Chas S. Middleton and Son
The legendary Four Sixes Ranch has sold, according to reports.
The Fort Worth Report said last week that the ranch was acquired by a group led by Taylor Sheridan, the co-creator and producer of the widely popular “Yellowstone” and the highly anticipated spinoff, “1883.”
The historic ranch was established in 1870 and now spans 266,255-plus acres in West Texas, which includes the Dixon Creek Ranch Division and the Frisco Creek Ranch Division.
Lubbock-based land brokerage and appraisal firm Chas S. Middleton and Son listed the property for sale at $341 million. The property, which went on the market in December 2020, is located in King County. Lubbock is 95 miles to the west, Wichita Falls is 115 miles to the east, and Fort Worth is 200 miles to the southeast.
The property was part of the estate of the late Anne Marion, who passed away at age 81 in 2020.
At his death in 1922, Marion’s great-grandfather, Burk Burnett, had established The Four Sixes and amassed 450,000 acres and an oilfield, which developed the town in Wichita County that, at the suggestion of President Theodore Roosevelt, took his name, Burkburnett.
Burk Burnett willed the bulk of his estate to his granddaughter, Big Anne, in a trusteeship for her unborn child, who wouldn’t arrive for another 16 years.
Her grandmother, Ollie Lake, Marion said, reinforced her love of ranching and its traditions.
“She’s the one that told me the old stories,” Marion said in a historical account shared on The Four Sixes website. “She had the background of the Depression, and she kept telling me that I was lucky to have all that I do and not to waste it.”
When Anne Tandy, who later married Tandy Corp. founder Charles Tandy, died in 1980, the title to the properties went to Marion, as her great-grandfather’s will set out.
She was remembered as a savvy and upbeat businesswoman.
“In managing the ranch, I try to hire the best and most qualified people I can,” Marion said in an interview with Western Horseman. “I give them a general idea of what I want to accomplish, and then give them the freedom to do what they do best. I am not a micromanager.
“I learned that hardships and disasters will happen. Disasters should not be a surprise. Instead, the goal is to prepare for them.”
Of her time spent at the ranch in her youth, Marion said, according to The Four Sixes: “The most important thing that ever happened to me was growing up on that ranch. It kept my feet on the ground, more than anything else.”
She told Western Horseman: “When I was young, I learned all phases of ranch life. I gathered eggs, milked cows, churned butter and ice cream. When I wasn’t riding and working cattle with the cowboys, I was in the kitchen. I have been involved with all aspects of the ranch’s operation from a very early age, which is the best experience one can have.”
News broke last year that Sheridan, who grew up on a ranch in Cranfills Gap (he graduate from Paschal High School) and a group of investors were eyeing the property. In addition to “Yellowstone” and “1883,” Sheridan’s Hollywood chops also include an Oscar nomination in 2015 for the script of “Hell or High Water.”