- A Montana ranch featured in the Brad Pitt film “A River Runs Through It” is set to sell to an unknown buyer for around $136 million.
- If it closes, it would be one of the most expensive ranches ever sold in the US.
- It’s being sold by the Anderson family, descendants of the founder of the Bank of California.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
As Mansion Global first reported, the ranch, known as the Climbing Arrow Ranch, went into contract for close to its $136.25 million asking price less than a week after it hit the market.
A spokesperson for Swan Land Company declined to comment on the identity of the buyer except to disclose that the buyer is an American citizen.
The deal is expected to close sometime in the summer, the spokesperson told Insider.
If the deal closes, Climbing Arrow would be the most expensive ranch ever sold in Montana and one of the priciest sold in the US, the ranch brokerage spokesperson said.
The current record in Montana is held by the $132.5 million Broken O Ranch, which billionaire Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought in 2012 in a deal also handled by Mike Swan.
Kroenke was also the buyer of what is believed to be the most expensive ranch ever sold in the US in 2012: a 520,000-acre Texas ranch that was listed for $725 million. The final purchase price, however, was never disclosed.
Most ranch deals, however, are nowhere near that price range. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, one of the richest men in the US, spent a comparably paltry $45 million on a 4,600-acre Colorado ranch with a golf course and a helipad last May.
A Texas ranch that belonged to late oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens hit the market for $250 million in 2017, but it’s still on the market four years later — even with a $30 million price cut.
Climbing Arrow spans nearly 80,000 acres across four Montana counties: Gallatin, Meagher, Madison, and Broadwater.
It’s within 30 miles from Bozeman, one of the fastest-growing cities in the US.
One portion of the ranch borders a ranch owned by Ted Turner, the CNN founder who’s also one of the country’s biggest landowners.
A trestle bridge that leads into a tunnel on the property was featured as a filming location in the 1992 Robert Redford-directed film “A River Runs Through It.”
Source: Swan Land Company
Climbing Arrow is being sold by the Anderson family, who are descended from the founder of the Bank of California.
Buck Anderson, the grandson of Bank of California founder Frank B. Anderson, bought the ranch with his wife, Marcia, in 1959, according to Swan Land Company. Their children are now selling the ranch following the deaths of Buck in 2012 and Marcia 2020.
“Our family has had the great privilege of being the stewards of this beautiful ranch for over 60 years,” the Anderson children said in a statement obtained by Insider. “… While we feel both pride and tribulation in this change, it is time to pass the reins to a new owner who will love and enjoy the ranch as much as we have.”
Climbing Arrow features several modest employee residences, guest homes, and an owner’s home, according to the listing.
There are also multiple barns, corrals, mechanic shops, sheds, and calving facilities on the ranch.
The ranch is set up with a 2,000-head commercial Black Angus cattle operation.
Source: Swan Land Company
The property is also a prime spot for fishing, with 17 miles of the trout-filled Sixteenmile Creek passing through the property as well as five miles of Madison River frontage. Other fishing rivers are a short drive away.
Source: Swan Land Company
Ranches have become a hot commodity during the pandemic, brokers say.
“Land as an investment-grade asset has enjoyed a banner 2020,” Eric O’Keefe of the Land Report told Forbes in September 2020. “… Clearly, the value of a remote or a removed getaway has become a much-coveted quality.”
Bill McDavid of ranch brokerage Hall & Hall told Insider last May that he’d already seen a spike in interest in ranch properties in places like Montana and Wyoming a couple of months into the pandemic. Most of the wealthiest buyers come from California, Texas, and New York, he said.
“You get up to that echelon of wealth and the same people who own a penthouse in New York are the same people that own a ranch in Montana and they’re the same people who own an estancia in Argentina,” McDavid said.
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