The soon-to-be Los Angeles Rams owner and real estate billionaire Stan Kroenke just inked a deal to acquire the Waggoner Ranch, a historical 535,000-acre ranch in Vernon, TX.
Although terms of the deal weren't disclosed, the property had been listed for $725M, making it the most expensive ranch ever sold by far.
Established in 1849, The Waggoner property is the largest contiguous ranch in the US that's surrounded by a single fence. It's bigger than New York City and LA combined.
The ranch stretches across hundreds of miles of prairie, four manmade lakes, farmland for cows and horses, and 1,200 oil wells yielding 675,000 barrels a year.
The ranch is also home to 26 cowboys, who ride tall in the saddle all day, take care of the 7,500 head of cattle, and organize rodeos for visitors.
"The cowboy way is dying out, and I’d like to see it stay for a while," ranch manager Weldon Hawley told the Wall Street Journal. "It’s not really a job, it’s a way of life."
With annual revenue of roughly $50M, the Waggoner ranch isn't nearly as lucrative as other ranches in the country. But Kroenke—one of the top landowners in the US—plans to continue regular operations at the ranch and possibly ramp up activity. [WSJ]
