Ranch in Colorado linked to Walmart family demands $48.5 million

A sprawling Colorado ranch owned by the Walton family has just hit the market. Nestled in a scenic alpine valley between the peaks of the Front Range, about 30 minutes from Boulder and just outside the historic town of Nederland, the entire property is asking a whopping $48.5 million. It includes several buildings and a wealth of recreational activities, and the ranch is known for having served as a mining base camp in the 1880s, a breeding operation for Arabian horses, and a recording location for legendary musicians from Michael Jackson to Stevie Nicks.

“Officially back on the market, Caribou Ranch is just that: an incredibly rare opportunity,” says realtor Jeff Buerger of Hall and Hall. “The true rarity of this property includes its location, accessibility, privacy, landscape, views, infrastructure, varied topography, abundant surface water, unique history and overall physical features.”

As first reported by The Wall Street JournalThe owner of the 1,700-acre property is a Colorado-based LLC that can easily be linked to Walton Enterprises, a family office of the Walton family. The Waltons are widely known as owners of the Walmart retail empire, which the late Sam Walton founded in the early 1960s. The Waltons’ total estimated wealth is around $267 billion per Forbesmaking them one of the richest families in the world.

According to records, Indian Peaks Holdings purchased the ranch in the spring of 2014 in two separate transactions totaling $32.5 million from music producer Jim Guercio, who originally purchased more than 4,000 acres in the area in 1971. During its 40-year operation, the ranch served as a recording studio that hosted more than 150 artists; Elton John and John Lennon recorded “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” there in the summer of 1974, for example. Operations ended after a fire damaged the premises in the mid-1980s. The studio has since been renovated and was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2017.

The massive ranch consists of several parcels and features a two-story, 9,000-square-foot main house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, stone fireplaces, a porch and a basement. There are also five guest cabins ranging in size from 550 to 3,000 square feet, a six-bedroom house with a gathering room, two horse stables and a couple of tool sheds.

The property also boasts a variety of wildlife, including elk, deer, turkey, mountain lion, black bear and elk. Outdoor hiking, horseback riding and fly fishing are also available on numerous streams and ponds. The ranch’s appeal is further enhanced, according to the RFP, by the possibility of building on 10 acres of the ranch’s mostly conservation land with Boulder County approval.

Although Buerger declined to disclose the identity of the owner in a DenverPost In his article, he said his client bought the land for his family and now that his children are grown, it’s time to sell. “For my client, family comes first,” he said. “They’ve enjoyed it, but this phase of their life moves on and so does they.”

Click here to see more photos of Caribou Ranch.