Top 10 Largest Idaho Ranches
- Makayla Bishop
- Jul 28
- 7 min read
Idaho's wide-open ranges, timbered mountains, and high desert basins have made it one of the last places in the country where privately held ranches still stretch into the hundreds of thousands of acres. Some of these properties are working sheep and cattle operations; others are timberland holdings or vertically integrated beef businesses backed by nationally known names. Below are the ten largest ranches in Idaho by acreage, along with who owns them today.
Ranch acreage figures can vary by source depending on whether they reflect deeded (privately owned) land alone or a ranch's full operating footprint, which often includes leased public grazing allotments from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service. Where that distinction matters, it's noted below.
Top 10 Largest Idaho Ranches
The top 10 largest ranches in Idaho are Lava Lake Ranch, the Wilks Brothers' DF Development, Simplot Land & Livestock, Riverbend Ranch, McCall Red Ridge Ranch, Riddle Ranches, Spencer Ranch, Horseshoe Bend Ranch, Wood Creek Ranch, and Tree Top Ranches.
Lava Lake Ranch: 825,000+ acres
Wilks Brothers / DF Development: 675,000+ acres
Simplot Land & Livestock: 443,000+ acres
Riverbend Ranch (Frank VanderSloot): 163,000+ acres
McCall Red Ridge Ranch: 31,000+ acres
Riddle Ranches Inc: 29,000+ acres
Spencer Ranch Inc: 22,000+ acres
Horseshoe Bend Ranch: 19,000+ acres
Wood Creek Ranch LLC: 18,000+ acres
Tree Top Ranches, LP: 16,000+ acres
1. Lava Lake Ranch: 825,000+ Acres
Location: Pioneer Mountains, Blaine County, roughly 45 miles east of Hailey, bordered by Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve
Owner: Founded by Kathleen and Brian Bean; the ranch was listed for sale in 2022, so current ownership may have changed
Lava Lake Ranch is the largest ranch in Idaho by total operating footprint, at roughly 825,000 acres. Only about 24,000 of those acres are deeded, or privately owned; the rest is grazing capacity leased from the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the state of Idaho. Kathleen and Brian Bean assembled the ranch in 1999 by consolidating six historic sheep and cattle properties, with a mission of producing certified organic, grass-fed lamb and beef while restoring the surrounding rangeland. The Beans placed a series of conservation easements on the property with The Nature Conservancy and voluntarily retired several grazing allotments to protect bighorn sheep habitat, work that earned Lava Lake national stewardship recognition from the BLM and Forest Service.
2. Wilks Brothers/ DF Development: 675,000+ Acres
Location: Central Idaho, concentrated in Valley, Adams, Boise, and Idaho counties
Owner: Dan and Farris Wilks, through their company DF Development
Texas billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks built a roughly 675,000-acre Idaho land portfolio largely made up of former timberland that had passed through Boise Cascade and Potlatch before DF Development began buying it up starting in 2016. The purchases made the Wilks brothers the largest landowners in both Valley and Adams counties, but the acquisitions also drew local controversy: DF Development closed public roads and installed gates on land that had previously allowed access to surrounding national forest, prompting pushback from Idaho hunters, anglers, and county officials. In recent years the brothers have begun selling off large portions of their Idaho holdings in multi-thousand-acre parcels, including the tract profiled next.
3. Simplot Land & Livestock: 433,000+ Acres
Location: Ranches across southern Idaho, with additional operations in Nevada, Oregon, and Washington
Owner: The Simplot family, through J.R. Simplot Company's Land & Livestock division
J.R. Simplot built one of Idaho's best-known private companies on potatoes, fertilizer, and food processing innovations like the frozen French fry, and the Simplot family's ranching holdings grew alongside it. Simplot Land & Livestock now runs more than 30,000 mother cows across ranches in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, supported by feedlots in Grand View, Idaho, and Pasco, Washington. The company remains privately held and headquartered in Boise, with its ranching operations functioning as one division within a much larger agriculture, food processing, and fertilizer business.
4. Riverbend Ranch: 163,000+ Acres
Location: Headquartered near Idaho Falls, with additional ranch divisions in Montana, Wyoming, and Utah
Owner: Frank and Belinda VanderSloot
Frank VanderSloot, the founder of Melaleuca, and his wife Belinda started Riverbend Ranch in 1991 with a focus on registered Black Angus genetics. Over three decades the operation grew into one of the largest purebred and commercial Angus cattle businesses in the country, running more than 62,000 head across roughly 163,000 deeded acres in four states. The American Angus Association recognized Riverbend with its 2016 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award, and the ranch is now paired with Riverbend Meats, a vertically integrated beef processing facility near Idaho Falls that lets the operation control its supply chain from pasture to package.
