For Sale: Montana’s Sun Ranch

The jury is still out on my definition of dream property, but I’ll tell you this: Montana’s Sun Ranch is definitely in the running.

Nestled on 18,000 acres just outside of Yellowstone National Park in the Madison Valley, the Sun Ranch ranges from 5,700 feet to over 10,000 and is a sterling example of what a true steward of the land can do with a spectacular piece of property. Almost 100 percent of the ranch is protected by conservation easements.

Three creeks – Sun, Moose, and Wolf – nurture more than a mile of the Madison River, which weaves its way through the property. Needless to say the fishing is out of this world. Elk, deer, bear, antelope, and sheep cross this country going to and from Yellowstone. Throw in a beautiful main residence, and this prime parcel is for sale at $55 million. Fay Ranches has the listing.

According to New West,the owner, Roger Lang, is looking to unload the ranch and free up capital for other conservation projects. According to the article, it looks like he has in mind a development similar to what Russ Maytag has done in Colorado at Maytag Mountain Ranch.

16 – Robert Earl Holding – 400,000 acres

Salt Lake City resident Robert Earl Holding, 81, owner of Sinclair Oil, 2,600 filling stations, the Sun Valley ski resort, and a number of hotels and other resorts, reportedly owns 400,000 acres of ranchland in Wyoming and Montana. Holding ranked 77th on the 2008 Forbes 400 list with a fortune estimated at $4.6 billion.

34 – Tim Blixseth – 213,895 acres

Blixseth made his fortune in timber, but recently shifted focus to the luxury resort business. In the 1990s, he and his wife, Edra, developed the country’s only private golf and ski resort, the Yellowstone Club, on 13,400 acres in Big Sky, Montana. In November 2008, the posh retreat, whose membership roster includes Bill Gates and Dan Quayle, filed for bankruptcy. The timber tycoon also owns 180,000 acres of former Boise Cascade land in Idaho.

55 – Scott Family – 150,000 acres

Homer Scott started the Padlock Ranch in 1943 with 300 cows on 3,000 acres. Today the family’s holdings stretch from Hardin, Montana, to Sheridan, Wyoming. The ranch, which is headquartered at the foot of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, now raises and markets more than 12,000 calves a year.

69 – Russell Gordy – 132,927 acres

The oil patch has been good to this Houstonian, whose diverse interests range from oil and gas to methane and ranching. His Rock Creek Ranch in Southwest Texas tips the scales at almost 89,000 acres, and he paid around $1,000 an acre for his 44,000-acre Montana spread.

67 – Tom Siebel – 135,000 acres

A former Oracle executive, Siebel, 55, netted an estimated $500 million in 2005 when he sold his Siebel Systems to Larry Ellison, his old boss at Oracle. His cattle operation ships about 1.5 million pounds of beef off his two sprawling Montana ranches, the Dearborn near Wolf Creek and the N Bar near Grass Range.

62 – Thomas Lane – 140,000 acres

Thomas Lane began acquiring Montana land in 1954 with a 320-acre purchase. With the help of his four sons, Lane now runs seven livestock operations: Windsor Livestock, which is the home ranch; and Holland Ranch, Giles Ranch, Foster Ranch, Hodson Ranch, Gasper Ranch, and Palm Ranch.

84- Desiree Moore- 105,000 acres

Bill Moore co-founded Kelly-Moore Paint Co. in 1946. He began his pursuit of land with the purchase of Montana’s Hamilton Ranch in 1988. Several years and 46 transactions later, he had assembled
a 135,000-acre tract (105,000 deeded), which he dubbed Broken O Ranch. Upon his death in 2004, his widow inherited the ranch.

10 – Stan Kroenke – 600,000 acres

After we debuted The Land Report 100 in 2007, the letters and emails began to arrive. How could we have overlooked Stan Kroenke? Sports fans recognize him as the co-owner of the St. Louis Rams and the owner of the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and numerous other franchises. And wine lovers know him as one of the proprietors of Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle Winery. Real estate professionals estimate that Kroenke owns an estimated 600,000 acres in Montana and Wyoming. Plus, he holds a 400,000-acre Crown lease in Canada.

1. Ted Turner – 2 million acres

Why on earth would one man own 20 properties in 10 states, a swath of America so large that it not only dwarfs Rhode Island, but also exceeds both Rhode Island and Delaware combined? The answer is astonishingly simple. Because he’s Ted Turner.

The man is incapable of thinking small. That’s how he made his fortune, first by buying a failing UHF station and transforming it into WTBS. Then he launched CNN. Then he acquired the MGM movie library. Then he rolled out Turner Classic Movies. With Turner, one idea begets another, which is how he became the country’s leading land baron.

The brainstorm behind his far-flung empire was a single bison he bought in 1976. Three decades later, he owns 40,000, the largest private herd in the country. Bison steaks and bison burgers from Turner Ranches are shipped to upscale grocers coast to coast and served at his chain of restaurants, Ted’s Montana Grill.

Along the way, he purchased 14 ranches in 7 western states: 4 in Montana, 4 in Nebraska, and 3 others in South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In New Mexico alone, he owns more than 1 million acres.

“I acquired more land because I required more land. I wanted it,” Turner said in a 2004 interview. “I never like to buy anything except land. It’s the only thing that lasts.”

The Turner portfolio also includes personal homes in the Atlanta area and in Big Sur, as well as plantations in South Carolina and Florida, where his beloved Avalon lies. This treasured retreat encompasses more than 25,000 acres south of Tallahassee, and with a conservationist’s touch, Turner is reintroducing longleaf pine on the property. The vast majority of his holdings, however, can be found on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountain West, where he stocks his bison.

Turner’s ultimate plan? According to published reports, after his death the properties will go into a trust, which his five children will manage until the last one passes away. At that point, the trust will revert to the Turner Foundation, an Atlanta-based charitable organization that Turner founded in 1990 to preserve the environment.