Sagebrush Woman

article by Megan Crawford

images by Erik Petersen & Tony Demin

Sarah Calhoun sat with a copy of Small Business for Dummies at the Leaf & Bean in Bozeman in 2005. She knew that there was a need for women’s workwear. And not just workwear that a woman could wear— workwear for women. A man noticed Calhoun’s book of choice and asked her what business she would be starting. A week later, he took her by his shop and shared his contacts and advice for starting a clothing company.

“Sarah, you’re onto something big here. I think you need to move on this now.”

He had worked in production and design for Patagonia for the past 20 years.

Erik Petersen

Calhoun grew up on a Connecticut farm, and after she graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in Environmental Studies, she became an outdoor educator for Outward Bound and Youth Corps. From bailing hay on the farm to maintaining ski trails, Calhoun found that every pair of pants ripped, required patching, or didn’t even fit to begin with. There were workwear pants, but they were made for men. And so began the start of Red Ants Pants.

Ivan Doig’s 1978 novel, This House of Sky, brought Calhoun to Montana. There was a dream of Montana: the rugged, wild landscape; the grit and determination of its people. She left Connecticut and came to Montana, having never visited the state.

“…the expanse of it all: across a dozen miles and for almost forty along its bowed length, this home valley of the Smith River country lay open and still as a gray inland sea, held by buttes and long ridges at its northern and southern ends, and the east and west by mountain ranges.” —This House of Sky

Calhoun started out in Bozeman, but something was missing. To her, it didn’t feel like the Montana she read about in Doig’s memoirs, so she set out to the exact location he wrote about: White Sulphur Springs.

Boasting a population of 925 residents (2017 Census) and about one square mile of land— 100 miles away from larger cities— White Sulphur Springs isn’t necessarily the easiest place to start a business, especially if you’re going in with no experience. But Calhoun dove right in: she bought an old saddle shop on Main Street and got to work. She renovated the storefront, lived in the back of the building, and rented out the upper units. She inserted herself wherever she could in White Sulphur Springs: coaching the volleyball team, volunteering as an EMT, joining the arts council, helping at cattle drives— wherever she could help, she did. Calhoun became an integral part of White Sulphur Springs.

Erik Petersen

As Calhoun found her place in Montana, she also learned the ropes of business along the way. She got a job sewing backpacks to learn about production from the floor, she worked with the women who made the pants on design, source, and textile, and she found local women to make belts and aprons. Every Red Ants Pants product— pants and shorts, shirts and vests, towels and carpenter pencils— is made in America. Shirts are screen printed in Bozeman, pants are sewn in Washington, and leather belts are stamped in White Sulphur Springs.

Despite the steep learning curve, Calhoun built a company from the ground up without a background in business. “It’s been helpful that I didn’t have a business background and [that] I’ve never taken a business course in my life,” she observes. “I’m really able to think and operate outside of the box because I don’t even know what the box is.”

2011 witnessed the creation of the Red Ants Pants Foundation, a non-profit organization that’s dedicated to the women of rural Montana. The Foundation has three main outreaches: the Girls Leadership Program, Timber Skills Workshops, and Community Grants. These three branches work to support small-town Montana: mentoring young women in the fundamentals of leadership, teaching women the basics of carpentry, and supporting Montana organizations and individuals. The Foundation has now given $110,000 in community grants.

With her dreams wild and boundless as the prairies of the Smith River Valley, Calhoun looked ahead. Women needed practical workwear, and she made that happen. She wanted to support rural Montana and preserve traditional skills, and she made that happen, too. The Foundation needed more support, so the next obvious step was to create the Red Ants Pants Music Festival.

Erik Petersen

Once a year, out in the dusty fields of White Sulphur Springs, musicians, artisans, restaurants, locals, and everyone in between caravan out for the three-day festival. The first year, 2011, was a true cross-section of rural Montana: local schools filled gopher holes, first responders volunteered their services for the weekend, farmers helped cleared the fields, the football team picked up trash, the county watered down the soil. Meagher (Marr) County came to Calhoun’s aid the same way she came to theirs. That’s the thing about small-town Montana: when someone needs a hand, someone else is there to lend their own.

6,000 people came together at a cow pasture in the middle of Montana to a festival that started without a budget. Twelve different bands performed over those three days in late July. Traditional demonstrations from crosscutting to fence building to cooking over a campfire take place alongside the concert. That’s what makes the Red Ants Pants a bit more magical: it’s grown to become Montana’s premiere music festival, but its roots still run deep. In 2019, 16,000 people attended the festival, and over 16 bands performed. Attendees took part in a yodeling contest, people practiced yoga together in the morning, and star stories were shared in the evening. It’s not just a music festival: it’s a celebration of Montana.

In 2013, according to an economic impact survey, an estimated $2.8 million was generated in White Sulphur Springs and its surrounding towns over the three day festival. This is coming from a county that was once written as having the lowest income in America (The Economist), from a woman who’s introduction to professional business practices was Small Business for Dummies. To say that Calhoun is a powerhouse is an understatement.

Erik Petersen

From the White House to the homesteads of rural Montana, Calhoun has made a lasting impact. In 2011, the first year of the Festival and the Foundation, Calhoun was named the Entrepreneur of the Year of the State of Montana and was invited to the White House. She’s given TED Talks; been on the cover of magazines; been featured by National Geographic, CNN, and MSNBC; was inducted to the Montana Business Hall of Fame; was awarded the 2018 Event of the Year. But you would never know it. Despite the accolades and press, Calhoun remains a sagebrush woman. At the heart of it all are the wild, capable women of Montana.

For Sarah Calhoun and the Red Ants Pants team, the sky is the limit. With new projects and a book on the horizon, there’s no telling what’s next. After all, there isn’t anything like the drive and determination of Montana’s women.

All of Red Ants— the workwear, the festival, the workshops, the grants— all started with a woman and a pair of pants.

Tony Demin

To learn more about Red Ants Pants, visit redantspants.com

Photographs by Erik Petersen (erikpetersenphoto.com) and Tony Demin (tonydemin.com)