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| Features |
Range Rovers
Constance Gustke
05/03/2004
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Conservation is certainly
another draw. Kent and Funk each see themselves as stewards of some of the
West’s fast-fading history. Kent is preserving remains of settlers’ houses on
his property. Funk, whose main ranch is in Yukon, Okla., has marked out the
remnants of the Chisholm Trail, the great commercial roadway used by
19th-century cowboys to deliver their herds to market, which runs through his
property.
| Ranchers can use conservancy easements to get tax breaks. These are contracts
struck with the government or a nonprofit conservancy group that limit our use
of the land. For example, we may agree not to sell our land to developers in
exchange for a tax break on it. When the Hearst family placed its
128-square-mile property under a conservancy easement, it received $15 million
in state tax relief. |
The popularity of ranches is having a significant impact on land
use, prices and local economies. For example, Montana, the state which inspired
early 20th-century cowboy poet D. J. O’Malley to write odes like After the
Roundup, is rapidly becoming reliant on gentlemen ranchers. The most desirable
ranchland in the state sells for around $1,000 an acre (less sought-after tracts
can be had for $200 an acre). Prime fishing areas like the Big Hole Valley,
south of Butte, are particularly coveted, as is the Madison River area, which
boasts several trout streams. “Everyone wants the same thing, property on a
river with lush meadows and backed up to a national forest,” Long explains.
“They are working cattle ranches, but not for profit. They’re buying lifestyle.”
These ranches have been appreciating at a rate of about 7.5 percent each year,
he adds.
Most of the ranches on the market have been passed down through
several generations, Oncken says. The families of old-time ranchers, cash poor
(the average income is only about $10,000 a year) but land rich, have become
eager to secure these windfalls, especially since they realize that their
children will eschew the 14-hour workdays and minimal wages. “They’re usually
sold because a rancher dies or the children moved away,” Oncken notes. The last
owner will make more money on the ranch than all the other generations combined,
he adds.
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