Red Hills Ranch In Teton County On The Market For $65 Million

Heaven lies between red hills on one side and the Gros Ventre River on the other — at least it did for the late Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl.

The politician and department store heir died in 2023 at the age of 88. Now, his remarkable 190-acre Red Hills Ranch is going on the market for $65 million. The offering doesn’t include the 160-acre Jones parcel that Kohl also owned, which Bridger-Teton National Forest has been hoping to acquire.

The property that is for sale is just 25 miles from downtown Jackson. It includes a 2,857-square foot owner’s home that sits in a grove of aspen trees, as well as three riverside guest “cabins.”

These “cabins,” however, are not tiny homes by any means. They’re spacious two-bedroom homes with river rock fireplaces and covered porches that overlook the river.

A heated outdoor swimming pool lies between the cabins and the ranch’s main lodge, where meals are served to guests daily. A four-bedroom caretaker’s residence is attached to the main lodge for the ranch managers.

The ranch also includes the famous Gap Pucci Cabin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cabin today serves as staff housing, but could easily make an excellent writing studio, exercise space or meditation room.

There’s also an 1,850-square-foot bunkhouse with three bedrooms and a loft that can sleep up to six more people, as well as assorted barns to hold hay and horses.

A Private Retreat

Kohl bought the Red Hills Ranch from then Wyoming U.S. Senator Cliff Hansen in 1975, according to Live Water Properties Associate Broker Latham Jenkins, building a rustic but elegant residence for himself on the property, as well as the three riverside “cabins” for guests, the main lodge and assorted facilities for a herd of between 50 to 80 Paint horses that he established.

Kohl wasn’t a rider himself at the time — though he soon became one. He just wanted to enjoy looking at horses at his private retreat.

“He did a lot of entertaining on the property,” Jenkins told Cowboy State Daily. “He wanted to share it with friends and family to come out and play cowboy for a week and ride horses, catch fish and stay in one of the cabins to take in the mountain views.”

These guests typically weren’t famous celebrities or colleagues from the Senate, Jenkins added.

“He was very much focused on entertaining his immediate friends and those who worked for him,” Jenkins said. “He would avoid any type of attention. Could he have invited VIPs and dignitaries? Yes. Did he choose to use the ranch that way? No.”

Former Wyoming Sen. Al Simpson, a longtime friend of Kohl, told Cowboy State Daily that Kohl spoke of the ranch often and would show colleagues pictures of the ranch and projects being completed there, but that he himself was never invited to stay there.

“He was a great guy,” Simpson said. “He was pleasant to deal with. I never saw him angered or worked up. He was a genial companion. He was a fine friend and a nice legislator, but I don’t think he extended much of an invitation to anybody when he was there. He was a very private man.”

About Kohl

Herbert Hiken Kohl served as Wisconsin’s senator in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2013. Among things the liberal Democrat is known for during that time was supporting a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to pass a balanced budget, while also advocating for childhood nutrition programs and access to affordable health care.

Kohl also owned the Milwaukee Bucks, purchasing them in 1985 for $18 million, amid rumors that deep-pocketed new owners might move the team to a different city.

Kohl spent millions on contracts for new players, coaches and other personnel, but the team was never able to escape mediocrity under Kohl’s ownership. He eventually sold them in 2014 to New York hedge-fund billionaires, Marc Lasry and Wesley Adams. The price tag was $550 million — along with a stipulation that the team remain in Milwaukee.

Kohl’s father Maxwell opened a corner grocery store in Milwaukee in 1927 that would eventually grow into an empire of stores across the Upper Midwest that included 50 grocery stores and six department stores, as well as a network of pharmacies and liquor stores too.

Herbert Kohl served as president of the Kohl Corporation from 1970 to 1979, leaving after British American Tobacco bought the remaining corporate interest in the company.

Kohl’s would go on to become the largest department store in the United States in 2012, surpassing even J.C.Penney, at the time its largest competitor.

Herbert Kohl was likely one of Milwaukee’s wealthiest residents, though his net worth has never been disclosed. A 2016 Forbes article estimated it to be between $630 million and $1.5 billion.

Rustic Elegance On Senator’s Row

The area where Kohl’s Jackson Hole Ranch is located has a colorful history, Jenkins told Cowboy State Daily. Longtime locals know the area as Senator’s Row.

Among that colorful history is the Gap Pucci cabin, built in 1929, and used as a base by Jackson Hole hunting outfitters from 1930 to 2008.

The cabin is the last surviving outfitters cabin in the valley, and has been used by a number of local legends, such as Wort Hotel builder John Wort, as well as the cabin’s namesake, Gap Pucci himself, the last Wyoming mountain man of his time.

“This area has always had a lot of romance with it, especially with locals in Jackson,” Jenkins said. “And it’s always been a great local escape for recreation.”

At one time, a highway had been planned into the Gros Ventre Valley that would have been a straight shot to Pinedale, Jenkins added.

“People living up in the head of the Gros Ventre could go into Cora (near Pinedale) just as easily as coming down to Jackson,” Jenkins said. “But there was a landslide that closed out the ability to build the road.”

Phone lines had even been laid in advance of the highway before the slide, Jenkins said. That’s how far along development for the project was at the time.

Development Opportunities Not Limited

While this is a turnkey, private ranch and horse operation, with management already in place that could continue to operate the property as is, the possibilities are not limited to that.

The ranch could be subdivided into five, 35-acre parcels, and it would not require Teton County approval. Other scenarios, which would require their approval, include things like subdividing the property into 16 smaller parcels, conserving 70% of the ranch as open space or transitioning some of the property into a commercial guest ranch.

Owners could also choose whether to continue Kohl’s Paint herd, which Jenkins said does currently make a profit, through the sale of horses.

As an inholding in the Bridger Teton National Forest on one side and the Gros Ventre River on the other, the ranch’s remarkable views are unlikely to ever change. That makes this little slice of heaven as close to eternal bliss as one can probably get on earth.

“As you come around the Gros Ventre and see this ranch, it’s this verdant sea of green from the irrigation of the pastures,” Jenkins said. “And there are all these paint horses. It just makes you want to stop and get out of the car and take a picture.”

Someone once asked Kohl why he’d started the Paint horse operation.

His answer was that he just liked looking at the horses on the land. In fact, Kohl added, if there was anything he would change about the ranch it would just be to have more Paints.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.