Vermejo Park Ranch

The Vermejo Park Ranch is a 590,823-acre (2,391 km2) ranch owned by Ted Turner in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado that is said to be the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States and about 3/4 the size of the State of Rhode Island.

The ranch, located just west of the city of Raton, is the biggest component of Turner's ranch empire of 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) that as of 2007 makes him the biggest private landowner in the United States. It lies mostly in western Colfax County, New Mexico, but smaller portions extend into northeastern Taos County, New Mexico as well as southwestern Las Animas County and southeastern Costilla County in Colorado.

The ranch's most visible component is its guest ranch and hunting. It is stocked with elk, mule deer, pronghorn, bison, black bear, mountain lions, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and Merriam's Turkey (a subspecies of the Wild Turkey).

Some sections are used for extracting natural gas from its immense hydrocarbon reserves. The ranch was extensively mined for coal in the early 1900s with mine names of Brilliant, Koehler and York Canyon. The ranch is said to have a 300-year reserve of bituminous coal, trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and unknown quantities of oil.

A small portion is used for the Rich Cabins camp for the adjoining Philmont Scout Ranch.

It was part of the Lucien Maxwell land grant.

In the early 1900s William H. Bartlett (1850–1918) built elaborate ranch houses in the property. Bartlett bought 200,000 acres (810 km2) in 1902 for $195,000 and hired close friend and Chicago architect, Joseph Lyman Silsbee to help him make improvements including three large residences (including the main Casa Grande) and a power plant. He expanded it to 300,000 acres (1,200 km2).

Bartlett died at the ranch in 1918 and his sons died within two years.

A syndicate of New York, St. Louis and Chicago businessman took an option to buy the ranch and organized the Vermejo Park Club selling memberships to Tex Austin, Billy Mitchell, Amon Carter, and the Frederick Guest family. A member of the Guest family shot an elk which at the time was the ninth largest in the world; it is now on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York. However the syndicate was unable to raise the $1.8 million asking price and the original club was disbanded.

Los Angeles Times baron Harry Chandler bought the property from Bartlett. In 1927 Chandler and his investors worked on a new Vermejo Park Club attracting Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Harvey Firestone and Herbert Hoover.

The Club was disbanded in the Great Depression.

W. J. Gourley, a Fort Worth businessman, bought it in 1948 and increased the total area to 480,000 acres (1,900 km2).

On December 23, 1955, the large middle guest house burned and the stables were renovated to become the ranch's main social and dining area now called "The Stables."

Pennzoil bought the property in 1973 and increased its area to 588,000 acres (2,380 km2).

In 1996 Ted Turner acquired the property, sold the cattle and used their pasturage for bison, which are also called "buffalo" in North America. Ralphie V, of the Ralphie mascot of the Colorado Buffaloes, was born there.