From mob bosses to movie stars to western shootouts, these are a look at some of the most historic and expensive ranches for sale across the country.
Brewster Ranches: $320 million
Brewster Ranches is one of the largest ranches in the United States, more than twice the size of New York City, and is currently on the market for the whopping price of $320,000,000.
Located north of Big Bend National Park, the ranch sprawls across 420,000 acres of mountains, springs, creeks, and desert. It has access to the Rio Grande and is filled with wildlife, including the protected bighorn sheep. The ranch spans 57 miles east to west.
So, how did a ranch of this size come to be?
Kentucky billionaire, Brad Kelly put the ranch together from 22 separate properties. Kelly is the seventh-largest landowner in the U.S. with 1.15 million acres to his name.
He is a farmer’s son who built his fortune as the founder of Commonwealth Brands, which he sold in 2001 for $1 billion.
Don’t worry, if you can’t imagine owning the whole ranch, it can also be sold in five separate ranches as well. The ranch includes multiple buildings and houses including a five-bedroom, four-bath Spanish Hacienda built around a central courtyard.
25 Ranch: $36,525,000
The 25 ranch is a historic ranch sitting in northern Nevada that claims over 126,000 deeded acres and spans across four counties. It is one of the largest and oldest ranches in the state and holds several vested and decreed water rights dating back to the 1870s.
It was listed for sale for a staggering $36,525,000.
Throughout the years the ranch has been maintained and improved with a main residence, barns, shops, and support buildings. The ranch has a carrying capacity of around 6,500 cows on a year-round basis.
The ranching properties that now comprise the 25 ranch were established and settled in the 1870s. Originally the lands were separately owned and operated by Russell Land and Cattle Co. and W.T. Jenkins Co.
W.T. Jenkins migrated to Nevada from Wales in the 1870s looking to strike it big mining for gold and silver. When that didn’t work out he began operating a sheep business.
A cattleman named Joe Dean attempted to run W.T. out of town but was unsuccessful when W.T. struck him down in a gunfight in the mountains of Nevada. Following the showdown, W.T. began raising both sheep and cattle.
W.T.'s daughter, Louise Marvel, took over the ranch operations at 18 and began creating one of the largest ranching operations in the state of Nevada. The 25 ranch would be sold in 1964 and then sold again to the current owner in 1989.
Beartooth Ranch: $29.8 million
The Beartooth ranch features over 12,000 acres of deeded property and is a 1,000 animal unit operating ranch.
The Montana ranch’s biggest claim to fame is that it was previously owned by actor Mel Gibson.
The ranch features two “comfortable homes,” extensive shops, barns, and a small indoor arena originally set up for a purebred operation.
Because of its lower elevation, the ranch features a diverse selection of wildlife from huntable populations of elk, deer, and waterfowl to smaller mammals, raptors, and extensive birdlife.
Fincastle Ranch: $11.95 million
The Fincastle Ranch’s history is as rich as any as it is tied to some of Texas’ most notorious gangsters.
Fincastle is about a 90-minute drive from Dallas and features three spring-fed lakes, hilly forests, and over 1,369 total acres.
In the 1950s Texas mobster Ivy Miller built the main house. Miller was a close associate of Las Vegas gambling icon and convicted murder Benny Binion.
“Ivy built the big house as a place for gambling,” according to property broker Icon Global. “The present owners have concentrated on creating a private retreat and wildlife sanctuary.”
The most widely reported tale about Miller is that he allegedly killed a rival encroaching on Binion’s Dallas territory in 1940, which set off a 20-year turf war that resulted in several murders.
Binion would go on to open the Horseshoe casino in 1951 and founded the World Series of Poker.
The estate’s name dates to a time before gangsters. In the 1850s the area’s first settlers arrived from the East Coast and established a community on the property that they named after a British governor of Virginia, Lord Fincastle.