Another Huge Wyoming Ranch For Sale; More Than 5 Times Bigger Than New York City

The recent listing of Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches drew a global spotlight for its size at more than 900,000 acres — four times New York City, bigger than Rhode Island and double Jacksonville, Florida.

Now there’s an even larger ranch for sale, and it’s also in Wyoming.

It’s a sheep ranch in southwest Wyoming that lies under the shadow of the Wind River Mountains, spanning parts of Sweetwater and Sublette counties. 

Called the Midland Ranch, it totals 1.15 million acres, exceeding Pathfinder’s overall 916,076 acres, making it more than five times larger than the five boroughs of New York City. It’s also larger than the state of Delaware.

For both ranches, those totals include far more leased land than deeded. In the case of Midland, the deeded acres are 5,880 acres. The leases may also be conveyed with the property. 

The ranch is listing for $22 million if bought whole. Or, buyers can consider buying one of the five units, which range in price from $1 million to $9.9 million. 

Those buying the entire ranch get a slightly better deal. Piecemeal, the costs add up to $29.68 million.

The broker for the property is Court Merrigan, with LandVest Christie’s International Real Estate. 

He told Cowboy State Daily that the property’s vast size and management techniques make it one of the most substantial and diverse ranching operations in North America. 

The owners, Pete and Sue Arambel, are third-generation sheep and cattle ranchers whose ancestors came from the Basque region of France.

“They brought sheep raising with them from the old country, and they have kept with it,” Merrigan said. 

Called transhumance, the Basque method involves a seasonal movement of livestock between pastures in different seasons, following available grass.  

Few ranches have the size and scale to keep all of their livestock grazing entirely on the ranch until it’s time to ship them to market, Kerrigan said. Most use feed lots for some part of the animal’s lifespan. But not Midland. 

“Taken as a whole, that makes this a very unique operation,” he said. “There’s few places left in the West that truly practice this.”

Vast Outdoor Recreation Opportunities

Another thing that makes this ranch special is its vast water resources, including miles of private river frontage along the Big Sandy River and Little Sandy Creek. 

“The fishing along the Big Sandy and the Little Sandy are world-class,” Merrigan said. “In terms of private opportunities, if you look at the map, you’ll see miles and miles of available land along many places on both sides of the river. It’s tremendous.”

Many of the ranch’s water rights go back to when Wyoming was a territory, Merrigan added, making them among the most senior available in the state.

Over the generations, the family has augmented its water supply, creating an entirely self-sufficient ranch.

“Especially as you get into the southern portion of the ranch, it’s much more arid,” he said. “They have managed and handled that and engineered it — over the past, more than a century — so that it is just a beautiful system of wells that are easily within reach of all the livestock.”

The river and the mountains give the ranch spectacular views, as well as all kinds of outdoor recreation opportunities. 

“It’s an amazing oasis down along the river,” Merrigan said. 

With so many different connected ecosystems, it’s no surprise to learn that the ranch offers world-class hunting opportunities as well as its great ranching setup.

There are timbered areas, alpine-influenced high country in the mountains and arid high plains in the Red Desert. It supports a vast herd of more than 15,000 antelope, as well as herds of elk and deer. And the predators that hunt them. 

“Trophy game is out there, just because of the scale this property has,” Merrigan said. “And because of the way they have managed things, with that transhumance, which flows in tandem with the natural ecosystem and the natural migration patterns of the animals that are out there.”

History Trails

The history that remains on the ranch is also iconic American West.

There are remnants of an 1860s Pony Express remount station on the ranch not too far from the Big Sandy River.

The ranch was homesteaded in the 1890s, then settled by a French Basque immigrant named John Arambel in 1909.

There are long sections of both the Oregon and Mormon trails running through this ranch, which was an important turning point for pioneers as they sought new homes in the West. 

“This was kind of the parting of the ways,” Merrigan said. “This was where you had to decide if you were going to Oregon, to Utah or to California.”

The Arambel family is the original owners of much of the ranch, Merrigan added, though they did buy and add to their holdings over the years.

Outlaw Country

The property also has places where outlaws were known to hang out and hide, an area the owners refer to as a “robber’s roost.”

It’s not the same Robber’s Roost as the famous one in Utah, but it’s an intriguing area that’s likely to have had a certain famous outlaw associated with the Wild Bunch visited there. Butch Cassidy knew where all the best hiding places were in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. 

“They chose that spot because it was pretty remote for one, and two, there’s a live stream there with potable water,” Merrigan said about why outlaws holed up there. “You can just drink straight from it. 

“So, it was a good place for them after whatever they were doing, running down a stagecoach or whatever it may have been back then.”

The ranch includes a seasonal residence in the Prospect Mountains for summers. There are functional buildings that serve as bunkhouses for ranch hands and barns, shops and corrals made of old weathered wood. 

Among the old buildings that remain is a sheep-shearing shed that isn’t really used anymore. 

“I don’t know if it’s exactly historical, but it’s an older structure that’s there as well,” Merrigan said. “It’s like a landmark.”

With generations of history, the ranch is a landmark in Wyoming, Merrigan said.

”It’s uniqueness in the landscape of the West, based on its scale and what the animals have done over the last generation, this is just a property that is truly unique,” Merrigan said. “I know everyone always says that, but this is truly one of a kind.” 

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