A sprawling Wyoming ranch spanning nearly 100,000 acres is expected to become one of the biggest real estate sales in the state's history after hitting the market for $67 million.
The Pitchfork Ranch at the foot of the Bighorn Basin, sold by Thermopolis, dates back to before Wyoming was even a state. And if it is acquired, it will be only the fourth time it has ever changed hands.
While not many people have called Pitchfork home since its founding in 1878 by pioneer Otto Franc, the new owners will feel steeped in Midwestern history.
“Talk to anyone in the Bighorn Basin and they all know where the Pitchfork is,” ranch manager Ben Anson told Cowboy State Daily. “Talk to anyone upstate and they'll know where the Pitchfork is.”
Located in the foothills of the Bighorn Basin, the 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 facility.
Banana importer Otto Franc traveled from New York to Wyoming in 1878 to escape the cold and hunting, and loved the area so much that he returned a year later to establish the Pitchfork Ranch.
Today, the ranch is home to a towering mansion with eight bedrooms and six bathrooms, and the massive sale includes a fully operational beef production facility that makes a point of “being responsible stewards of the land.”
Pitchfork is currently the most expensive property for sale in Wyoming, but Anson said the high price tag has done little to deter potential early buyers.
In addition to the mansion, which serves as the main house, there are seven other properties spread across the wide open estate, along with several farm barns.
The ranch became one of the largest and most productive in Wyoming in the early 20th century, but its roots stem from a humble banana importer.
Otto Friedrich Heinrich Franc von Lichtenstein, who became better known in Wyoming circles as Otto Franc, ventured from New York City with his two brothers in July 1878, primarily due to his love of hunting and his deteriorating health in the East Coast climate .
As he traveled through the Midwest, Franc wrote in his journal that Wyoming was “the fairest and wildest country I ever saw, rich in fish and game,” and he chose the Bighorn Basin as his new home.
The Pitchfork Ranch is one of the best-known properties in Wyoming, mainly due to its prominence as a farming community in the early 20th century
The property is among the most expensive in state history and ranch manager Ben Anson said the sale would make it change hands for only the fourth time in history.
Farming on the ranch dates back to Otto Franc's founding in 1878, when he brought more than 1,000 cattle from Oregon before rapidly expanding, and historical ledgers valued his cattle at more than $200,000.
In addition to the main house, the extensive estate also includes seven other properties and several working barns
The place became famous across America after famed photographer Charles Beldon used the rolling hills of Wyoming as his muse. The former Pitchfork Ranch owner's photos of the picturesque area became famous after appearing on the covers of Life and National Geographic magazines
After spending some time hunting and gathering supplies, the group returned to the east coast for fear of encountering Native American 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 for sale for $25.5 million
“Franc befriended 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 Carter Mountain.”
It was there that Franc and the group found a huge natural pasture located on the upper part of the Greybull River, where the Pitchfork Ranch has stood for almost 150 years ever since.
Teeming with natural beauty and limitless livestock, it's clear why the area appealed to the young businessman.
Franc had pulled 1,200 Hereford shorthorn cattle from Oregon to start the ranch, and had adopted the brand of pitchforks to mark them – a brand the beef plant continues to use to this day.
An 1880 Fremont County tax roll showed his cattle were worth as much as $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.
Franc ran the ranch until his bizarre death in 1903, when he was found late at night in a field with a shotgun wound in the chest, just steps from a barbed wire fence.
It was initially determined that Franc accidentally pulled the trigger as he stepped over the fence, but some later speculated foul play due to the rancher's turbulent relationships with local bandits – which once included a run-in with Butch Cassidy.
Pitchfork Ranch owner Charles Belden's photos of cowboys and rugged ranchers in Wyoming made the property famous across the country
The property grew dramatically around the turn of the 1800s, when the owners added the large main house, small cabins and a blacksmith shop to the expansive estate.
It was said that the ranch's original founder, Otto Franc, decided 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's unclear how much the next owner, Louis G. Phelps, bought the ranch for when he purchased it in 1903, but he is credited with adding a number of properties to the estate as it grew to a massive 250,000 acres.
His son Eugene had met famed photographer Charles Belden at MIT when Louis managed the ranch, and after Belden visited the estate in 1910, he fell in love with both Pitchfork and Phelps' sister, Frances.
After marrying Frances two years later, Belden moved to the area and became a world-famous photographer when his images of the ranch and surrounding Wyoming landscape graced the covers of Life and National Geographic magazine, to name a few.
His vivid images made Pitchfork Ranch famous across America, not just in Wyoming, where he became a cultural-historical figure.
Belden's darkroom is still found in the Pitchfork mansion, which Anson says he “always forgets, because it's like a secret hideout to get up there.”
Although the photographer and Frances divorced in 1940, the property remained in the Phelps/Belden family for six generations.
In 1998, the house was for sale for $25.5 million, and a year later it was snapped up by Drs. Lenox and Fran Baker, who divided ownership of some parts of the estate with businessman Greg Luce.