The “Make Bozeman Montana Again” billboard returned recently to the Bozeman area. It has popped up before, and is the brainchild of Derek Aspinwall, who wants to get people thinking about the rapid development happening in Bozeman, Big Sky and other scenic parts of southwest Montana.
“Bozeman was this 20,000-to-30,000-person college cowtown,” Aspinwall told Cowboy State Daily. “Gorgeous and beautiful and all of that. And you know, anything sexy like that, that's going to get discovered.”
Aspinwall, who is the owner and founder of Aspinwall Mountain Wear, takes Bozeman’s sex appeal one step further, trying to describe what it’s been like to watch Bozeman’s transformation over the years into a place resembling Aspen or Vail, Colorado, if those luxury mountain towns were home to a state university.
“If all the Montana cities are sisters, Bozeman, this is the sexy sister, right? She goes out to a bar and has a little bit too much to drink,” said Aspinwall.
Aspinwall continued with the analogy, saying, “And this rich, wild, elite guy that's got a dark underbelly that we don't know about is wanting to take her home and marry her.”
Now it’s up to the neighboring cities — the less hot sisters — to say something. And that’s what Aspinwall likes to do with his “Make Bozeman Montana Again” billboard, now on display on the outskirts of Bozeman by a busy highway.
The billboard is Aspinwall’s way of calling timeout. Stop for a second. Look at yourself.
Aspinwall, who grew up in Great Falls, Montana, has friends in Butte and lives in Billings, said he came up with the “Make Bozeman Montana Again” during President Donald Trump’s first run for the White House when he started wearing his signature red hats reading “Make America Great Again.”
“A buddy of mine from high school that lives in Butte, when he saw the first billboard, he said, ‘You might not have to buy a beer in Butte again,’” said Aspinwall, whose slogan cuts across political allegiances and taps into the emotions of longtime locals fed up with Bozeman’s runaway housing costs, luxury lifestyle brands and position in pop culture as a ritzy outpost for newcomers with deep pockets.
At places like Pisser’s Palace in the Butte community of Walkerville, said Aspinwall, taking jabs at Bozeman makes the locals feel good. Given Bozeman’s success at attracting wealthy out-of-staters, the city appears to some to be too big for its britches.
Making it Montana again is a comeuppance. It’s a show of loyalty — a way to openly bridle at how Bozeman and other wealthy pockets of Montana are becoming “New York's novelty and California's toy,” in the words of Kevin Costner’s character John Dutton on the series “Yellowstone.”
For Aspinwall, whose clothing company also sells “Make Bozeman Montana Again” bumper stickers, shirts and hats, his “Bozeangles” moment of truth came when he showed up at a swanky hotel downtown and took his kids swimming.
Cheerios On The Sidewalk
Aspinwall has four children, and he travels with them often to Bozeman to compete in soccer tournaments.
He’s accustomed to killing time with other parents around the pool at hotels like the C'mon Inn Hotel & Suites, which is set up for parents looking to drink a couple of cold ones with friends while their children burn off energy playing in the water.
The Armory Hotel in downtown Bozeman isn’t really set up for that, as Aspinwall discovered when he rolled in with his kids dressed for the swimming pool. He unknowingly pulled up to the valet parking drop-off and was greeted by a parking valet.
The kids jumped out and headed for the rooftop pool, said Aspinwall, “And like a mile of shit falls out of the car. It's like a carton of Cheerios in the street.”
Carrying a case of Coors Light and feeling like a caddy invited to swim at the Bushwood Country Club pool in the classic film “Caddyshack,” Aspinwall marveled at the culture clash between his ragtag family and the “bougie” guests of the Armory.
“I feel like I'm not in Montana anymore, right?” laughed Aspinwall.
Response Online
“It's back. The ‘Make Bozeman Montana Again’ billboard is back in action… triggering hipsters everywhere,” posted conservative radio personality Aaron Flint on his Facebook page on March 16.
Other Facebook comments included: “Lots of transplants moved in that don't care about Montana.”
And: “I was raised in that beautiful farming valley. … Breaks my heart to go there now.”
Next, with a contrarian bent, a poster with the handle Dan Ream wrote, “I am personally loving this. Everyone voted for these Republican policies. You're getting the unchecked development, deregulation, free market capitalism that you have all asked for. Now you have the nerve to blame the hippies for it instead of the business community. It's poetic justice and frankly hilarious.”
Back in 2022, Aspinwall explained the billboard’s debut in a blog post on his clothing company’s website.
“It’s a funny quip, but it’s addressing a more serious concern – what makes Montana the ‘Last Best Place’ is being overrun by development,” wrote Aspinwall. “While progress isn’t a bad thing, this progress is changing and reshaping what we love and hold dear.”
Talking Solutions
Aspinwall said he’s been approached by fellow Republicans in Yellowstone County and asked to run for the Montana State Legislature. He’s not ruling out a future run, but has his hands full right now with his business and family.
But he has found time to lobby his representatives in Helena, asking them to consider a graduated property tax that hits wealthy newcomers the hardest.
“My Aunt Joyce is 86 years old, living in the same house that she's been in since the ‘70s. Her property taxes keep going up and up and up,” said Aspinwall, who majored in political science at the University of Montana.
He would like to see the state enact a “floating” property tax that extracts more from second-home owners and other recent arrivals who own expensive real estate. The longer they live in Montana, the lower their taxes get. But from the start, such a program could immediately help lower property taxes for people like Aspinwall’s aunt Joyce, he said.
“We have Tom Brady come up and build a home that takes over an entire hillside,” said Aspinwall, referring to the retired NFL quarterback with a residence in the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club in Big Sky. “And it's not his primary residence. I like that property tax.”
Same goes for expensive homes in the Big Sky neighborhood of Spanish Peaks, which Aspinwall called, “The Diet Coke version of the Yellowstone Club.”
That’s where Aspinwall bumped into another retired NFL star, Jason Sehorn formerly of the New York Giants.
Instead of savoring the moment like an awestruck fan, Aspinwall offers the experience as further proof of his “Make Bozeman Montana Again” thesis.
“You start looking around and you're like, ‘OK, so the fallout from this is now Bozeman is not affordable.”
A Bozeman Tradition
Aspinwall isn’t the first to use humor to spark a local political discussion and examine Bozeman’s evolving character.
The hilarious all-women troupe Broad Comedy created the TV show spoof, “The Real Housewives of Bozeman," by tapping into a perception around town that Bozeman was becoming too affluent and superficial.
Many Bozeman locals fondly remember the rise of the one-man political action group named the “Green Coalition of Gay Loggers For Jesus.”
In 2010, local electrician Brian Leland wanted to steal some of the local political spotlight claimed by the Tea Party Movement. So, he applied for a parade permit and crashed the Tea Party’s Fourth of July parade in Bozeman.
Leland told Cowboy State Daily he has since sold “Green Coalition of Gay Loggers For Jesus” bumper stickers and t-shirts to fans all over the world.
As for Bozeman locals now frustrated by all the transplants and growth, Leland — who moved to town in 1977 — joked that, “A lot of the people who are upset with all the newcomers after the show, ‘Yellowstone,’ moved here after, ‘A River Runs Through It.”
Some of those folks might help Aspinwall crowdsource funds to cover the cost of the “Make Bozeman Montana Again” billboard.
The billboard’s lease is $1,000 a month, while a “Make Bozeman Montana Again” bumper sticker sells for $5 on Aspinwall’s company website.
Each sticker comes with these instructions: “Slap this on a Lamborghini of your choice in downtown Bozeman.”
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
