Montana
Cash crunch triggers lease hikes in Virginia City, Reeder’s Alley
Things are escalating into a standoff at Montana’s state-owned ghost towns, where rising rents and theme park ambitions, along with a case of embezzlement, are frustrating the owners of some of the state’s top tourist attractions in neighboring Virginia and Nevada cites in southwest Montana and Reeder’s Alley in Helena.
Operators of popular attractions like the Illustrious Virginia City Players, a beloved seasonal theater and vaudeville show, say new lease terms drafted by the Montana Department of Commerce are unaffordable. The state is asking for a standardized 15% of gross sales from Virginia City restaurants and the town theater troupe, this after years of collecting smaller and varying amounts from businesses. Vendors have been told to accept the new terms or clear out by the end of the month, said Errol Koch, whose family has performed at the Virginia City Opera House for decades.
“To say that we ever had a gross, like a net profit, is laughable,” Koch said, “because everything we ever made either went to stockpile for the next season, to pay employees or to, like, just survive the winter. The profit part is negligible at best.”
The commerce department estimates that, before expenses, the Opera House brought in $126,000 in 2025. Rent would be $19,000 under the new lease terms. That would leave $107,000 to cover four months of payroll for roughly 15 employees.
Actors spend the summer performing original plays and vaudeville acts in a small opera house anchoring the west end of the Wallace Street wooden boardwalk. The players are a main draw of the 1860s gold rush town that sprang up along the banks of Alder Creek and was the territorial capital until 1875.
The acting troupe lives in a collection of small cabins, also owned by the state. In addition to wanting a 15% cut in gross income, Koch said the state also wants rent for the cabins, and it wants the copyright for any material written by the performers, an ownership requirement Koch said is typically associated with major entertainment companies like Disney. The commerce department told Montana Free Press the copyright language has been in opera house contracts since 2009.
In a state budget committee hearing last week, commerce Deputy Director Mandy Rambo told legislators that Montana heritage properties in Virginia City, Nevada City and Helena’s Reeder’s Alley have fallen hundreds of thousands of dollars short of annual revenue expectations for several years. Tourist season revenues have been expected to exceed $1 million, but have mostly come in at $750,000 for the three locations.
Rambo cited mismanagement by the Montana Heritage Commission, a part of the commerce department that oversees the properties. Losses include a years-long embezzlement by a former executive director, Michael Elijah Allen, who earlier this month was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $280,000 in restitution. An accomplice, Casey Jack Steinke, was sentenced to one year in state custody and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution.
“It is a mismanagement of funds through several scenarios, not charging rent to people, not charging market rents to people who are renting from the Heritage Commission, overspending funds that the commission did not have,” Rambo told lawmakers.
LUXURY LODGINGS?
The changes come as the state eyes 99-year leases for parties to invest a “substantial amount” in improving heritage property. The change in the law, passed by the Legislature earlier this year, preceded by several months an elaborate proposal by California-based developer Auric Road to transform Nevada City into “a living frontier village — a 21st-century homestead camp where guests can immerse themselves in Montana’s heritage while enjoying modern comforts.”
Nevada City is the site of several buildings and antiques relocated from various locations by the former Virginia City curator Charles Bovey, whose estate sold its heritage assets to the state of Montana in 1997 for $6.5 million. The location is a less robust attraction than Virginia City.
The commerce department said last week that Auric Road withdrew its plan sometime after presenting it to the Montana Heritage Commission in September.
The pitch was luxurious, especially when compared to current Nevada City conditions. The local hotel is closed for major repairs. The proposal included three-star accommodations at a restored 14-room Nevada City Hotel, guest cabins with multiple bedrooms and enough extras to transform Nevada City into a year-round destination, according to Auric Road. There were also wall tents and Conestoga wagons with full indoor bathrooms. There was to be candle making, gold panning and glamorous camping, or “glamping,” at an area dubbed the “River of Gold.” The plans also called for adding a speakeasy railcar where craft cocktails would be served.
Credit: From the Auric Road proposal submitted to the Montana Heritage Commission
Rambo, testifying for the law change before the House Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee last February, specifically offered Nevada City Hotel renovations as an example of why the change in law was needed to attract companies with deep pockets, including a $1 million cost estimate for raising the two-story building to do foundation work.
Auric made inroads into Montana’s heritage properties this summer when it took over management under contract for Virginia City’s Bale of Hay Saloon, which touts itself as Montana’s oldest bar. State officials said the contract, awarded July 24, spanned the remainder of the 2025 season. A contract for 2026 hasn’t been created.
