crails at the homestead.

"While Granddad filed on the homestead in 1902, he took over a dozen years before he was given title to the land," Crail said.

In August, Crail and his family were the guests of the women's club for a three-day visit to the homestead, now in the center of Big Sky's Meadow Village.

"They provided us four rooms in the top quality Huntley Summit Lodge, furnished our meals and treated us wonderful," Crail said. "I was kind of surprised that anyone cared that much about the Big Sky's history."

Huntley Summit Lodge was named for Chet Huntley, popular news co-anchor for NBC-TV during the 1950s and 1960s on the Huntley-Brinkley Report with Huntley and David Brinkley.

Huntley, a native of Montana, retired and brought together a group of investors to acquire ranch lands in the Gallatin Valley and nearby mountains. Part of that purchase was the 640-acre Crail Ranch.

Huntley retired and directed the development of the original investors that included Chrysler Realty, Burlington Northern, General Electric Pension Fund and Northwest Airlines.

Development of Big Sky began in 1970 that eventually led it to become a year-round destination resort and a premier ski resort with 24 runs. The elevation ranges from 6,200 feet to over 11,000 feet.

Huntley died in 1973 just before the resort opened for business.

Today, there are two units several miles apart, Mountain Village at the ski level and Meadow Village where the Crail ranch was located. There is a year-round population of 1,250. More than 40 shops and 25 restaurants and food services are located at the Resort.

Frank's grandfather, Augustus, first came to Montana from Indiana in 1865.

For many years, he operated freight lines using oxen teams. In 1902, he homesteaded 160 acres and started growing hay and running cattle and horses.

He later married and, in a few years, his two sons acquired more land until the Crail Ranch totaled 640 acres -- a square mile. Augustus built the small original cabin and later Frank's father built the larger one. After Augustus died in 1924, his two sons continued to operate the ranch.

Frank remembers staying at the ranch during the summers as a young boy, riding horses in the meadow that now has condominiums and a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer.

"Uncle Emmett lived on the ranch all year long while the rest of the family stayed in Bozeman about 45 miles away," Frank said.

"Uncle Emmett had a bunch of cats and I was always playing with them and the dogs."

Wildlife was abundant at the time with more elk than cattle eating hay, Crail recalls. Deer, moose and mountain sheep were also in the area and remain there today.

"We ate the elk and sold the cattle," Crail recalled.

Crail's father and uncle sold the ranch in 1950 and Frank moved to the state of Washington with his family.

He later moved to Oregon where he had a 29-year career with the State of Oregon in Salem, first with the Oregon Department of Forestry and then with the Oregon Department of Employment. He retired in 1993 and moved to Sisters. During his career, he married Carole Campbell, a native of Sisters.

His father-in-law, Carl Campbell, was one of the directors when the Sisters Rodeo Association incorporated in 1944 and served as association president.

His mother-in-law, Virginia Campbell, sold the association the present-day rodeo grounds.

Frank had last visited the area in 1970 taking his father and uncle on a trip back in time and before development of the resort began.

"On this recent visit in August, it was 'Crail' everything," Frank said. "There's a Crail subdivision, Crail Creek, the Crail Ranch Museum and more. The women's club is selling prints of the Crail Ranch for $75, note cards and even a cookbook. They knew more about my genealogy than I did."

Crail discovered another interesting Sisters connection: "They held their first quilt show this summer.

"When they found out it was the same weekend as the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, they decided to change the date for next year."

During his recent visit, Crail was interviewed on video, providing his recollections of his early days on the homestead and the lives of his father and grandfather.

Crail plans to return to the Crail Ranch Museum from time to time to see how its restoration is doing.