5 replies to this topic

[Wandering Sagebrush]

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

The Sage technology approach

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

We have driven past their place in Twin Bridges several times on

some on our Yellowstone trips.  It seems that I am never by at the right time.

 

They are located in some beautiful country.

Frank

[ski3pin]

Charles Kuralt and Winston fly rods are a winning combination!

[Foy]

We have driven past their place in Twin Bridges several times on

some on our Yellowstone trips.  It seems that I am never by at the right time.

 

They are located in some beautiful country.

Frank

 

Frank and Monte, while passing through, were you aware of the proximity of Charles Kuralt's properties on the Big Hole River just outside of Twin Bridges?  Maybe 6-8 miles upriver from town are two parcels of land purchased by Kuralt in the couple of decades before his death.  The first had a small cabin and the second, larger tract was vacant until Kuralt purchased and moved an abandoned schoolhouse onto it.  It sat on a high bluff above a bend in the river on its north side,  between the river and Burma Road.  Its striking setting was intended to be Kuralt's study in retirement.  Kuralt's routine was to spend most of the month of September at his place each year, by himself, or so many believed.

The story of Charles Kuralt's acquisition of the two properties and what became of his retreat just before and soon after his death following a short illness in 1997 was widely told in tabloids and in other, more learned articles and publications concerning estate planning and the vagaries of various Federal and state's laws concerning otherwise mundane things like holographic wills, ancillary administration of an estate, the term apportionment, and taxation of estates.  

With Kuralt having been an exalted Son of North Carolina, he was widely known as an alum of UNC-Chapel Hill.  Recordings of part of his speech on the occasion of UNC's Bicentennial in October 1993 have been played thousands of times leading into UNC athletic events for nearly 30 years now.  Kuralt was interred in the UNC Cemetery, an on campus burial ground reserved for a select few.

It was the combination of my own familiarity with Charles Kuralt, love for southwestern Montana, and professional interest in estate administration and taxation issues which first brought me into a deeper dive into a study of the circumstances surrounding "the property in Montana" mentioned in a handwritten letter he'd written and signed in the days before his death. 

The unannounced appearance of an individual at Kuralt's funeral service in Chapel Hill-- the individual bearing the original, handwitten letter written just days to weeks before-- put in motion a series of events, hearings, and trials which ascended all the way to the Montana Supreme Court.  The backstory is downright lurid by conservative North Carolina standards, but it's fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the life and times of Charles Kuralt, the Big Hole River country in Montana, and matters concerning decedent's estates.

While we would never be so rude as to drop in on those occupying the property today, since 2015 we've found ourselves wandering down Burma Rd a couple or three times to gaze upon the cabin and schoolhouse in the distance, and to proceed westward towards Notch Bottom to see some outstanding geology which since my own field camp student days in 1978 have become a Nirvana for undergraduate geology program field methods courses, commonly referred to as Field Camp. It's a real pleasure to see the video he narrated and to know it was released in more peaceful times for Kuralt and his family just a couple of years before his passing.

 

Foy

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Foy for the story.

We always were just on a drive through ,of that area.

Headed homeward.

Frank