Like other Virginia City properties, the 1863 bar is a state-owned enterprise leased to private vendors. After the commerce department parted ways with the previous vendor, Marie Clark, Clark took to social media, accusing the state of driving her out to make room for what she called “Lone Mountain Ranch,” a Big Sky-area resort property also owned by Auric Road.
Auric Road did not respond to an interview request made through the company’s website for this article. Clark said in an email this week that she and the state have reached a settlement over her dismissal from the lease. The department confirmed last week that it had paid Clark $20,000. The agreement prevents her from further disparaging the department, Clark said, and she has removed her earlier criticisms of the commerce department from social media.
Auric Road’s now-withdrawn plans for Nevada City sound out of tune to Virginia City vendors, who say their combined community is a regional draw, attracting Montanans who want to see an intact territorial mining town.
“There’s nothing they want to do that matches us at all,” said Shauna Laszlo Belding, who operates Bob’s Place, a pizza and sandwich restaurant, with her husband, Kirk Belding. “I go to (Auric’s) website, and you’re not staying in a room for $300 a night. Lone Mountain is $800 a night. Our clientele is regional families. They can’t afford that.”
In Virginia City, a community with about 500 full-time residents, the reality of the frontier west is grittier than fiction. It’s a place where alleged outlaws led by a mining town sheriff were accused of robbing miners and hanged on “boot hill” by vigilantes who apprehended and killed more than 20 people. The deformed foot of one of those hanged, “Clubfoot” George Lane, was removed from his body and put on display in 1907. The foot didn’t stop being a tourist attraction for a century, but was cremated at the request of Lane’s family in 2017, when the community received a replica foot for display.
Rocky dredge piles churned by mining operations that sifted through Alder’s placer 160 years ago are still heaped along the waterways, aka “River of Gold,” trailing from this community.
Virginia City is changing, Koch said. There’s a seasonal housing shortage. Homes that once provided affordable shelter for seasonal workers are now vacation rentals. Virginia City is still the Madison County seat. Taxes are still paid and divorces are still filed in the historic brick courthouse. There’s a two-cell jail with bars down in the basement.
Still, one bald mountain pass to the east, Montana’s modern gold rush of real estate, fly fishing and cattle is spreading fast in Ennis, population 1,100. The runway at the county airport accommodates personal jets. There’s a private mountain backroad to the ski resorts of Big Sky, which otherwise takes an 87-mile trip around the Madison Range to access.
The Beldings were five years into a 20-year lease when the commerce department informed them that the state wanted 15% of their gross income and their old lease was void. The new lease, non-negotiable, was also subject to annual revisions by the state.
Explaining the new terms to legislators last week, Rambo said the 15% was standard for “turnkey businesses,” meaning businesses with landlord-provided equipment and branding, capable of operating without tenant investment.
REEDER’S ALLEY
Tenants say not all the properties are ready for business. In Helena’s Reeder’s Alley, it took the state 10 months to bring the stairway and deck leading to Chris Starr’s barbecue business into compliance with local regulations. The brick-paved alley is the oldest part of Helena, built in the 1870s alongside housing for miners.
Starr said he learned the stairs were out of compliance the hard way, on his second day of business in Reeder’s Alley operating RockStar BBQ. Helena safety inspectors told him the stairs would have to be roped off until they were repaired. He then learned that the same order about fixing the stairs had also been issued 10 years earlier. This time, the poor conditions of the deck and stairway resulted in a pause in his liquor license.
In the winter months, the icy walk to Rockstarr’s back entrance made the restaurant uninviting, Starr said. The business became fully accessible in August, about nine months after Starr moved in November 2024. Starr said the condition of the site during his first year as a tenant almost broke him financially.
Last week, the commerce department published a list of new lease terms for 24 historic properties in Virginia and Nevada cities and Reeder’s Alley. RockStarr’s rent was listed as $800 a month with utilities paid, a “partial kitchen and brand-new deck.”
One legislator from the Virginia City area bristled last week at the commerce department suggesting the Legislature mandated an increase in lease revenue by assuming that a percentage of the Heritage Commission Budget would come from leasing.
“I understand that, and appreciate [it], that you can’t spend money you don’t have, but I think the terminology is a little bit misleading that, you know, the Legislature demanded or mandated that you do that,” Rep. Ken Walsh, R-Twin Bridges, told Rambo in committee Dec. 17.
Walsh said he recently consulted with former vendors of seasonal businesses and learned that a revenue share of 6% to 12% to the state was more feasible. Rambo had said the 15% rate was similar to what county fairs charge concessioners.
