Posted on 11/28/2007 12:13:13 PM PST by george76
Ted Turner's men didn't flinch...
When the auction was over, they walked away with what they came for: 26,300 acres of prime ranch land, at a cost of nearly $10 million.
"It hasn't taken long to find out he's serious," said Duane Kime, a rancher and Turner neighbor who was outbid by about $100,000 by the CNN founder.
But what exactly is Turner serious about?
The question gnaws at folks here and in other rural areas of the country ...
Turner has amassed 2 million acres over the past two decades to become the largest private landowner in the country. He owns land in at least nine states, with most of his holdings in New Mexico, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota...
His front men say their boss doesn't have a secret agenda... But each big buy only heightens the anxiety and gives rise to conspiracy theories, the most ominous of which hold that the swashbuckling Atlanta executive is bent on putting Nebraska ranchers and farmers out of business.
Among the theories: Turner is trying to corner the land over the Ogallala Aquifer, the world's largest underground water system, to gain power in the water-starved West.
Or: He is scheming, perhaps with the United Nations, to create a vast wildlife refuge and turn it over to the federal government, removing the land from Nebraska's tax rolls...
Turner's organizations also have been in discussions with the World Wildlife Fund and the World Conservation Union ...
Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico, for example, offers weeklong elk hunting excursions at $12,000 a pop...
Another persistent complaint is that Turner's extraordinary ability to outbid just about anyone is driving up land prices, making it tougher for longtime ranchers to expand and keep their operations afloat.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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He owns a huge chunk of Patagonia too, unless Jane walked away with it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Ted Turner is the largest individual landowner in North America.
I’d say the largest would be Michael Moore.
Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico offers weeklong elk hunting excursions at $12,000 per...
That ain’t bad, out of state hunters routinely drop huge sums to hunt in NM.
Turner lost billions in the AOL/Time Warner disaster. Maybe he sees land as a better bet. He is also a bird hunter.
$380 per acre
Good money for outfitters ?
I think some guy paid almost $200K a couple years back.
For that kinda money, I’d go to Africa and shoot toothy stuff.
“He owns a huge chunk of Patagonia too, unless Jane walked away with it.”
___________________________________________________________
That would be the guy who founded The North Face outdoor clothing company.
Al Qaeda training camps???
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Who would have thought Turner was really a capitalist? How dare he purchase an asset and make money with it!
land envy ping
Wow.
For that amount of money, there should be a happy ending ?
I wouldnt be surprised if the anti-American globalist Turner turned the land over to the Unpunished Nazis (UN) as some “heritage park”
Turner promised the UN 1 billion bucks, and still hasnt made good on it. Why not give them land.
Scary that a socio-commie like Turner would own so much land
36 years ago the average price per acre of undeveloped land in Montana was $50. Now it is about $10,000 just as a start because of sob’s like turner.
I'd like to hunt the Valles Vidal. 100 square miles of really untouched land.
Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch was the main access route for the locals to hunt on public lands since the Spanish Land Grant days.
Ted blocked off local hunters, fishermen, fire wood collectors...who had this historical access. These middle class folks do not have an extra $12,000 per...They were hunting and fishing to put food on the table and firewood to heat their homes, etc.
Otherwise, Ted can charge all he wants.
Of course he owns all that land. He’s a liberal. He needs all that land so he can ditribute it amoung all the people who cant afford land.....of wait....I forgot, that only applies to others.
Nice picture.
Taking up space and using up air is not quite the same.
Ted Turner is the largest individual landowner in North America.
What's all of that land going to be worth when the Yellowstone super-volcano erupts? Bupkis. The joke's on you, Teddy boy.
Check his will. He probably has willed it all over to the U.N. when he dies.
I’ve hiked there (limited access) and in 7 miles saw no signs of humans, no roads, no powerlines, no trash.
Except it is possible Moore rents here and owns in France (with Alex Baldwin). Baldwin is in France right?? Like he promised.
Looks like Kit Carson would have been happy there.
They permit limited fly fishing, and a guy I know went. He said after 15 minutes it was boring. Most of the streams hadn’t been fished since the 70’s (It was private land until recently) and they’d hit anything.
Personally, I would like to have at least enough to have a shooting range and not have any neighbors be able to complain about noise.
Since I can't afford that much, I live in a condo and have to pay to shoot at a range. If I'm going to have to put up with neighbors, I figure I might as well give up the illusion that I can do whatever I want on my own property and not have to mow the lawn myself.
