Land for sale in Wyoming

Hello, everyone.  I've been lurking for several weeks and absolutely love this site.  Thank you Paul!

I have a 70 acre piece of undeveloped land for sale in Wyoming, north of Rock River (which is NW of Laramie).  It is actually two 35 acre parcels (now considered one property by Albany County), the long sides running east and west.

When I bought land in this area in 1999, I fully intended to build an earthship.  The land is mostly clay, with lots of rocks (making it difficult to dig with handtools).  This piece of land slopes somewhat to the south and more to the east (perfect for passive solar).  The eastern short end is bordered by a very large ranch, so will unlikely see any development in that direction.

There is a seasonal (very) pond usually present during a moist spring, and a seasonal stream.  While camping on this land, I have witnessed toads, prairie chickens (grouse), kestrel, bald eagles, lots of other birds, jackrabbits, coyotes, antelope, and deer, and I’ve seen tracks from elk.  Due to a recent tower near Rock River, I am even able to use my cell phone (Verizon) so there is also the potential for internet access (I use a Verizon  connection at home).

There are no trees, power lines, gas lines, massive towers yet (there is a possibility that power lines will run through the area in the near future), or (unfortunately) well maintained roads.  There is no well, and according to one well driller, good water is about 300’ below the surface.  This would be an ideal location for rain water catchment.

There are other people living in the area year round.  The nearest ‘neighbor’ at present is a couple of miles away.  There is also an apparently restored log cabin just a few parcels to the north.  The owner makes a bit more progress each year.

Due to all the clay in the soil, I am seriously considering revising my earthship plans (I do have another parcel in the same area) to include cob or earthbags.


The first picture  is a view of the seasonal pond (6-11-11) taken from the NW corner of the property facing due East.  The pond is located in the western 35 acres.


The second picture is a sample of springtime vegetation.  Notice the clay?


I haven't figured out how to post more than two pictures, but anyone truly interested in purchasing this property can contact me through this site.  I really hate to give up this property, but life throws us all curve balls on occasion.

MarlaKC, A few questions if you do not mind. How much are you asking? What is the subdivision called? How much time have you spent on the land? I have property West of you over by Rawlins.

Wyomiles, neighbor!, I'm asking $40,000 for this 70 acres.  It's in a subdivision called WY-TEX.  I've spent hours and hours walking around and over this property.  Prior to this one I owned a similar property 1/2 mile north, and spent many a weekends camping on that one.  Had no idea what permaculture was at that point, but had (and still have for my other property 1 mile west) dreams of turning this overgrazed clay into a home.

Thats a good deal ! I don't have the cash right now but I keep buying lotto tickets !

There is a good thread over at the City Data forums under Wyoming and Wytex ranch that I have been reading for a while. Sounds like a great bunch of neighbors you have out there.
I mentioned permiculture to one of the folks there.
I read in the paper last week that Colorado and Wyoming forest service has decided to start burning the harvested beetle killed pines cuz there is no market to sell them ! I can't believe they are doing that. You might be able to get a bunch of trees cheap if you give them a call.

I will consider owner financing, but haven't done any of the research on costs, etc.  Will check that out this week.

Wyomiles, thanks for the mention of City Data!  I just spent a couple of hours checking it out, and even recognize some of the people who I've only talked to very briefly.  I'll sign up and introduce myself as soon as I find more than "Hi, I wanna be your neighbor" to say.

Too bad you didn't get any response on the permaculture.  Guess I'll be the first out there to give it a whirl.  I'm thinking of taking a bunch of the chicken litter I've got here in town out to the other property to set up some kind of planting bed.  (Still new to permaculture.  Can't even find any books on the subject in the Albany County Library.  Just ordered Gaia's Garden, but that blows my book budget for a couple of months now.) 

On the beetle kill pines, do you know if the beetles would cause problems in a hugelkulture bed?  I've been using free beetle kill wood in my woodstove in town (no pine trees within 200 feet of the stacked logs).  I'll contact the forest service.  If they're giving it away, maybe they would allow longer than 8' logs.  I'm picturing (ah, can't find the words) roof supports on a cob or tire building.  Probably have to be sealed really good.  I wonder if just laying the logs out in a line north to south might catch more blowing snow and hold it a little longer.  Ah, so many ideas.

The beatles kill the trees and then move on so you do not have to worry about using the logs for gardens or building. Look around the forum here and you will find discussions on all sorts of housing options including using logs for underground housing. There really is some great information at Permies ! When I talked to the forest service people in Saratoga they said all I needed was a permit to cut my own trees, I think it was like 20 bucks. I asked them about lenth and they said I could cut longer logs to haul to my property. I am planning on building a hogan someday. I have taken 22 ft lodgepoles from the forest for my lodge (tipi). So at the end of the day you can take many different sizes of logs out of the forest and in some places, like around campgrounds and along the roads, they have already cut the logs for us and piled them up.
Yep any kind of a log windbreak would help hold moisture. There is a sawmill in Encampment and one in Laramie. I know that the one in Encampment sells what they call slab wood for about 20 bucks a pickup load. This makes great fencing, windbreaks, and even siding. I will be buying a bunch of this wood also.

