Blixseth cracks list of Forbes 400 richest

Scott Mc Million, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 27 September 2005

Tim Blixseth, developer of the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club, has joined an even smaller group: He's made the Forbes Magazine list of the 400 richest Americans.

Blixseth, 55, is listed at No. 346. The magazine estimated his net worth at $1 billion.

"I never even think about these things," Blixseth said Monday in a telephone interview. "Wealth you can count. Some people have a great big pile and some people have a small pile. But we all have zero when we die."

Blixseth grew up poor, the son of an immigrant minister in an Oregon lumber town. He started making big splashes in Montana in 1992, when he and some partners bought 165,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber land, for about $140 an acre. Most of that land was in Gallatin County.

Shortly afterwards, Western Montana's real estate market started to boom and Blixseth and the U.S. Forest Service accomplished some complicated land swaps.

Today, he owns the 13,400-acre Yellowstone Club, where lots sell for $1 million an acre and up, and you've got to prove you're worth $3 million just to be considered for membership.

Blixseth who first tried his luck as a songwriter, has had some business failures, too. He declared bankruptcy in Oregon in 1981, but immediately began building up his fortune.

"I'm just glad it doesn't say 'inherited' next to it," he said of his Forbes listing.

He's not always popular. For example, he's run afoul of environmental regulators, agreeing to pay water pollution settlements of nearly $2 million.

But he also employs hundreds of people in the Big Sky/Bozeman region and said Monday he is spearheading a drive to raise $100 million for Habitat for Humanity to replace housing lost in the two Gulf Coast hurricanes this month. He donated the first $2 million, he said.

His other recent ventures include the purchase of 175,000 acres of Boise Cascade timberlands in Washington and 75,000 to 100,000 acres in Idaho.

He said he is working on land swaps for those properties, too.

Like in Montana, he said he plans to trade to the public the land with high environmental values for property with high real estate values.

Timber tycoon developer now owns chunk of Idaho

Round Valley neighbors unhappy with clearcutting

Extract, The Idaho Statesman, 13 September 2005 - full story here

Who is Tim Blixseth?

Tim Blixseth started life as the son of a disabled preacher on welfare in Roseburg, Ore., the youngest of five children. He worked in grocery stores and lumber mills through high school before unsuccessfully seeking a career in hollywood as a singer and songwriter.

Blixseth got into the business of buying timberland by putting down $1,000 as earnest money on 360 acres for $90,000 he had to pay in 30 days. He went to the major timber company in the area and sold the land to it for a $50,000 profit.

By the early 1980s, he had made millions but got overextended and went bankrupt in 1981. He started over and in 1988 started Crown Pacific with a partner. Crown Pacific bought more than 250,000 acres of timberland in northern Idaho and Oregon and later 194,000 acres from Scott Paper Co. Blixseth sold out his share in 1990 and with two brothers, Norm and Mel McDougall, bought 164,000 acres of timberlands in Montana from Plum Creek. After two federal bills that approved land sales and trades, he started the Yellowstone Club and now the Yellowstone Club World with his wife, Edra. She was the operating partner of a hotel and restaurant company and owned seven other restaurants. They raised four children.

Edra Blixseth also is the author of the book "Uncharged Batteries." A center in Palm Springs for women and children suffering from abuse is named after her.

Tim Blixseth kept his musical dream alive by writing and recording a song in 2001, "Pray for Peace," to raise money for victims of the 9/11 attacks. He founded and heads Friday Records.

He lives mostly in Montana and Rancho Mirage, Calif., where he also has a private golf course on a 240-acre retreat 10 miles from Palm Springs. He also has a penthouse at The Grove in Boise.

"I love Boise's downtown," Blixseth said.