Wyoming course to sell at auction

Ten Sleep, Wyo. – Jim Foreman turned a 97-acre piece of land into the Canyon Valley Ranch Golf Course. Now he’s preparing to sell the course, along with approximately 170 additional acres of land, at auction.

The auction will be Sept. 24, with J.P. King Auction Company, from Gadsden, Ala., managing the sale.

“This may be one of the prettiest and most challenging nine-hole courses in the country,” says Craig King, president of the auction company. “With a USGA course rating of 69.2 and a slope of 125, Canyon Valley Ranch has more challenges in nine holes than a lot of courses do in 18.”

Foreman, who plans to remain in Ten Sleep, says he and his wife were living in Connecticut when they decided to begin acquiring the land, where he built the course along a stream filled with native brown trout.

“My wife’s home was in this area, and I used to fish that stream,” he says. “I had this idea of creating a course where the cart path follows the path of the stream, so that’s what we did. It was just a fun way of life building and improving the course over the past few years.

“But I’m basically retired now, and it’s time to scale back my activities a bit,” he adds.

Foreman hired golf course architect Carl Thuesen, of Billings, Mont., to design the course, including a back nine for the approximately 90 acres selling as a separate parcel.

“If somebody were to build the back nine, this could become a destination resort,” says King.

But for Foreman, the course has been more about his love for the game than about business.

“We’ve never even advertised the course,” says Foreman, who began construction in 1991 and opened the course in 1995. “It’s all just been word of mouth.”

In addition to the course and 90-acre parcel, the auction will include two parcels of approximately 40 acres each. One of the 40-acre parcels is located adjacent to land owned by the federal government, and the other is adjacent state land.

“Hunters all over the country know this part of Wyoming as a prime spot for hunting deer, elk and other big game,” says King. “With the thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management land adjoining these properties, I expect they will retain their wild natural beauty for centuries to come.”

For more information, contact J.P. King at 800-558-5464 or visit the company’s Web site at www.jpking.com.