Big Sky or Big Sprawl? Rural Gentrification and the Changing Cultural Landscape of Missoula, Montana

Abstract

The Rocky Mountain region has experienced significant growth in the last decade, caused mainly by in-migration of population. This paper explores the case of Missoula to examine the nature of this growth and its impacts upon the cultural landscape of the Big Sky country of Montana. Impacts from growth include increasing urbanization and sprawl, changing housing tastes, conspicuous consumption of open space, and spiraling real estate prices. The paper contends that such changes are caused by the in-migration of the new middle class in search of a Rocky Mountain lifestyle, creating a process of rural gentrification in which long-term residents are increasingly displaced. Vociferous public responses to these changes have created demands for affordable housing, control of sprawl, and protection of open space, leading to the implementation of new policies and regulatory measures in a state that is famous for its history of fierce, rugged individualism and an anti-regulatory culture.