B Bar Gazette
B Bar Gazette – October 2025
Issue #29 October 2025 Wood smoke drifts from the yurt’s stove, softening the morning chill as we gather in a circle where everyone has equal space and opportunity to share. Outside, smoke lingers in the high branches of leafless aspens. Fresh white peaks stand stark against a dusty purple sky. Winter is close, but it will wait for another day. When the afternoon sun crests, we’ll peel off our layers and let the natural warmth do its work.Thirteen quarter horses graze their well...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – September 2025
Issue #28 September 2025 Perched on a fence post, a bluebird ruffles its feathers to shake off the morning dew, signaling me to look up. Just beyond the old corral, three grizzly bears—a sow and her two yearling cubs—dig for a breakfast of caraway root. This will be the last fall the cubs follow their mother before setting off on their own, a journey that likely began right here in Tom Miner Basin. Through my binoculars, the silver gleam of a cub’s fur catches the light just as the...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – August 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #27 August 2025 A Surprise Arrival in Tom MinerOn the last day of July, a calf was born on the road near the ice house in Tom Miner. None of us knew it was coming. It was the smallest calf any of us had ever seen - likely a twin. Its hide was still damp and steaming in the cool morning air, and its unsteady legs trembled as it tried to stand.Geraldine (there’s a story there), a heifer calf, was lucky she was found just in time. The other curious yearlings had...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – July 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #26 July 2025 A Sacred Place. A State of Mind.The wildflowers are at their peak: lupines standing tall in the wind, geraniums scattered through the grass, and warm light settling over the ridgelines in the long hours before dusk.It’s in this season of still beauty and slow days that we’re preparing for something special. On July 30th, B Bar Ranch will host Echoes in the Basin, an outdoor concert with the Lake String Quartet. The event is open to the public, an...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – June 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #25 June 2025 A Season in MotionEarlier this week, we hosted a ranch tour in Big Timber for the team at West Paw—the same folks who transformed B Bar Ranch offal into the award winning Montana Beef Sticks dog treat last year. As we stood near the corrals, one of them paused, watching the some 300 head of cattle gathered just across the fence. “They’re so quiet,” she said.And it was true. No bawling, no restlessness. Just a sea of calm, curious eyes. Eve...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – May 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #24 May 2025 Hi friends of B Bar,There's no mistaking it now, spring has fully arrived at both our ranches. The evidence is written across our landscapes and in the behavior of every creature. Our Big Timber pastures, blessed with nine-tenths of an inch of recent rain, now hold the best soil moisture we've seen for May in years. All our cattle are out grazing, including the expectant mothers of 23 Ancient White Park calves due this summer. One new calf already wobbl...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – April 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #23 April 2025 Hello friends of B Bar, At 6,600 feet in Tom Miner Basin, April is a month of contrasts - one day offering the warm promise of summer, the next reminding us that winter's grip hasn't fully loosened. While patches of grass emerge beneath melting snow, our mountains hold a generous gift - snowpack measuring ~113% of median water equivalent. Like nature's savings account, this moisture will soon transform into rushing creeks, vibrant meadows, a...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – March 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #22 March 2025 Hello friends of B Bar, March roared in like a sun-drenched grizzly this year at B Bar Ranch. As 150 guests gathered for the inaugural Ramshorn Classic, Mother Nature delivered mid-fifties temperatures and brilliant sunshine that transformed our winter wonderland into something resembling a June day on Beartooth Pass. The abundant snowpack held firm, preventing mud while providing ideal skiing conditions. Ramshorn and Twin Peak as the backd...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – February 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #21 February 2025 Field Notes: February at B BarIn Tom Miner Basin, where our 9,115 acres meet Yellowstone's northern border, the land tells its own story. Our recent work with range, forest, livestock, and wildlife expert Matt Ricketts shows just how rich this place is - grizzlies and wolves share the high country with mountain bluebirds western tanagers and white bark pines, while elk raise their calves in spring meadows, moose browse winter willows, and wo...
Read More
B Bar Gazette – January 2025
B Bar Gazette Issue #20 January 2025 Hello friends of B Bar, When Maryanne first glimpsed Tom Miner Basin in the winter of 1978, the B Bar Ranch was accessible only by snowmobile. That record-setting winter painted a vivid picture of life at 6,600 feet. The county wouldn't plow the road for years to come. Originally seeking a small getaway spot in the Greater Yellowstone area, Maryanne found herself drawn to something far more expansive. As she viewed the land from above in her...
Read More