New Paradise Valley resort, Auster at Dome Mountain, opens to the public
Along the banks of the Yellowstone River, tucked tightly between the Gallatin and Absaroka mountains, there’s a new place for people to gather and relax.
Auster at Dome Mountain opens its doors to the public on Sunday, Oct. 4, with free events, tours and prize giveaways.
The property just off Highway 89, about 20 minutes north of Yellowstone National Park, features a “quick-casual” restaurant, bar, gift shop, retail market with locally sourced goods and coffee kiosk.
Twenty cabins offer overnight accommodations to guests who also have access to a hot tub and swimming pool as well as the 18-hole golf course at a nearby sister property, Mountain Sky Guest Ranch.
Overnight guests can also enjoy seasonal outdoor experiences, including fly fishing, riverside trails, guided hikes, horseback riding at neighboring West Creek Ranch, guided Yellowstone National Park tours, casting lessons, kayaking and paddleboarding, guided snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and more.
“We want Auster to feel like a place that belongs within the fabric of Paradise Valley, somewhere neighbors can stop for coffee, share a meal, spend time outdoors or bring visiting friends and family,” said Kayla Russum, general manager of Auster, in a statement.
Arthur Blank, in the middle, cut the ribbon on Auster with the help of general manager Kayla Russum on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
Blank’s latest investment
Work started on the new AMB West property in 2024, the latest investment in the Paradise Valley by billionaire and philanthropist Arthur M. Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team.
“I think our connection to Montana started really when we came as guests to Mountain Sky for three years, and then we had an opportunity to buy the ranch in 2001,” Blank told a gathering of guests on Wednesday, Sept. 30, only three days after his 84th birthday.
Since that first purchase, he counted 20 transactions that have included buying the Dome Mountain Ranch, where Auster is located, as well as the West Creek and Paradise Valley ranches.
“We're up to close to 37,000 acres now,” Blank said, all of which has been placed in conservation easements to limit development and preserve wildlife habitat and traditional agricultural use.
Blank’s daughter, Kylie, said she was fortunate to spend every summer of her childhood in the Paradise Valley and later worked at Mountain Sky.
“This land and community have played an important role in our lives, which makes today even more meaningful,” she said.
A place to connect
Just days after his 84th birthday, Arthur M. Blank made a special trip to Montana to dedicate his newest Paradise Valley development, Auster at Dome Mountain.
As Americans seem to be facing greater social and community isolation, Blank said he hopes that Auster serves as a space to bring people together to connect to each other and the beautiful landscapes and wildlife the area features.
“That's my greatest hope, is that we continue to find ways to be connected to each other, connected to the property, connected to the history, connected to … a softer way of life,” he said. “A time when we can breathe a little bit slower. A time when we can experience in a reflective way.”
This view looks downstream along the Yellowstone River near Auster at Dome Mountain.
AMB associates
Blank places emphasis on his staff, taking time to meet with the 35 new associates before addressing the public. Their work is guided by AMB’s six core values, according to the company: “put people first, listen, respond, include everyone, innovate continuously, lead by example and give back to others.”
“Our associates, I want to thank them again, are the ones that help make all this come to life,” Blank said.
Citing his middle-class background, once living in a one-bedroom apartment, and the loss of his 44-year-old father, Blank said his family never had much to give financially but always found ways to “make a difference” and be a “part of the community.”
“We want to make sure that we continue to do that, and we do that in all of our businesses wherever we are,” he said.
“It's not an economic thing to us,” Blank added. “None of these values that I read have to do with a dollar sign per se. They have to do with behavior and have to do with our values and how we treasure our associates and our guests, and our customers, and our fans, and our partners, in every single way we can.”
Blank said he hopes his team has set a good example for giving back, “Not because of who we are, but just because it's part of what we should be doing.”
Acknowledging the many people who made the Auster project possible, Blank said his heart was full of gratitude.
Shaped by the land
Gavin Clark, executive director of the Park County Community Foundation, said he walked along the banks of the Yellowstone River that morning contemplating the importance of being a good neighbor and ancestor.
That fact resonated with Shane Doyle, as well. A member of the Apsáalooke Tribe, Doyle said his great-great grandparents were married in 1872 just east of present-day Livingston at the headquarters for the first Crow Reservation. He also referenced the Anzick site, a Clovis-era burial of two children in the nearby Shields Valley, as evidence of the lengthy Native American connections to the region.
“I feel like no one has done a better job than Arthur of taking care of this land and making sure that it's protected for generations to come,” Doyle said.
“The ancient cultures here lived a ceremonial way of life, and so they judge their wealth by how much spiritual connection they have to each other and to the landscape, and I feel like … those are the same values that Arthur brings to his work here in the Paradise Valley,” he added.
Clark said being a good neighbor in the Paradise Valley means more than just paying tribute to the beauty of the region.
“It means protecting the land and wildlife, standing up for the people that live and work here, strengthening local organizations, and sharing prosperity with the wider community,” he said.
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the family’s philanthropic arm founded in 1995, has granted more than $1.7 billion to charitable causes.
The AMB West Community Fund, established in 2001, has awarded more than $12.5 million in grants just in Montana.
Just last month the fund awarded $816,000 to nonprofits including Paradise Valley’s Arrowhead School, the Park County Human Resource Development Council and for food distribution on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Blackfeet reservations.
“Mr. Blank's vision is that everybody who walks through these doors behind me understands that they're not simply a visitor, but that they will be connected, and that they will understand that loving this place also means accepting some sort of responsibility for it,” Clark said. “That's being a good neighbor.”
