By E.B. Solomont
Meg Whitman is one of Silicon Valley's most seasoned executives. She is also an avid fly fisherwoman.
So in 2019, when she and her husband, Dr. Griff Harsh, were looking for a getaway for investment, conservation and recreation not far from their home in Sacramento, Calif., they bought a 1,530-acre ranch with private fishing and a custom Airstream fishing camp.
Now, after moving to Telluride, Colo., in 2020, Whitman and Harsh are listing the California ranch for $18.5 million.
Whitman is a former CEO of eBay and Hewlett-Packard, now HP. She ran unsuccessfully for governor of California in 2010, and served as U.S. Ambassador to Kenya from 2022 to 2024. Harsh is a neurosurgeon. They have two adult children.
The couple bought Spring Creek Ranch, located in Fall River Mills about 230 miles north of Sacramento, for about $12.6 million in 2019, records show, as well as another $1 million for personal property, largely ranch equipment. They paid another $3 million for an additional 57 acres nearby in 2023.
The ranch has multiple structures, including a three-bedroom main residence, barn, workshops and outbuildings.
Whitman said the ranch had been owned by one family for years prior before the most recent owner and was in disrepair when they bought it. During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corp. was stationed on the property, and there were a number of dilapidated houses that needed to be razed. There were also decades-old piles of trash and scrap metal, some of which were partially buried under ground. "We spent a couple of years on cleanup," she said.
However, they did considerable work clearing the land. In addition to thinning the forest and pruning fruit trees, they repaired broken fences and expanded the hay operation, leasing the fields to a local farmer. "Hay has become quite a tech operation," Whitman said. "They've got automatic hay swathers, rakes, balers, harrow beds, hay squeezes and trucks. It's all quite mechanized." Whitman and Harsh leased additional land to a local cattle rancher. "It was a small business we were running, " she said.
Whitman said they spent occasional weekends at the ranch, and visited often during the summer to oversee the hay being cut. "Most of the time, I fished," she said.
Living in Telluride, the couple isn't able to use the California ranch as much as they used to. "When we were in Kenya, we didn't use it much at all," she said.
Whitman said they decided to sell so they can "redeploy the investment into other opportunities."
The Fall River Valley is known for fly fishing, and Spring Creek Ranch has sought-after access to the Fall River. One of the river's major headwaters -- Spring Creek -- is located on the property, said Terry Hundemer of the Chickering Company, who is marketing the ranch with Bill McDavid of Hall & Hall. "There's only a handful of private fisheries in California and this is one of the best," he said.
Demand for ranch properties is consistently strong, said McDavid. "Privacy is not going out of style," he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2026 15:05 ET (19:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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