Featured in Wall Street Journal: Montana Ranchers’ New Side Hustle: Giving Tourists the ‘Yellowstone’ Experience
Drought and property taxes are making ranch life tougher, but visitors will pay to live a few days like John Dutton
For nature lovers, outdoor enthusiasts or even fans of the hit television show "Yellowstone," Montana ranchers are giving visitors a chance to rent access to land in Big Sky country.
LandTrust founder Nic de Castro described his land-sharing platform which gives travelers the option to rent access to land for outdoor recreation.
"A lot of viewers are probably familiar with Airbnb, which is a home sharing website, maybe Turo car sharing. With us, instead of renting somebody's house or car, you're renting access to somebody's land for outdoor rec. So hunting, fishing, RV camping, and then some other cool farm and ranch experiences," he said on "Fox & Friends" Friday.
The platform connects travelers with land-owners across the U.S., allowing them to book outdoor experiences by activity, location and even hunting species. With roughly a million and a quarter acres across 40 states, de Castro said LandTrust is growing "fast."
One Montana rancher hosts his land on the platform and shared how the opportunity through LandTrust has helped his family during a period of high inflation.
"Nick came along and gave me an opportunity to help pay for the property taxes and the inflation tax. So it was just an incredible opportunity for me and I'm taking it," rancher Bayard Black said.
Black owns land in the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon in Montana, and his acreage has been in his family for roughly 152 years. The rancher said LandTrust is "just another big opportunity" that's helped him adapt to new challenges.
Land-sharing platform LandTrust gives outdoor enthusiasts a chance to experience life like in the hit show Yellowstone.
It's something where we see the challenges and we adapt, and that's what ranchers have always done. My grandpa did two things, then my dad did three, and now I'm juggling about six things," Black said. "You're always in recession. You're always breaking even. But it's a lifestyle"
Black said in his experience, LandTrust has attracted mostly outdoor enthusiasts who are able to explore and utilize the land to hunt, fish or even go bird watching without interrupting his daily routine.
"Land trust then brings in people that I found are mostly outdoor enthusiasts. Pretty skilled people can do stuff on their own, don't need to be babysat. And a lot of times I'll just tell them where to go and they go do their thing and I can go work all day, get my work done."
Prices for the LandTrust experiences and renting land range depending on the season, the property and the specific activity.
"Hunting is kind of where we started the company. Bayard was telling me this morning he's got a big herd of elk in his property. Elk hunting in Montana can be a fairly expensive, multi-thousand dollar to higher. But a day of fishing at someone like Bayard's place is $100 a day, $200 a day, and you have the whole place to yourself. So it's all about exclusive access to that place for the time that you book it. So it can range from $50 to $15,000 or more," de Castro explained.
For those seeking the Yellowstone experience, Black said while the show is "not necessarily representing the real experience,… they have some real issues in there, real challenges that everybody from just somebody who owns a yard to somebody who owns Acres is going through right now. And we're all just trying to figure out how to make it."
The legacy rancher added the LandTrust experiences offers fans of the show a glimpse of living in "God's country."
"The beautiful thing about the ranch is you're on God's land, and everywhere you look, you're inspired. It's beautiful. So it's such a blessing to be able to be out in God's country and chase cows with your dog and get dirty and just enjoy all those things," Black said.
"It's real life, and I think we just keep a smile on our face and keep fighting the good fight."