War Dance Creek Farm

From Glendive, turning north off I-94 at Exit 213, State Highway 16 follows the Yellowstone River towards Sidney. War Dance Creek Farm is situated about 21 miles north on State Highway 16, with the main entrance positioned on the east side of the highway.

Located on the Yellowstone River, Glendive, with a population of about 4,618 people, borders Makoshika State Park, one of the most impressive badlands areas in America. This strong agricultural community offers banking, grocery stores, churches, outfitters, mechanics and repair shops, farm-supply stores, and other assorted services. Kindergarten through high school educational opportunities are available in Glendive’s public school system. Classified by the Montana High School Association as Class “A”, 9th through 12th-grade enrollment typically runs around 360 students. Small class sizes and ample individual attention help these rural schools offer some of the best education available today. Glendive is also home to Dawson Community College.

Sidney, a classic rural Montana town known as the “Sunrise City”, is the largest town in Richland County and northeastern Montana with a population of around 5,800 and provides important services to the area.
A good array of medical services including specialists and assisted-living accommodations are available in both Glendive and Sydney through the Glendive Medical Center, Sidney Clinic, and Sidney Health Center. Mercy Medical Center in Williston, North Dakota is considered the regional hospital in the area and provides extensive services and specialists.

Limited commercial air service is available through the Dawson Community Airport in Glendive and the Sidney-Richland Airport, both of which are serviced by Cape Air and have daily direct flights to and from Billings. A full-service FBO (fixed-based operator) is available to accommodate private aircraft at the Sidney-Richland Airport. The Williston Basin International Airport offers daily flights to and from Denver through United Airlines.

The Billings Logan International Airport provides a wider variety of commercial carriers with national and limited international service through Allegiant Air, Alaska Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines. Currently, direct flights are available to Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Cape Air offers flights to multiple destinations around Montana. For up-to-date flight schedules and airport information, refer to the airport website: www.flybillings.com. Also located at Billings Logan International Airport is Edwards Jet Center offering a full range of FBO services including fuel, aircraft parking, hangar, and maintenance. Visit http://www.edwardsjetcenter.com/ for additional services and information.

Distances to other cities in Montana and North Dakota from War Dance Creek Farm are as follows:

War Dance Creek Farm operates on approximately 4,720 deeded acres classified as follows:

3,429± Acres of Native Range and Pasture
748± Acres of Dry Cropland
340± Acres of Flood-Irrigated Cropland
203± Acres of River Bottom Pasture

The consistent soil profile and extended growing season in this region of Montana historically generate tremendous crop yields. The irrigated cropland is very productive with historical yields averaging approximately as follows:

Alfalfa (three cuttings) 7.5 Tons/Acre
Silage Corn 25 Tons/Acre
Spring Wheat 75 Bushel/Acre
Dryland Spring Wheat 30 Bushel/Acre
Sugar Beets 29 Tons/Acre

Crops are rotated on an annual basis depending on market conditions. Currently, two tenant farmers work the cropland, one of which operates a portion of the cropland, along with running cattle on the upper pasture ground located west of the highway.

The native pasture ground west of the highway currently runs 180± cow/calf pairs for the summer months on only half of the native pasture annually. According to the seller and the tenant, these numbers are very conservative. The goal has historically been to leave ample grass for wildlife. This area of the farm is comprised of twelve individual pastures and is sufficiently watered with both wells and springs that feed stock-water tanks.

Interior and perimeter fencing on the farm is in good condition. The improvements are modest but functional and well maintained. The buyer will not be paying for unneeded, tasteless buildings.

Mary’s Home

The largest of all the houses on the farm, this home has two nice-sized bedrooms on the second floor and one bedroom on the main floor. The main floor has a living room, office, and one full bathroom. The kitchen area is nicely sized and flows into a separate dining room. The entrance contains a mud room with a wash sink. The basement is used for storage and houses the washer-dryer. The house, remodeled in 2014 with new thermal pane windows, steel siding, and metal roofing, is heated with propane-gas forced air heat and central air conditioning. The plumbing and electrical were upgraded where necessary during the remodel. This home is on an individual well and septic system as well as utilizing an individual artesian well that serves the house, corrals, and several hydrants–this well has excellent volume and pressure.

