For decades, the biggest event in the sleepy village of Bondurant, Wyoming, was the annual barbecue held every June at the local church.
So the rural community of just 156 residents was understandably perplexed when the billionaire owner of the Chicago Cubs announced plans to plant a swanky new 230,000-square-foot luxury resort in their backyards.
Wall Street trader Joe Ricketts claimed his $50million project would be a boon to the area, drawing in fistfuls of tourism dollars while strengthening conservation efforts in the Mountain West.
The 82-year-old steeped his pitch in history and culture, playing up his longtime residency at a local ranch.
But in a plotline straight out Kevin Costner hit Yellowstone, he has merely managed to rile up just about every single one of his neighbors, turning a once mild-mannered group of country ranchers into an angry mob.
Billionaire Joe Ricketts has sparked fury among locals in a Wyoming town who say he is trying to change its name to be more ‘marketable’ to wealthy city elites
A lodge on the 1,300-acre Jackson Fork Ranch, owned by Ricketts since the 1990s
Ricketts wants to build a 56-acre luxury resort, known as Homestead, on Jackson Fork. The 20-unit complex includes plans for an underground day spa, 90-seat fine dining restaurant, beauty shop, and horse operation
All kinds of insults have been hurled in his direction. Residents say his ‘tone deaf’ plans will ‘erode’ their culture, destroy wildlife and drive up the cost of living.
He has been accused of behaving ‘like a little boy who wants all his toys’.
For a time, the man who told his neighbors he was ‘proud to be a billionaire’ did have it all his own way.
His plans for his new resort were approved and he even scooped up two other luxury properties for his Wyoming empire: a 363-acre ski resort and a 100-room hotel.
But now the tide appears to be turning against the TD Ameritrade founder.
Last month, officials restricted work on his new resort, doubling its expected construction time.
The setback came hot on the heels of a failed bid to roll out a second luxury resort on another of his Wyoming ranches.
Ricketts, whose net worth is estimated at $3.4billion, is now faced with increasingly determined opposition, who have come to view the matter as an existential threat to their very being.
County commissioner Doug Vickrey told a public meeting last year: ‘I would like Mr. Ricketts to know that with all his wealth there are some things in this world money cannot buy, and by God I’m one of them.’
So has the Major League Baseball owner finally struck out over his dreams for a slice of heaven?
The pitch
It is a battle being played out across the Mountain West.
Teton County, home to upscale Jackson Hole, in particular has become an outdoor playground for America’s elite in the wake of the pandemic.
But Bondurant, in adjacent Sublette County, has for years deliberately shunned the glitz and the glamor that has seen its better known neighbor become a tourist trap.
The village is ‘God’s country’ – as locals put it – and not for sale.
In hindsight, then, it was perhaps a mistake for Ricketts to propose changing Bondurant’s name to ‘Little Jackson Hole’ to promote his new resort.
The 20-unit complex, called Homestead, includes plans for an underground day spa, 90-seat fine dining restaurant, beauty shop, and horse operation.
Neighboring lodgings are expected to accommodate the resort’s 134 future employees.
It will cover 56 acres of his 1,300-acre Jackson Fork Ranch, which spans the first 9 miles of the Upper Hoback 23-174, a contiguous swathe of ranchland punctuated by the odd private residence.
Ricketts’ staff have likened his vision to the Brush Creek Ranch, a Saratoga resort that describes itself with terms like ‘unbridled luxury’, WyoFile reported.
Ricketts has amassed a property empire in Sublette County, Wyoming, having also acquired a luxury ski resort and hotel in the area just south of tourist hotspots in Teton County
Ricketts and his wife Marlene pictured on Jackson Fork. Ricketts is now trying to cash in on his real estate holdings in America’s least populated state by building a ritzy ski resort on his land
Part of the pushback against his plans stems from the fact that locals argue construction would interfere with the migratory routes of local wildlife
Jackson Fork spans the first 9 miles of the Upper Hoback 23-174, a contiguous swathe of ranchland punctuated by the odd private residence
Unsurprisingly, that has not gone down well in Bondurant.
‘I’m going to be sick, sick, sick if Bondurant is sacrificed as a stepping stone to Jackson,’ said Sublette Examiner reporter Joy Ufford.
Ricketts has tried to reason with them. He has claimed that calling his property ‘Little Jackson Hole’ is a more ‘charming’ way to market his resort.
‘If I was going to advertise “Bondurant” to people from Los Angeles or New York, no one would know where it is,’ he told a public hearing in nearby Pinedale in May last year.
‘But if I advertise “Little Jackson Hole”, everyone knows where it is.’
Despite Homestead’s footprint intersecting with crucial migration paths of mule deer, pronghorn and elk, he has also wrapped in conservation as part of his pitch.
Rather than disturb vital habitats, the resort could educate tourists about the local wildlife and attract ecotourists to invest in conservation, Ricketts claimed.
He was so keen on the idea that he invited Bondurant residents in March to a seven course meal with goodie bags for everyone to convince them.
