BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com
Few ranches in the history of Montana have been at the center of more public access disputes than Blaine County’s Anchor Ranch, located about 70 miles southeast of Havre.
The 67,960–acre parcel, roughly 106 square miles, is north of the Missouri River Breaks. Bullwhacker Road, which passes through a portion of the property, dates back to the late 1800s. The route was pioneered by oxen–drawn carts hauling goods to mining towns that were carried upriver by steamboats.
Along this route, the Anchor Ranch was homesteaded in the 1920s. Here’s a timeline of disputes related to the ranch and its owners’ control of access to about 50,000 acres of public land.
Nearby public lands include the 1.1 million acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the 375,000-acre Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.
1995 – William and Olive Robinson purchase the Anchor Ranch.
2006 – The Public Land Access Association gathers historic documents to bolster its case that the Bullwhacker Road is a public route. The group argues the road was used by the public before the ranch land was patented in the 1920s, guaranteeing its public use.
2007 – The Blaine County attorney agrees with PLAA and declares a 3.8–mile section of the Bullwhacker Road is public where it crosses the Anchor Ranch.
2009 – The Robinson’s sue Blaine County to have the section of Bullwhacker Road through their property declared private.
2011 – The Robinson’s win their lawsuit, reversing the county attorney’s ruling. The owners negotiate a public access agreement with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks that requires people to sign in and closes the road when it is too muddy.
2012 – The ranch is sold to Dan and Farris Wilks, billionaire Texans who made their fortune in the oil fracking business. The acreage — 22,837 acres of deeded land with grazing leases on 4,880 acres of state land and 40,243 of BLM land — was listed for $15.5 million.
2014 – The Wilks brothers offer to trade the Anchor Ranch to the Bureau of Land Management in exchange for 27,000 acres in the Durfee Hills in Fergus County that is surrounded by their N Bar Ranch and 11 other landlocked BLM parcels. The proposal divides conservationists.
2016 – After back and forth negotiations, BLM officials decide not to pursue the exchange, citing the complexity of the deal and a lack of staffing to pursue the lengthy process.
2022 – The Wilks brothers offer the Anchor Ranch for sale with a listing price of $35.96 million, a 57% increase over their purchase price 10 years earlier.
2023 – Montana FWP negotiates a deal with the Square Butte Grazing Association to provide access to BLM and state trust land in the Bullwhacker Road area.
January 2024 – The Bureau of Land Management proposes to open a half–mile section of primitive road in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument to provide motorized access into the Bullwhacker area.
April 2024 – The BLM agrees to open its road section to provide legal public motorized access to the area.
2025 – American Prairie announces its purchase of the Anchor Ranch. The Bozeman–based nonprofit has purchased more than 603,000 acres in Eastern Montana through 48 purchases. The group, founded in 2001, made its first acquisition in 2004.
The group’s goal is to connect 3.2 million acres, 5,000 square miles, by connecting “existing swaths of public land that have already been set aside for conservation … enough to support a healthy prairie ecosystem” managed for “public and wildlife benefit.”
