A Colorado Ranch Tied to Walmart’s Founding Family Seeks $48.5 Million

A sprawling Colorado ranch owned by the Walton family just hit the market. Nestled amid a scenic alpine valley tucked into the peaks of the Front Range, about 30 minutes from Boulder and just outside the historic town of Nederland, the entire spread is asking a substantial $48.5 million. That includes several structures paired with a wealth of recreational pursuits, plus the notoriety of having once served as an 1880s mining base camp, an Arabian horse-breeding operation, and a recording site for legendary musicians ranging from Michael Jackson to Stevie Nicks.

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“The rarity of the Caribou Ranch officially presented back to the market is just that: an incredibly rare opportunity,” says listing agent Jeff Buerger of Hall and Hall. “The true rareness of this property includes its location, accessibility, privacy, landscape, views, infrastructure, diverse topography, abundance of surface water, unique history, and overall physical features.”

As first reported by The Wall Street Journal , the owner of the 1,700-acre spread is a Colorado-based LLC easily linked to Walton Enterprises, a family office of the Walton family. Widely known for their ownership of the Walmart retail empire founded by the late Sam Walton in the early 1960s, the Waltons have an estimated combined net worth of around $267 billion, per Forbes , which makes them one of the world’s richest families.

Per records, Indian Peaks Holdings purchased the ranch in spring 2014 in two separate deals totaling $32.5 million from music producer Jim Guercio, who originally bought more than 4,000 acres in the area in 1971. During his 40-year tenure, the ranch served as a destination recording studio that hosted more than 150 artists, with Elton John and John Lennon notably recording “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” there in the summer of ’74. Ending its run after a fire damaged the premises in the mid-’80s and since refurbished, the studio was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2017.

Encompassing multiple parcels, the vast ranch has a dated two-story main home of 9,133 square feet with three bedrooms, two baths, stone fireplaces, a front porch, and a walk-out basement. There also are five guest cabins measuring in size from 554 square feet to 3,126 square feet, as well as a six-bedroom lodge with a gathering space, two horse barns, and a couple of equipment buildings.

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Also on the grounds is an abundance of wildlife, including moose, deer, turkeys, mountain lions, black bears, and elk, along with access to outdoor activities like hiking, horseback riding, and fly fishing in numerous streams and ponds. Upping the appeal, per the listing, is the opportunity to build on 10 acres of the ranch’s mostly conservation easement-protected land with approval from Boulder County.

Though Buerger declined to confirm the owner’s identity in an article by The Denver Post , he did say his client purchased the land for his family’s use, and now that his children are grown, it’s time to sell. “For my client, it’s family first,” he said. “They’ve enjoyed it, but that phase of their life is moving on, and so are they.”

Click here for more photos of Caribou Ranch.

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