My parents had 16 acres when I was growing up. It only seemed like a lot of land because the people that owned the land on two sides for a long ways lived out of state, there was woods and a pretty wide creek on a third side, and a really nice neighbor on the fourth side.
One bad neighbor could have made those 16 acres seem pretty small.
It is his ego.
My wife and I are looking for a minimum of 20 acres but would like 75 to 100. We are done with neighbors or at least ones we can see and a log home just doesn’t look right in a subdivision...
That’s right next to Philmont. Ted does allow some limited access to his land by the Boy Scouts.
I did 2 weeks up and down mountains in Philmont in 73, as a scout. Sangre de Christo Mountains. Beautiful country. Northern NM sure is pretty country.
I think those states better pass legislation requiring minimum state property taxes ....otherwise, the states will have to raise all the peasants property taxes...
If you could take a US map and put all of the acreage that Turner owners from New Mexico up to Montana, you’d see that he has giant swaths in the hundreds of thousands of acres which practically connect from Mexico up to Canada.
If you want a real conspiracy theory, imagine what would happen if Turner decided to donate all his lands to some North American Union front group to create a transnational highway. Hmmm???? Sounds appropriately evil considering it is Ted Turner. Not like its a serious thought, but Turner is a megalomaniac with billions of dollars so buying up counties worth of land is pretty much rational by comparison.
Then conservatives could tie him up in court over environmental impact statements - the irony!
I hope you find a nice spot for yours and any neighbors you do have are nice ones.
Property values are unfortunately so high in the area around where I work that I couldn't afford any sizable amount of land anywhere close, and I hate long commutes. I'm pretty much stuck with living in an urban area.
I wouldn't mind buying some property somewhere a bit more remote, but from what I've seen you either need to have someone living there, or don't build or keep anything on the property you value very much.
I have a low tolerance for vandals and thieves, so rather than causing myself what might be inevitable headaches, I guess I'll just have to wait to buy property until I have a lot more money, or retire and won't have to commute.
who cares anyway Land can’t take it with you - what he got 20 years left? I say he donates all for the Ted Turner Super Park to match his super ego...
If I had the money, I'd pretty much do the same thing though... Except I wouldn't let anyone on any of it, even for $12,000 a pop. (My FReeper name WOULD have been The Hermet, if it hadn't already been taken...)
Actually, I read in an interview of Ted Turner a long time ago that owning a continuous swath of land stretching from Mexico to Canada was precisely his intent. I don’t know how serious he was.
There is a ranch in this area that is nearly 600 sections that Ted Turner negotiated to buy about 15 years ago. The ranch has some sort of conservation easment that means they agreed to follow certain guidlines that are supposed to show good stewardship of the land. Ted seemed very serious about the ranch- it was priced at 17 million. After he thought it over- he backed out and made the statement that he would not pay 17 million for land- and allow anyone else tell him what to do with that land. While I would feel that way myself- I was happy at the time that Ted & Jane would not become neighbors.
There were a lot of rumors then about why he felt the need to own so much land- he already had large holdings here in NM. It is curious, there is just no way to know if he has some sort of plan or if he just likes to own land. My dad knew a man that just kept increasing the size of his ranch many years ago. He told my dad he was not greedy as most people said he was- he said he just wanted to own everything he could see; and everything that joined it. Maybe Ted is the same way.
It’s interesting to me that the article said most of his land is in conservation easments when he said that was the reason he wasn’t buying the ranch here. He must have changed his mind about that. Probably a huge tax advantage or something comes with those set-ups.
I surely don’t agree with the man on social issues, or politics- but I have to say if I had his money I would likely own a bunch of pretty land myself- so I don’t begrudge him that. I just hope he doesn’t have plans for it that include the UN or some other nonsense in the future.
I do not trust Ted on much : espically his word.
He has the legal right to buy these lands, but it is tough on the local families. They may have borrow tons of money just on the land.
Then there is the future higher property tax issues and...
It would not surprise me if he tries to do some loonie UN thing. Hopefully, I am wrong.
He might try that or will to the UN. It will be that or some some nefarious purpose. Turner went off the edge some time ago. He is trying to be a historic philanthropist and mainly looks like a historic fool.
No, no, Michael Moore is the largest lardowner. Turner is the largest LANDowner. See the difference?
Hi george,
Just read this article in an email alert I get daily. Good article.
Haven’t been of FR much lately (busy) but I do appreciate your pings.
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