Rapper Kanye West is reportedly purchasing the Monster Lake Ranch south of Cody, which includes 4,524 deed acres and another 4,654 acres of public land leased from the BLM.

Photo courtesy Rodrigo Ferrari

Rapper Kanye West is purchasing the sprawling Monster Lake Ranch south of Cody, according to TMZ.

The celebrity and entertainment news website reported Friday morning that West “plunked down some serious money” for the ranch, which had previously been listed for sale at $14 million. TMZ did not report a selling price, saying only that it had been told West “did not pay full price.” Park County property records accessed Friday indicated that no sale has been finalized, as the deed to the ranch has not changed hands.

Best known for its two lakes filled with large trout, Monster Lake Ranch stretches across 4,524 deeded acres, with another 4,654 acres of land leased from the Bureau of Land Management. It includes a restaurant, saloon, convention center, an office building, multiple homes and cabins that can accommodate 70 guests, a shooting range, pens for game birds and corrals, barns and other outbuildings.

Monster Lake Ranch has changed hands multiple times in past decades, at one point being held by billionaire businessman Tim Blixseth.

Dan Eddleman purchased the ranch in 2013 and made the exclusive property more accessible to the public. He added the restaurant and began offering overnight lodging, including cabin rentals, teepees and RV hookups. Eddleman later put the property up for sale in 2017, and family members bought at least part of the ranch at an auction in July.

Reached Friday, one of those family members, Ryan Brandt of Powell, said he was “not at liberty to comment” on whether West is in the process of acquiring Monster Lake Ranch.

West has been spotted in the Cody area in recent days — including being seen near the ranch and at the Proud Cut Saloon on Friday — and he’s spent a significant amount of time in Wyoming in recent years. In an interview published Monday by Vogue Arabia, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, indicated that their family planned to move to the Cowboy State.

Ten years from now, “I see us living on a ranch in Wyoming, occasionally going to Palm Springs and our home in Los Angeles — and becoming a lawyer,” Kardashian West said in the Vogue piece, indicating she’d probably set up her practice in Wyoming and “fly into DC, NY and LA.”

However, West’s interest in Monster Lake Ranch appears to be fairly recent.

In early August, Eddleman told Park County officials that the family members who bought Monster Lake at auction were “anxious to begin doing business.” He said they intended to “essentially continue our current business” as The Ranch at Copper Butte.

The ranch had initially been offered as one large, $14 million parcel.

“Recapture the last of the old west in this exquisite property,” read a 2017 promotional brochure from Canyon Real Estate, describing it as a “first-class, world-famous ranch.”

However, Monster Lake Ranch was ultimately put up for auction in six smaller pieces on July 18. Auctioneer J.P. King’s website, accessed Friday, indicated that four parcels remained available.

“Apparently not many of them went [at auction], but the lodge did go,” First Deputy Park County Clerk Hans Odde told county commissioners on Tuesday.

Members of Dan Eddleman family — his sister Jobey Eddleman of New York and her daughter and son-in-law, Kaley (Eddleman) and Ryan Brandt of Powell — wound up acquiring the restaurant and saloon through an entity called Copper Butte Ranch LLC.

Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to transfer the ranch’s liquor license from Dan Eddleman’s Monster Lake LLC to Copper Butte Ranch LLC; Odde called it “the smoothest application process I’ve ever had.”

If West acquires the property and wants to continue to sell alcohol to the public, he or his representatives will have to start the process over and ask the commissioners to transfer the license again.

West spent a significant amount of time in the Jackson area in 2017 and 2018 while recording his album “ye.” The cover art featured a picture of the Grand Tetons taken by West himself.

An outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, he may find the Cody area’s political climate more to his liking than Jackson Hole’s; while nearly 58 percent of Teton County voters cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton in 2016 — being the only Wyoming county to support the Democrat — more than 73 percent of Park County voters backed Trump.

When news of West’s pending purchase of Monster Lake Ranch began circulating in local Facebook groups, one local resident said she didn’t understand why people would get upset about the famous family occasionally coming to Cody.

“At least he is a conservative,” she said.