The skyline of Babb, Montana, is noticeably altered. The Cattle Baron Supper Club, a landmark restaurant and gathering place, was destroyed by a fire on January 14, 2026. Despite the devastation, owners Bob and Charlene Burns have announced their intention to rebuild, continuing a family tradition in the small community that stretches back over a century.
Bob Burns’ family history is deeply intertwined with the founding of Babb. His great-grandparents were among the area’s earliest homesteaders. “His grandmother’s mother and Henry came here. There wasn’t anybody in Babb living,” Charlene Burns explained. “Our people would come and gather in the summer and camp here in the summer so, they were the only ones occupying the area. So, his family were the first actual homesteaders here.”
In the early 1900s, Bob’s grandmother, May, established the original Babb Bar and a motel. Bob purchased the bar from his parents in the 1970s and subsequently built the Cattle Baron Supper Club. He and Charlene officially opened the restaurant on Valentine’s Day in 1996. “We actually started on the old side, on kind of the Babb Bar side. And we opened on Valentine’s Day in 1996 and it got popular really fast,” Charlene said. “Twenty-eight years of happy customers.”
The January fire brought that era to a sudden halt. “That was the worst black smoke to ever see,” Bob Burns recalled. “You couldn’t see and you couldn’t breathe. And so just getting out of there was a blessing. Nobody got hurt.”
The Burns family had not secured insurance coverage for the building. “We didn’t have any insurance, so we took a pretty good hit,” Bob said. A GoFundMe campaign launched by their daughter has since raised over $35,000 to aid in the rebuilding process. “It’s so humbling that a lot of people that have come and donated,” Charlene said. Bob added, “I was just flabbergasted at the kindness that people showed, from all over the country. They sent us stories, they sent pictures.”
While the financial loss is significant, Charlene Burns expressed that the loss of the restaurant’s historical significance is particularly painful. “Our museum, our personal museum. That’s the part we lost,” she said. “Every day we feel of something that we lost.” The restaurant prominently featured a timeline detailing the history of the Blackfeet people. “We did the timeline story that went around the whole building and it told all of the major events of the Blackfeet people,” Charlene said. “That’s the part that’s the hardest for me, that we lost. Although, I’m still telling the story right now. So that will move into the new building because our kids all realize those stories too.”
Plans for the new Cattle Baron Supper Club are already underway. The new structure will incorporate a more modern design and include motel rooms, echoing Bob’s grandmother’s original vision. “Hopefully we’re going to build that middle part out of tin just because of all the fires Bob was talking about,” Charlene said. “This time, we’re going to build something that can’t burn up.”
The Burns’ children and grandchildren are expected to assume day-to-day management of the rebuilt restaurant, with Bob and Charlene providing guidance. “This next story, it’s like we’re transferring it over to them and guiding them at the same time and seeing what they’re going to create on that same piece of land,” Charlene said.
Bob Burns expressed a determination to move forward. “It ain’t much sense in looking back,” he said. “You just got to look forward and keep on trying and keep on working, so we’re planning on rebuilding.” He added, “I guess like my grandmother, I just don’t have the quit in me. Got to start again. Ain’t the first time I started over. But I think that’s going to be the last.”
