nsxt2000
11-29-2007, 08:47 PM
There is an old song that goes..."Give me land lots of land, lots of beautiful land. Don't fence me in..."
Ted Turner, a part-time Atlantan and former husband of Jane Fonda, must have liked the sound of that song. With his recent acquisition of 26,300 acres of prime ranch land in Nebraska he has become the largest private landowner in the country. Ted has amassed 2 million+ acres over the last two decades and owns parcels in at least nine states.
Reasons for this land grab range from political to economic to just plain bizzaar. They include, and in no particular order - he just wants to be a large scale rancher, he is scheming with the United Nations to create a vast wildlife refuge, he wants to corner land over the Ogallala Aquifer, the world's largest underground water system to gain political and economic power, to well you name it. Maybe the guy just likes open spaces.
You have to admit that the guy knows how to make money...and how to spend it. After his father committed suicide and left Ted with a losing proposition local television station, most would have sold out for whatever they could and moved on. Instead Ted turned the station into the Super Station and never looked back.
An interesting story related to Ted is that my former neighbor at one time crewed for him when Ted was into yatch racing. That was when Mr. Turner was married to his first wife and my friend had a daughter who was friends of the family. Word was that Ted was very frugal with funds back then and only allowed his wife a limited budget to operate the household each month. If she ran out of money before month's end, tough. I think he changed over the years.
-Mike S.
Ted Turner, a part-time Atlantan and former husband of Jane Fonda, must have liked the sound of that song. With his recent acquisition of 26,300 acres of prime ranch land in Nebraska he has become the largest private landowner in the country. Ted has amassed 2 million+ acres over the last two decades and owns parcels in at least nine states.
Reasons for this land grab range from political to economic to just plain bizzaar. They include, and in no particular order - he just wants to be a large scale rancher, he is scheming with the United Nations to create a vast wildlife refuge, he wants to corner land over the Ogallala Aquifer, the world's largest underground water system to gain political and economic power, to well you name it. Maybe the guy just likes open spaces.
You have to admit that the guy knows how to make money...and how to spend it. After his father committed suicide and left Ted with a losing proposition local television station, most would have sold out for whatever they could and moved on. Instead Ted turned the station into the Super Station and never looked back.
An interesting story related to Ted is that my former neighbor at one time crewed for him when Ted was into yatch racing. That was when Mr. Turner was married to his first wife and my friend had a daughter who was friends of the family. Word was that Ted was very frugal with funds back then and only allowed his wife a limited budget to operate the household each month. If she ran out of money before month's end, tough. I think he changed over the years.
-Mike S.