Wild Horse Basin Ranch, 92,000 Green Acres Near Casper, Lists For $45 Million

Five creeks meander through the grassy pasture bottoms of this expansive ranch framed by mountains in the distance and located just 30 minutes from downtown Casper.

It’s called Wild Horse Basin by owner Bob Ehrlich, and it was one of five Wyoming ranches he bought 20-some years ago as he was dipping his boots into a full-on ranching career. 

The 92,351-acre ranch is the latest in a wave of large-scale ranches to hit the real estate market in Wyoming. It’s listed for $45 million with Mirr Ranch Group, a real estate firm that specializes in legacy and fine sporting properties.

Wild Horse Basin was one of five Cowboy State ranches Ehrlich bought about 20 years ago when he was expanding his farming and ranching career, adding Wyoming to his portfolio.

“I grew up on a farm and had my own horse and did this and that,” he said. “I’ve always loved Wyoming, and I loved the size of this ranch, and where it’s at — just how good of a ranch it was. It’s a beautiful place.”

That’s made it a favorite with Ehrlich over the years as a weekend retreat on the rare occasions when he’s had a chance to take a break. 

The property is great for hunting, too, and he has considered it a real gem over the years.

The name of the ranch didn’t have a particular inspiration. He just needed to give it a new name and that one “sounded good” at the time.  

“This was part of the Diamond Ring Ranch,” Ehrlich said. “The ranch was a total 135,000 acres and we bought 93,000 acres of it. The owner kept the balance for his granddaughter, so we didn’t want to use the Diamond Ring name.”

Green Acres Are Everywhere

Although the name Wild Horse Basin might seem to channel dude ranch vibes, this particular ranch is a working turnkey ranch already leased to an operation that runs 1,000 head of black Angus cattle.

The water wealth on this ranch makes green acres everywhere a person looks, and that’s one of the things that makes the property exceptional, Mirr Ranch’s senior digital marketing analyst and broker Josh Koebert told Cowboy State Daily.

“Wild Horse Basin has about 50 ponds, five year-round creeks and 24 wells,” Koebert said. “There’s about 17 miles of Poison Spider Creek alone that goes across the deeded portion of Wild Horse Basin. 

"So, it doesn’t have anything as substantial as the North Platte River, but it’s pretty well watered for the area.”

In all, the ranch has 38 miles of creeks wandering through it in the 31,892 deeded acres alone. That doesn’t count the dozens of miles of creeks and seeps on the remaining public and private leases that are also part of this ranch.

Another area where this ranch shines is that its deeded acres are much more consolidated than is usually the case. 

“This isn’t little chunks of deeded ground surrounded by big expanses of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land,” Kroebert said. “This is probably one of the largest, most blocked-up ranches with this kind of close proximity to a growing city.”

Infrastructure for the ranch includes a large background lot, round pen, and outdoor arena, along with two residences, a metal workshop and garage, several barns including a horse barn and tack room, an open-front livestock shelter, and two upright metal storage tanks for feed.

A Slice Of The Energy Pie

Cattle aren’t the only revenue stream helping to support the ranch. There’s also potential for a future slice of the energy industry as well.

“This is going to come with some oil and gas development,” Kroebert said. “The reason I’m confident in that is we have one of the largest seismic leases in the state of Wyoming right now.”

Oil and gas operators whose holdings in plays like the Bakken are nearing the end of their lifespan are looking for new places to explore, Kroebert said. 

“So, we inked a deal earlier this summer with a seismic crew and they’re out there doing all their seismic testing and work,” he said. “So I guess we’ll see. 

"If the oil and gas market continues to improve, I suspect you’ll probably see some new drilling activity in this part of the world.”

The ranch would also support outdoor recreation activities, if a new owner wanted to go that direction, for another potential revenue stream. 

The aesthetics of the ranch are particularly appealing for that, Kroebert said, and that’s one of the first things he noticed when he visited the ranch the first time.

“I was expecting a lot of flat, kind of sagebrush prairie ground with not a lot of diversity in the terrain,” Kroebert said.

Seclusion Fuels Hunting

The other pleasant surprise was how secluded the ranch is despite its proximity to Casper.

“It sits in a big basin, so you’re surrounded,” Kroebert said. “There’s a big, big chunk of ground there that the general public doesn’t even know exists.”

Both of the property's houses also have gorgeous views, and those views aren’t likely to change much because the property sits in an area Wyoming has identified as core sage grouse habitat. 

That stopped the nearby development of wind turbines in the area on a 12,000-acre parcel with grazing rights that have been leased back to the ranch. 

“You’ve got a lot of rim rock to the east and south and then when you get to the west, you’ve got some big mountains there. So, it’s a pretty aesthetic ranch,” Kroebert said.

The seclusion of the ranch and its water wealth have helped encourage lots of wild game in the area, too. Elk, deer and antelope are all common at the ranch and offer amazing hunting opportunities.

“Typically, they lease out the hunting to an outfitter,” Kroebert said. “They’ll take a few deer hunters on the ranch and a few antelope hunters. 

"And we’ve got enough big blocks of deeded ground, even though there’s some BLM around it, we can still create a private hunting opportunity, where the general public’s not affecting our big game populations.”

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