The landmark Cattle Baron Supper Club in Babb burned to the ground last week.

On Jan. 14 at about 7:30 p.m., owners Bob and Charlene Burns said their granddaughter could smell something weird in the restaurant and began investigating. It was an extremely windy night, with gusts up to 90 mph.

They began looking to see what was wrong with a heat tester near a cooler and when they pulled away the insulation, it was like an arc welder sparked, they said. They fire got into the spray foam around the cooler and took off.

Their son, Stormy Burns, who is also the Babb-St. Mary Fire Chief, raced to the hall to get an engine.

But with the wind blowing and the age of the building, the fire was already out of control.

“There wasn’t anything they could do,” Bob Burns said.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Firefighters from across the region, including Babb St. Mary, Shelby, Cut Bank, Del Bonita, East Glacier and Browning all responded to the scene. All told, about 40 trucks battled the blaze, with the main concern that the fire could spread to nearby businesses and the Babb community.

The family business has been at the junction of Montana 89 and the Many Glacier Road, just outside Glacier National Park, in one form or another for more than 100 years.

The business goes back more than 100 years, beginning with Bob’s grandmother, who first ran a small store in this same location. Bob’s dad later turned it into the Babb Bar. Bob took over in 1974 and never stopped working to keep the doors open. Bob and Charlene, along with their children, family, and friends, built the supper club addition themselves and opened the “big side” in 2000.

More than 70 family members, including all the Burns’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren, have worked there over the years, not to mention hundreds of community members.

Bob Burns is 82 and Charlene is 76.

Outside of the loss of the business, perhaps a greater loss was the artwork and photos that adorned the walls of the five-star restaurant, which was famous for its steaks and whole rack of lamb. The history of the Blackfeet Tribe was painted on the walls of the building.

A Go Fund Me campaign was started to help the Burns. They did not have insurance, which was almost impossible to get after the Covid pandemic, they said.

A big Douglas fir tree trunk supported a staircase in the building. It was one of the few things still standing on Thursday morning.

They had just planned to start cooking pizza at the restaurant, which was operating through the winter. The oven arrived Thursday, after the building was razed by the blaze.

The hope is to rebuild.

    Cows outside the Cattle Baron Supper Club in this undated photo provided by the family.
  

    The Cattle Baron Toast inside the building. (Photo provided)