Five years ago, tech entrepreneur and Shark Tank co-host Robert Herjavec fell in love with Yellowstone Club . Located an hour’s drive south of Bozeman, Montana, and about 50 miles north of Yellowstone National Park, the club owns a private mountain with more skiable acres than Killington, Stowe, or any other resort on the East Coast. “It’s an amazing place for families and kids,” Herjavec says, noting that his 6-year-old twins are already skiing better than his wife, Kym. The couple, who met on Dancing with the Stars, first bought a condo at the club, adjacent to Big Sky ski resort, in 2019 before deciding to build their own place. They spent three years and $28 million (including furnishings) on a 13,500-square-foot, eight-bedroom dream home that boasts cathedral-like views of the Rocky Mountains. “We have a lot of houses. This is our favorite,” Herjavec says.
He’s not alone. Herjavec is one of 885 members of the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club — 15,000 mountainous acres of world-class skiing, golf, fly fishing and horseback riding. There’s a children’s movie theater, a concert venue that has hosted the likes of Sting, Norah Jones and James Taylor, and even “sugar shacks” stocked with all sorts of freebies like chocolate bars, snacks and hot soups scattered across the mountain and greens. The club’s mountain has 21 chairlifts, a gondola, 2,900 skiable acres — and no lift lines. Roy Carroll, a North Carolina real estate billionaire who has a home on the same road as Herjavec, says it’s not unusual to be the only person on a slope.
“They hit the sweet spot for a multigenerational destination … for people ages 8 to 80,” says Carroll, 61, who built a $37 million home there with room for future grandchildren. “I built a house that we wouldn’t grow out of for 50 years.”
Perhaps the club’s biggest draw is exclusivity. Applicants need high-level references and must undergo a detailed background check. Membership is limited to 914 to prevent overcrowding. Admission requires purchasing land, a house or a condo. Even the cheapest undeveloped lot will cost $10 million. Condos start at just under $7 million, but the average is $15.5 million; houses cost $20 million or more. Then there’s a refundable $500,000 deposit and annual dues of $78,000, which cover unlimited skiing and golf for your immediate family (including parents and grandchildren, but not adult siblings) plus 140 visiting days a year.
Almost as difficult as getting in is figuring out who else belongs. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are members, as is Mark Zuckerberg. Same for Tom Brady. Many try to keep their slice of paradise private by owning it through LLCs. One local insider estimates the club has between 50 and 80 billionaire members.
After combing through Montana public records for more than 300 club properties and investigating other sources, we found 19 billionaires and two children of billionaires, including previously unreported names like hedge fund moguls Bill Ackman and Felix Baker, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, Waffle House chairman Joe Rogers Jr., and Blackstone chairman Steve Schwarzman’s son Teddy, who is a film producer. Melinda French Gates got a home in Yellowstone as part of her divorce settlement. We also found dozens of centimillionaires, including former Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, venture capitalist Chris Sacca, and Burton snowboard owner Donna Carpenter.
“You see famous members a lot,” says Henry Helgeson, who joined in 2018 after selling his payments company Cayan to TSYS, another payments firm, for $1 billion. “A lot of these people have trouble being anonymous and leaving the house without people bothering them. It’s a place where they can feel comfortable doing that.”
The club was the brainchild of former billionaire and forestry entrepreneur Tim Blixseth, who bought 140,000 acres near Yellowstone National Park in 1991 and traded it for the land for the Yellowstone Club. It opened in 1999, but Blixseth borrowed $375 million against it, then spent about $200 million to buy yachts and luxury homes for a high-end timeshare project that never got off the ground. The club had to declare bankruptcy in 2008.
Boston-based real estate investment firm CrossHarbor Capital — along with about 40 individual members of the Yellowstone Club — bought it out of bankruptcy in 2009 for $115 million. Sam Byrne, managing partner at CrossHarbor, says they’ve invested more than $1 billion in it over the past 15 years and plan to keep spending more. Why not? Those early backers have already earned 4.5 times their invested capital. Says Byrne: “What we offer is not replicated anywhere.”