At first mention of the renaming though, most locals got up and left in protest.
‘About 75% of the people all got up and left the dinner right then,’ longtime resident Pat Burroughs said. ‘They left the gift bags on the table and just walked out.’
The backlash
The two sides have been butting heads for four years now.
In July 2020, longtime Bondurant resident Melissa Harrison, a Jackson Hole realtor, was the first to voice her concerns over the resort to the Sublette County commission.
‘It will erode our local culture, it will harm our natural resources and wildlife, it will drive up the cost of living and it will set a devastating precedent for the allowance of spot zoning in our county,’ Harrison said.
At the time, her argument seemed to have won the day.
The commission voted 4-to-1 to deny the application.
Ricketts has already snapped up more than 1,800 acres of land in the area including the White Pine Ski Resort (pictured)
He also bought High Country Suites (above) a month after his purchase of the ski resort. The timing suggests they all form part of bigger plans to build a tourism empire in the region
But Ricketts’ team came back with an altered plan 18 months later, trimming the size of Homestead from 64 to 56 acres.
It did the trick. The commission voted 3-to-2 in favor.
Residents sued, but lost.
Then, for a while, it looked like Sublette County really was for sale.
In April this year, Ricketts’ bought the White Pine Ski & Summer resort, one of Wyoming’s oldest ski areas that boasts nearly 30 runs, rustic accommodations and miles of Nordic trails.
He followed that up with the purchase of High Country Suites, also in Pinedale, in May.
Timing of the sale suggests the hotel, known to locals as the Haliburton, could eventually be linked with Ricketts’ plans for the White Pine ski resort.
Locals have also speculated that it is all meant to dovetail with his plans for ‘Little Jackson Hole’.
A futile fight back?
But it turns out Ricketts’ billions will only go so far.
In March 2023, commissioners rebuffed his request to fold another of his holdings – the 159-acre Dead Shot guest ranch – into Jackson Fork and build an 8,000-square-foot restaurant, bunkhouse, gymnasium, staff quarters and 10 guest cabins.
It marked a significant change in dynamics on the board, with commissioner Sam White retracting his previous support for Ricketts.
Then, last month, the ‘Little Jackson Hole’ dream suffered a blow, as the commission voted by the same 3-to-2 margin to reject the billionaire’s request to set aside seasonal construction restrictions intended to protect the 150-mile-long Sublette Mule Deer Migration Corridor.
Steve Christensen, who was representing Ricketts at the Sublette County meeting last week, proposed eliminating the seasonal restrictions with some concessions on his part.
These included limiting construction to daylight hours, enforcing a 25 mile per hour speed limit on Upper Hoback Road and instituting a ‘wildlife friendly migration corridor’ across the ranch where construction would be getting done.
Christensen told county commissioners that without the Game and Fish Department’s restrictions, construction could get done in three years instead of six.
The argument resonated with Brandon Scurlock, the Pinedale regional wildlife coordinator for the Game and Fish Department, who said the ‘overall net impact to wildlife would be reduced by the shorter duration’.
Ricketts slammed a recent decision by Sublette County to enforce seasonal building restrictions to protect local wildlife, arguing it would double construction time
A state conservation agency requested restrictions to protect the moose and elk populations. Steve Christensen, who was representing Ricketts, tried to offer concessions at a town meeting last week
But Bondurant and Pinedale residents were infuriated by Christensen’s plot, with Dan Bailey calling it a ‘used car salesman approach.’
‘Does anybody in this room actually believe that after three years the construction is going to stop?’ he said.
The commission’s decision to uphold restrictions means work cannot be carried out on the resort between November 15 and April 30.
The Chicago Cubs owner slammed the decision, with a spokesman for Jackson Fork telling DailyMail.com that it would be detrimental to local wildlife.
‘The contention that indoor construction would not have a negative impact on migratory patterns of the region’s big game was in total alignment with the Wyoming Game and Fish representative at the Board meeting,’ the spokesman said.
‘The Wyoming Game and Fish, in fact, recommended that a reduction in total construction time would be most beneficial to big game, which proved to be in contrast to the Board of Commissioner’s decision to limit all construction to a total of only seven months a year.
‘As a result of that decision, the proposed timeline of the project has been doubled.’
Bondurant residents were invited by Ricketts to a seven course meal in March with goodie bags for everyone. But when Ricketts mentioned changing the name of their town to Little Jackson Hole, most people got up and left in protest
Ultimately, however, Ricketts is still getting what he wants, just not when he wants it.
And there is a growing feeling that local resistance to luxury development is futile.
In the north of the county, ranchers are already being replaced by realtors and tech investors.
Jake Nichols, of Cowboy State Daily, mused on the consequences of the commission vote in March last year.
The conclusion was that, although a minor bump in the road for Ricketts, Bondurant may not be God’s country for much longer.
‘The community is too charming, too unspoiled and, most importantly, too close to Jackson Hole to remain that way,’ he wrote.
