Land That Was Bought in West Texas for $1.50 an Acre is Now Worth $7 Billion

The 250-acre Fasken Ranch in the currently booming Permian Basin of West Texas remains an oasis of mostly undeveloped land that is now worth up to $7 billion - mostly for what's in the ground. But the owners aren't interested in selling. “As long as I have been alive, I have never known anyone to successfully negotiate any type of purchase from them,” said Kimberly Wurtz, a lawyer now living in Norman, Oklahoma, who grew up near the ranch, referring to the land's owners. Bloomberg reports:

Back in 1913, when Toronto attorney David Fasken paid $1.50 an acre for plains outside Midland, the plan, according to lore, was to make a fortune raising cattle. There was too little water for that to happen. Fasken died 16 years later, unaware of the riches below the surface.

Now his heirs are among the 100 families that are the biggest private landowners in the U.S.—No. 40 on the list in terms of acreage, and nearer the top in value. Their holdings include three ranches in South Texas and commercial, industrial and residential real estate scattered around the Lone Star State and California. There’s also a vineyard in Napa Valley.

These scions are members of the old guard in the top 100, beneficiaries of parcels that were passed down and appreciated, with businesses in agriculture or energy or real estate often spinning off new layers of wealth.