The Biggest Ranches in Wyoming
- Makayla Bishop
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Wyoming is defined by vast open horizons, dramatic mountain ranges, and a deep agricultural heritage. The Cowboy State boasts some of the most expansive ranching operations in North America, with single properties spanning hundreds of thousands acres or more.
Acreage figures for mega-ranches often fluctuate as land is purchased, leased, or reconfigured. The totals below reflect a combination of deeded land and active government grazing leases (BLM and state lands), representing the most commonly reported totals across the industry.
The Biggest Ranches in Wyoming
The biggest ranches in Wyoming are the Midland Ranch, Pathfinder Ranches, Q Creek Ranch, Wagonhound Ranch, Farmland Reserve (LDS Church), Pitchfork Ranch, and True Ranches.
Rank | Ranch Name | Estimated Acreage | Key Location/Focus |
1 | Midland Ranch | 1,150,000+ acres | Central/Eastern Wyoming - Cattle Grazing & Energy |
2 | Pathfinder Ranches | 916,000+ acres | Sweetwater & Natrona Counties - Conservation & Grazing |
3 | Q Creek Ranch | 560,000+ acres | Shirley Basin / Medicine Bow - Contiguous Working Ranch |
4 | Padlock Ranch | 460,000+ acres | Sheridan County, WY & Big Horn County, MT - Scott Family Legacy |
5 | Wagonhound Ranch | 300,000+ acres | Douglas / Laramie Range - Quarter Horses & Cattle |
6 | LDS Church Holdings | 100,000+ acres | Statewide Agricultural Operations - Livestock & Crop Production |
7 | Pitchfork Ranch | 960,000+ acres | Meeteetse - Historic Cattle & Wildlife Conservation |
8 | True Ranches | 90,000+ acres | Multiple Counties - Multi-Unit Family Cattle Operation |
1) Midland Ranch: 1,150,000+ Acres
Location: Sublette, Fremont, and Sweetwater Counties, western Wyoming
Owner: The Arambel family (Basque sheep-ranching family)
Midland Ranch is the largest ranch in Wyoming and one of the largest privately controlled landholdings in the United States. The operation is built from just 5,880 deeded acres, roughly 14,100 acres leased from the state, and nearly a million acres of BLM grazing and trailing rights, many held by the same family for generations. Private river frontage and senior water rights make the operation almost entirely self-sufficient. The ranch is composed of five distinct units, including the Prospect Mountain Ranch and the Grass Creek Ranch, and has recently been marketed for sale either as a whole or by individual units.
2) Pathfinder Ranches: 916,000+ Acres
Location: Natrona, Carbon, Fremont, and Sweetwater Counties, central Wyoming
Owner: Christopher Robinson, through The Ensign Group L.C.
At 916,076 acres, Pathfinder Ranches is the second largest ranch in Wyoming, spanning an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. This accounts for roughly one percent of Wyoming's total land area. The property is a consolidation of more than a dozen historic ranches spanning four counties, with about 99,000 acres deeded and the remainder held through leases carrying a combined grazing capacity of over 90,000 Animal Unit Months. Pathfinder surrounds Pathfinder Reservoir and includes more than 20 miles of the Sweetwater River between the Ferris, Pedro, and Green Mountain ranges.
It's also a landmark in its own right: Independence Rock and Devil's Gate sit on the property, and segments of the Oregon, Mormon, Pony Express, and California Trails cross the ranch, where 19th-century pioneers famously carved their names into the granite. The ranch sold in January 2026 to Christopher Robinson, whose family-owned Ensign Group already operated roughly a million acres across Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, including the neighboring Stone Ranch. The purchase reunited land that had been split apart since the 1970s and pushed Ensign into the top tier of the nation's largest private landowners.
3) Q Creek Ranch: 560,000+ Acres
Location: Carbon County, near Medicine Bow, south-central Wyoming
Owner: Stan Kroenke
Q Creek Ranch is the third largest ranch in Wyoming, spanning over 560,000 acres. It is widely cited as the largest contiguous ranch in the Rocky Mountains. It's owned by billionaire sports and real estate investor Stan Kroenke, who has assembled the ranch over decades by combining roughly ten smaller historic operations, including the original Sullivan Homestead, founded in 1884, along with the Shamrock, Qualey, Schmale, and Difficulty Creek ranches, among others.
