Talk about being the master of your own universe.
With the purchase of this Wild West-themed Montana compound just 15 miles west of Helena, you can be the mayor and the sheriff of your own mini frontier town.
That’s because, in a past life, this private Montana residence, listed on Zillow for $1.7 million, was a popular roadside tourist attraction known as Frontier Town. It welcomed as many as 2,000 visitors a day during high season.
Artfully constructed by John R. Quigley in the 1940s, Frontier Town features 42 rooms and outbuildings all made of Montana rock and lumber. The ghost town surrounding the two-story wooden faux fort comes with a bank, a jail, a museum, cabins and a general store. There’s also a beautiful 50-seat non-denominational chapel, complete with a choir loft. The now-decrepit dining hall is even rumored to hold 300 people.
Still, Frontier Town’s crown jewel is the legendary saloon where locals in cowboy boots and travelers in loafers, including the late Rev. Billy Graham, once mingled around a 50-foot-long bar. A repurposed Douglas fir tree, it weighs more than 6 tons.
(According to Distinctly Montana, “Quigley had used a chainsaw to split the titanic log himself during one miserable winter day when it was 20 degrees below zero. Then he spent some 300 hours carving elk and other Western scenes into the bar.”)
That bar, along with tools, antique farm equipment and “Frontier Town memorabilia” all come with the furnished property.
What doesn’t come with it, however, is the liquor license.
In 2001, local resident Tom Battershell purchased Frontier Town, and its liquor license, at a sheriff’s auction for $190,000. After Quigley passed away in 1979, the subsequent owners had issues financing Frontier Town. It fell into a state of disrepair before being auctioned off to pay back taxes.
Battershell immediately put the liquor license up for sale, and his son, Jeff, moved in.
“I thought it would be a nice place to live,” he told Helena’s Independent Record at the time.
According to the listing’s description, his personal residence includes a “rustic but warm feel as you enter the living room with a large wood burning fireplace and views galore out the huge picture window. The kitchen/dining room area are built with log and rock walls. The bedroom and full bathroom finish off this living area nicely.”
Now, after 23 years of residing in the abandoned replica town full-time, Jeff told The Post he’d “like for someone else to be able to enjoy it.”
His listing agent, Deb Wong of Capital City Realty, added, “The property is being sold as a residential dwelling, but the buyer can purchase the property to do as they please.”
Frontier Town was under contract in 2022, but the sale fell through. It was relisted on Zillow last fall, and Wong told The Post that most of the interest so far has come from out-of-state buyers.
That said, Quigley’s granddaughter, a Helena-based travel advisor named Taegan Walker, dreams of buying it back and turning it into a tourist attraction. She grew up going to Frontier Town and even got hitched in the chapel. In its heyday, Frontier Town not only welcomed weddings, but it also hosted honeymooners.
Of course, the listing has made the rounds online.
“The perfect hideaway for you and your growing cult,” wrote one Redditor. Another commented, “I want to sneeze just looking at the inside of the house.”
(Wong admits that the place could “use a good dusting,” and says only four of the 42 rooms are currently habitable.)
Fortunately, what Frontier Town lacks in move-in ready rooms, it more than makes up for with million-dollar views. Perched atop McDonald Pass, the 41-acre property boasts panoramic vistas of several mountain ranges. On a clear day, you can see as far as 75 miles away. Frontier Town also comes with a pond, frequented by friendly wildlife, and 15 natural springs.
Plus, it could turn a profit. Thanks to Paramount’s hit show, “Yellowstone,” Montana is attracting more tourists — 12.5 million in 2023 — than ever. It could also be turned into a five-star resort at best, or a kitschy vacation rental at worst.
“It’s one of a kind,” Wong told The Post. “There is no other property like it.”
