MONTANA'S FAMOUS Historic lodge, bar and restaurant

For more than a hundred years, the Wise River Club (also known early on as the Wise River Hotel) has served as the gathering spot for the community of Wise River, Montana, and an essential stop over spot on the way to or after a well-spent day of fishing, hunting, off-road exploring, snowmobiling, hiking, camping, gold panning, or any of several other forms of summer and winter outdoor activities offered by the Pioneer Mountains and the Big Hole River Valley. The Wise River, for which the club was originally named, is an approximately 30-mile tributary of the Big Hole River and is just a stone’s throw from the club.

The exact year that the original Wise River Hotel was established is as hard to nail down as the perfect fishing spot on the Big Hole River, but the earliest available records indicate that the property was owned by C. M. Pyle in 1900. State and county records prior to 1900 are lacking, but Pyle’s family reported in his obituary that he established the hotel in 1896, only a few years after Montana became a state in 1889. The first known advertisement for the hotel appeared in The Butte Daily Post (Butte, Montana) on Thursday, November 12, 1914 offering a first-class hotel experience for hunters and fishers. In the advertisement, C. M. Pyle stated that interested parties wanting to stay at the hotel could write or phone and he would have a stage sent to meet them in Divide, Montana, some 12 miles away.

In 2023, the Wise River Club, which has long since been expanded to include a bar, restaurant, cabin, rentals, and nightly RV rental spots, was purchased by Montana-native and Top 40 rock and roller Tim Montana (raised in Elk Park, MT) and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top (Tim’s friend and mentor) along with a group of financial partners with connections and history in the valley. The new owners strive to maintain the integrity and legacy of the Wise River Club by providing the same authentic Montana experience when you stop by, with a few updates to entice your taste buds and musical inclinations.

So, whether you are a movie star stopping by on the way to a wild west movie set (there have been several over the years), a star-crazed Yellowstone fan who moved to Montana to experience the “cowboy way”, or a local hunter looking to “shoot the bull” and share your hunting stories, Tim and the Wise River Club invite you to come on in and experience the charm of a small-town Montana past and see the great collection of horns, artifacts, and stories (some are actually true) that the club has collected over the years. Who knows, maybe you’ll be part of the next century of history the club is sure to preserve as old friends and new come together to experience the best that Montana has to offer in the beautiful Big Hole River Valley.