Eighty years ago, a Jackson Hole cowboy named Claude Wham won a ranch in a game of cards. Its current seller decided against gambling it away.
Seven months after hitting the market for $58 million, the historic, 119-acre Grand View River Ranch has a buyer, according to a press release. Agents David A. NeVille and Shawn M. Asbell with Keller Williams Jackson Hole had the listing. They declined to comment on the final closing price, the buyer’s identity and the buyer’s plans for the property.
“The seller was mindful to pursue a buyer that would thoughtfully steward the legacy ranch,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The ranch’s history belongs in the annals of great Western stories. Formerly known as the Gros Ventre River Ranch, it straddles the Gros Ventre River and has 24 buildings, including a ranch lodge, homes, guest cabins and barns, the release shows.
In the early 20th century, John D. Rockefeller tried to buy the land while on a 35,000-acre shopping spree in the Tetons. The land he amassed later helped create Grand Teton National Park, but the ranch’s owners declined Rockefeller’s offer at the time.
After Wham’s big win in 1944, he ran the ranch as a hunting camp. He later sold it to his employers, brothers Roy and Reese Chambers, who started operating it as a dude ranch. The Chambers sold it to Karl and Tina Weber in 1986 for an undisclosed sum.
Karl Weber, an inventor and founder of Uniweb and Aerochem, and Tina Weber already had some experience in the dude ranch business when they bought Gros Ventre. The couple partnered with the late real estate titan Gerald T. Halpin and his wife, Helen Halpin, on Lost Creek Ranch, another Jackson Hole cowboy escape.
Lost Creek Ranch also hit the market last year, asking $40 million for the 50-acre property. The Gottwald family bought the ranch for an undisclosed amount, according to Robb Report. The Gottwald family made their fortune in oil and gas, and today owns NewMarket. Forbes estimated their net worth at $3.1 billion in 2015.