It is a truth universally acknowledged that a billionaire in possession of a sprawling media empire must be in want of a steady supply of bullshit. With the recent purchase of a Montana cattle ranch, home to 7,000 head, Rupert Murdoch now has access to more of the stuff than even Tucker Carlson could hope to shovel.
The ranch, located in the south-west of the state, not too far from Yellowstone national park, was bought from Matador Cattle Co, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, for about $200m, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The ranch’s sale, between the two driving forces behind the conservative movement in the United States, is the largest in Montana’s history.
“This is a profound responsibility,” Murdoch said in a statement. “We feel privileged to assume ownership of this beautiful land and look forward to continually enhancing both the commercial cattle business and the conservation assets across the ranch.”
The property is reported to cover roughly 340,000 acres, and span 50 miles from north to south, including “4,000 elk, 800 antelope and 1,500 mule deer” as well as a “28-mile-long creek stocked with trout” and 25 homes for employees, according to a representative for the Murdochs.
According to at least one neighbor and fellow rancher, John Jackson, the chairman of the Beaverhead county commission, the Koches “have been good neighbors”, as he told the Billings Gazette. He did not expect much to change with the Murdochs moving in, although it’s unclear how much time the 90-year-old media scion will be spending there (a spokesperson said the family do intend to spend time on the ranch).
Many on social media were quick to joke about the parallels between the sale of the ranch and the HBO hit Succession, about a family loosely based on the Murdochs, as well as the Kevin Costner program Yellowstone.
Another recent highly lauded work of fiction, the Jane Campion film The Power of the Dog, is set on a Montana ranch. In the film, head rancher and son of wealth Benedict Cumberbatch proves unable to connect with those around him and sets out to ruin the lives of everyone he encounters.
Koch Industries has been busy selling off similar properties around the US of late, including one in Kansas listed for around $24m and one in Texas at about $124m. The prospect of the world’s richest families hustling to trade remote properties stocked with enough livestock and water to survive on for years is probably nothing to be alarmed about for the rest of us.