[1][2] From 1927 to 1950 the Bar U was part of a group of ranches operated by Patrick Burns totalling 700,000 acres.

The present National Historic Site is the central remnant,[1] owned by Parks Canada, which bought the property in 1991 and opened it to the public in 1995.

In 1891, Harry Longabaugh, a horse breaker at the Bar U, later became the notoriously infamous outlaw and Wild West gun fighter "the Sundance Kid".

[2] Edward, Prince of Wales visited the Bar U in 1919 and was so taken with it that he bought a neighboring ranch, which he named the EP.

[2] Ranch cowboy Everett Johnson was reportedly studied as the lead character for the novel The Virginian and the later television show.