A massive ranch in Wyoming, often likened to the one in the TV show Yellowstone, has been purchased by a well-known politician and businessman, solving the mystery of its new ownership.
Covering nearly a million acres in the Rocky Mountains, the stunning Pathfinder Ranches are larger than Rhode Island and four times bigger than New York City. This makes it one of the largest operational ranches in Wyoming.
Although it occupies just over 1 percent of Wyoming’s total land area, this 1,431 square mile stretch of cattle land was previously owned in sections due to various sales since 1975, including an 86,000-acre core property.
This section was acquired by Chris Robinson, a Summit County Council member and a co-owner of a company with a growing land portfolio, Ensign. He manages the firm with his two siblings.
In an interview with KPCW, Robinson shared how the acquisition unified previously divided sections of the Pathfinder Ranches, spanning four counties. He stated: “The family from whom we bought the Stone Ranch used to own the heart of the Pathfinder, and they sold it in, say, 1975. And so we’re kind of reuniting it.
“It’s now one big landscape.”
Although the ranch was listed at $79.5 million, Robinson did not reveal the final purchase amount. The ranches will continue to support large cattle herds, with Cowboy State Daily indicating a potential livestock capacity of over 90,000.
Swan Land Company, the real estate broker, also declined to disclose the transaction amount but mentioned that the sale was one of their largest in Wyoming.
They commented: “This is what we specialize in are the large complicated transactions. And the beauty of this is the buyers are excellent ranchers, but they’re also conservation-minded operators as well.”
The new owners, Chris and his siblings Alexander and Victoria Robinson, will be responsible for managing this vast expanse of Wyoming’s natural landscape, which includes a significant cattle operation and protection of several protected species.
Among these is the nation’s first ‘sage-grouse conservation bank’, which Ensign has committed to maintaining.
Robinson noted: “It’s a statewide bank that, if there’s any damage to, disturbance to, core habitat for greater sage-grouse, one option for mitigation would be to buy credits from the Pathfinder.
“[The property has] got a lot of sage grouse on it, a lot of antelope, pronghorn, deer and elk. It’s teeming with life.”
The successful purchase of the 916,000-acre Pathfinder Ranches expands Ensign’s land holdings by about 50 percent, placing the company among the top 25 landowners in the United States, as reported by the New York Post.
Robinson concluded: “We love land and water. We think it’s a good long-term investment, and we like the opportunities it affords us to be stewards over a piece of God’s creation.”