Four independent irrigation districts comprise the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project (LYIP): the Savage Irrigation District, the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District No. 1, the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District No. 2, and the Intake Irrigation District. The farm derives its irrigation water from the Intake Irrigation District. In its entirety, the LYIP irrigates approximately 58,000 acres and about 10,000 acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat. Constructed with funds from Theodore Roosevelt’s Newlands Irrigation Act of 1902, the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project was among the first initiated by the federal government.

U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ethan A. Hitchcock, who later personally inspected the diversion dam and headgates, authorized construction in May 1904. Local farmers had to devise a way to pay back the staggering price tag, an estimated $4.1 million, and formed the Lower Yellowstone Water User’s Association for that purpose.
Sidney Herald – July 27, 2005

The project consisted of building approximately 75 miles of the Lower Yellowstone Main Canal and the Intake Diversion Point, located one mile south of the farm. War Dance Creek Farm is one of the very first farms on the large main canal and has never suffered from a lack of available water even during the biggest historical droughts. This monumental accomplishment transformed the high-plain desert along the Lower Yellowstone River into a virtual oasis of agricultural production and wildlife.

The farm controls 340 of the 850 total irrigable acres of the Intake Irrigation District. The district provides irrigation water from April 15th to October 1st each year. There are three primary users in the district–War Dance Creek Farm, MBA Consultants, and Rice Farm. This individual irrigation district was created by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1944 as a part of the greater Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project (LYIP). The LYIP’s Board of Control maintains the facilities (ditches, drains, pumps, and motors) and management of the LYIP. In turn, LYIP is paid through irrigation district tax assessments to the water users following the irrigation season. The LYIP maintains one year of operating money in reserve at all times. Operating and maintenance expenses have historically been about $41.75 per irrigated acre annually.

Intake Irrigation District water is pumped out of the Lower Yellowstone Canal at a pump station located within a quarter mile upstream of the canal from the farm. The pump station consists of two pumps. A 40-hp pump provides water for the approximately 307 irrigated acres east of the canal and a second 15-hp pump serves the irrigated fields west of the canal consisting of approximately 33 acres. The maintenance of the pump station, canals, and drains is handled by the Intake Irrigation District and paid for by the three users through irrigation district tax assessments.
Water is distributed throughout the fields primarily with cement ditches and spread on the leveled fields with siphon tubes–the distribution of irrigation water via gravity eliminates any electrical costs associated with the irrigation system. Irrigation season typically begins in mid-April and runs through the end of September.

Extensive water rights exist on the farm consisting of developed springs and wells providing ample sources of water for livestock and wildlife.

All water rights in Montana are subject to eventual re-adjudication by the Montana Water Court and, as a result of that process, may be changed as to validity, amount, priority date, place of use, and any other changes the Court determines to make. The seller has made all filings currently required and will transfer the water rights as they currently stand with no warranty of future viability. All water rights appurtenant to and for the benefit of the farm will be conveyed to the Buyer at closing of a sale.

Please contact our Bozeman Office for a complete list of water rights appurtenant to War Dance Creek Farm.

In April 1805, Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery camped at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, just across what is now the Montana-North Dakota border about twenty miles northeast of present-day Sydney. Their journals describe the abundance of wildlife in the area.

Game is still very abundant. We can scarcely cast our eyes in any direction without perceiving deer, elk, buffalo, or antelopes.
Captain Meriwether Lewis, April 27, 1805 – Corps of Discovery

From the 1830s to the 1850s, to the northeast of Sidney, the Old Fort Union, built in 1828, now a National Historic Site, was a hub for trade and commerce at the convergence of the rivers. Known as a center of “peaceful economic and social exchange,” Fort Union welcomed both Indian and white traders inside its gates. The fur trade on the upper Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers thrived and the Indians and the white man lived harmoniously for the period between 1806 and the end of the Civil War in 1865. With the conclusion of the Civil War, whites moved west in droves resulting in the eventual relocation of the Indians to reservations.

Between 1870 and the mid-1880s, Montana cattle numbers exploded from about 50,000 to over 1,000,000! Buffalo were rapidly killed off by traders, Indians, and cattlemen–cattle mingling in the vast buffalo herds were lost to Indians and rustlers. As the Indians were relocated, the cattlemen obtained access to the plains of Eastern Montana and North Dakota. Miles City became known as the “urban center” of the region serving as a major shipping point for cattle heading east by rail.

