“Yellowstone” Creator Taylor Sheridan Buys Wyoming Ranch For $4.95 Million

The Papa’s Creek Ranch is a perfect fishing and hunting getaway in the heart of Star Valley, Wyoming — picturesque, mountainous and with not just one trophy trout stream, but two.

The 179-acre ranch had been on the market for $4.95 million, listed by Live Water Properties, but it’s reportedly been snapped up by “Yellowstone” television show creator Taylor Sheridan.

The ranch Sheridan has reportedly bought is 65 miles from Jackson in western Wyoming and has had multiple buyers looking at it — and no wonder.

The property offers exceptional opportunities to create a one-of-a-kind paradise for hunters and fishermen.

Not only do anglers get 1.35 miles of privately controlled access to the Salt River unencumbered by the public access easements that are typical for most Salt River properties, but they also get 1.5 miles along the lesser known, but equally special, Papa’s Creek.

In addition, the water rights mean the buyer has an opportunity to enhance the already great waterfowl hunting by rotating hay pastures with a grain crop and using the ranch’s senior water rights to flood fields and attract more birds.

All of that is set in a beautiful, tranquil setting. The ranch lies between the Salt River Range to the east and Western Range to the West.

Real Ranches On Yellowstone

Sheridan owns a number of ranches that have also served as settings for the popular television series he created, “Yellowstone.” The $350 million Four Sixes ranch, which is featured in the show, is a real ranch in Texas, as is the 600-acre Bosque Ranch, which is also featured in the show.

Whether Sheridan has any such plans for the Star Valley property is not known. He’s not talking about it, nor is anyone connected with the real estate listing at Livewater.

It would definitely be a beautiful setting for a season 6 of “Yellowstone,” which is reportedly in the works.

Deadline reported just last week that negotiations are underway for the show to continue past the exit of the show’s original lead character, John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner, who has confirmed that he won’t return for any future episodes of Yellowstone.

The teaser for the newest episodes of “Yellowstone” do not label them as the final chapter in the hugely popular saga, which follows sixth-generation cattle ranchers, the Dutton family, as they fight for the Yellowstone Ranch, largest cattle ranch in Montana and the United States.

In the show, Dutton fights off developers, neighbors like the national park and the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, and sometimes even members of his own family.

Dark secrets, murder and intrigue have easily kept fans enthralled for five seasons now. They just can’t get enough.

Chump Change Compared To ‘Yellowstone’s’ Budget

While $4.95 million seems like a lot to pay for a ranch for a movie setting, it would be chump change compared to overall expenditures for “Yellowstone.”

A Wall Street Journal article examining the outrageous expense it takes to put on the show found that it costs more than $500 million a year for Paramount+ to create Sheridan’s shows. That figure includes close to $200 million for the first eight-episode season of “1923,” a Yellowstone spinoff depicting Depression-era ranchers, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. That’s $25 million per episode. By comparison, HBO’s “Last of Us,” set in Jackson, cost $16 million an episode.

Paramount+ executives have said publicly that all the expenses are justified because of the popularity of Sheridan’s work. Paramount+ added close to 10 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone, which the company attributed to the “Yellowstone” prequels “1883” and “1923.”

The expense sheet for filming Yellowstone episodes includes $50,000 a week for filming at the Four Sixes and the Bosque ranches, as well as $200,000-plus for Cowboy Camp, a program aimed at training actors so they will seem like authentic cowboys.

Sheridan also charges $25 a head for renting his cattle herds and $2,000 a head for renting horses.

The expense sheet also includes things like saddles styled after those used by Royal Canadian Mounted Police for almost $1,000 each.

“Yellowstone” isn’t the only show Sheridan is working on. Paramount+ has a contract with Sheridan through 2028, and is banking on at least five more shows from him.

These include “Lioness,” a CIA drama that will star Nicole Kidman, and “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” chronicling the life of a runaway slave who became the first African American deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi, where he bests some of the most ruthless outlaws of his time with only his wits and favorite Winchester rifle.

Other shows Sheridan has created include “Tulsa King,” which stars Sylvester Stallone as a New York mobster who relocates to Oklahoma, and “Kingstown,” a crime thriller set in a fictional company town.

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