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Hunting for tourists: Billings outfitters cash in on L&C anniversary to attract European visitors
When Glenn Myers Sr. was having trouble convincing German dog breeders to sell him a couple of long-haired Weimaraners, he got creative – and that was the start of a Billings business.
He had been trying to buy a breeding pair since 1978, but the German breeders weren’t selling their prized dogs. So in 1999, the licensed guide e-mailed the entire German International Gun Club saying, "I want these puppies and, by the way, anyone who wants to hunt or fish Montana, write me back."
By JAN FALSTAD
Of The Gazette Staff
He got so many responses from Germans wanting to see Montana that he and his Army buddy, Byrne Manley, decided to start the guide business they’d been planning for three decades.
The fact that Lewis and Clark anniversary may bring millions of tourists people to Montana over the next three years was another reason to start Brown Bear Adventure Tours.
After the e-mail, Myers finally got his dogs, apparently the first long-haired Weimaraners in the U.S., and got accepted into the German Gun Club, which was no easy feat.
He and Manley kept a promise they made to each other during Army days in Alaska to start a guide business someday.
The business started last spring has booked 30 Germans who are coming to Billings in October to hold their annual international Weimaraner dog fair, then take scenic and historical tours of the Yellowstone River Valley.
Montana job description
Although their lifelong loves are bird hunting and fishing, Myers and Manley know diversification is the key to making a living in Montana’s outback.
With record low river levels expected, they can’t count on enough fishing clients. Hunting is on the decline with Americans. So the partners geared their business to help tourists who want to bird-watch, take a historical tour, float the Yellowstone, see a pictograph or buy Native American art .
"We have all these treasures right here within an hour of Billings," Myers said. "We can go to Pompeys Pillar, over to the Brown Bear, up to Red Lodge, then catch osprey on the way back and look at the time – 6 p.m."
Manley, an accountant from Laurel, knew the business had to have multiple income centers and pretty much finance itself.
"There’s no track record with the banks, so being financed is hard," Manley said.
After years of planning and starting slowly, they’ve invested about $300,000 in Brown Bear Adventure Tours. They business was officially launched in May.
Myers’ son, Carl Myers, is involved in the Brown Bear. Manley and Carl Myers also are licensed Orvis fishing and hunting guides.
A client pays $250 a day for a guide, plus expenses.
Glenn Myers speaks Spanish and some German. He has specialized in military history of eastern Montana, including Little Bighorn Battlefield and the Canyon Creek Battlefield area near Laurel.
Manley has specialized in the mountain man and fur trading history of Montana.
Both are boning up on their bird-watching knowledge.
Pompeys Pillar
The tours include Yellowstone River floats past Pompeys Pillar, then landing at a Gary Sherrodd woodcarver’s shop and studio for lunch.
On a blustery chilly afternoon, a newer model truck with California plates pulling an Airstream drove up to the wooden sign at Pompeys Pillar monument, slowed down.
The monument is closed for the season. It will open Memorial Day, but there’s no language saying that, so the Californians drive on by over the under-construction bridge.
That sets Myers off about tourists missing the only physical piece of evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition, short of the Smithsonian displays.
""I hate to see that those people come, can’t get in, get back on the highway and nobody will see any of their dough," he said.
The bridge and the interpretive center at Pompeys Pillar aren’t going to be completed by the start of the Lewis and Clark tourism.
Manley listened to Stephen Ambrose, who wrote "Undaunted Courage" about the Lewis and Clark trek, speak in Billings in 2000.
"He said if Montana handles it right, it could be a bonanza for years to come," Manley said. "They’ll go home and say Montana is a great place to visit."
If the state isn’t ready, he said, Ambrose warned that the tourists will take the opposite message home.
Camp Bird Dog
To make the business work, Manley bought two pieces of property.
Manley bought a seven-acre property just west of Laurel that’s home to the dog kennels near a pond where they exercise and train bird dogs.
The two rental houses on the property make the payments for what they call Camp Bird Dog. They’ve moved a camp trailer, an office trailer and an old barn onto the land, plus two drift boats, a power boat and a pigeon coop.
Manley laughed and said the coop led to an interesting experience.
A local doctor, who had Manley and Myers train his dog a couple years ago, was wearing top-of-the-line shoes when he insisted on entering the pigeon coop to see the birds. For a quite logical reason, Manley tried to talk him out of it, then he shrugged.
"We’re in the business of giving people what they want," Manley said.
Manley said two rental houses make the property payments, and there’s room to grow. "That’s what makes the kennel property so unique," he said. "It’s got cash flow and land enough to do a couple of other income centers."
The business has attracted a few high-heeled clients already, Manley said.
"Shoot ducks and geese and then cast for fish," he said. "It doesn’t get better than that."
As a second-generation Montanan, Manley knows a lot of area ranchers and colorful characters, the Old West flavor many tourists seek.
Trips to Yellowstone National Park and horseback rides near Roberts are part of the mix.
"We know a lot of people. Our goal is if it’s in Montana and you want to see it, we can help you," he said.
A beer and a bear
Manley also is co-owner of the Brown Bear Inn in Roberts, a business he bought last year.
If the weather is scorching, they’ll fish in early morning and head to the Brown Bear to play Texas Hold ’em with the locals, absorb some Old West flavor and wolf down a buffalo steak and beer.
The partners also worked out an arrangement with the Kevin Red Star Gallery a few blocks away. Kevin’s daughters will open the art gallery to give Brown Bear clients private tours. Red Star is a popular Native American artist in Europe.
They’ve hooked up with Carriaged Away, the Red Lodge stagecoach rides, and hope to bring people to the Round Barn performances.
As he scanned the brown hills along the Red Lodge benches, Manley sighed.
"Now a jackrabbit has to pack a lunch," he said.
On the way back to Billings, Manley and Myers scanned the fields, spotting mule deer, whitetail, sharp-tailed grouse, mallards, nesting geese galore, a pair of broad-winged hawks, a great blue heron and ospreys nesting along Highway 212. Birds of all types were mating, making them nearly oblivious to admirers.
But the guides weren’t satisfied. They hadn’t spotted any cranes.
"I wonder where they went? Could they be by the river due to the Mother’s Day caddis hatch?" Manley wondered.
Myers turned onto a side road not far from Laurel. In a couple minutes he quickly pointed, saying, "There! There are the sandhill cranes!"
In the field by the tree line, a large cinnamon brown male and female bobbed and weaved, slowly falling each other in and out of the trees offering protection from the chilly wind.
"We’re concentrating on people who want to come and have non-consumptive days," he said. "They leave it as they found it."
Jan Falstad can be contacted at (406) 657-1306 or at [email protected].
Editor’s note:
To learn more, visit http://www.brownbeartours.com.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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