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Wallace “Wally” McRae ~ 2025 Inductee
Wallace “Wally” McRae
1936 – 2025
Wallace “Wally” McRae used his voice, emphatically in the halls of government and poetically on the stage and in print, to resist the coal and energy companies that sought to dramatically alter the natural and cultural landscapes of the shortgrass prairie of southeastern Montana.
Born in 1936, McRae grew up on the family ranch near Colstrip and then headed to Bozeman for college. There he earned a degree in zoology, also dabbling in theater and student government. A stint in the Navy led him to sea and the East Coast for a few years, further expanding the world and perspectives of a Montana ranch kid.
After his father’s sudden death in the early 1960s, Wally returned to the family ranch. It wasn’t easy at first, but he settled in to run the outfit that had been started by his grandfather on Rosebud Creek in the 1880s. What little development previously existed in the area had ceased when Northern Pacific Railroad closed the Colstrip mine in the late 1950s. But in 1966, coal companies appeared and started buying mining leases. Montana Power was talking about reactivating the mine at Colstrip to feed proposed adjacent power plants. McRae foresaw a looming, large-scale industrialization.
When McRae caught a core-driller sampling on his ranch without permission, he started rallying his neighbors. When Peabody Coal opened a mine nearby, the ranchers began a decades-long push for legislation and regulation. He, along with other ranchers joined with conservationists from across the state to form the Northern Plains Resource Council, which became, and remains, a strong voice against unbridled development. McRae became an outspoken voice for ranchers and the natural and cultural resources of the Rosebud and Montana, persuasively testifying in hearings, both in Montana and Washington, D.C., defending the land and their way of life.
Yet, McRae was not only a spokesman, he was also a writer and poet. As Dylan Thomas said, “The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.” McRae was able to mirror his deep-rooted sentiments about the land, cultures, and history of southeastern Montana against the greed of the corporations touching people thousands of miles away. His literary fame grew after publication of his first collection of cowboy poetry in 1985. He received numerous state and national awards for his writing, recognition that served to further his conservation efforts—efforts that never ceased.
For almost 50 years, Wally served as chairman, spokesman, and everything in between for the Northern Plains Resource Council, as well as simply a private citizen advocate giving his all to protect water quality and reclaim lands debased by mining. At the same time, he stood as an eloquent advocate for Montana conservation values and the cultures of his home range. As recently as decade ago, McRae, then 78, along with his son, Clint, manned the frontlines in a broad-based coalition that stood against the ill-conceived Tongue River Railroad, much of which would have bisected the Tongue River Valley to carry coal from the proposed Otter Creek Mine.
Wally McRae’s advocacy, activism, and poetry were heard and listened to; his strong, articulate voice lives on for southeastern Montana.