Bill Gates Buys Historic Wyoming Ranch

Welp, it's either coincidence or the signs of a major midlife crisis. First, Bill Gates signed a pair of cowboy boots for charity. Now, according to the Cody (WY) Enterprise, Gates has purchased historic Irma Lake Lodge, a property once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody.

Is the software king going cowboy on us?

The 492-acre ranch in Northwest Wyoming was listed at $8.9 million. Here's a property listing which includes some photos. Look! A horsey!

Aside from beautiful scenery, the ranch includes "a 15,000-square-foot main residence and five-bedroom guesthouse."

Buffalo Bill (Cody) founded the ranch in the 1890s. Since then, it's had just two other owners.

Oddly, the news comes out on the same day Gates urged fellow billionaires to give most of their fortune away. "I'm a great believer that great wealth should go from the richest to the poorest," he told a gathering in Oslo on Wednesday.

Not that we begrudge the man his western fantasies. After having taken a train through Montana earlier this week, if we could afford land with Rocky Mountain views, we'd be with a realtor right now...surveying the wide-open spaces on a sprightly sorrel mare...laying our bedroll down as the sun sets...listening to the wind whistle through the pines and the howl of a far-off coyote. Sorry, can you tell we re-read Lonesome Dove recently? Maybe Gates did too.