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Sam Burk Burnett and Taylor Sheridan with 6666 Ranch (Wikipedia, Getty, Chas S Middleton and Son)
The “Four-Sixes” ranch, as locals know it, sold for the first time since its founding in 1870, to “Yellowstone” co-creator and producer and Fort Worth native Taylor Sheridan.
Reports surfaced earlier this year that Sheridan, who filmed both “Yellowstone” and its 10-episode prequel “1883” at the 6666 Ranch, was leading a group of investors to buy the rural Texas landmark.
The deal has reportedly been in the works since last June, before it was finally completed this week, according to a press release from Don Bell, owner-broker of Weatherford-based Brazos River Land, an affiliate of United Country Real Estate.
“The final purchase price of the ranches remains undisclosed, but it’s publicly known the ranches were collectively listed for sale at $341 million just for the real estate itself,” said Bell. “At over 266,000 acres, this is one of the most significant ranch purchases in recent U.S. history.”
The sale included all three of the ranch’s separate operational divisions: the main 6666® Ranch, about 142,372 acres in Guthrie; the 114,455-acre Dixon Ranch in Carson and Hutchison counties; and the smaller 9,428-acre Frisco Creek Ranch in Sherman County.
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The property first belonged to cattle rancher Samuel Burk Burnett who started his empire with just 100 head of cattle, all bearing the 6666 brand. In 1905, the cattleman’s vast estates and burgeoning business caught the attention of then-President Teddy Roosevelt. The roughrider became a close friend of Burnett and in 1910, he advocated for the town of Nesterville to be renamed “Burkburnett” in honor of his pal.
After consolidating his Guthrie properties into what is now 6666 Ranch, Burnett built an 11-bedroom house dubbed “the finest ranch house in West Texas” for around $100,000–an enormous amount of money for that time.
Before his death in 1922, Burnett willed the bulk of his estate to his granddaughter, Anne Valliant Burnett in a Trusteeship for her unborn daughter, Anne Burnett Marion. Known as “Miss Anne” and “Little Anne,” the mother-daughter duo oversaw the ranch’s meteoric rise in the world of horse breeding and racing. In 1969, a major oil field was discovered on the Four-Sixes, which set off the women’s careers as celebrated oil tycoons, philanthropists and patrons of the arts. Little Anne’s death in 2020 was felt throughout the community as her will dictated all 6666 ranching operations be sold, making her the last Burnett to own the famous ranch.
“Recently featured on the hit show Yellowstone, the ranch was purchased in its entirety and will continue to represent the icon that it is in the ranching community,” said Bell. “History is always being made around this unique ranch and this purchase was no different.”