Lawmakers representing the Virginia City area were instrumental in making changes to the law sought by the commerce department concerning the management of the state’s heritage properties. Walsh carried a bill to allow the state to issue leases of up to 99 years.
Republican Sen. Tony Tezak, R-Ennis, carried a bill giving the commerce department more supervisory control over the heritage properties, a move away from the loose management by the Montana Heritage Commission during the embezzlement scandal.
The state’s heritage properties number 250. There are also 1.3 million historic artifacts, according to testimony from commerce department officials to the Legislature in February.
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Cash crunch triggers lease hikes in Virginia City, Reeder’s Alley
Things are escalating into a standoff at Montana’s state-owned ghost towns, where rising rents and theme park ambitions, along with a case of embezzlement, are frustrating the owners of some of the state’s top tourist attractions in neighboring Virginia and Nevada cites in southwest Montana and Reeder’s Alley in Helena.
State judge allows 2025-2026 wolf hunting and trapping regulations to stand
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MISSOULA — Four out of five members of Montana’s Public Service Commission were in a federal courtroom in Missoula Thursday morning, as the PSC’s former president challenges the disciplinary action taken against him earlier this year. Now, newly released documents are shedding more light on to what led up to this point.
(Watch the video for a closer look at the case.)
New documents shed light Montana PSC dispute
Commissioner Brad Molnar has sued President Jeff Welborn, Vice President Jennifer Fielder and Commissioner Annie Bukacek – the three PSC members who voted in May to require him to work remotely, after an investigation into complaints about his workplace conduct. Molnar has claimed he is being unfairly punished for constitutionally protected speech, and he asked Senior U.S District Judge Donald Molloy to allow him to return to the PSC offices.
Matthew Monforton, Molnar’s attorney, told the judge that barring Molnar from the building was limiting his ability to do his job.
“He has not been officially kicked out of office, but his voice has clearly been diminished,” said Monforton.
But Natasha Jones, an attorney representing the other three commissioners, said the findings were about behavior, not just speech, and that the PSC’s action was a reasonable response.
“These are serious concerns about a pattern of conduct that has made employees quit,” she said.
Jonathon Ambarian
On Tuesday, Molloy ordered the release of redacted versions of two full investigative reports into Molnar’s conduct – more than 100 pages of documents. Monforton had moved for the full reports to be made public, and Molloy ruled attorneys for the other PSC members hadn’t shown a compelling reason to keep the documents under seal as long as the names of people involved in the investigation were obscured.
While the names remained redacted in the investigation reports, the attorneys for Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek also filed additional documents – including a public declaration from Bukacek and from former PSC executive director Alana Lake, providing information about their allegations against Molnar.
The two reports, from an outside investigator, cover Molnar’s alleged actions over two periods: the first from February to August 2025, and the second from August to October 2025. The investigation began after the first formal complaint, filed by Bukacek in May 2025 – though the reports say employees had been bringing up concerns about Molnar’s behavior informally for several months prior.
Bukacek’s complaint claimed Molnar had repeatedly made what she called “sexualized and demeaning comments.” The examples she cited included saying the PSC should replace “Taco Tuesdays” with “Topless Tuesdays,” reminiscing about watching girls in bikinis as a teenager, and commenting about the beauty of women in areas of China who didn’t get “old and wrinkly.”
In her declaration, Bukacek also claimed Molnar had “maliciously disseminated false information” about her and “engaged in behavior that was dismissive, derisive and otherwise abusive.”
“My primary concern now is not for my safety nor my feelings, but for the rest of the staff who may not have the temperament to speak up or may feel too intimidated to speak up given concerns over job security,” Bukacek said in her declaration.
MTN News
The investigators determined Molnar had violated the PSC’s code of conduct by making comments of a sexual nature, and that it appeared his behavior had continued for some time after he was warned about it. They also found he had behaved unprofessionally and in a belittling manner toward Bukacek, though they said Bukacek herself had at times used “language that could be considered inappropriate” in emails to staff or other commissioners. Bukacek told MTN she “readily self corrected” any behaviors that were brought to her attention.
The investigation also found a violation in connection with a complaint from a PSC staff member, who said he “felt bullied” by Molnar when the commissioner sent an email complaining about his team not being “people with competence.”
However, much of the first report and the entire second report was focused on conduct after the initial complaints, when Molnar was accused of retaliating against people who participated in the investigation. Lake said in her declaration that she saw “an immediate and significant change in his behavior toward staff involved in the process.” She claimed he said he would use an attorney and private investigator to go after people who filed complaints, and she accused him of publicly criticizing her in interviews and removing her job responsibilities because of her handling of the investigation.
