Presentation looks at wealthy, but enigmatic family

A Montanan family you never heard of, from a town equally obscure, will be the subject of a presentation on Monday, Feb. 7 for the Northwest Montana Westerners.

Charley Bair made his first fortune in the gold fields of the Klondike, his second in the sheep business in Montana, and his third in real estate in Los Angeles. His daughters followed in his footsteps by buying tens of millions of dollars of art. The art was brought to the family home in Martinsdale, Montana, where it remains on display.

Martinsdale, an unincorporated town located 36 miles east of White Sulphur Springs, has a 2020 Census population of 43 people.

Helena native John Shontz will talk about the wealthy and eccentric family. Bair was a pal of Will Rogers, and spent most winters in the movie community in Los Angeles. Shontz knew both of Charley's daughters and their frugal nature. The youngest daughter married the ranch foreman to, as in Charley's words, avoid paying him a high salary.

It is a tale where the truth is more amazing than fiction, Shontz notes. Being multi-millionaires did not stop the daughters from picking up beer and pop bottles along area highways well into their 70s and turning them into the Mint Bar in Martinsdale for the deposit money.

The Bair fortune remains intact, and funds art, health and educational efforts in Montana.

The presentation is at the monthly meeting of the Northwest Montana Westerners, a local history group. It starts at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the museum, at 124 2nd Ave. East in Kalispell. Cost is $5 for the general public, with members and youths under 16 admitted free.

Shontz is a former state legislator and retired attorney who has written extensively about Montana history. His previous presentation before the Westerners was on the now-vanished railroad town of Taft, infamous at the time as America's wickedest city.