John "Thunder" Thornton sits in his pickup truck, high on a Wyoming summit, and looks out over the shimmering scenery. He smiles. His brown eyes almost gleam. Every place his eye falls he owns.
In this part of the country, where old cowboy traditions mix with toney tourists, if you own the scenery, you rule.When history gets around to sorting through what Thornton has accomplished in the past 10 months in this land of mighty mountain tops and broad vistas, it might go something like this:
A 43-year-old east Tennessean who grew up in Maryville and made a fortune in textiles in Chattanooga and in north Georgia, purchased 1,300 acres in Jackson Hole, Wyo. It is some of the finest real estate in America.
And then he made another fortune.
In late June, Thornton completed a court-ordered transaction in bankruptcy proceedings after 10 months of legal and personal negotiations. The Crescent H Ranch had belonged to Riverview Meadows, owned by Don Albrecht, a California developer. A bankruptcy trustee was to sell it to satisfy $30 million in claims.
Thornton bought the ranch in a complicated and dazzling foreclosure sale for $52 million and 13 cents, $20 million higher than the appraised value. He figured that the property's real value was around $100 million, maybe more, because land in this tiny area, only 50 miles long and about 15 miles wide, is at a premium.
The wealthy elite are buying up what is left of Jackson Hole, driving land prices up astronomically.
The federal government owns 97 percent of the land in and around Jackson Hole. Millionaires have been buying the rest as aging ranchers or their children give up incredible parcels of what once was the Old West.
Thornton has launched himself into developing part of the Crescent H, built in the late 1920s by Heinz Ketchup money. He will build only 23 exclusive homes on 700 acres along the Snake River. He will leave the rest to nature.
The finest fly-fishing water in the nation runs through his ranch. It's like owning diamond mines in South Africa. Only these diamonds swim in pristine waters.
The ranch, which is bordered by 800 acres owned by superstar Harrison Ford, was one of the first approved fly-fishing ranches and the first guest ranch in the Rocky Mountain states.
Fly fishing here is a religion, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue each year for Teton County and other surrounding communities. Thornton is sitting on the mother lode.
He has sold 16 of the 23 tracts that will be developed. Each is 35 to 50 acres. Prices range from $3 million to $6 million. Thornton says he will sell a few more and put two or three aside for himself.
"There's about 200 acres of land represented in seven tracts that have already been mapped out," he says. "My intention is to give these tracts to either the Nature Conservancy or the Jackson Hole Land Trust. These tracts are the most valuable on this entire ranch. They are about $5 million apiece. And if I wanted to sell them, I could. Probably by this weekend. All of them."
Thornton says if he is successful with the donation, it will mean a significant tax deduction for his operation, but that is only a minor role in this drama. He happens to care about what happens in the future and lives by a favorite saying that he likes to quote.
"I can't take credit for this, but someone once said that when you acquire land you are buying its past and are responsible for its future. I am responsible for this land's future.
"It will be the largest single conservation donation ever in the history of the United States in terms of value. Not in terms of acreage. Nobody has ever given away $35 million worth of property to a conservation easement before."