Blixseths leave little mark on Idaho
Tim Blixseth told me he was going to become a part of Idaho.
He and his wife Edra moved into a penthouse next door to J.R. Simplot atop the Grove Hotel. He promised thousands to help then Gov. Dirk Kempthorne remodel Simplot’s hilltop estate into the governor’s mansion.
In 2006 Blixseth, the former Oregon pauper who had risen to timber mogul, was on top of the world. He had just bought 178,000 acres of forestlands that only a couple of years earlier had been Boise Cascades.
He had a almost unlimited $375 million loan from Credit Suisse and he was talking about doing more land deals in Idaho. He wanted to trade the forests that line Highway 55 along the North Fork of the Payette River.
He still had nearly 40,000 acres in North Idaho that included part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. He was going to be a conservationist and he thought he could do that and still make lots of money.
Even though he had been forced to pay Montana for water quality violations, Blixseth said he cared about the land. When he owned Crown Pacific in North Idaho in the 1990s, Blixseth had promoted good forest practices so it wasn’t hard to believe him even as he built his crowning glory, the Yellowstone Club ski resort in the middle of grizzly bear habitat.
“I love bears,” Blixseth told me during our 2006 interview. “I love wolves too.”
He was going to eventually develop his lands around McCall. He was watching neighboring Tamarack closely because he had land adjacent to the ski resort. Its efforts to trade land with the Forest Service and the state also competed with his own plans since there was only enough staff and time in the agency to handle one big trade at a time.
But Blixseth had bigger fish to fry. He was expanding his Yellowstone Club concept of a retreat for the super rich into a series of resorts, Yellowstone Club World. He was trying to become a record executive.
He was going on Today to promote Habitat for America and the song he wrote. He was now on Forbes list of the richest people of the world.
It all came crashing down as the economy dove and all of his excesses came back to haunt him. He and his wife Edra divorced and separately they are sinking in a financial quagmire, outlined in a story in the New York Times
Potlatch now has the Boise Cascade lands and Blixseth is still trying to finish the land deal up north. Idaho is only a small part of Blixseth’s current troubles.
And he is an even smaller part of Idaho life.
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Megalomaniac...
Unfortunately they are not an endangered species.
Isn't it just grand to see
Isn't it just grand to see the scum floating downstream! If there is an upside to the recession, the fate of the Yellowstone Club is it.
Blixseths leave big mark on Idaho history
As an historian I often use newspapers from the 1840s, 1850s, and thereafter to track local historical events and individuals. They provide excellent and detailed insights into the people and affairs of the time and place of interest.
No other source of information quite compares -- even to this time. History books present generalized and superficial accounts of occurrences from the biased perspectives of their writers; biographies and autobiographies even more so.
Radio and video (at least until YouTube) are largely ephemeral. Film is expensive and selective. Oral histories are a relatively new medium, and most suffer from the same problems as history books and biographies. Photographs need interpretation (which news accounts provide in detail), and legal records and census data are expensive to obtain and offer limited insights.
Newspapers are different -- often covering minor events and observations in the greatest of detail ("never do battle with an opponent that buys ink by the barrel"). Because the Blixseth's were such a large part of Idaho's news coverage the past few years, they (by default) become a large part of Idaho's recent history as well. Newspaper reporters and commentators have seen to that.
So, Rocky, your reports on the Blixseth's sayings and doings have become an important part of the Pacific Northwest's historical record for the past few years. I hope you had a demanding editor and exercised good judgment in your writings!
Mild horsehockey.
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Supporting nothing everywhere all day and very well.
Thank you for hollering.
Complete horsehockey
Maybe not.
You're welcome.
Do the Blixseths know the Allens?
Rocky:
I'm guessing a lot of your original stories on the Blixseths looked a lot like your current story on the 27th annual Allen Co. get-together.
It would be great if they could all get together for a few rounds of golf at Yellow Pine. Then maybe something could be done about Idaho's dead trees, forest fires and abandoned roads.
That would be something to fear, given what others have done...
AS IN |FAIL|
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Supporting nothing everywhere all day and very well.
Thank you for hollering.
ouch.
Your headline is kicking a good man while he's down.
yet you say:
--he owned Crown Pacific in North Idaho in the 1990s, Blixseth had promoted good forest practices
--He still had nearly 40,000 acres in North Idaho that included part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. He was going to be a conservationist and he thought he could do that
--“I love bears,” Blixseth told me during our 2006 interview. “I love wolves too.”
--He was going on Today to promote Habitat for America
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"He had a almost unlimited..."
Even spell check can't correct dumb grammar. Remember Barker, YOU get overpaid for this gig. WE readers don't get paid for editing and correcting your krap.
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I like what I've read of Blixseth cuz he's so rich (or was)--- he's just like a pimp. He'll bounce back...