5. McCall Red Ridge Ranch Ranch: 31,000+ Acres
Location: West of McCall in Valley County, adjacent to Payette National Forest
Owner: Marketed for sale by Wilks Ranch Brokers, an arm of the Wilks family's DF Development
McCall Red Ridge Ranch is a mountain timber property overlooking the tourist town of McCall and Payette Lake, made up of more than 30,000 contiguous deeded acres inside the Payette National Forest. Like much of the Wilks family's Idaho land, the tract traces back through a chain of timber-company ownership before DF Development acquired it. The ranch has been marketed as a recreational and timber property with extensive big-game hunting habitat, water resources, and long-term subdivision potential, and it surrounds several parcels of land owned by the State of Idaho and the BLM.
6. Riddle Ranches Inc: 29,000+ Acres
Location: Bruneau, Owyhee County, in southwestern Idaho's high desert
Owner: Riddle Ranches Inc.
Riddle Ranches operates a large cattle ranch in the high desert rangeland of Owyhee County, near the town of Bruneau. Compared with the state's better-known largest ranches, Riddle Ranches keeps a lower public profile, and detailed ownership and operational history are not as widely documented. What's clear from county and business records is that it remains a working cattle operation on one of the larger privately held tracts in southwestern Idaho.
7. Spencer Ranch: 22,000+ Acres
Location: Joseph Plains, Idaho
Owner: Spencer Ranch Inc.
Spencer Ranch rounds out the state's larger private cattle operations at more than 22,000 acres. As with several of Idaho's sizable family ranching operations, public records on Spencer Ranch's precise history and current management are limited compared with the state's marquee properties. Buyers, brokers, or researchers looking to verify current ownership, boundaries, or acreage for a specific parcel can pull assessor and ownership records directly rather than relying on secondhand estimates.
8. Horseshoe Bend Ranch: 19,000+ Acres
Location: The Joseph Plains above the Salmon River in Idaho County, near Cottonwood
Owner: Privately held; listed for sale in recent years
Despite its name, this Horseshoe Bend Ranch sits far from the Boise County town of the same name - it's tucked into the Joseph Plains above the Salmon River in Idaho County, with roughly 19,662 deeded acres and access to another 11,000 acres of surrounding BLM and state land. The ranch has more than 21 miles of Salmon River frontage, a dozen live creeks, and a working cattle operation that has historically run several hundred head alongside irrigated alfalfa ground. Its remote canyon-and-plains setting has also made it a magnet for elk and deer hunting, with landowner-appreciation tags available for the surrounding hunting unit.
9. Wood Creek Ranch: 18,000+ Acres
Location: Gooding County, south-central Idaho
Owner: Wood Creek Ranch LLC
Wood Creek Ranch LLC holds more than 18,000 acres in Gooding County, in the irrigated farmland and rangeland belt of south-central Idaho. As with several of the state's large family and LLC-held ranches, public information on Wood Creek's specific operations is limited to what's in Idaho's business registry and county assessor records, rather than the press coverage or marketing materials available for the state's best-known properties.
10. Tree Top Ranches, LP: 16,000+ Acres
Location: Canyon County, near Parma in southwestern Idaho
Owner: Larry and Marianne Williams
Tree Top Ranches is held by Larry and Marianne Williams, who founded Idaho Timber Corporation in 1979 and have spent decades building both a timber business and a landholding in the Parma area west of Boise. The Williams are best known publicly for Parma Lodge and Stables, a roughly 450-acre showcase equestrian property within the ranch that listed for $22.5 million in 2024 as the couple looked to scale down their holdings - but that widely covered listing represents only a fraction of Tree Top Ranches' full acreage, which totals more than 16,000 acres of cropland, grazing, and recreational ground.
How We Researched These Ranches with LandApp
Every ranch above spans multiple parcels, counties, and sometimes states, which makes pulling accurate ownership and boundary information a real research project. Here's how LandApp's tools make that easier for any property, not just the state's largest ranches.
Start with the free nationwide parcel map. LandApp's map is free to use on both mobile and desktop, and shows property lines, acreage, and parcel IDs anywhere in the country.
Layer in the data that shapes a ranch's value. Soil maps, flood zones, wetland boundaries, topography, and wildfire risk layers are all available for free on the parcel map, which is useful context for understanding why a given ranch is suited to grazing, timber, or recreation.
Search by owner name with LandApp Pro. For ranches assembled from dozens of individual parcels under one ownership entity, LandApp Pro's Parcel Search tool can filter by owner or entity name to pull every parcel tied to that record, then save the full set to a Portfolio for review.
Generate a Property Report for the details that matter. LandApp Pro users can generate unlimited Property Reports pulling ownership, assessor, and risk data for any parcel nationwide - useful due diligence whether you're researching a 500,000-acre ranch or a 5-acre homestead.
Buying, Selling, or Researching Idaho Land?
Idaho's largest ranches may be out of reach for most buyers, but the same free tools used to research them work for any property in the state. With LandApp, you can view nationwide parcel maps, property lines, and risk and soil data at no cost, generate one free Property Report, and list land for sale with no commissions. LandApp Pro adds unlimited Property Reports and nationwide ownership and assessor data for landowners, land buyers, and real estate professionals who need to go deeper on a specific property or track down who owns land nearby.
