The Land Report

Summer 2017

The Magazine of the American Landowner is an essential guide for investors, landowners, and those interested in buying or selling land. The award-winning quarterly is known for its annual survey of America's largest landowners, The Land Report 100.

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S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 | The LandReport 81 LANDREPORT.COM Turner's rehabilitation of Montana's Flying D Ranch was anything but low profile. He paid less than $200 per acre for the 113,613- acre ranch. In addition to recognizing the Flying D's value as a long-term investment, he was floored by its scenic splendor and the abundant wildlife. Its traditional use as a cattle ranch? Not nearly as appealing. Russ Miller was in charge of Hall and Hall's ranch management division when Turner bought the Flying D. He was subse- quently brought on board as the first general manager of Turner's western ranches. "When Ted bought the Flying D from Bobby Shelton in 1989, I was still at Hall and Hall. He invited me and ranch manager Bud Griffith to the Spanish Creek house. Ted was on the porch with a book of Karl Bodmer prints in his lap. We all looked down at the Bodmer prints, and then we looked out across the landscape and saw a bunch of tractors putting hay up. There were power lines and fences and Angus cattle. And Ted looked down at the book again and up at the landscape, and down at the book and up at the landscape. Bud and I were following his head – kind of like watching a tennis match. "Then Ted said to Bud and me, 'You see this watercolor?' It was a painting of bison crashing through the underbrush in Northern Montana. He said, 'That's what I want the Flying D to look like. Those Angus cattle? Gone. Those tractors putting up hay? Gone. Those power lines? Gone. That's your job, boys. And what do you know about bison?' "'Not much' was the answer. "'Well, you better start learning because that's what we're going to be running.'" Turner Enterprises President and CEO Taylor Glover enjoys the closest of relation- ships with Ted. The two have been friends and colleagues for decades. He still gets a chuckle out of the experience: "I'll never forget when Ted acquired the Flying D. I think that big valley is seven miles long and four miles across. He said, 'I can't wait to get those fences out of here. All I want to see is bison.' By golly, if you go there today, that's exactly what you see." 2 0 1 7 L e g a c y L a n d o w n e r

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