Once you get your place started your neighbors will be able to see the value of permaculture and maybe we will get some more responses !

wish i had 40 grand, just drove tthrough there this weekend when we went up to wheatland res #3...
decent deal for the size, thats less than a thousand an acre
another thing i noticed while up there, you have HORNED LIZARDS up near there!
i havent seen any HL since3 i lived in southern UT, so i was positively THRILLED when i found a couple to catch lol

i hadn't thought about beetle kill for cheap construction resource... ill have to look into that for sure

EDIT: you mentioned an earthship, is that on the property included... more importantly, are there building codes out there/enforced codes anyway?

any possibilities of selling it piece by piece for poor peoples like me?

Hey Marla, did you ever sell the land ?

No, Miles, I didn't.  Had to drop internet for a few years and lost track of this post.

But I do need to get it going again.  Like maybe today?  Thanks for reminding me!

How is your land sale going?

I placed mine with a realtor for a few years and only got lookers and dreamers and people offering half (or less) than I was asking.  Very discouraging.

Was just up there yesterday, but too late in the day for pictures.  Will get up again next weekend.  Hope to get a GIS picture posted too.

Sincerely, thanks Miles!

Most of the folks who have contacted me want owner financing. I really didn't want to do that. So I will be lowering the price a bit more to see if anyone can come up with some cash.
I was actually going to take a couple of days to head up to Saratoga next weekend and thought I might drive over to Wytex for a day and see if I can get lost. If you see a white 4 door dodge truck with colorado plates driving around come over and say hello.
My lot is on the south end on man-O-war Dr.

  My other lot (the one I hope to retire to) is on Man'O'war!!!  Just north of greasewood!  We're neighbors!

I'm in a red Dodge Nitro, temp plates.  My green F150 died just last Thursday.

Oh Cool, Just north of the creek? Are you an the hillside that faces south as you drop down into the creek gulley?  If so are you out of the wind a little bit there? How much water do you get draining over the lot?
I have a small drainage on the south boundery but have not been there during a rain or in the spring, to see how much water runs across the land.

As you top the hill north of the Gulley, there is a t-post to the right.  Very soon is a road off to the right that cuts the 'top 35' roughly in half.  I also have the 35 acres just south.  i marked the southern most t-post with pink paint  . just yesterday.  And then I have the 35 acres just west of that 'lower south 35'.  Yeah, the wind is lower down off the ridge, but still need a bunch of trees.  I'm collecting pallets for wind protection and going to ordEr some caragana from the extension office this fall.

I've also been throwing woody debris into the gulleys up near the road.  It's encouraging to see silt pile up.  We get LOTS of water running through in the spring.  Going to start some swales and small (less than 1 acre ft) ponds soon -all with a shovel   .  I also dumped two truck loads of wood into the ditch under the culvert coming across from the east a couple of years ago.  The water was starting to undercut the road!  Two years ago, I could use that ditch for a private latrine (only in dry weather).  I could stand straight and see through the culvert.  Now, the top of the culvert is at about chest height.  I walked on it yesterday.  It is solid! Gotta slow down more water!

Now, as for the property for sale:

This is two connected 35 acre lots to the east of Pegasus Road.  As you will see from the maps I'll post later today, it gets LOTS as in REALLY LOTS of water across it each spring.  Wyoming allows up to 1 acre ft ponds without permits.  Unlimited number of ponds.  Wyoming also allows you to collect and store any water that drops onto or crosses this property.  Not sure in other parts of the state.  

The land slopes to the east-south-east and has some impressive gulleys.  And a seasonal pond near the top.  Some earth works would do wonders for this land!

I need to sell at least one of these lots for cash.  Then, the other could be owner financed.

I hope you have decent luck selling the place, im still unable to purchase but will gladly bump the thread and hopefully someone sees it that has some money:)

Thank you, Devon.I'm not sure of your financial situation of course, but feel free to PM me with any specific questions.  Or an offer?

I have not figured out how to get a copy of the county's map out here, but can direct people to the site.  Http://www.co.albany.wy.us/gis.aspx  Go to Offices and Departments, GIS, and Online maps.  Search for the Geo Pin of 24762842202200.  The county's property lines (in yellow) don't quite match where the survey markers are. Imagine that line moved almost to the road on the west and moved slightly north.  The topo map doesnt do justice to all the gulleys.  I'll get more pictures up soon.

Oops, gotta get to work.  More later.

Thanks to Miles, I now have some GIS photos for you to look at.

Hmm, it's hard to see where I put the blue pink lines indicating where water is coming from, but if you look close you might see them.  The longer view also shows more of the development.

Ah ha!  That's better.