Mysterious Buyer Of $79,500,000 Ranch Four Times The Size Of New York City Has Been Revealed

The mystery surrounding who purchased a huge ranch in Wyoming has finally been cleared up, after it was revealed that the buyer is a politician who also runs a growing land investment business.

The property, often compared to the vast ranch featured in the TV series Yellowstone, spans close to one million acres across the Rocky Mountains and is known as the Pathfinder Ranches.

Covering roughly 1,431 square miles, the land is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, around four times the size of New York City, and makes up just over one percent of Wyoming’s total land area.

Over the years, sections of this enormous stretch of cattle country were sold off following transactions dating back to 1975, including an 86,000-acre parcel located at the very heart of the ranch.

That central portion has now been purchased by Summit County Council member Chris Robinson, along with his company Ensign, which he operates with his two siblings and which owns an expanding portfolio of land.

Speaking to KPCW, Robinson explained that the deal effectively brought the broken pieces of the Pathfinder Ranches back together, reconnecting land that stretches across four different Wyoming counties.

He said: "The family from whom we bought the Stone Ranch used to own the heart of the Pathfinder, and they sold it in, say, 1975. And so we're kind of reuniting it."

"It's now one big landscape."

The Pathfinder Ranch has been running a cattle operation for over a century Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison

The ranch was originally listed for $79,500,000, though Robinson chose not to reveal the final purchase price agreed upon for the massive property.

Despite the change in ownership, the land will continue to function as a working cattle ranch, with Cowboy State Daily reporting that it could support livestock numbers exceeding 90,000 head.

Swan Land Company, the real estate broker involved in the deal, also declined to share the final figure but confirmed the sale ranked among the largest land transactions in Wyoming.

They added: "This is what we specialize in are the large complicated transactions. And the beauty of this is the buyers are excellent ranchers, but they're also conservation-minded operators as well."

Robinson has a history of cattle farming in the area Getty Images

Caring for such a large and environmentally sensitive area will now be a major responsibility for the new owners, with Chris Robinson and his siblings Alexander and Victoria managing both cattle operations and conservation efforts.

The ranch includes the nation’s first sage-grouse conservation bank, an initiative Ensign has committed to maintaining as part of its long-term plans for the land.

Robinson explained how the conservation program works, saying: "It's a statewide bank that, if there's any damage to, disturbance to, core habitat for greater sage-grouse, one option for mitigation would be to buy credits from the Pathfinder."

"[The property has] got a lot of sage grouse on it, a lot of antelope, pronghorn, deer and elk. It's teeming with life."

The purchase of the 916,000-acre Pathfinder Ranches increases Ensign’s total land holdings by roughly 50 percent, placing the company among the 25 largest private landowners in the United States, according to the New York Post.

Robinson wrapped up by explaining the motivation behind such a massive investment in land and conservation.

He concluded: "We love land and water. We think it's a good long-term investment, and we like the opportunities it affords us to be stewards over a piece of God's creation."