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“The Crazies” – Book on Crazy Mountain wind farm generates insight to wealthy Montana landowners
In Montana, private property rights are sacred, and several generations of family residency are oft-cited by locals to claim even greater privileges.
So it’s a crazy tale that a group of wealthy nonresident landowners succeeded in sabotaging Sweet Grass County ranchers Rick Jarrett and Alfred and Dorothy Anderson’s efforts about six years ago to have a wind farm built on their land.
The Crazies – The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West
A dazzling piece of narrative nonfiction about land lust and the American West, The Crazies tells the story of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.
Most locals in Big Timber, Montana learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like his pioneer ancestors who staked their claims in the Treasure State, he believed in his right to make a living off the land—and its newest precious resource, million-dollar wind.
Trouble was, Jarrett’s neighbors were some of the wealthiest and most influential men in America, trophy ranchers who’d come West to enjoy magnificent mountain views, not stare at 500-foot wind turbines.
