Five-decade residents’ friendliness, adventure and pioneering spirit paired with a generous conservation easement with GVLT
By Carli Johnson SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
The year is 1976. Big Sky Resort opened just three years prior and the community that would one day bustle with shops, skiers and thousands of visitors was still a fantasy. Harry and Peggy Ring, college sweethearts fresh out of Montana State University, moved from Bozeman to Big Sky in search of excellent skiing and found an even better community.
For the next five decades, that’s exactly what they built.
In the wake of their recent passing, friends and neighbors thoughtfully reflected on the everlasting mark the Rings left on the community.
When the Rings first arrived in Big Sky, there was no Lone Peak Tram, no Town Center and a very limited Meadow Village to gather in, but there was lots of room for opportunity. Young and energized, they both opened some of the first businesses at the base of the resort.
A Norwegian-born, Oregon-raised Nordic skier, Harry came to MSU on an athletic scholarship. He opened and operated Lone Mountain Sports, a ski rental and retail business at the resort’s base now owned by Christy Sports.
Peggy, who earned her teaching degree from MSU, set up Plum Logo at the base area Mountain Mall, selling T-shirts and local souvenirs.
“They were some of the pioneers in the area,” said Mark Gale, longtime caretaker and family friend, reminiscing on their successful business ventures and community involvement.
Spirit for adventure
In those early days, Big Sky was tight-knit and full of promise. Friends recall Harry ski racing intramurally and Peggy tackling the Big Couloir when the only way up was on foot.
Gale fondly remembers them sharing the story of one of the first descents down what skiers now call the Big Couloir—a feat memorialized on a wooden plaque that Peggy kept up in her shop. Gale recalls a group of Peggy’s friends and their dogs hiking up Lone Mountain, pausing at the edge of the steep chute, deliberating their line and maybe their sanity, when one of the dogs, Schmidty, fearlessly took off down the couloir.
“To this day,” Gale said, chuckling, “I don’t let my kids call it anything other than Schmidty’s Couloir.”
Even in retirement, the Rings rarely sat still. They split their time between Big Sky and Florida, hiring Gale in 1995 to help care for their horses and home in the Beaver Creek neighborhood when they traveled in the shoulder seasons.
“They were both so active,” Gale said with a laugh. “Made me feel bad sometimes. Peggy would already be up in the barn working before I even woke up.” Eventually having moved into their guest house to be closer to help.
Each summer, Harry headed north to Alaska, where he worked as a commercial fisherman. At the turn of the season he’d head back to Big Sky, then south to Florida with Peggy to visit family before their return for the ski season.
“They embraced life and opportunity with great enthusiasm,” Johnson said. “They filled each day with purpose and loved life in every form, whether it was the ocean or the mountains. They didn’t see challenges as obstacles but as opportunities.”
Phyllis Johnson, friend and fellow horseback rider
Back in Big Sky, Peggy became a leader in the local horseback riding community. She organized weekly trail rides that grew into a beloved tradition among friends and neighbors.
“Everyone wanted to ride with Peggy,” close friend and fellow horseback rider Phyllis Johnson told EBS. “She knew the trails, she was passionate about the wildlife and she knew where the flowers were blooming.”
The riding group, affectionately dubbed “The Goatheads,” formed more than 25 years ago and included people from all walks of life.
“We had a New Yorker friend who’d always say, ‘Go ahead, go ahead,’” Johnson said with a laugh. “Pretty soon, it became ‘Goathead,’ and that’s what we called ourselves.”
The Goatheads explored Big Sky’s rugged backcountry, often bushwhacking and laughing their way through serious terrain. “If Harry ever got nervous, I panicked,” Johnson said. “Because Harry didn’t get nervous. But it was always fun.”
Johnson added that the group would not have been possible without the Rings. “They put together a very eclectic group of people—from their college friends to us in Mississippi to friends from California and Boston—all of these people came to be really close friends because of Harry and Peggy.”
One of Peggy’s favorite places to ride was the Taylor Fork area, a wild and scenic stretch of forest near Big Sky. She also loved to cross-country ski on their property, gliding through the same quiet hills that would later become part of their lasting legacy.
Harry and Peggy’s generosity extended far beyond friendship. In one of their final acts of giving, the Rings allotted 200 acres of their property into a conservation easement with the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, ensuring that the open spaces and wildlife habitat they loved would remain protected for generations to come.
“They were so committed to doing something to preserve their property and the wildlife that surrounds Big Sky,” said Brendan Weiner, Conservation Director at GVLT. “It was amazing working with them.”
Just south of their home on the donated property lies a peaceful aspen grove, where a memorial headstone will honor their lives.
Lasting spirit
For those who knew them, Harry and Peggy were more than neighbors or mentors, they were family.
“They embraced life and opportunity with great enthusiasm,” Johnson said. “They filled each day with purpose and loved life in every form, whether it was the ocean or the mountains. They didn’t see challenges as obstacles but as opportunities.”
Harry, with his get-after-it nature and Peggy, with her steady kindness and teacher’s heart, inspired everyone around them. They were loyal, curious and endlessly inclusive.
“It’s hard to put it into words, everyone wanted to be in their orbit because their energy for life was just contagious,” Johnson said.
A celebration of life will be held in July 2026 with more details to come.
In many ways, Harry and Peggy’s story mirrors that of Big Sky itself, rooted in adventure, shaped by resilience and sustained by community. Their mark remains in the shops they built, the trails they loved, and the lives they touched.
