YOUR AD HERE »

Meanwhile, back at the ranch on Lower River Road, huge sale occurs

Scott Condon

A ranch on Lower River Road that gained fame last winter as the place where Michael Jackson came to get away from it all sold last week for $15.5 million.The Meanwhile … Ranch was more than just another McMansion. “I can’t tell you of another property like it,” said Scott Davidson, a real estate agent with Lorrie B. Aspen Inc. who had the ranch listing.Sure the main house is nice with its 200-year-old yellow pine hardwood floors, custom-made furniture built on the property, the men’s master bathroom with a custom yacht interior look, a ladies master bathroom featuring a 1920s movie star appearance, a ranger station wired for meteorological equipment, a heated three-car garage and a media room.But it’s the extras that made the 56-acre property stand out. The ranch dates back to 1886 and it is essentially a private Roaring Fork Valley ranching museum. A settler’s cabin from 1886 is still on the property, rebuilt and fully insulated in 1999.A farmhouse built in the 1900s has the exterior look that the original inhabitants might recognize but 21st-century comforts that would blow them away. It has an electrically heated walkway to the barnyard as well as a Jacuzzi.And this isn’t Farmer John’s big red barn. It has two complete apartments, the one upstairs featuring three bathrooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and deck.There are outbuildings a person would expect on an old ranch: An original, unrestored stable, the original hay barn and ranch fuel pump, a steel silo for storing grain, loading chutes and pens for animals.Then there are the gentlemen rancher additions: a covered outdoor wet bar and barbecue area, a tack room with branding stove and storage for 25 saddles and four 300-gallon fuel tanks.An indoor riding arena was constructed in the 1960s and accommodated the Pitkin County Fairs and weekly rodeos, according to a marketing brochure provided by Davidson.The ranch was also a tinkerer’s delight that came with numerous farm implements and various vehicles. There is an original John Deere thresher and an unrestored John Deere 1940 B Tractor. It has a restored antique corn grinder and seed sorter. A Hercules engine-driven cement mixer was deemed historically important.The vehicle fleet included two horse-drawn wagons, two golf carts, two all-terrain vehicles and three heavy vehicles for ranch chores.The ranch, which once totaled 2,000 acres, was subdivided in the 1960s. Davis and Eleanor Pillsbury were the most recent owners before the sale. They completed the main house on the property in 2000.A general warranty deed recorded Aug. 12 with the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder showed that the Pillsbury’s Taylor Pillsbury Globe Trust sold the property to Galardi Group Development LLC, which has an address of 314 S. Galena St. in Aspen.Davidson would say nothing about the sellers and little about the buyers except that they are a local family that plans to make the ranch their home. “It was just the right house for them,” he said.Davidson had the listing for 18 months. Meanwhile … Ranch was listed at $16.5 million fully furnished.Scott Condon’s e-mail address is scondon@aspentimes.com