The decade of the 1980’s was the time when initial plans were modified, properties were bought and sold regularly and building began occurring across all phases of DARLOA.
It is fascinating to look back at how the development matured in the 1980’s. The final phases of Double Arrow Ranch were approved in 1978, a time of ever-increasing interest rates. In May of 1980, the Missoula County Planning Board gave preliminary approval for 68 two-story condominiums, which would provide 136 units, on a 100-acre site. This was perhaps the last time such a grandiose plan would be proposed for Double Arrow Ranch but by the end of the decade, you could see the foundation of what is today’s established residential community.
We are certainly aware today of how economic conditions can change the best of plans. It was no different 40 years ago. The extreme inflation of the late 1970’s required strong medicine from the Federal Reserve. In January of 1981, Chairman Paul Volcker maintained that “their policy of reducing the expansion of money and credit will mean little or no economic growth in 1981 and continuing high interest rates.” In April of 1980, the Prime Rate hit 20% and would not drop below 8% for seven years. It is easy to forget what double digit interest rates mean for someone trying to get a mortgage for a house! Home buyers, commercial developers and builders all felt the pain.
High oil prices at this time (due in part to disruptions following the Iranian Revolution of 1979), combined with these high interest rates, pushed the US into a recession from the middle of 1981 until the end of 1982. At its peak the unemployment rate exceeded 10% and US GDP declined by almost 3%. These are not the kind of conditions that a development like Double Arrow needed to thrive. A search through news articles and legal filings shows foreclosures and sheriff’s sales of both interval ownerships at the condos and lots on the Ranch.
As we move toward the middle of the decade, things began to improve. Glancing through newspaper archives shows regular listings for Double Arrow and a gradual increase in the price of lots. In October of 1984, developer John Trippe announced the Double Arrow Ranch Club, whose members would have exclusive use of the facilities at what today we call Double Arrow Lodge. Initiation fee was set at $2,400 with annual dues of $95. A few months later we see a four-acre lot on the Ranch offered at $15,000, and a cabin on just over four acres offered for $39,000. While a local builder remembers 1985 as an especially slow year, the fact that resales of shares in the condos were starting to appear suggests that people were more confident in investing in vacation property.
The next three years made it clear that activity on the Ranch was picking up. There were more listings of houses, as opposed to the earlier years when we saw mostly lots. There was a three-acre lot along Morrell Creek offered for $19,000 in 1986 and the following year a two-bedroom cabin on one acre priced at $62,500 (or fully furnished at $69,500!) Longtime Seeley Lake realtor Elinor Williamson, who started her real estate career here in 1984, said that Double Arrow Ranch provided many of her sales, which could exceed 20 houses in one year.
By the end of 1987, the lot advertised as the least expensive on the Double Arrow were priced at $12,500. Slowly but surely, both lots and houses were increasing in value and building was occurring on all of the phases of the Ranch. Longtime residents Norm and Kathy Sindelar, who arrived in 1999 and lived well up from the highway on Grizzly Drive, remember that their house was built in 1988. Of course in 1999 the upper phases of the development, particularly three and five, were still pretty remote. There was no doubt that DARLOA was expanding across most of its 3,800 acres.
By 1989, it seems as though the stresses of high interest rates and a recession were things of the past and Double Arrow Ranch had entered a more mature phase. A six-month rental of a two bedroom, one bath house was offered at $450 a month and we found a September week in the condos available for $225. An interesting indication of just how much residents were willing to invest in their properties is the request from 1989 by Jack Piippo and Vern Berezay for a private bridge across the Clearwater River in Phase 1-A of the Ranch. Longtime residents will remember the Piippo pavilion and the DARLOA events that were held there.
Toward the end of the decade, as Double Arrow Ranch was becoming an established part of the Seeley Lake community, we lost one of its original visionaries Jan Boissevain. Boissevain died in August of 1988. We remember him as the founder, along with George Weisel, of the Double Arrow Ranch. It had been quite a journey from the original dude ranch to today’s combination of a residential subdivision, condominiums and year-round lodge.
Reader Comments(0)