W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M
47
FEATHERED PIPE RANCH: A FAMILY AFFAIR
After a full day of yoga instruction, guests congregate
at the picnic table overlooking the lake, plates brimming
with falafel, spanakopita, fresh fig salad and baklava.
Howard Levin, an architect, designer, former Feathered
Pipe Ranch manager and abundant source of entertaining
stories, is recalling his time at Sai Baba's ashram in India, where he
came to know the retreat's founder, India Supera, 45 years prior.
Tom Ryan, the self-taught master carpenter who built most of the
structures on the property, strolls in with his black lab Ringo.
Supera inherited 110 acres west of Helena from her late friend
Jerry Duncan in the early 1970s and began hosting retreats shortly
thereafter. At 24-years-old and no formal higher education, Supera
was unsure of how to run an organization, but there was something
larger at play. "We were known as the hippies at the end of the
gulch, and we were busy with life-changing work in the world,"
Supera says. "We had the 'If you build it, they will come' mentality,
and we knew that every instance of positive change is important in
the lives of our children and grandchildren."
Tents, cabins, tipis and yurts dot the mountain terrain and are
connected by easy foot trails and solar lamps. Prayer flags wave be-
feathered Pipe: a morning view of the lake
LARRY
STANLEY
ZANE
WILLIAMS
ANNE
JABLONSKI
ANNE
JABLONSKI
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