The ranch runs as a working cattle and sheep operation, with 11,260 deeded acres supplemented by Bureau of Land Management, state, and private leases. It also operates a hunting and fishing outfitting business and hosts long-range rifle courses. Kroenke's broader land portfolio includes Texas's massive Waggoner Ranch and ranches in Montana, Arizona, and Canada, making him one of the largest landowners in the United States.
4) Padlock Ranch: 460,000+ Acres
Location: Sheridan County, WY, and Big Horn County, MT (straddles the state line)
Owner: The Scott family
Padlock Ranch is the fourth largest ranch in Wyoming, spanning over 460,000 acres. It began in 1943 when Homer and Mildred Scott bought roughly 3,000 acres and 300 cows near Dayton, Wyoming. Eight decades later, the Scott family still owns and operates the ranch, which now runs around 11,000 head of cattle across six divisions straddling the Wyoming-Montana border along the Tongue River, including significant leased acreage on the Crow Indian Reservation.
Padlock has been recognized nationally for its conservation work, including the NCBA Environmental Stewardship Award, and several parcels of the ranch, including its headquarters, are protected under permanent conservation easements. Because Padlock's footprint sits mostly in Montana, it's also one of the largest ranches in that state. You can read more about the biggest ranches in Montana here.
5) Wagonhound Ranch: 300,000+ Acres
Location: Converse, Albany, and Carbon Counties, east-central Wyoming
Owner: Catherine and Art Nicholas
Wagonhound Ranch is a family-owned ranch headquartered about 20 miles south of Douglas, Wyoming, mostly contiguous to the Laramie Range. Art and Catherine Nicholas purchased roughly 200,000 acres along Wagonhound Creek in 1999 and have since grown the operation to around 300,000 acres, adding properties like the Tomahawk Ranch along the way.
The ranch runs four divisions: cattle, horses, farming, and hunting outfitting. Its Red Angus cow herd numbers around 5,000 head, and its Quarter Horse program has produced multiple champions in cutting, reined cow horse, and ranch horse competition. Wagonhound Creek takes its name from the Oregon Trail, where wagons crossing the creek frequently broke their "hounds," the wooden piece connecting a wagon's tongue to its axle, and remnants of that era, including an 1880s bunkhouse and a stagecoach stop, still stand on the property today.
6) Farmland Reserve (LDS Church): 100,000+ Acres
Location: Sheridan, Natrona, and Uinta Counties
Owner: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through Farmland Reserve/ AgReserves and Bishop Court of the Presiding
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the largest agricultural landowners in the country, with an estimated 1.7 million acres nationwide held through its for-profit agricultural arms, Farmland Reserve and AgReserves. In Wyoming, county assessor records point to roughly 100,000 acres of church-owned land concentrated in Sheridan, Natrona, and Uinta Counties, most of it leased out for cattle grazing and hay production.
Because the church doesn't publicly disclose its real estate holdings, acreage estimates for its Wyoming land vary depending on the source and how the underlying entities are tracked; the figures above reflect county-level assessor analysis rather than an official church disclosure. Unlike the ranches above, the church's Wyoming land isn't a single contiguous operation, but rather a collection of leased agricultural parcels that, combined, rank it among the state's largest landholders. The LDS Church is also one of the largest institutional landowners in the country with property ownership across all 50 states.
7) Pitchfork Ranch: 96,000+ Acres
Location: Meeteetse, Park County, northwest Wyoming
Owner: Listed for sale in 2025, historically family-operated
The Pitchfork Ranch is one of the most culturally significant ranches in the American West. Founded in the late 1870s and in continuous operation for nearly 150 years, the working cattle ranch runs about 1,300 head year-round across hay meadows and pasture beneath the Absaroka Mountains, with trout-filled rivers running through the property.
