Buying back the mountain

Kanye West’s Bighorn Mountain Ranch comes home to Flitners

After six years, another branch of the Flitner family has repurchased land previously sold to celebrity rapper and producer Kanye West. A new generation of the local ranching clan will now take ownership of Bighorn Mountain Ranch, with plans to bring back production agriculture to the mountain land and sell off two of its iconic structures. 

In 2019, West purchased 6,713 acres of Bighorn Mountain Ranch land off Forest Service Road 17 from David and Paula Flitner. As part of the Bighorn Mountain Ranch sale, West obtained the Upper Hideout and Snowshoe Lodge. This came as part of West’s efforts to make Wyoming his home, intending to bring in the Yeezy sneaker headquarters. West also separately purchased the 4,520-acre Monster Lake Ranch near Cody around this time. 

Since 1906, Flitners have been ranching in the Bighorn Mountains. Bald Ridge Cabin, part of the sale, was their historic cow camp. Greg and Pam Flitner, David’s son and daughter-in-law, operate under the Flitner Ranch brand, and in 2019, did not own enough shares to stop the sale. The sell-off meant losing a big chunk of Flitner Ranch’s operation.

“No harm or foul to [West] or anything like that, but for the first time in 114 years, our cows aren’t taking the trail to our family cabin,” said Morgan Flitner, a fifth-generation rancher and Greg and Pam’s daughter, in an interview for Ultimate Cowboy Showdown in 2021. 

Pam noted that over the years, they worked with one of West’s managers to try and lease back the land David and Paula sold but never came to an agreement. Big Horn County records show a warranty deed between Greg and Pam Flitner and Psalm Bighorn Ranch, West’s LLC, dated Sept. 22 for the entirety of the Bighorn Mountain Ranch land. 

“I honestly cannot say how blessed we feel to have had this happen,” Pam said in a prepared statement. 

Greg noted that extremely high land costs mean that some years when cattle do not generate as much return, livestock will not significantly benefit real estate purchases. As a result, “something had to give.”

“We feel a huge responsibility to get as much of [the land] back to the ranch as possible but know this is the kind of deal that could tip over a little outfit like ours. As a family, we are all in!” Greg said. 

Of the near 7,000 acres, Flitners will resell 645 acres attached to the Upper Hideout and 500 acres attached to Snowshoe, listed at $5.75 million and $5.9 million, respectively. The Upper Hideout’s main lodge was hand-built; a helicopter pad, small runway and stock pond have been added over the years. Snowshoe previously housed an outfitting and snowmobile operation and was equipped for year-round access.  

West also put his Monster Lake Ranch up for sale in 2021, with reports that the property has gone to waste. The Upper Hideout, Snowshoe and Monster Lake are all listed with Hayden Outdoors Real Estate. 

“I honestly don’t think that Kanye knew what he had,” Greg said in a statement.