A $250M 'oasis': Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens puts prized Texas Panhandle ranch on the market
DALLAS - Legendary Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens has put a for-sale sign on his beloved Mesa Vista Ranch.
The ranch is Pickens' most prized possession. The 89-year-old founder of Dallas-based BP Capital Management has spent more than half of his life creating a Lone Star spread that even L.A. moviemakers would find a reality stretch.
It's a site where big deals have been made and celebrities entertained.
A mere $250 million will give the right buyer title to this 64,809-acre (give...


Fast Facts: T Boone Pickens

Fast facts: T Boone Pickens
Born May 22, 1928, in Holdenville, Okla.
Family moved to Amarillo in the late 1930s
Attended Texas A&M on basketball scholarship
Lost scholarship and transferred to Oklahoma State University
Has donated nearly $500 million to Oklahoma State University (roughly $1 billion to all causes, including OSU)
1956: Created Mesa Petroleum by merging Petroleum Exploration Inc. and Altair Oil and Gas Co.
1969: Appointed to West Texas State University Board of...

I notice that the Amarillo paper left out the time he gave WTAMU a big donation, then took it back when he got crososways with them.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/t-boone-house/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Week%20in%20Texas%2012-2-17&utm_content=Week%20in%20Texas%2012-2-17+CID_a50ce6756f641f8372dc63c955710cd8&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=For%20250%20Million%20You%20Can%20Buy%20T%20Boone%20Pickenss%20Panhandle%20Ranch

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In July, legendary oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens was briefly hospitalized after suffering a "Texas-sized fall," which prompted him to write an emotional LinkedIn post that grappled with his mortality. Four months later, Pickens put Mesa Vista, his nearly 65,000-acre ranch in the Texas Panhandle, on the market for $250 million.
"Selling the ranch is the prudent thing for an 89-year-old man to do,"Pickens explained in a statement included in the property's listing, which is being jointly handled by real estate brokers Hall and Hall and Chas S. Middleton and Sons. "It's time to get my life and my affairs in order."
In his case, those "affairs" include a ranch boasting its own airport, beer pub, fifty-dog kennel, and twelve miles of artificial water features. Pickens purchased the first piece of the ranch2,900 acres along the south side of the Canadian River in Roberts Countyin 1971. Back then the only structure on the property was a livestock feed house that Pickens used to keep warm while quail hunting.
Pickens has made a few improvements over the years. In 1988 he began constructing the Lodge, now a 25,000-square-foot compound with sleeping quarters and meeting spaces. Near the compound are two guest houses, the pub, the chapel, the gun room, the kennel, a tennis court, a skeet/trap range, and a golf course with two fairways and greens. In 2000, Boone began building a San Simeon-esque castle that now stands atop an artificial hill overlooking an artificial lake.
Mesa Vista is being offered to buyers as a "turn-key" purchase, meaning that they'll get everything on the property minus Pickens's art collection and his herd of 400 cattle, which are available to be purchased separately. Even the ranch hands are up for grabs: the property's prospectus informs buyers that "very devoted, generally long-term employees are in place on the ranch, and these employees are interested in staying and continuing on with new ownership."
Count us as interestedjust as soon as we can rustle up a quarter-billion dollars.

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Pickens pretty much caused WTSU to decline because of his lack of leadership on the WT BOR in the 80's. His handpicked choice for WT President was a man named Roach. Roach was a terrible President. He is known mainly for the building the President's Home which was sarcastically referred to as the Roach Motel. After A&M came in and took WT into the system, Roach was reassigned to College Station and then left to pursue other opportunities. Fortunately, A&M BOR picked some good Presidents after Roach and it is an expanding University. This current President is still a work in progress. He seems to be doing ok but I haven't observed that he has a direction for the University regarding the future of agriculture, water issues, and regional economic development.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"At 89, anything with the word 'crypt' in it is a real turnoff for me."
Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, responding to the Twitter query, "Good Afternoon Mr. Pickens! What are your thoughts on Cryptocurrency?"

Upperdeck, what are your thoughts on former WTAM president Pat O'Brien? Met him on a trip last year and he seemed like a good guy.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/t-boone-pickens-selling-ranch/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2005-30-18&utm_content=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2005-30-18+CID_c5cc163502c51c125ce78394e87fa222&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20Story

T. Boone Pickens on Selling the Ranch

The entrepreneur and financier confronts mortality in the most Texan of ways: by putting his beloved ranch on the market.