Big Hole National Battlefield Administrative History

Chapter Six:
Neighbors And Partners: The Clemow Ranch

The most important neighbor to Big Hole National Battlefield was the Clemow family. The Clemow ranch bordered the battlefield on the east. Of the national battlefield's 655.6 acres, some 295 acres or 44 percent of the land surface had been taken from the Clemow property by condemnation proceedings between 1964 and 1972. Mark Clemow remained bitter about the loss of his valuable pastureland along the North Fork of the Big Hole. Superintendent Schulmeyer's efforts to improve relations with Clemow foundered on the alleged trespass incident in 1986. By then the elderly Mark Clemow was passing the ranch operation to his son Monte Clemow, who demonstrated a more accommodating attitude toward the Park Service. The desire to improve this important relationship was probably one factor in the decision to replace Schulmeyer with a new unit manager in 1987.

While the administrative reorganization at Big Hole was under discussion, Schulmeyer provided his assessment of three possible additions to the national battlefield's land base. Foremost in importance was the addition of a strip of land approximately 100-200 yards in width along the eastern boundary with the Clemow ranch property. The ground would provide a buffer zone beyond the Nez Perce Encampment Area and would include most of Bloody Gulch, the draw through which the Nez Perce fled the battle. If the area were acquired in fee simple, the NPS could eliminate the property fence line. Alternatively, a scenic easement would afford protection against building construction but it would not eliminate the fence line or the grazing of cattle on the edge of the battlefield. Schulmeyer noted two other additions of lesser importance: a 40-acre tract on the west side of the national battlefield belonging to rancher Dick Hirschey, and an area of national forest land extending from the north boundary to the crest of Battle Mountain. The Hirschey property was undeveloped and attractive because it was cut off from the rest of the Hirschey ranch by the highway and Hirschey was probably a "willing seller." The national forest parcel was significant because it comprised the upper watershed of Battle Creek and was presently part of a grazing allotment under lease to the Big Hole Grazing Association. [121]

When Jock Whitworth took over management duties at Big Hole in 1988, the property line between the national battlefield and the Clemow ranch remained a sensitive issue. The findings of the archeological survey in 1991 heightened interest in the strip of land east of the Nez Perce encampment site. In November 1991, Monte Clemow raised the question of trading the land to the government for tax credits. Although this specific proposal did not get very far, it opened the door to further negotiations. The timing was propitious since the Park Service was then looking at other land issues associated with the Nez Perce National Historical Park bill. As a result, the Nez Perce National Historical Park Additions Act authorized the Park Service to acquire lands on the east of Big Hole National Battlefield. [122]

Perhaps with a view toward pressuring the Park Service to act on this authorization, the Clemow family next made gestures toward subdividing the land and developing it for condominiums. In June 1993, Mark Clemow, vice president of Mark Clemow Ranches, Inc., had the western portion of his land surveyed into 38 lots of 20 acres each and placed under "restrictive covenants" of his own making. Each parcel was to be "used only for a residential dwelling which must be custom built and must have a minimum of twelve hundred (1200) feet floor area," the covenants began. All buildings were to be "set back a minimum of sixty (60) feet from the exterior boundaries of the property." While Clemow's declared purpose was "to preserve the natural beauty and serenity within the Big Hole," his plan raised the spectre for the Park Service of condominiums sprouting up within a stone's throw of the eastern park boundary. [123]

The Park Service contracted with Hoeger-Jackson & Associates, a Bozeman real estate firm, for an appraisal of the land at issue in the summer of 1994. Dennis C. Hoeger appraised the land to have a fair market value of $160,000, and a Park Service official from the Division of Land Resources of the Pacific Northwest Regional Office reviewed and approved it. In November 1994, Rick Wagner, Chief of the Division of Land Resources in Seattle, informed Mark Clemow of the appraisal and invited Clemow to make a sale offer for that amount. Clemow's sale offer, Wagner explained, would become a binding contract when accepted on behalf of the United States. [124]

Here the matter stood when Jay Lynde, a wealthy businessman residing in Billings, Montana, purchased the Clemow ranch. In November 1996, Lynde's representative, Ron Johnson, of Dillon, Montana, contacted Big Hole Superintendent James about the possibility of Lynde donating 355 acres of his property as a conservation easement. On December 13, 1996, Superintendents James and Walker and Rick Wagner from the SSO met with Lynde in Billings. [125] From this discussion a general plan emerged over the next year and a half involving a three-way land exchange between Lynde, the Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In exchange for the 355-acre parcel adjoining Big Hole National Battlefield, Lynde would acquire BLM land adjoining his Bridger Creek Ranch near Billings. By the fall of 1998, the land exchange appeared to be imminent; a first phase involved four parcels south of Big Timber, Montana, and a second phase tentatively included two parcels in the Big Hole Valley. In return for the BLM land, the Park Service undertook all of the NEPA and Section 106 compliance work. [126] After more than a year of negotiations, Jon James anticipated the first extension of Big Hole National Battlefield's boundaries in more than 25 years.