Enormous Montana ranch, once a hideout for Soviet defector, lists for $21.7M

A sprawling property with a movie-worthy USSR connection has hit the market for the first time in more than 70 years. 

Known as Rocking Chair Ranch, the 7,200-plus-acre expanse is located across the road from the old mining town of Philipsburg, Montana, and has been in the Vietor family since 1952, Mansion Global first reported. 

In addition to offering more than 11 square miles of terrain ranging from irrigated fields to conifer forest and riparian meadows, the estate  — which is seeking $21.7 million — also has a unique connection to Soviet Russia, thanks to ex-Soviet fighter pilot Viktor Belenko. 

In 1976, Belenko defected during a training exercise, flying his supersonic interceptor, the MiG-25 Foxbat, to Hokkaido, Japan, and seeking asylum in the US, Mansion Global reported. He quickly became a hero, and in addition to offering his plane to the US government, he also shared confidential information with them about the state of the Soviet military. 

As thanks, “the CIA asked him where he wanted to live, and he said somewhere in the western part of the country on a ranch,” Willy Vietor, a rancher and the Vietor family patriarch, told Mansion Global. “The CIA agent who knew my parents came up with us.”

And so Belenko came to live at Rocking Chair under an alias — but the Vietors quickly saw through it. 

“After he had been with us about a year, we connected the dots and realized he was one of the most valuable defectors the US had ever had,” said Vietor, who is 80 and selling the property because “we’ve hit a generational wall…There are no kids to take it over.”

He and his wife, Carolynn, will continue living on a 2,000-acre portion of the ranch that is not included in the current listing.

Belenko left the ranch in the early 1980s but would periodically visit. He passed away last year at the age of 76.  

In addition to a “beautiful piece of earth,” as the listing puts it, Rocking Chair also comes with an array of buildings, all located near each other, that include a 3,800-plus-square-foot main house originally from 1932, various barns, a shop and a granary.

“One of the things that makes Rocking Chair Ranch unique is that a buyer does not have to make any sacrifices to their wish list. Usually, a buyer must choose between river, mountains and any number of other variables,” Bill McDavid of Hall and Hall, who shares the listing with Deke Tidwell, told The Post. “Rocking Chair Ranch covers it all … river to the mountains and everything in between.”