Lake said Molnar’s actions led to “declining morale within the agency,” undermined staff members’ ability to do their jobs and damaged her reputation. She said that led her to resign as executive director.
“I believe no employee should be forced to choose between reporting misconduct and protecting their career, reputation, or personal well-being,” she said in her declaration.
Lake has since become Helena city manager.
Jonathon Ambarian
The report said there was evidence to show Molnar had retaliated, including by “making disparaging statements about investigation participants” including Lake, by sending an email warning he could file complaints of his own against people involved, and by taking other actions investigators said could dissuade employees from reporting behavior in the future.
Monforton said during Thursday’s hearing that the initial comments Bukacek complained about were jokes Molnar had admitted were inappropriate, that he regretted saying them, and that he hasn’t made any similar comments in about a year. But he argued the vast majority of the findings against Molnar were about retaliation – and that those were primarily based on speech that the other commissioners don’t have the right to interfere with.
Monforton said it’s unreasonable to punish Molnar for what he said in the July news conference where he announced he was under investigation, in interviews with the media or in commission meetings. He said Molnar’s conduct doesn’t rise to the level of actual retaliation.
“This is an elected official, engaging in speech in his forum,” Monforton said.
He said Molnar may have made harsh comments toward staff, but that he had the right to raise objections about the way the agency does business.
Jonathon Ambarian
Monforton also argued the retaliation claims no longer justify keeping Molnar out of the office, since Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek voted to remove him as president in October and he no longer has the authority he’s accused of misusing. He said there haven’t been further complaints about his behavior since that time.
“We’re not asking for the moon and stars, we’re asking for the status quo as it existed for the last seven months,” he said.
Jones said there is enough evidence to show Molnar would have been punished regardless of whether any protected speech was excluded.
“This is not about a couple of jokes,” she said.
Jones said Molnar made maliciously false statements about people like Lake, and that type of statement isn’t covered by free speech protections.
She also said Molnar’s exclusion from the PSC offices is temporary, and that the PSC will reconsider whether to let him return if he apologizes for his actions, accepts the agency’s code of conduct and undergoes training.
Molloy indicated he saw indications that there was “acrimony” on both sides of the situation, and said he was skeptical it would be resolved easily.
“It would be nice if instead of juvenile behavior, there was professional behavior,” he said.
However, the judge said there was an avenue for Molnar to pursue if he wanted to reach a resolution.
Molloy took no immediate action Thursday. He told the parties he would rule as quickly as he could.
Carrie Gilbertson has been executive director of Cancer Support Community Montana for just under two months, stepping into the role in April with more than 15 years of nonprofit experience and a lifetime of Montana roots.
The organization provides psychosocial and mental health support to anyone affected by cancer — not just those with a diagnosis, but also family members and others walking alongside them.
WATCH: Meet the new leader of Cancer Support Community Montana 🎗️
Cancer Support Community Montana names new executive director
“This mission of providing psycho-social supports and mental health supports for anyone impacted by cancer, not just that person who has the diagnosis, but also family members, anyone who is walking alongside someone as they experience that often scary diagnosis, that’s just something that’s important to me,” Gilbertson said.
Gilbertson’s role extends beyond the Bozeman office. Cancer Support Community Montana’s Missoula location is already up and running, and a Helena location is expected to be operating soon. Each presents its own set of challenges.
“Each hospital is different. They might have different resources. Their social workers might be connecting to things in a different way. So understanding what those hospitals need, what different participants need in each community, is going to be different just because the communities are different, resources are different,” Gilbertson said.
The Bozeman office has been operating for more than 20 years, providing a foundation that supports the organization’s broader statewide efforts.
“I think this is a crew that looks at what does this community need what do our participants need what are some of the changing landscapes in cancer care what things are the gaps that we see that we can maybe just jump right in and you know let’s see if we can provide that for people so that’s something I really love about this crew that I work with and just this mission that there is some flexibility in being able to adjust and adapt as we learn more,” Gilbertson said.
Those adaptations show up in unexpected ways. The organization converts its parking lot into a pickleball court every Friday morning.
“I didn’t know there was a pickleball court. I pulled in actually with my daughter pulled in and she was is that pickleball court and I was like oh, it kind of looks like it is so yeah that’s fun, every Friday morning we clear out the parking lot and put up the net and I haven’t played yet I’ve been watching just to kind of see how that game works but they take it pretty seriously,” Gilbertson said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 17, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 17 drawing
03-26-49-53-61, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from June 17 drawing
11-16-18-33-51, Star Ball: 09, ASB: 05
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from June 17 drawing
01-16-17-27, Bonus: 01
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from June 17 drawing
13-22-35-36-39
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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