Brief by Central Staff
Mountain Life – September 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Where can the moneyed elite enjoy their vacations without being disturbed by us rabble? They used to go to upscale resorts like Aspen, but there’s a new trend, according to an article in the July 24 edition of the Wall Street Journal.
The trend? Build a new private resort with its own air strip, ski lift, golf course, and the like, then hire a full-time staff to handle everything from security at the gatehouse to teaching the children to whittle while their parents are skiing or fishing.
The Journal piece focused on the Yellowstone Club on 13,400 Montana acres, where the private ski area has 40 runs. One member is former Vice President Dan Quayle; another is Jack Kemp, former football star, congressman, and Republican candidate for vice- president in 1996.
Kemp, who’s building a house on a $3 million lot, told the Journal that he has 15 grandchildren, 13 of them skiers, and “he prefers the security of the club’s private ski facilities over busy public mountains. ‘You don’t have to put a global positioning chip on their arm before they leave the house.'”
The Journal continued to explain that “Security and privacy are a major marketing point for these clubs. Developers say the relative obscurity of these places adds a level of insulation. Like any gated community, most have some version of an actual gate and guardhouse, but security provisions often go further.”
So, the lots are in the millions, the houses cost even more millions, and there’s the membership in the association — all to keep their distance from any nearby rural people who aren’t on the development’s payroll as guards or housekeepers.
The Journal listed 10 developments; only one was in Colorado: the 19,000-acre Grand River Ranch near Kremmling, where “Most homeowners arrive by private jet and come for the fishing, clay-shooting and riding.”
We lived in Kremmling from 1974 to 1978, but it’s probably changed a lot since then. In those days, it was a cow town, a sawmill town, and a mining town (Amax’s Henderson Tunnel was under construction), and Saturday nights could get rather lively. But whatever Kremmling is like today, those billionaire residents will probably never go near it.
