T
he changing West is sometimes best understood by identifying the evolving desires of today’s “new” ranch owner. Nowadays, many western ranch buyers are searching for more than a fence, homestead or hayfield. They are in search of a piece of the simpler past. A place to build a legacy. A place to slow down time with their family while they still have an opportunity.
They’re looking for a place to live an adventure. The Western Ranch Dream As our world experiences the reality of smaller and fewer spaces left untouched, the vast skylines of the West still hold the true majesty of understanding what creation really is and how we are truly blessed to enjoy it. Can you remember the last night you spent in the open without a single light on any horizon in any direction? There is little in this world that inspires appreciation like spending a night under star-filled skies, truly seeing the Milky Way, or sitting atop a high ridge as the sun breaks to the east, cold mist floating up from the valley bottoms as elk bugles ring across the hillsides. The recent Trace Adkins song Just Fishin’ perfectly paints the picture of what I call livin’. It’s the story of a young girl spending time with her dad, sitting lakeside, casting out, just enjoying time with something that doesn’t have a LCD screen. This lyric clearly brings home this point about focus on appreciation: I guarantee this memory’s a big’in, And she thinks we’re just fishin’.
By Dan Murphy owner of M4 Ranch Group
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The Western Ranch Story You can understand western ranches even better when you know how the West was settled. The higher portions of the West, with their high peaks, steep hillsides and alpine valleys, were typically settled in search of minerals, typically in deeded, 10-acre mining claims. Some areas in the Mountain West may see hundreds of 10-acre claims covering one mountain, with each and every parcel deeded to a different owner. These high alpine, mineral-rich areas flowed down to larger tracts of land known as placer claims, which were originally laid out as 160-acre ore processing areas.
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As you continue to head downstream, you would come to the first real mountain valleys. These became townships, providing materials and goods to the higher claims. As the valleys continue to widen, you would start to see homesteads producing cattle and potatoes for the upstream communities. This history is the main reason so many of the high alpine mountains near the west ski areas contain so few large, deeded ranches. Today, that same lack of deeded ground has driven the limited supply into higher valued purchases. In the Mountain West, you can find larger deeded ranches where large sheep/cattle
and ag operations are the mainstay. In northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, you will find some spectacular mountain ranches, where cost-per-acre for lush, game-covered mountain ground will be less expensive than dry West Texas plains acreage. In areas like western New Mexico and eastern Utah, you may measure the cow by the section but you can find some very large ranches with truly unthought-of attributes. Many of these types of ranches are located hours from any type of ski area or upbeat mountain town, but they provide a western experience just a bit closer to the true history of the West.
The Modern Western Ranch Journey If you’re an adventure ranch buyer, your challenge starts with clearly understanding what your property goals are and then determining how best to make a wise investment work with available budgets. You also have to recognize what your ranch perspective is, along with issues like land logistics, regional amenities and travel times. Making the right choice in the right area, on land that provides the right attributes, can make your ranch purchase the legacy property of many dreams. Ranch values are widely diverse across the west. Large acreages don’t necessarily mean large dollars. In some areas, a big ranch may total less than a couple hundred acres, while in other areas of the West, without thousands of acres, a ranch may have little to offer.
When you lay out your goals for a ranch purchase, take into consideration what you personally consider to be the needed amenities. Is close proximity to local activities a deal maker or a deal breaker? In many cases, we find the guys love the more remote properties with long drives, no people and BIG back yards, while many ladies, and a growing number of our kids, like to be just a bit closer to regional attributes, like the ski valley, a mountain town or even a bit of shopping. This is one of the larger first steps in defining your ranch search, and your answers shed light on a better understanding of ranch values for you. For example, there is a ranch located just minutes from outstanding luxuries, medical facilities, shopping and dining in the small mountain town of Lake City, Colorado.
Appropriately named Bucksnort Ranch, due to the meadows populated with deer and elk, the ranch backs into over two million acres of public land and is fronted by 34,000± acres of wilderness study area. This ranch has what many call the perfecta, low taxes due to ag status with strong water rights, great improvements, a main house and guest house, a mile of premier trout stream and five-acre trout lake, all with the ease of county-maintained, year-round access. Lying in a western mountain county with 96.5 percent public lands, a skyline of 5 to 14,000foot peaks, limitless high mountain lakes, streams and trails, this smaller, 184-deeded acres is one of the county’s largest ranches. This is the type of ranch where you realize that smaller is bigger, and you don’t have to own the castle to live like a king. FarmAndRanch.com
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In your ranch journey, it is important to research these questions: • How are you going to access your ranch? • Are you a private flyer with the ability to travel great distances in short times? If so, what’s your desired window of flight time? If you are flying private and/or commercial, what’s the closest airport access? • If you’ll be driving to and from the ranch, are your drive goals within 8, 10 or 12 hours? Pay close attention to travel routes. • Do you have any issues with altitude? If so, what’s your envelope of comfort? • Are you looking for a full-season ranch or a summer escape? • Is your family growing and what ages of enjoyment will the ranch need to accommodate? • Is fall hunting a priority? If so, you need to focus on state regulations, regional game counts, big game migration routes, hunter success ratios, area ranches big enough or located well enough to hold game year-round, and whether the ranch can provide sanctuary grounds for migrating big game herds. Better understanding your goals will greatly help you make the right ranch purchase. All western ranches hold value and most see the return in value for what we call an end-user buyer. Ranches are a love, full of passion and commitment, and they provide untold joy and fulfilment year after year. On ranch after ranch, time has proven to be the best arbiter of value. Remember, a Class A ranch is a Class A ranch in both a good and bad economy, but time and enjoyment will always prove the winner. v
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Volume 68 Farm&Ranch West