This “Cattle Boom” hit a difficult period between 1886 and 1891. The finite resource of grass had reached its limit; overgrazing, several dry years, and the severe winter of 1886-87 led to massive losses. One historian notes “… it is estimated that stock growers lost 95% of their cattle to starvation.” Cattlemen soon realized that managing the grass and addressing common problems resulted in greater profits. Stock growers’ associations were formed and remain operational even today.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Reclamation Act of 1902 led to the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project which expanded agricultural capacity putting about 54,000 additional acres under irrigation upon completion in 1909. The availability of water, rich soils, and long growing seasons created a hotbed for agriculture.

Sugar beets became and remain a valuable crop along the Yellowstone. Construction of the Holly Sugar Corporation’s processing plant at Sidney in 1925 helped make beets the number one cash crop in Richland County.

It is a mighty labyrinth of nature. Hills of every conceivable form and hue, cones, wedges and giant cubes, deep valleys, wild gulches, colossal fortifications of nature, patches of trees on scoriac land, agatized stumps, hay meadows and streams, petrifactions, crimson, white and yellow mounds, mighty gorges and smiling dells, with rocks abounding everywhere, resembling sphinxes, pyramids, obelisks, temple ruins and cathedral spires, are the features prominent from every point of view.
History of the Yellowstone Valley – Chapter IV, page 384.

The Lower Yellowstone River Valley has historically been renowned by hunters for harboring trophy whitetail bucks and abundant populations of upland game birds and turkey. Furthermore, the farm contains several hundred acres of “Breaks” formations that have formed over thousands of years, and support mule deer of immense proportions.

The farm is situated in hunting District 703 as defined by the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks, and has been conservatively managed for big mule-deer bucks in the breaks of the farm and trophy whitetails along the banks of the Yellowstone River. The combination of careful management, excellent feed, and older-aged animals has proven to produce some of the largest mule deer and whitetail bucks in the region. Additionally, abundant populations of antelope reside in the grassy plains within the confines of the farm.

A testimony to the caliber of hunting in this area of Montana is the regular filming of the television series “Buckmasters”. This weekly show often portrays hunts along the Yellowstone River of Eastern Montana. The Buckmaster Farm sits approximately 25 miles to the northwest and “down river” of War Dance Creek Farm.
The habitat within the farm is so extensive and diverse that it can be hunted repeatedly without over-pressuring the game populations. Over the years, friends and family have harvested large-bodied bucks with good spreads. It appears that with minimal adjustments, the farm could consistently produce trophy mule deer to complement the trophy whitetails that are currently being harvested.

Upland game birds inhabit the area’s coulees, grassy flats, and wooded hills. Sharp-tailed grouse and Hungarian partridge all thrive in this unique terrain. Wild geese migrate by the thousands along the nearby Yellowstone River and the farm’s meadows in the fall and spring, filling the sky as they voyage south for the winter and back north for the summer months. Abundant populations of wild turkeys and pheasants have also claimed this portion of the river bottom as home.

The pheasant population along the meadow bottoms has thrived over the years. With virtually no hunting pressure, the habitat along the Yellowstone and nearby grain crops has produced bumper crops of birds. With strong pheasant populations across the hundreds of acres of river bottom, it could be hunted repeatedly with minimal impact. This is truly a bird hunter’s paradise!

From Billings downstream to the North Dakota border, the Yellowstone River slows and anglers will seek burbot, channel catfish, paddlefish, sauger, smallmouth bass, and walleye. Warm-water fish species reside along this stretch of the river during the summer months. However, the river does provide good trout fishing in the early spring and late fall when the river water tends to be cooler. Pallid sturgeons, an endangered species, find the Yellowstone River home as well. Engineers designed a “fish bypass” in the newly designed Intake Weir.

War Dance Creek Farm ranges in elevation with the highest point at approximately 2,400 feet above sea level down to approximately 1,985 feet along the banks of the Yellowstone River.

