A sprawling property with a movie-worthy USSR connection has hit the market for the first time in more than 70 years. Known as Rocking Chair Ranch, the 7,200-plus-acre expanse is located across the road from the old mining town of Philipsburg, Montana, and has been in the Vietor family since 1952, Mansion Global first reported. In addition to offering more than 11 square miles of terrain ranging from irrigated fields to conifer forest and riparian meadows, the estate — which is seeking $21.
7 million — also has a unique connection to Soviet Russia, thanks to ex-Soviet fighter pilot Viktor Belenko. In 1976, Belenko defected during a training exercise, flying his supersonic interceptor, the MiG-25 Foxbat, to Hokkaido, Japan, and seeking asylum in the US, Mansion Global reported. He quickly became a hero, and in addition to offering his plane to the US government, he also shared confidential information with them about the state of the Soviet military.
As thanks, “the CIA asked him where he wanted to live, and he said somewhere in the western part of the country on a ranch,” Willy Vietor, a rancher and the Vietor family patriarch, told Mansion Global. “The CIA agent who knew my parents came up with us.” And so Belenko came to live at Rocking Chair under an alias — but the Vietors quickly saw through it.
“After he had been with us about a year, we connected the dots and realized he was one of the most valuable defectors the US had ever had,” said Vietor, who is 8.