The largest ranch in the U.S. within a single fence is now for sale in North Texas, according to an article on Bloomberg.com.
It’s 510,527 acres and in addition to a very colorful history, the land includes 6,800 head of cattle, 500 quarter horses, and more than 1,000 oil wells. The price? $725 million.
The Waggoner Ranch has been owned by the Waggoner family for more than a century and boasts a list of celebrity visitors including Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt. The ranch is finally being sold after two decades of the family arguing whether or not to liquidate or divide the property.
The beautiful ranch employs more than 120 people and includes a 183-page inventory with more than 4,000 items. But they have the room; “the Waggoner sprawls over six counties and is bigger than Los Angeles and New York City combined.”
The ranch will make history when it’s sold.
“At almost three-quarters of a billion dollars, the asking price is more than quadruple the biggest publicly known sum fetched by a U.S. ranch, $175 million for a Colorado spread in 2007. The Waggoner is one of the 20 largest cattle ranches in the U.S. and is known worldwide for its quarter horses.”
The family is hoping that whoever buys the ranch — 600 buyers have expressed interest — will keep the land together and continue to run it as a cattle ranch.
However, if the buyer is looking for an alternative source of revenue, they could lease the land to hunters, build a wind from, potentially double the size of the cattle herd or even expand the search for oil. Apparently a tenth of the total acreage has even been tested for possible oil wells.
According to the real estate broker in charge of selling the property, Bernard Uechtritz, “it takes day sto see it all.”