The average annual precipitation ranges from 12 to 20 inches, with May and June historically being the wettest months. Additional rainstorms also frequent the region in late July through early August which boosts the grass through the balance of the summer into the fall. The area’s average growing season is approximately 130 to 140 days from early May to late September.

Average maximum temperatures in June, July, and August range from 75° to 81° Fahrenheit. Summer nights average about 45° Fahrenheit–always great for refreshing sleep. In December, January and February average maximum temperatures are between 34° and 40° Fahrenheit. Winter average minimum is between 10° and 15° Fahrenheit. There is plenty of sunshine from November through March.

The real estate taxes for 2023 were $9,250.

The sellers will be retaining the mineral, oil, gas, geo-thermal, and hydro-carbon rights they actually own, subject to reservations by previous owners.

Electricity to the homes on the farm is provided by Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative. The electricity provider for the irrigation pumps is Western Area Power Association.

Mid-Rivers provides both high-speed internet and phone service to the farm.

Mary’s House is served with natural gas by Montana Dakota Utilities (MDU).

Verizon Wireless is the local cell phone provider and is available at most locations on the farm.

Cross Petroleum, based in Glendive, provides propane for the farm.

The seller hereby makes known that there may be variations between the deeded property lines and the location of the existing fence boundary lines on War Dance Creek Farm. The seller makes no warranties regarding the location of the fence lines in relationship to the deeded property lines, nor does the seller make any warranties or representations regarding specific acreage within the fenced property lines.

The seller is selling War Dance Creek Farm in its “as is-where is” condition which includes the location of the fences as they now exist. Boundaries shown on any accompanying maps are approximate. The maps are not to scale and are for visual aid only. The accuracy of the maps and information portrayed thereon is not guaranteed nor warranted.

Following unprecedented gains in the stock market over the past several years, historically, investment-grade buyers will seek hard assets to shelter their gains. The size, scope, and resource condition of this farm provide all the necessary ingredients for a successful investment in production agriculture along with unlimited recreational opportunities for either a resident or non-resident owner. For those who have closely followed farm property values in Montana in recent years, this offering is priced very competitively in today’s market with solid management in place to realize consistent returns.

War Dance Creek Farm provides the unique opportunity to acquire approximately 4,720 acres of deeded land in some of Montana’s most productive farming and cattle country. Rarely does a farm come on the market that provides solid upland game bird, turkey, mule deer, and whitetail deer components with proven agricultural production.

With solid water rights, War Dance Creek Farm is situated in Montana’s most reliable river drainage. The Yellowstone River flows with the quantity of water to ensure a solid irrigating season, consistent soil profiles, and quality crops.
The full recreational aspect of the farm has yet to be capitalized on. The next owner may very well engage with a local outfitter to enhance and expand the whitetail and mule deer hunting component of the farm. One of the farmhouses could easily be converted to lodge hunters searching for the elusive trophy bucks that proliferate the farm or upland bird hunters seeking to experience the abundance of the Yellowstone River bottoms. War Dance Creek Farm will provide unlimited enjoyment for friends and family while investing in a solid long-term production asset.

War Dance Creek Farm, as previously described herein, is offered at US $5,500,000.00 Cash or Terms acceptable solely at the discretion of the Seller. The conditions of sale are as follows:

1. All offers to purchase or letters of intent must be in writing and within 5-business days an earnest money deposit of 3.0% of the purchase price made to the escrow account at Flying S Title & Escrow of Glendive, Montana;
2. Earnest money deposits will be placed in escrow with Flying S Title & Escrow of Glendive, Montana, which may place the funds with local banks at nominal rates of interest accruing to the benefit of the Buyer until Closing;
3. All Prospective Buyers must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Sellers absolute financial capability to purchase the Property prior to scheduling an inspection of the property;
4. The Sellers will provide and pay for a standard owner’s title insurance policy. Any endorsements requested by the Buyer or any lender will be at the Buyer’s expense. Title to the real property will be conveyed by a deed;
5. All of the water right claims controlled by the Property will be transferred to the Buyer at Closing;
   The mineral rights will be retained by the Seller:
6. Buyers’ Brokers are welcome and invited to contact Mike Swan in our Bozeman Office for information regarding Cooperation Policies.

TERMS OF INSPECTION

A 48-hour notice is requested to make proper arrangements for an inspection of War Dance Creek Farm.