The long-rumored sale of the 6666 Ranch — previously owned by Fort Worth rancher, horse aficionado, art collector, arts patron, and philanthropist Anne Marion — is now confirmed.
Don Bell, owner-broker of Weatherford-based Brazos River Land Co., an affiliate of United Country Real Estate, verified March 15 that the massive Texas Panhandle ranch has a new, but unidentified, owner. The sale price wasn’t disclosed.
Reports surfaced earlier this year that Taylor Sheridan, co-creator of the hit TV show Yellowstone and its 1883 spinoff, led a group of investors that bought the ranch. However, neither Sheridan (an alumnus of Fort Worth’s R.L. Paschal High School who lives in Weatherford) nor any of the other individual buyers has acknowledged the purchase.
Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, has featured the ranch several times. Sheridan reportedly is working on another spinoff with the working title 6666, and as of February, it was still in development.
The ranch went on the market in 2020 for $341 million. Marion, who died in 2020, spelled out in her will that the property be sold. The ranch — actually three properties used mostly for cattle ranching — covers 266,255 acres in Carson, Hutchinson, King, and Sherman counties.
Bell says in a news release that he and his late colleague Milt Bradford represented the owners, who “are committed to keeping it intact and preserving its legacy.” Sam Middleton of Lubbock-based real estate brokerage firm Chas. S Middleton and Son represented the Marion estate.
Bell says the ranch “was purchased in its entirety and will continue to represent the icon that it is in the ranching community. History is always being made around this unique ranch, and this purchase was no different.”
This marks the first time the ranch has been sold since its establishment in 1870. “At over 266,000 acres, this is one of the most significant ranch purchases in recent U.S. history,” Bell says.
Marion’s maternal grandfather, legendary Texas rancher, oilman, and landowner Samuel “Burk” Burnett, started what now is known as 6666.
After he died in 1922, the bulk of Burnett’s estate went to his daughter, Anne Burnett, in a trusteeship for her not-yet-born daughter (Marion). Anne Burnett eventually married Charles Tandy, who founded Fort Worth-based Tandy Corp., which owned the RadioShack chain of electronics stores. Following Anne Burnett Tandy’s death in 1980, Marion inherited most of the estate, including two of the three parcels that now make up 6666. She purchased the third parcel, the 9,428-acre Frisco Creek Ranch, in 2016.
The 6666 has operated as a cattle ranch since its founding in 1870.
