CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The University of Wyoming Foundation and Colorado State University Research Foundation on Monday declined to reveal the sale price and buyer of a Wyoming ranch they jointly owned, saying they’re keeping the information confidential at the buyer’s request. UW officials said in a news release that the proceeds would enable a new endowment for agriculture education in excess of $10 million.
The foundations closed on the sale of the Y Cross Ranch on Wednesday. The ranch, encompassing some 80 square miles between Cheyenne and Laramie, had gone on the market in June with an asking price of $25 million.
The foundations suspended plans for a sealed-bid auction in 2012 after the woman who donated the property to them in 1997 sued.
Denver philanthropist Amy Davis said the universities over the years had neglected to use the ranch as a field classroom. Davis tried to get the courts to rescind the gift agreement and establish a trust to ensure that the ranch was used for agriculture education as originally intended. University officials countered that the Y Cross wasn’t a good teaching site and that selling the ranch could honor the intent of her gift by funding scholarships for agriculture students.
Davis, 86, died less than two months after losing before the Wyoming Supreme Court in 2014.
Her will carried an undisclosed, large financial incentive for the universities to continue using the ranch as a location to teach agriculture students. Negotiations between attorneys for her estate and the foundations over the next year failed to produce an agreement, however.
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Additional Information on this story:
Wyoming Supreme Court to Decide on Sale of Y Cross Ranch
UW’s Y Cross Ranch Sale Delayed After Lawsuit
CSU, UW Foundations Plan To Put Ranch Back On Market
Source: Coloradoan