SUMMIT COUNTY – The 910 Cattle Ranch, a tract of more than 8,500 acres in the Wasatch Mountains, is the largest open-space purchase in the county’s history.
The property is in stark contrast to the other side of the old Jeremy Ranch just off I-80, which is now a beautifully manicured valley with golf courses and homes with large windows. The paved road ends abruptly. The artificial turf is left behind and all that is left is a kind of wilderness.
A winding two-lane ATV route passes a tool shed and a home and winds around a stand of aspen trees where a dilapidated stone house stands, an old homestead built from stone quarried from the valley that served the Jeremy family as a summer shelter while grazing sheep starting in the 1860s.
Jess Kirby, director of the Summit County Department of Land and Natural Resources, said much of the history lies along East Canyon Creek, a major tributary of the Weber River that flows into the Great Salt Lake.
During a special meeting of the Summit County Council in August 2023, the purchase of the ranch was approved. The deal was a non-refundable payment of $15 million to reserve the option to purchase the 8,588 acres for an additional $40 million.
Now Summit County is waiting on a $40 million grant awarded back in May by the Forest Legacy Program. Funds are expected by summer 2025, but the county must make an interest payment of 4.5%, or $1.8 million per year, until it can purchase the property outright.
Officials in charge of managing the land led KSL.com on the first media tour of the sprawling, landscape-scale ranch.
Along the water, a group of sandhill cranes tiptoed through marshy banks where the Donner party and the U.S. Cavalry passed where the Mormon Trail met the California Oregon Trail. The dirt road that cuts through the land was recently crowded with dog walkers and joggers.
The five-mile trail looped through one valley and then through another. A ranch hand and his pack of dogs drove the cattle out of the creek and up the trail. The animals trotted awkwardly along narrow paths away from the quad and ducked into the thicket.
When David Bernolfo wanted to buy the land from an insolvent bank in the 1980s during the savings and loan crisis, he rode there on horseback, pulled by a pack animal, to do some research on the subject of investment.
“I spent four days at the ranch, day and night. I rode around the ranch property and through every drainage ditch,” he told KSL.com. “So I knew a lot about it. I knew how many cattle I could ride, I knew where all the water was, I knew where the problems were, I knew where all the trails were.”
Bernolfo eventually bought the property for “a few hundred an acre,” lived on the ranch full-time for the first few years, and built the existing buildings out of metal pipes.
“I stayed there all year so I could weld at home,” he said. “I would go to my office in Salt Lake and do my work there, drive back to the ranch around 4 or 5 o’clock and then weld until midnight.” Construction took three years.
Bernolfo had a vision of building a ski resort and homes on the ranch and began developing the property in the 1990s. But in the early 2000s, Summit County’s zoning code changed, and Bernolfo said, “The people I hired to do the work made huge mistakes. And as a result, our area was devalued.”
Instead of pursuing construction, Bernolfo changed his mind. “Then I thought I was getting older and development didn’t seem like the right thing anymore,” even though he had offers from “quite a few developers.”
He said he is especially proud of his efforts to make the ranch a wildlife sanctuary – “the tremendous diversity of wildlife that exists on this ranch.” Money from the purchase of the property will go to his memorial foundation, which will donate to a number of charities in the state.
“I’m 80 years old, I have other resources and I don’t need the money,” Bernolfo explained simply. “I’ve been lucky in my life. I’ve been lucky in business and I’ve been doing well. I think it’s kind of in the American character to give back.”
The county is now moving slowly and cautiously with public access as officials try to understand the assets they have acquired.
Many different “roundtables” have been or are being held with experts from disciplines such as wildlife, recreation, conservation, grazing, fire management and more, where consultants conduct a thorough inventory of the plants and animals.
Kirby, the county’s land and natural resources director, says they will use this snapshot to draft a conservation easement that will protect the property “in perpetuity and forever.”
According to Kirby, many challenges have been identified on the property, from competition between groups of trees to vulnerable riparian areas.
The creek is in “serious trouble,” Kirby said. A study by Utah State University students investigating the feasibility of a trout fishery in the creek found that lack of shade is warming the water, particulate matter pollution is high and unrestricted grazing has led to a significant 50% decline in vegetation along the wetlands since the 1970s.
Low water levels are also a concern. Kirby said they had to purchase water from the East Canyon Watershed Committee two years ago to maintain water flow and protect wildlife.
Conifers are beginning to choke out aspens, and yellow star thistle, a weed of “concern” for the county that poses a threat to livestock and wildlife, has just been discovered.
But what concerns Bernolfo and the county most is the poaching that is plaguing the ranch and the upcoming hunting season, which begins August 17.
“We have a terrible poaching problem on this property,” Kirby said, hoping her team of about 25 volunteer “ambassadors” who keep an eye on the property will stop the practice. “We want the poachers to know that we have people out there and that we’re keeping an eye on this property.”
But Bernolfo said they’re usually archers who know where the herds are and operate in remote areas at night. “These guys – they’re in good shape, they’re dedicated, they know what they’re doing, and they have an advantage over the county or anyone else.”
“It’s not hunting season on the 910,” Kirby said. The county is “devoting significant resources to this ranch to combat potential poachers,” but “we’re not disclosing how we’re going to do the monitoring in detail.”
Bernolfo calls poaching his “biggest disappointment” and doubts that even the county’s use of drones will be enough to stop it. Although the land was purchased with public money, hunting was explicitly prohibited in the contract, so no one has any claim to the animals on the ranch.
“The hunters always go where the big animals are, and we have them,” Bernolfo said. “The elk know it’s a protected area. If you’re on Alexander Ridge during hunting season, you can see elk just flocking to the ranch two or three days before the hunt starts.”
