17 White Bison Thrive At Billionaire Joe Ricketts’ Jackson Fork Ranch

It is a crisp, cold, blue-sky morning in the upper Hoback, about 10 miles south of Bondurant, Wyoming. The snow is blinding white against a bright sky. The dirt road is snow-packed and meticulously plowed. 

In the valley, not far from the road, a small herd of white bison graze, seemingly without a care in the world. The herd is owned by billionaire Joe Ricketts, who bought upward of 1,000 acres in the Upper Hoback in the late 1990s. 

Ricketts, who founded TD Ameritrade and whose family co-owns the Chicago Cubs, has long been a visionary — and a controversial figure with locals.

Ambitious proposals such as renaming Bondurant (population 98) Little Jackson Hole and building a 230,000-square-foot resort in the middle of a major wildlife migration corridor have drawn public outcry in Sublette County over the years. 

His white bison herd is another story of ambition, yet perhaps on a quieter level.

To Ricketts, the white bison represent a piece of American West history, a spiritual connection to the land and a unique feature he is proud to share with guests at his property, named the Jackson Fork Ranch.

The story of Ricketts’ white buffalo herd began in 2004, after Ricketts met a rancher at the National Western Stock Show in Denver who had a couple of white bison for sale.

Ricketts learned from the rancher that bison occasionally bred with Charolais cattle, and out of all the bison born every year, "only one or two would be white." 

“It was a truly remarkable and powerful piece of history,” he said in an email statement to Cowboy State Daily. 

“This rancher in Colorado was intentionally breeding white bison so people could see them and understand their story," he said. "That stayed with me, and I bought a couple from the rancher at the Denver Stock Show."

Initially, Ricketts said, he brought the white bison to his ranch on the Upper Hoback simply because he loved the idea of having them.

His longtime ranch manager, Antonio Rivera, called the bison a “hobby” for Ricketts, saying he “has always liked animals.”

Ricketts told Cowboy State Daily he likes to share his white bison with guests at the ranch. 

Guests "love taking the wagon out to feed [the bison] and hearing the history behind [them],” he said. “What started as something fun has evolved into an experience that helps guests connect with the land on a deeper level.”

Where The White Buffalo Roam 

On a bright, cold morning in late December, a blue tractor with fat black tires taller than an average human bumbles its way into the fenced pasture where the white bison graze, pulling a flatbed trailer.

Rivera stands on the trailer, relying on his own balance to remain upright, despite the slow, bumpy ride.

The bison look up and start ambling toward the tractor. There are 17 of them, a mix of adults and calves. One bull dominates the herd. 

“He’s the dad of them all,” Rivera says.

The tractor stops when the trailer is a stone’s throw from the bison. Rivera tears open a large bag of beef mineral pellets and tosses a handful of pellets off toward the bison.

“Just to make friends,” he says.

The bison trot closer to the trailer and nuzzle into the snow for the pellets.

There is a black sheep in the family — or, better said, a black bison. Rivera is quick to point out that bison is part of the same herd as its white counterparts; they share the same gene pool.

Rivera has been working on ranches in the Sublette County area since 1994 and has worked for Ricketts since 2001. A typical day for him in the winter is feeding animals and plowing snow. 

Rivera feeds the white bison herd every other day and says they do well with Wyoming’s cold, dry climate.

Keeping the herd genetically clean is one of his primary focuses.

This herd of 17 will soon be thinned by about half, assuming that Rivera can find buyers.

White bison are sold for their meat and their hide, Rivera said. They are not to be confused with albino bison, which are extremely rare and often have health issues. 

In 2021, the Jackson Fork Ranch sold two white bison heifers to Evanston’s Bear River State Park. One of those heifers, named Wyoming Hope, gave birth to a white bison calf in 2023, the first white bison to be born at the park.

The following year, both heifers birthed white bison calves. 

White bison births in the wild are rare, believed to happen in 1 in 1 million births or even less frequently, according to the National Park Service.

The National Park Service reported that a white bison calf was born in Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Valley on June 4, 2024 — the first such calf reported to be born in Yellowstone. 

For now, there are no plans to commercialize the white bison at Jackson Fork Ranch or offer formal tours, said Rivera. 

“They’re not a secret,” he said, noting that anyone can drive the Upper Hoback Road and spot them. 

But they also aren’t widely advertised. Instead, they remain a source of joy and pride for Ricketts — who makes Jackson Fork Ranch his primary residence — and his guests.

Kate Meadows can be reached at Kate@CowboyStateDaily.com