The exclusive Yellowstone Club list
Bill Ackman
The outspoken founder of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital owns two properties in the Yellowstone Club: a four-bedroom home likely worth $20 million and a nearly eight-acre undeveloped lot nearby that is assessed at $10 million.
Tom Brady
The former NFL star and ex-husband of supermodel Gisele Bündchen appears to have received the couple’s Yellowstone Club home as part of their 2022 divorce settlement. No surprise, given how much he enjoys the place. He took his parents and two children to visit this summer and posted photos on Instagram of his kids walking on ropes between trees as part of a ropes course, while he went rock climbing. He’s also taken several of his former Patriots teammates on bike rides around the club’s winding trails.
Ron Burkle
The founder and managing partner of the Los Angeles-based investment firm Yucaipa Companies and president of the private club firm Soho House, Burkle owns a roughly $75 million, 46-acre estate at the club with several homes, including a nine-bedroom, 7,600-square-foot dwelling. Yucaipa paid $55 million for about a one-third stake in the Yellowstone Club in 2010 and then sold it in 2021 for about five times that sum.
Stewart Butterfield and Jen Rubio
Butterfield, the billionaire founder of the business messaging app Slack, and his wife, Jen Rubio, founder of the luggage brand Away, bought their home in 2021, the same year Salesforce bought Slack for nearly $28 billion. The house is now worth about $38 million.
Melinda French Gates
When Melinda and Bill divorced in 2021, she kept their now $40 million home (eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms) on winding Andesite Ridge Road, nicknamed Billionaires’ Ridge. Also transferred from Bill: 18 acres of land spread across four nearby lots. In May, Melinda posted a selfie on Facebook with Big Sky’s snow-capped Lone Peak in the background—and a big smile on her face. The caption: “2024 until now.”
Jimmy Haslam
The Cleveland Browns owner has a place near the golf course, built in 2018, that has five bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and is valued at about $22 million.
Frank McCourt
The investor and former owner of the LA Dodgers purchased the 160-acre Ranch #2 at the Club. It is currently vacant land, but there are plans by an architecture firm to build a main residence, two guest cottages, stables, a covered bridge and a “subtle entrance monument.”
Eric Schmidt
The former Google CEO hosts a small annual conference at the Yellowstone Club during the third weekend in July, billed (modestly) as a gathering of the world’s smartest and most interesting people. Attendees have included Lady Gaga, journalist Ronan Farrow, author Adam Grant, and economist Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group. The event is often held at the same time as the town’s annual Professional Bull Riding rodeo. Strange connections indeed.
Justin Timberlake
The pop star and his actress wife, Jessica Biel, reportedly joined the club in 2015. Seeking a lower-profile life, the celebrity couple lived full-time in Big Sky for a time and sent at least one of their children to the local school. They have donated at least $100,000 to the Big Sky community and recreation center. According to sources, they still own their home at the Yellowstone Club, but are now able to live in Bozeman.
Nick Woodman
The billionaire founder of GoPro, which makes sports and wearable video cameras, bought a home at the Yellowstone Club in 2011 and moved there full-time in 2018. He and his wife, Jill, led the creation of the Big Sky community and recreation center with a $4 million donation. “This is the most special place I’ve ever been able to be, let alone live with my family,” Woodman said at the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony.
Mark Zuckerberg
The Meta billionaire, known for posting snippets of his life on Instagram and Facebook, gave a glimpse of his time in Montana in March, including photos of a closet full of one-piece ski suits (designs included American flag, camouflage and leopard print) as well as a video of Lone Peak, the iconic mountain above the nearby Big Sky ski resort. A spokesperson for Zuckerberg would not comment on whether he belongs to the Yellowstone Club, but locals confirm sightings and Forbes found an LLC it thinks belongs to Zuckerberg tied to three homes purchased in 2015. (The LLC is called Ferragosto, after an Italian holiday tied to the Emperor Augustus. Zuckerberg’s three daughters are named after Roman emperors, and the LLC has ties to a Palo Alto accounting firm.)