In the early 20th century, photographer and rancher Charles Belden captured life on the Pitchfork in black-and-white images that helped define the visual identity of the American cowboy, and the ranch later became the backdrop for Marlboro's iconic advertising campaigns; longtime Pitchfork hand Darrell Winfield became one of the best-known Marlboro Men in the campaign's history. The ranch has changed hands only twice in nearly 150 years and was listed for sale again in 2025 at $52.8 million, described by its broker as a rare chance to acquire a historic brand and a cultural landmark in a single transaction.
8) True Ranches: 90,000+ Acres
Location: Eastern Wyoming, from the Black Hills to south of Cheyenne
Owner: The True family
True Ranches is the ranching arm of the family-owned True companies, a Casper-based group with roots in oil and gas that also includes True Oil, True Drilling, and the Belle Fourche and Bridger Pipelines. Dave and Jean True founded the ranching operation in 1957, and today it's run by the second and third generations of the family, with holdings spread across eastern Wyoming from the Black Hills border with South Dakota down to south of Cheyenne.
The operation has grown through a series of acquisitions, including the Chalk Bluffs and VR ranches in 1983, the HU Ranch in 1988, and the historic Bixby Ranch, one of the oldest continuously operating cattle ranches in central Wyoming, in 2019. True Ranches now comprises eight ranches, two farms, and a feedlot; because the True family's holdings are spread across multiple properties and counties rather than one contiguous block, reported total acreage for the operation varies by source, and some industry estimates put the combined footprint considerably higher than the figure above. True Ranches enrolls thousands of acres in Wyoming's Access Yes hunting program and has been recognized as a Wyoming Landowner of the Year for its wildlife and habitat management.
Why are Wyoming Ranches So Big?
Wyoming's ranches dwarf those in most other states for a simple reason: the land itself demands it. Much of the state receives under 15 inches of rain a year, and native shortgrass and sagebrush range can require anywhere from 20 to over 100 acres to support a single cow-calf pair for a year, depending on terrain and precipitation. A ranch that would be a modest operation in Iowa or Nebraska has to control ten times the acreage in Wyoming just to run the same number of cattle.
That's also why deeded, or privately owned, acreage tells only part of the story. Nearly every ranch on this list supplements a relatively modest deeded base with state and federal grazing leases, sometimes covering areas many times larger than what the ranch actually owns outright. Understanding the difference between deeded land, leased land, and cattle grazing rights is essential for anyone evaluating a large Wyoming property, whether for a ranching operation, a recreational purchase, or an investment.
How to Map Wyoming Ranch Ownership With LandApp
If you want to see exactly where a ranch's boundaries fall, who owns adjoining parcels, or track down contact information for a landowner, LandApp makes it possible to build your own ownership map for free with LandApp Pro. Here's the workflow:
Open the Parcel Search tool and set your filters: Open the Parcel Search tool, then select a state and add an owner name, or search by acreage, zoning, or location to find large landholdings in a specific area.
Save your results to a Portfolio: Once you've found the parcels that make up a ranch, save them to a Portfolio. Portfolios keep a running list of parcels along with owner names and mailing addresses, which is useful whether you're tracking a ranch's full footprint or reaching out to a landowner directly.
View the Portfolio in the Parcel Data tool: From there, open your Portfolio in LandApp's Parcel Data tool to view full parcel details, generate Property Reports, and build a map of the ranch's boundaries layered against ownership, soil, flood zone, and other data.
Get Nationwide Ownership Data With LandApp Pro
LandApp's free tools already let you view parcel boundaries, acreage, and APNs on a nationwide map, browse and post unlimited real estate listings at no cost, and generate one free Property Report. But if you want to go deeper, like pulling ownership and assessor data for any parcel in the country, running the Parcel Search workflow above, or saving landowner contact information to a Portfolio, that's where LandApp Pro comes in.
With LandApp Pro, you get unlimited Property Reports, nationwide ownership and assessor data, the full Parcel Search tool, and unlimited Portfolios, everything you need to research a Wyoming mega-ranch, track down a landowner, or evaluate a potential acquisition without leaving the map.
