Lorrie Morgan’s favorite room in her Hartville log home is the music loft.
While Morgan isn’t related to the famous singer of the same name, she still loves music, and to her, there’s nothing quite like playing the piano there.
“It’s got awesome acoustics because we have really high vaulted ceilings,” she said. “And it’s great to play piano up there and look out over the hillside. It’s just really cool.”
That’s just one in a long list of things Morgan loves about Cedar Lights Retreat, which comes with three of Wyoming’s top-rated Airbnbs. But Morgan and her husband, Scott, are empty nesters, so they’ve decided to list what has been their 446-acre slice of Hartville heaven for the last nearly 20 years for $3.499 million.
“We always had a plan that when we became empty nesters, we would make a change,” Morgan said. “We now have three kids scattered across the country … and we would just like to be closer to them and have something different for us that’s not as much to maintain either.”
They’re entering their “semi-retirement” years, Morgan said, and planning to land in a 55-plus community not far from Tucson, Arizona.
Finding Property Wasn’t Easy
The couple are originally from Wisconsin. They moved to Wyoming because of high property taxes there and planned to use a Section 1031 to accomplish their purchase. That’s a vehicle that allows a buyer to defer capital gains taxes, by rolling the money into the next purchase of a home.
“We had some friends in Colorado and they said, ‘You really should check out Wyoming,’” Morgan recalled. “And my husband had always vacationed out in the West with his family. So we started venturing out and just exploring different areas of Wyoming.”
Buying property in Wyoming turned out to be more difficult than the couple expected.
“We looked at ranches all across the state and realized that, wow, what one person calls a ranch here’s totally different,” she said. “So we got very specific with our Realtor and said, ‘Well, we would like somewhere that is close to water and has lots of trees.’ And he said, ‘Good luck.’”
Scott wasn’t deterred by that, though.
“He was like, ‘Oh we serve a big God,’ you know,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “So we just kept venturing all over the whole state. We even had put in a full-price cash offer on a place in Cheyenne, and it didn’t get accepted and we’re like, ‘Well, that’s crazy.’”
Two-Line Ad Changed Everything
The clock was running out on their 1031 exchange. They had one last trip to Wyoming left, and then they had to declare what they were using their exchange to buy, or be on the hook for a large amount of capital gains taxes.
“We landed and called the Realtor,” Morgan said. “And he said, ‘Oh that property you were going to look at, it just went under contract. So we have to look at something else.’”
The only thing the Realtor had to show them was a two-line advertisement for a property he himself had not yet seen and which had no pictures at all.
“It just said 440 acres by Guernsey State Park,” Morgan said.
It was their last chance, so they had to go see it. The Morgans worried, the whole trip there, about what they would see. But all that went away the moment they saw the property.
“From the second we drove on it, I was like, ‘I can’t believe this.’ I just had goosebumps,” Morgan said. “And I knew that this was the place that God had for us. It was the one.”
Rolling Hills, Big Skies, No HOA
It’s a bittersweet moment for the Morgans, listing agent Alexander Lexington with eXp Realty told Cowboy State Daily. But it will be a happy day for the new owners. He’s been in real estate for a number of years, and said property like this doesn’t come along often.
“It’s just gorgeous and there’s no covenants, no HOAs,” he said. “The landscape is just rolling hills, and there’s direct access to just about 1,000 acres of BLM land.”
Cedar Lights is also very near 8,566-acre Guernsey State Park, which offers all kinds of outdoor adventures, from hunting and fishing to hiking, boating and water sports.
Lexington stayed at the property for a weekend to get to know it better, and was glad he’d brought his ATV for the trip.
“It’s a lot of winding hills and it’s tons of fun,” he said. “When I stayed there, it was absolutely phenomenal.”
The three Airbnbs include two geodesic domes, each of which has its own hot tub, and a loft, which also has a hot tub.
“So it’s a really nice little getaway from all of it,” Lexington said. “And then there’s the night skies. Oh man, there’s no light pollution whatsoever. It’s some of the most gorgeous night skies I’ve ever seen.”
Lexington particularly appreciated the outdoor Blackstone pizza oven that came with the geodesic dome stay. That’s not available for the loft, but all three Airbnb sites have access to EV charging and high-speed internet.
Turn-Key Glamping Site
The Airbnbs offer immediate, turn-key investment opportunity to a new owner if they wish.
The idea for the domes was a brainstorm Morgan had during the 2017 solar eclipse.
“I heard everyone town saying, ‘Hey, we’re not letting anybody in. We’re not letting the green plates in. We’re putting up no-trespassing signs,” she said. “So I said to my husband, ‘Oh this sounds like an opportunity. As long as they don’t burn down our property, it’ll be great.’ He was like, ‘No this isn’t Woodstock, Lorrie. These are like science geeks and their families so it’ll be fine.”
That led them to set up about 250 dry RV and tent camping sites. Then they had to figure out how to market them.
“It’s kind of funny now because Airbnbs are everywhere now,” Morgan said. “But at the time I didn’t even know Airbnb existed. So I was like researching how we could market it and found Airbnb.”
At that time, duplicate listings weren’t allowed. So they had to create one listing at a time for the tent and RV sites, and then would have to recreate the whole listing again, each time it rented.
They started with 50 sites, but before it was all done, they’d sold 250 camping sites, which kept Scott, a contractor, busy building outhouses for them.
“All in all, we don’t have an exact count, but we figure we had 750 people on our property,” Morgan said. “And the amazing thing was you could hear a pin drop. The night before the eclipse, the sky was just covered in stars and we were walking around our property going, ‘I can’t believe there’s 750 people here right now and you can’t even hear a sound.’ It was just amazing.”
Eclipse Sparks Idea For Domes
The eclipse itself was an unbelievable experience, she said. After everyone left, the couple went through all the campsites, expecting to find a mess.
“We did not find one piece of trash,” she said. “People were so gracious and just awesome and really appreciated having such a great space to watch the eclipse.”
Many of the guests suggested the couple open up the venue for more camping, and that is what spawned the idea for the domes.
“That was our son, Dacotah’s idea,” Morgan said. “He was like, ‘Mom have you ever seen these geodesic dome things?’ And so I was like, ‘Well that kind of looks space age, but I’ll take a look at it.’”
They turned out to be great for places like Wyoming, where there are big temperature changes and lots of wind.
“They stand up really well to that kind of thing,” Morgan said. “And they’re a really great way to feel like you’re part of nature, even when you’re sheltered from it.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
