A historic land purchase Wyoming’s top officials are interested in pursuing could involve nearly 1,000 square miles of surface land in Sweetwater County.
Last week, Gov. Mark Gordon announced the state was interested in buying land and mineral rights throughout southern Wyoming from Occidental Petroleum, which had acquired the land through its 2019 purchase of Anadarko Petroleum.
The land was originally granted to the Union Pacific Railroad during construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, creating a checkerboard of land sections and giving UP odd sections of land 20 miles on each side of the railroad. This land consists of 983 square miles, totaling 9 percent of the total land within the county.
According to reports from Wyofile.com, this purchase could cost the state between $500 million and $700 million and would be the largest governmental land transaction to occur since the United States purchased Alaska.
Wyofile.com notes the surface ownership is concentrated in Sweetwater County, “with other aggregations in Lincoln, Uinta and Carbon counties and a smaller cluster in Albany County.”
All in all, the purchase would involve 1 million acres of surface land and 4 million acres of mineral estate.
In Sweetwater County, a number of questions are being asked as to what the purchase would mean locally. Some of those concerns involve if the state would intend preserving a multiple use philosophy on those lands.
“The stability of checkerboard ownership is vital to many resource concerns,” an email to Sen. Liisa Anselmi-Dalton (D-Rock Springs) from Mark Kot, the county’s public lands planner, reads. “In the past, (previous land owners) all have been good partners in preserving multiple use and open space.”
Kot states an owner without those same values could create a “fragmented and useless ... ownership pattern on a disastrous scale.”
Kot asks which Sweetwater County sections are involved in the sale and what impacts the sale would have to the county’s tax revenue and income.
He also asks Anselmi-Dalton when and through whom the state became aware of Occidental’s interest in a land sale, as well as what her thoughts are on the issue.
While there is some concern about the future of access if the state takes ownership of the land, others welcome is as a means of expanding public uses.
“In regards to the land purchase, certainly this could be advantageous for sportsmen and sportswomen as the access to this amount of land goes without saying,” Josh Coursey, CEO of the Muley Fanataic Foundation, said. “Knowing Governor Gordon and his background in finances, I am confident that whatever the outcome reveals, we have the right leader at the right time to weigh the benefits of this enormous offering.”
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