Author’s note: Early in the year, I traveled to Missoula, Montana, for a winter vacation, but a contact put me in touch with a few people in the real estate industry and much to my surprise I came away with a couple of interesting stories. This column is the first of two.

For a while it seemed that anyone with a lot of money, from Hollywood stars to business moguls, wanted a piece — make that a very large piece of — America, and they came west looking to buy their own ranches. Many, following the lead of flamboyant media entrepreneur, Ted Turner, looked to acquire in Montana.

During the bubble years, investors couldn’t acquire Montana ranches fast enough.

William McDavid, who opened the Missoula office of Hall and Hall in 1996, remembers those years fondly.

“Before the recession, people were standing in line to buy,” McDavid says. “There were bidding wars for multimillion-dollar properties.”

Hall and Hall does a lot of different things as a real estate company, but to this day it is known as the premier brokerage for ranch lands with offices mostly throughout the west.