Wyoming recommended selling Kelly’s parcel to the feds for $100 million

Last December, the Wyoming Office of Lands and Investments recommended auctioning off the Kelly property adjacent to Grand Teton National Park with a minimum bid of $80 million. On Friday, it upped the ante and is now recommending that the state sell the pristine and controversial 640-acre tract of land directly to Grand Teton National Park for $100 million.

The long saga over what to do with the Kelly site may soon come to an end, more than 20 years after it began, when the Board of State Land Commissioners, made up of Wyoming’s top five elected officials, reviews an agreement to transfer the Kelley site. Off to Grand Teton National Park when they meet on Thursday.

The notice was quietly announced in agendas released for a special board meeting at the Wyoming Capitol on Friday.

OSLI is recommending that land commissioners sell the Kelly site to the park for $100 million. OSLI believes the state can generate far more revenue from land sales and future investments than from leasing it for livestock and recreational purposes.

“Disposing of Kelly’s parcel could provide a comparatively larger and more stable profit than would be achieved by continuing to hold onto the parcel and allowing it to increase in value,” the company said. OSLI report reads. “Thus, the disposition of Kelly’s parcel appears to reasonably address the short- and long-term needs of the beneficiaries.”

The land commissioners include Gov. Mark Gordon, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, State Treasurer Kurt Meyer and State Auditor Christy Racines.

Rob Wallace, former assistant secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, has been a vocal advocate for keeping Kelly’s package public. He told Cowboy State Daily that the $100 million offer was “a great deal.”

“I thank the governor, the Land Council and the Legislature for supporting this proposal,” he said. “This is a great deal for kids, wildlife and one of the most iconic pieces of land in the country, Grand Teton National Park.”

What is Kelly’s package?

Kelly Parcel is a coveted 640 acres of public land in Teton County within Grand Teton National Park. was recommended to a public auction with a starting bid of $80 million by the Office of Public Lands and Investment in 2023. This proposal caused great public concern and was generally opposed by the majority.

Later that year the land commissioners voted to postpone take action on the Kelly site by the end of 2024 to explore potential exchange options for the site and work with the Department of the Interior on possible trading of mineral rights in other parts of Wyoming.

A similar discussion occurred between the board of directors and the federal government in 2014.

The Wyoming Constitution directs the Board of Land Commissioners to receive a reasonable revenue from state trust lands to support Wyoming public schools. However, because the Kelly site is outside of Grand Teton, OSLI concluded that the council was unable to realize the full potential economic value of the area.

In a 2010 agreement, the board and the U.S. Department of the Interior entered into an agreement under which the federal government would purchase the Kelly site for $46 million no later than Jan. 5, 2015. This agreement eventually fell apart for the Kelly site, but was used for several transfers of other Wyoming trust lands.

A 2022 site assessment paid for by the Grand Teton National Park Foundation valued the site at $97,539.06 per acre, for a total value of $62.4 million.

As part of the sale, the federal government will still only pay $62.4 million, with the remaining $37.6 million coming from the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and other private philanthropy sources, Wallace said.

Legislative Assembly weighs in

Following the results of this year’s legislative session condition it was included in the two-year budget, which directs the board to sell the Kelly site for at least $100 million directly to the federal government.

The proceeds from the sale will be placed in the state’s permanent public school land fund. That $100 million would generate about $6.4 million in revenue per year, much more than the $2,800 in annual leasing income it generates. This would provide the government with a profit of $192 million over 30 years at a rate of return of 6.4%.

“Disposal of the Kelly site appears to substantially increase the funds available for distribution to the state’s school districts relative to the revenue currently collected from existing and potential users,” the OSLI report states.

An amendment adopted State Rep. Clark Stith, R-Rock Springs, also links the fate of the Kelly property to the controversial BLM resource management plan (RMP) for the Rock Springs area, which requires the governor to decide whether to sell the Kelly property to Grand Teton National Park depending on whether BLM is moving forward with its highly controversial and the agency’s preferred Alternative Proposal B for rights of way in certain portions of the plan.

Stith told the Cowboy State Daily that part of the condition was met. The original Alternative B proposed banning mining on 60% of the land in the RH, up from the current 15%. Now the BLM has increased that number to 30%.

The Legislature also stated that the sale of the Kelly site could be split into multiple transactions, provided that the sale is fully completed before the transfer of title to the Kelly site occurs. The council is also permitted to accept funds from another entity on behalf of the federal government, provided that the sale and transfer of land is to the government only.

Conditions of the sale also require that Kelly’s property be leased for grazing and be available for public hunting in perpetuity.

Leo Wolfson can be contacted at [email protected].