Ralph Walchle obtained a real-estate broker's license in the 1980's for the express purpose of trying to find a way to keep from losing the ranch during those years of high interest rates and low cattle prices. After a period of time selling for another firm and doing some real estate development work, he decided that his interest and experiences were mainly in the field of ranch real estate.

In April of 1994 Ralph cleaned out the ranch bunkhouse and moved his office to the ranch to open LELB. Two months later Joey Burns agreed to join the newly established firm.

At the outset, Ralph & Joey made the decision to do things a bit unorthodox. With an office in a two-room ranch bunk house located four miles from a town of 500 people you have to do things a bit differently.

The early years were a struggle while the wives taught school to pay the bills and the temptation to give up surfaced on several occasions. The partners stopped only long enough to ask each other if they should consider doing something more conventional. The decision was always the same and they never gave up.

Lone Eagle Land Brokerage was established with the very simple philosophy. Create a Real Estate company that focuses on buying and selling ranch and recreational properties in the Rocky Mountain West; Provide the best possible information, service and experience the ranch market had ever seen.

This philosophy hasn’t changed and today we believe we do it much better than before.

Oh, it took a while to get established but in the last few years this obscure, ranch real estate office has been responsible for some of the largest land transactions in the region. Our closed sales have now exceeded $300 Million. A lot of brokers claim to be ranch specialists - our numbers prove it.