Rupert Murdoch scored one of the greatest deals in his long career, spending $280million on a ranch located in America that used to be home to Wild West cowboys.
Jerry Hall (65), a media mogul, purchased the Beaverhead ranch of cattle on 340,000 acres in Montana from billionaire Koch families. The family had been the owner for 70 years.
This ranch is near Yellowstone National Park. It has an almost 28-mile long private trout fishery river. There are also elks, antelope, and muledeer.
Murdoch, who is 90, has been a friend of the Koch family for decades. His estimated net worth now stands at $30 billion. He and Hall now plan to spend a lot of time on the ranch the Wall Street Journal reports, after dividing up much of his business empire and selling 21st Century Fox to Disney for $71 billion in 2019.
Married in 2016, the couple have been trying to purchase a ranch over the past year to improve their LA properties.
Murdoch stated to the Wall Street Journal, “This is a deep responsibility.”
“We feel honored to be the owners of this magnificent land. We look forward in continuing to improve both the commercial cattle operation and the conservation resources across the ranch.
Rupert Murdoch (pictured), media mogul, purchased the Matador Ranch (34,000-acres) for $280 million
Some wild west Montana cowboys once called Matador Cattle Company home.
The property is home to elk, antelope and mule deer, and houses a number of horses
Murdoch’s acquisition of Beaverhead Ranch by Murdoch (pictured above) is one of the most significant in Montana history. Two Montana butchers were the first to own it. They later became members of the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Jerry Hall, the media giant, and Jerry Hall (pictured jointly) bought Montana’s 139,000-hectare property from the Koch family. The Kochs have been longtime friends.
It is home 15 families and a cattle ranch.
The property has 340,000 acres. 113,000 of these are deeded, while the remaining 226,000 are leased to grazing rights. It stretches 50 miles north-south, traversing two Montana counties. There are approximately 4,000 Elk, 800 Antlope, and 1,500 Mule Deer.
It also contains 25 worker’s homes. According to ranch website, the property was once home to two cowboys during the 1880s. Their families sold the property to Koch’s wealthy family.
A billionaire industrialist family is well-known for supporting conservative political candidates in the US Republican Party.
They bought it from the families of the original owners, Philip Poindexter and William Orr, who settled there in 1865 and were both Democrats.
They were both inducted in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame (2013, 2013).
They started out as butchers in mining towns and were the first cowboys to breed cattle and sheep in Montana.
It runs through a private, 27-mile-long trout fishing stream that runs through the ranch of 139,000 ha
View from the outside of the ranch located close to Yellowstone National Park
The ranch dates back to the 1800s, when it was purchased by Philip Poindexter and William Orr, who settled there in 1865
The property has since become the first ranch in the United States to receive Wildlife at Work certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council for outstanding natural resource management programs
Two horses were photographed in one of the stables at the ranch’s wide, open Montana property.
Beaverhead received a 2007 award that noted historic buildings and evidence of cowboy lifestyle were preserved.
The ranch is ‘home to nearly 7,000 cow/calf pairs of a variety of breeds, along with a large variety of wildlife including wild game, land and water fowl, large and small mammals, fish and plant life’
Beaverhead won many preservation and environmental awards throughout the years.
It was the first American ranch to be awarded Wildlife at Work Certification by the Wildlife Habitat Council in 2002 for its outstanding programs in natural resource management.
Beaverhead was also awarded a 2007 Award for Outstanding Contribution to History. Beaverhead received the award because of its preservation and evidence of Cowboy Life.
‘Interior walls that had to be replaced were kept, including one with signatures of cowboys dating back to the 1880s,’ Matador Cattle Company said.
Ranch is now an operating ranch, and 15 families live here.
Murdoch is 90 years old and is pictured second from left. It’s believed that Murdoch has a value of around $30 billion. Murdoch also has a long history of friendship with the Koch family. Pictured right is David H. Koch
Koch Industries sold a number of Western properties in the past months, including this sprawling ranch.
According to John Wilden, Hall and Hall’s listing agent, Koch Industries sold Spring Creek Ranch in March. This ranch is approximately 11,000 acres. Although he wouldn’t disclose the price of the sale, it was sold for $23.2million last year.
Matador Ranch was sold for $124.45 Million several months back. Over the last few months, approximately 100,000 acres of the non-contiguous land that make up the ranch have been sold to various buyers according to Sam Middleton, Chas S. Middleton and Son.
According to him, the prices for acreage have varied from $900 up $1,000, with roughly 27,000 acres remaining – at $875 an acre or $23.625million.
He said that they hoped it would be sold within the next 35 to forty days.