Man hopes to build sustainable medieval village in western Montana

HERON — There’s one possible reaction when, a mile or two before the Idaho line, you turn north off U.S. Highway 200 into the Cabinet Mountains and travel 1.7 miles through the trees up a dirt road.

You’ll emerge from the forest into a scene that will elicit, at the very least, a double-take: a large clearing occupied by ponds and three large Bavarian-style structures, including one seven stories tall.

Sitting here, hidden in the shadows of Billiard Table Peak and Fatman Mountain on the western end of Sanders County, is the not-so-humble beginnings of a former Colorado contractor’s dream.

Kree Kirkman wants to build a walled European-like medieval 17th century village. He calls it Oberkleinberg and hopes it will bring together writers, philosophers, scientists, chefs, artists and craftsmen. They will teach the people who buy what amounts to a time-share in the village, or come to stay at the town’s hotel.

Oberkleinberg will be an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable community, Kirkman says, looking like a medieval village but powered by cutting edge ‘‘green’’ technology, with a constantly rotating population, built on top of a huge underground parking garage.

Residents can use their vehicles to get to and from Oberkleinberg, but not through it.

The village’s cobblestone streets will be filled with pedestrians, not Chevy Suburbans or even Priuses. They’ll breathe in fresh Montana air tinged with the aroma of fresh croissants and steaming loaves of crusty bread from the bakery, not exhaust fumes from SUVs.

There will be a castle, complete with a moat and drawbridge, where visitors will enter Oberkleinberg in horse-drawn carriages. There will be more than 180 shops, businesses or services inside the walls of the village, and, Kirkman promises, not a tourist trap among them.

Instead, at the ice cream shop, you will not only buy ice cream but learn how to make it. At the shoe shop, you can buy a pair or learn how to make your own.

Half the businesses, such as the bakery, bank or doctor’s office, will be permanent. The other half will cater to revolving venues that will keep the village fresh.

In addition, some of the businesses will be run by students enrolled at Oberkleinberg’s ‘‘reality school,’’ where they will learn everything from how to file a tax return to how to buy a home.

If it all seems a bit much to wrap your head around, you’re not alone.

‘‘It took me three times listening to Kree before I started to grasp it,’’ says Eric Opland, the man Kirkman hired as his director three months ago. ‘‘It really takes a little time for it all to sink in.’’

Much may depend on sponsors.

Kirkman had the money to purchase 320 acres a few miles outside the small town of Heron and build Blue Creek Retreat, where you can hold a wedding or other event in the great hall, or book a room in a guest house.

Currently, the village is nothing but a $56 million dream, and while Kirkman says he had the money to get this far, it will take corporate money to make it a reality.

The village is designed to be self-contained and reduce or eliminate the use of nonrenewable energy sources. It will plug into a main frame designed to support future technology and lifestyle changes. The village will, Kirkman says, produce its own power, heat, lights and cooling. It will process and recycle its own garbage, wastewater and sewer.

Kirkman hopes large corporations will want to align themselves with such a project.

One- to four-week time-shares would be offered in the village, which will contain 140 smaller residences inside its walls, many above ground-floor shops, and 60 homes outside. When not in use by one of their owners, the residences can be rented to other tourists or visiting instructors.

Kirkman, 50, his wife Nadiya and their 8-month-old twins Kade and Maria, are the only residents of the imagined Oberkleinberg, a German name that loosely translates to ‘‘a charming small village on the hill.’’

The couple books weddings and welcomes guests at Blue Creek Retreat, and Kirkman wrestles with how best to interest corporations in his project.

‘‘We could put in condominiums and golf courses, but everybody is doing that,’’ Kirkman says. ‘‘We’re not creating another Disneyland. We want something that lasts longer than a five-second ride, and stays with you the rest of your life.’’