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Wyoming Common School Permanent Land Fund
Congress granted sections 16 and 36 of every Wyoming township to the state upon its 1890 admission to the Union, explicitly dedicating the land and its...
Wyoming Common School Permanent Land Fund
Congress granted sections 16 and 36 of every Wyoming township to the state upon its 1890 admission to the Union, explicitly dedicating the land and its proceeds to common schools. The Wyoming Constitution consolidated that grant into the Common School Permanent Land Fund, a trust whose corpus consists of 3.6 million surface acres and 3.8 million subsurface mineral acres managed by the Board of Land Commissioners. Royalties from oil, gas, coal, and trona leasing flow into the fund, and the State Treasurer's Office, led by Curt Meier since 2019, invests the commingled permanent portfolio alongside other state trust accounts. The Treasurer's Office deploys capital across public equities, fixed income, real estate, and private markets, with a significant real-asset tilt reflecting the fund's land-based origin. The Office of State Lands and Investments handles direct mineral leasing and land sales, including the landmark 2024 sale of the Kelly Parcel — a 640-acre school-trust inholding within Grand Teton National Park — to the federal government for $100 million, a transaction finalized after years of negotiation. Geographic concentration remains overwhelmingly domestic, though the investment portfolio includes international equity and fixed-income allocations. Karl Cheng joined as Chief Investment Officer in January 2026, taking day-to-day portfolio management responsibilities within Meier's office. The State Loan and Investment Board, comprising the state's five elected officials, sets broad investment policy, while the Board of Land Commissioners separately governs trust land management. The fund participates in the Western States Land Commissioners Association and the Children's Land Alliance Supporting Schools, networks that coordinate land management practices among states with similar trust obligations. The fund's architecture is constitutionally distinct from the more widely tracked Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund. Where the mineral trust is a severance-tax-fed sovereign fund, the Common School Permanent Land Fund is a land-grant endowment — its principal cannot be spent, only the income distributed to school districts. That structural constraint, combined with the in-kind land corpus, makes it less liquid and more operationally complex than a typical sovereign wealth fund, requiring active land management alongside portfolio management.
General information
Firm type
Sovereign Wealth Fund
Year founded
1890
AUM
$33.9B
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Cheyenne
Corporate office
Cheyenne, WY, United States
Principals
Curt Meier
Wyoming State Treasurer
Karl Cheng
Chief Investment Officer, Wyoming State Treasurer's Office
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions for the fund?
The Wyoming State Treasurer's Office directly manages the investment portfolio. State Treasurer Curt Meier, an elected official in office since 2019, holds ultimate responsibility, with day-to-day portfolio management delegated to the Chief Investment Officer. Karl Cheng was appointed CIO in January 2026. The State Loan and Investment Board, composed of Wyoming's five statewide elected officials, provides investment policy oversight.
How is this fund different from Wyoming's other sovereign wealth funds?
Wyoming operates two principal permanent funds. The Mineral Trust Fund is a cash-funded sovereign fund capitalized by severance taxes on oil, gas, and minerals. The Common School Permanent Land Fund is constitutionally distinct — its corpus is land itself, granted by Congress at statehood. It cannot be liquidated; only the income generated from land leases, mineral royalties, and investment returns is distributed to K-12 schools.
What is the Kelly Parcel transaction?
The Kelly Parcel was a 640-acre school-trust land inholding within Grand Teton National Park, owned by the fund. After decades of debate, the State of Wyoming finalized its sale to the federal government in late 2024 for $100 million. The proceeds went into the permanent fund to continue generating income for schools, while the land itself was added to the national park.
Does the fund invest in private equity or venture capital?
The Treasurer's Office allocates to private-market investments as part of a diversified portfolio that includes public equities, fixed income, and real estate. However, the fund's primary economic exposure comes from its direct ownership of 3.6 million surface acres and subsurface mineral rights, making it a hybrid portfolio with a heavy real-asset concentration that predates modern institutional allocation models.
Who manages the trust lands that generate the fund's revenue?
The Board of Land Commissioners, composed of Wyoming's governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, auditor, and superintendent of public instruction, governs the trust lands. Day-to-day land and mineral leasing operations are handled by the Office of State Lands and Investments, a separate agency from the Treasurer's Office, creating a structural separation between land management and investment portfolio management.
Can the fund's principal be spent?
No. The Wyoming Constitution classifies the land and its proceeds as a permanent trust fund. Only the income — investment earnings and land revenue — is distributable to school districts. The corpus of land and commingled proceeds must remain intact in perpetuity, a legal structure dating to the 1890 admission act and subsequent state constitutional provisions.
How is philanthropic activity structured?
The fund itself has no philanthropic mandate — it is a constitutionally mandated education endowment. The Wyoming State Treasurer's Office participates in the Children's Land Alliance Supporting Schools, a collaborative network of states managing school trust lands, but this is an operational affiliation rather than a grantmaking relationship.
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