Historic 96,000-acre Pitchfork Ranch in Wyoming hits the market for $67 million – making it the fourth time it will change hands since it was built in 1878
A sprawling Wyoming ranch spanning nearly 100,000 acres is expected to become one of the largest real estate sales in state history after it hits the market for $67 million.
Pitchfork Ranch in the foothills of the Bighorn Basin. sold Thermopolis, dates back to before Wyoming became a state. And if it sells out, it will only be the fourth time it has changed hands.
While few have called Pitchfork home since it was founded by pioneer Otto Frank in 1878, the new owners will find themselves steeped in Midwestern history.
“Talk to anyone in the Bighorn Basin and they all know where Pitchfork is,” ranch manager Ben Anson told Cowboy State Daily. “Talk to anyone in the state and they will know where Pitchfork is.”
Nestled in the foothills of the Bighorn Basin, Pitchfork Ranch covers more than 100,000 acres.
The $67 million price tag includes an eight-bedroom mansion, a tennis court, grounds as far as the eye can see and a fully operational beef production company.
Banana importer Otto Frank traveled from New York to Wyoming in 1878 to escape the cold and hunt, and liked the area so much that he returned a year later and founded the Pitchfork Ranch.
Today, the ranch houses a towering eight-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion, and the huge sale will include the acquisition of a fully operational beef operation dedicated to “being responsible stewards of the land.”
Pitchfork is currently the most expensive property for sale in Wyoming, but Anson says the high price tag does little to deter potential early buyers.
In addition to the mansion that serves as the main house, the wide-open estate also contains seven other properties, as well as several farm sheds.
The ranch became one of the largest and most productive in Wyoming at the turn of the 20th century, but its roots trace back to a humble banana importer.
Otto Friedrich Heinrich Frank von Lichtenstein, who became better known in Wyoming circles as Otto Frank, ventured out of New York City with his two brothers in July 1878, primarily due to his love of hunting and failing health in the East Coast climate.
Traveling through the Midwest, Frank wrote in his journal that Wyoming was “the most beautiful and wild country I ever saw, abounding in fish and game,” and chose the Bighorn Basin as his new home.
Pitchfork Ranch is one of the most famous properties in Wyoming, especially due to its prominence as a farming community at the turn of the 20th century.
The property is one of the most expensive in state history, and ranch manager Ben Anson said the sale will make it only the fourth time in its history that it will change hands.
Farming on the ranch began with Otto Frank’s founding in 1878, when he transported more than 1,000 head of cattle from Oregon, and then quickly expanded, with historical ledgers valuing his cattle at more than $200,000.
As well as the main house, the sprawling estate also includes seven other properties and several working farm sheds.
The location became famous across America after famed photographer Charles Beldon used the hills of Wyoming as his muse. The former Pitchfork rancher’s pictures of the former rancher’s scenic locales became widely known after they graced the covers of Life and National Geographic magazines.
After spending some time hunting and gathering supplies, the group returned to the East Coast, fearing encounters with Indian tribes, but returned the following year to venture further into the basin.
The current owners of the house, Drs. Lenox (left) and Frances Baker (right) purchased the property in 1998, a year after it was listed for $25.5 million.
“Frank became friends with the Shoshone Indians who camped there,” Anson said.
“So he asked them where the buffalo hang out in the winter, and they told him they hang out near the side of Mount Carter.”
It was there that Frank and the group found a huge natural pasture located on the upper Greybull River, where the Pitchfork Ranch has stood for almost 150 years.
It’s clear why the area caught the attention of the young businessman, teeming with natural beauty and countless livestock.
Frank drove 1,200 Hereford Shorthorns from Oregon to start the ranch and used the Pitchfork brand to identify them, a brand the meat plant continues to use to this day.
An 1880s Fremont County tax roll placed the value of his cattle at $7,000 (more than $200,000 today), and by the end of the decade the estate included a large main house, small cabins, and a blacksmith shop.
Frank managed the ranch until his strange death in 1903, when he was found late one night in a field with a gunshot wound to the chest, steps from a barbed wire fence.
It was initially determined that Frank accidentally pulled the trigger while climbing over a fence, but some later speculated that foul play was related to the rancher’s turbulent relationship with local outlaws, which reportedly once included a run-in with Butch Cassidy.
Pitchfork rancher Charles Belden’s photographs of cowboys and rugged Wyoming farmers made the property famous throughout the country.
The estate grew dramatically at the turn of the 19th century when its owners added a large main house, small cabins and a blacksmith shop to the extensive estate.
It was said that the ranch’s original founder, Otto Frank, made the decision on the spot thanks to the help of the Shoshone Indians, who pointed him to the most fertile and lush area in the Bighorn Basin.
It is unclear how much the next owner, Louis J. Phelps, bought the ranch for when he bought it in 1903, but he is credited with adding a number of properties to the estate as it grew to a mammoth 250,000 acres.
His son Eugene met famed photographer Charles Belden at MIT while Louis was managing the ranch, and after Belden visited the estate in 1910, he fell in love with both Pitchfork and Phelps’ sister, Frances.
Married to Frances two years later, Belden moved to the area and became a world-famous photographer, with his photographs of the ranch and surrounding Wyoming landscapes graced the covers of Life and National Geographic magazines, to name a few.
His colorful images made Pitchfork Ranch famous throughout America, not just in Wyoming, where he became a cultural and historical figure.
Belden’s dark room is still located in Vila’s mansion, which Anson says he “always forgets about because it’s kind of a secret hideout you can get into.”
Although the photographer and Francis divorced in 1940, the property remained in the Phelps/Belden family for six generations.
The house was listed for sale in 1998 for $25.5 million and was snapped up by a doctor a year later. Lenox and Fran Baker, who shared ownership of parts of the estate with businessman Greg Luce.