Tahoe and Aspen are overcrowded; Santa Fe is commercialized; when a mogul or a movie star wants to enjoy untainted American spaces, what's left? Try Montana. For members of the names-in-bold-print set, from Ted Turner to Tom Brokaw, from Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan to Mel Gibson and Kiefer Sutherland, from Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen to Oakland A's owner Walter Haas, the Big Sky State has become the hottest of hideaways. Says Russ Francis, a former San Francisco 49er football star who recently joined the rush to Big Sky Country: "This is the last best place in America."
What began...