Montana Ranchers’ New Side Hustle: Giving Tourists the ‘Yellowstone’ Experience

livemint.com:

GALLATIN GATEWAY, Mont.—Fifth-generation rancher Bayard Black has a lot of city folks looking to pay top dollar to rent his spread in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park. He can thank John Dutton in part for that. The runaway popularity of the “Yellowstone" TV series, starring Kevin Costner as rancher patriarch Dutton, has helped spur interest among tourists to spend time on real ranches.

Black is charging visitors for everything from traipsing his property in search of elk antlers to bird watching and fishing. His motivation is the same as for many other ranchers: getting extra income to help offset rising costs, including a 61% jump in property taxes since 2021 spurred by the hot real-estate market in nearby Bozeman. “We’re just trying to figure out how to keep the ranch in the family," said Black.

Ranchers have for years occasionally allowed outsiders to hunt or fish for a fee, but they have begun adding more activities as the demand to spend time on their property has grown, which people in the industry attribute to “Yellowstone," as well as increased interest in the outdoors following the pandemic. A startup called LandTrust has increased its number of rental listings, most of which are ranches, from 140 covering 300,000 acres in 2020 to 427 on 1.2 million acres currently. Many are in Montana, where “Yellowstone" takes place.

Chief Executive Nic De Castro said his Bozeman, Mont., firm, which has raised $10 million of funding, has recently added offerings including overnight stays in RVs. In all, landowners have earned $1 million from LandTrust rentals, according to the company. Western ranchers have been caught in a squeeze that they say was brought on, in part, by the prolonged drought in the U.S.