What celebrities are at the Rock Creek ranch?

How many acres is the ranch at Rock Creek, Montana?

I think it is the size of three hundred and forty acres, and I want to have our marriage recorded that way.

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We started to talk about Montana but he could not pay the full time attention required to talk, but by the time we drove over the pass into Yellowstone Valley, things had become more serious. He wanted to have me there because I was as far away from my family as possible. As I recall, his family was in St. Louis. Then as he got closer to home and started reading the newspapers, he realized that what he had planned was a big mistake. I had been a pretty good husband, so he kept me with him at first, because he did not want to lose me.

We were going to build a house, but by the time we reached Cody he knew that he had miscalculated, so he ordered me to drive into Miles City, Montana, and register our marriage. This took about a week and a half, and I hated the drive back through Wyoming, so when we arrived in Idaho it was the end of July. We bought an old Model-T Ford and took turns driving as he read the newspaper, and we made it to Rock Creek, where we would live.

When we arrived, we went to the courthouse and I told the clerk, "I'm being married in ten days, I'll give you twenty-four hours to get this thing done." The clerk said, "Honey, I'll get it done, no problem." I had a very good memory, so I just had to tell him the exact dates, and he went to work. It took a lot longer than expected and when I left with my new husband on August 2, 1923, I learned that his family could not go with us. They would stay with our families back in North Dakota. After we left Cody, he began to cry and cry, then he said, "This is the end, goodbye."

I just said, "Goodbye," and we got in the Model-T and drove off. He made a number of trips back and forth across the Canadian border, but it was like living in an empty house. I had no furniture except for one old bed that I carried with me, so the days were cold. It was a very lonely place, and I had nothing but my husband and memories.

Who owns the Rock Creek ranch in Montana?

According to a lawsuit filed by his daughter in the Washington State Supreme Court, it's the state of Washington.

The complaint was filed Thursday by the State of Washington against the heirs of the late Fred W. Benson, who died in 2025 without ever paying a cent for the land that bears his name.

Benson's heirs, known as the Benson Group, have owned the ranch in Rock Creek, north of Whitefish, since 1917. In a statement, the group says the land has been in the family since 1860 and that the Benson Group is very proud of the land and the heritage it represents.

But the Benson Group was not happy to see the state of Washington claiming ownership of the property in 2025. It's a pretty sad day when your heritage gets stolen, said Gary K. Miller, a lawyer representing the Benson Group.

So the Benson Group sued the state of Washington in 2025, claiming the state had no authority to take the land because Benson never signed a deed to it. The Benson Group also claimed that Washington state had engaged in fraud by claiming to be the rightful owner of the property. In its response, the state of Washington argued that it was the rightful owner because Benson never paid for the land a violation of a state law that forbids anyone from taking a deed or other contract for real estate without first paying for it. In September 2025, the state Supreme Court sided with the Benson Group, ruling that the state could not take ownership of the property. But it did not rule that the Benson Group could keep the land. Instead, the state's highest court ordered a judge to decide whether the Benson Group could retain the land.

Now, after more than three years, the case is back in the Supreme Court. And this time the state of Washington is asking the court to declare that the Benson Group can keep the land and pay the state for it.

Why the state is going after the Benson Group. The dispute between the Benson Group and the state of Washington is the latest chapter in a long and sometimes bitter legal fight over land that once belonged to the federal government and later came to be owned by the Crow Nation. Fred W. Benson, an Army captain, bought the property in 1882. He later married the sister of Chief Joseph, and the couple settled in the area.

What celebrities are at the Rock Creek ranch?

Who's there: A lot of famous people, mostly TV and film stars and musicians.

Some rock stars and singers have also been to the ranch, like George Harrison, John Lennon, Bono and David Crosby. We know that one-time Republican candidate and current US Senator from Kentucky Mitch McConnell went there in 2025, so we'd say that he's one of the famous people who went to the ranch. Of course, it was the last time anyone knew that much about him.

Who is not there: The Beatles are dead. Or at least they weren't alive in 1986 when the Rock Creek Ranch appeared in Backbeat (and the Beatles were alive during the time of filming of the film). The Rolling Stones broke up in 1974. There's no band or musician who could be said to be famous in the classic sense. If that's too hard a question, just consider that Elvis Presley died in 1977 and Paul McCartney didn't go to Woodstock. (Or maybe John Lennon did?)

When did it happen: It was on Nov. 4, 1986, four days after the movie was released in the US. That may have been some sort of mistake, as the date appeared on both the DVD and Blu-ray discs. However, at least one website has it on the same date as the official publication. The official release was Oct. 2, 1986.

Why was it made? At this point in the story, everything in Hollywood was a remake of something done before. In the cases of the movies It's My Party and Backbeat, the original film predates the successful release of the new version of those movies by nearly 40 years.

What was the movie like? To tell it all in one sentence: It was boring and overblown. While the plot of the movie was thin and the music was pretty good (though the soundtrack was not perfect), what gave the movie its interest was the fact that it was filmed at the Rock Creek Ranch, a place that was at the very center of the hippie movement in America. This was an unusual event. Hippies tend not to want to be photographed.

Why does it matter? As I was doing the research for this article, I realized that this movie had a big impact on me.

What does it cost to go to a dude ranch in Montana?

It's a question I'm often asked, and it's a surprisingly difficult one to answer.

Why is that? Because cost is so much more than the dollars-per-day you spend while vacationing there. Most of the time, you don't see that cost.

The Dude Ranch, for example, is not only a place you go for the activities (riding, hiking, climbing, hiking, fishing, horseback riding) but also the atmosphere that you share with others and the relationships that you make over time. And that kind of cost is way more expensive than what the daily cost of your time may be.

I'll show you how these costs work in a minute. But before that, there are two key points that should be understood about the Dude Ranch business model. First, this is a business of the riding experience kind that is, where there are no day trips to get you anywhere else. It's only about a ranch. So unless you want to ride as part of a guided tour, you must book a full stay at a Dude Ranch. Second, this is not a for-profit business. It's an alternative life model, so its owners only want enough guests to make it worth their while in terms of providing jobs for their workers, the health of their livestock and land and the overall experience of their guests. All these factors come together to create a truly special place in both taste and in deed and they all come together for just enough guests to make the business and lifestyle they live in sustainable.

So if you want to learn more about how the Dude Ranch business model works, and why it's so important to this business model's sustainability, consider reading this free report: How Does the Business Model Work? For the full explanation, read this free report: There are a few important questions you must know the answers to before you visit any Dude Ranch. Some of these questions pertain to your trip, but others are for the owners of the Dude Ranch business.

A basic question for you to ask is, What is this place really? Your first and biggest concerns must be satisfied and they are often very different for many of us.