Ted Turner puts his money where his heart is…

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

GALLATIN GATEWAY – Ted Turner says things are getting better in the world, but they aren’t good enough yet. So he’s aiming to fix a few.

ERIK PETERSEN/CHRONICLE Ted Turner looks over some of the vast expanse of land he owns at Spanish Creek on which he raises bison for his newest venture, his chain of 55 Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants throughout the country. Compared to a decade ago, fewer people live in utter poverty.

He wants to cut that number ever more. Free trade among nations will help do that, he says, so he’s trying to get his fellow Democrats to understand that.

And while he sees global warming as a growing risk, more people are aware of it, partly because of the environmental groups he funds.

“You’re talking about a lot of people who are upset about it,” Turner said in a recent interview at his Flying D Ranch. “And I think we’re going to make them take a swing and try to do something about it.”

 

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Ladigo Ranch – The Essence of Montana Lifestyle

Flying high in Big Sky Country

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

BELGRADE – When Gallatin Field General Manager Ted Mathis began working at the airport in 1981, there were 29 hangars for private planes.

ERIK PETERSEN/Chronicle Jets line the tarmac as Yellowstone Jet Center workers tend to them over President’s Day weekend, an especially busy time for the Jet Center. Today, there are 165, including the 17 new ones built last year.

When it comes to expensive toys, private planes are right up there. A modest model costs about the same as a new diesel pickup, around $50,000, and renting one of those new hangar spaces can cost hundreds of dollars a month. And then there’s the insurance and fuel.

Clearly, a lot of people in the Gallatin Valley have a lot of disposable income.

Most of the local planes run on propellers, but 27 private jets are registered here, too, Mathis said. And they comprise only a fraction of the private jet traffic.

 

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Food Across America – Bozeman, Montana

Chocolate Truffles + Rare Wines in Elk Country
 

By Kristin Donnelly from Food & Wine Magazine – Published July 2008
 

On a recent trip to Bozeman, Montana, I was eager to try elk—but that turned out to be trickier than it sounds. Many Montanans hunt game and eat it at home, but restaurants are allowed to serve only farm-raised meat. All the same, I had deliciously rare pan-roasted farmed-elk tenderloin at the wine bar Plonk, along with a Midnight Manhattan, a killer cocktail made with fresh cherry–infused bourbon. I got to taste some local beer too, when I dropped in for a late-night snack at the year-old Over the Tapas. I drank amber ale from the Bozeman Brewing Company with a juicy flank-steak sandwich, which chef Jeff Merlau tops with Manchego cheese and a garlicky chimichurri sauce on a mini ciabatta-like roll.For my next carnivorous adventure, I drove just outside Bozeman to the nearby town of Gallatin Gateway. At the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn, chef Ray Rutzen often works with ingredients grown and raised around the state, and I loved his Montana Mountain Bison rib eye topped with chile-spiked butter. Even though I’m not a hunter, eating Rutzen’s bison made me feel almost like a local.

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