Historic $180M Texas ranch 80% burned by wildfires, owners say

CANADIAN, Texas — An historic Texas ranch that’s currently up for sale for $180 million was among those badly burned by the sprawling wildfires in the Panhandle.

The owners of the Turkey Track Ranch said they were “heartbroken by this devastating fire,” both on their property and the surrounding areas, according to a statement released through their Dallas-based brokerage, the Icon Global Group.

The Turkey Track owners estimated that 80% of their pastures, plains and creek bottom vegetation have been burned by fire.

The Turkey Track sits on 80,000 acres west of Stinnett, which is where the Smokehouse Creek Fire was still burning on Thursday morning.

As of Thursday morning, the combined acreage on several major fires, including the Smokehouse Creek Fire, had climbed above 1 million acres. The Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest of the fires at more than 500,000 acres, was 3% contained as of Thursday morning.

The Turkey Track owners called the damage “unparalleled in our history.”

“The loss of livestock, crops, and wildlife, as well as ranch fencing and other infrastructure throughout our property as well as other ranches and homes across the region is, we believe, unparalleled in our history,” the owners’ statement said.

The statement thanked firefighters who were battling the fires and helped save the ranch’s homestead and several other homes and buildings on the property.

“That said, we are all completely devastated and personally heartbroken by the magnitude of this horrific event not only across our own ranch but that of many others,” the statement said. “The Turkey Track ranch will recover and regenerate growth, habitat, ecosystems, and wildlife. Nature mends after fire and will grow again all the natural grasses, vegetation, and tree cover in our beloved ranch oasis. We are fortunate to have an abundance of water both above and below ground which will aid in the recovery of the ranch, while we pray for rain and for all others caught up in and affected by this disaster.”

The Turkey Track is one of the oldest ranches in Texas, dating back to the 1800s. It also has historical significance as the site of the Adobe Walls battles between Native Americans and the U.S. Army and buffalo hunters in 1864 and 1874.

The Whittenburg and Coble families had owned the property for more than 100 years before deciding the put the ranch up for sale in 2021.

Ranch owners and residents across the Panhandle on Wednesday were beginning to tally the toll of the devastating fires.

CNN confirmed one person has died in the fire. Joyce Blankenship’s family told the network that the 83-year-old grandmother died in her home in Stinnett.

Her grandson, Lee Quesada, said he had posted in a community forum asking if anyone could try and locate her. Quesada said deputies told his uncle on Wednesday that they had found Blankenship’s remains in her burned home.

Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall described the charred terrain as being “like a moonscape. … It’s just all gone.”

Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community. Kendall also said he saw “hundreds of cattle just dead, laying in the fields.”

Tresea Rankin videotaped her own home in Canadian as it burned.

“Thirty-eight years of memories, that’s what you were thinking,” Rankin said of watching the flames destroy her house. “Two of my kids were married there … But you know, it’s OK, the memories won’t go away.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report