Big Sky Resort is a ski resort in the western United States, located in southwestern Montana in Madison County. An hour south of Bozeman via U.S. Highway 191 in Big Sky, Montana, it is the second-largest ski resort in the United States by acreage. Opened in late 1973, Big Sky Resort has more than of terrain and a vertical drop of . In July 2013, Big Sky Resort acquired on Spirit Mountain, which were previously owned by Spanish Peaks, a private club. In October of the same year, Big Sky Resort acquired the terrain and facilities of Moonlight Basin, a neighboring resort that shared the northern exposure of Lone Mountain. Big Sky Resort also offers meeting space for conferences, weddings, and corporate retreats. Resort history The resort was founded by Montana native Chet Huntley, the retired co-anchorman of The Huntley–Brinkley Report of NBC News. Big Sky opened in December 1973, with its main base area at an elevation of above sea level, on the eastern face of the Lone Mountain, the sixty-seventh highest mountain in Montana, and the seventh-highest mountain in the state outside of the Beartooth Range. The first three lifts installed included a gondola and two chairlifts. The enclosed gondola carried four skiers per cabin, and climbed to an elevation of . The nearby Lone Peak triple chairlift provided the lift-served maximum of , unloading at the bowl beneath Lone Mountain's summit, providing a vertical drop of just under , and the Explorer double chair served novice terrain just above the base. The fourth lift was the Andesite double, which climbed the north face of adjacent Andesite Mountain to ; it was renamed Ram's Horn in 1978, and replaced with the Ramcharger high speed quad in 1990. Boyne Resorts purchased the resort in 1976, following Huntley's death from cancer in March 1974, and the decision of owner Chrysler Corporation to divest its real estate development assets. The resort grew steadily over the following decades, adding lifts and more than tripling the terrain available for skiing and snowboarding. The fifth lift, a second chairlift on Andesite Mountain, was installed in the summer of 1979. The Mad Wolf double climbed Andesite's eastern face and lowered Big Sky's minimum elevation to . This increased the area's vertical drop to over . The Mad Wolf lift was replaced with the Thunder Wolf high speed quad in 1994. Two lifts were added in