The 6666 Ranch Empire Crisis Just Got Worse

The Turkey Track Ranch — 77,721 acres in the Texas Panhandle, held by the Coble and Whittenburg families for over a century — has been searching for a buyer since 2021. First listed at $200 million. Then cut to $180 million. Then the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest wildfire in Texas history, burned sixty percent of the rangeland and killed the deal in progress. On October 1, 2026, it went back on the market. Still no buyer. This is the follow-up to our 6666 Ranch video. When Anne Marion died and Taylor Sheridan bought the Four Sixes, it looked like a one-time shock. It wasn't. The Waggoner Ranch sold. The Swenson ranches sold. Now the Turkey Track — site of both Battles of Adobe Walls, where Kit Carson nearly lost his entire command in 1864 and Quanah Parker led his famous charge in 1874 — is the next great Texas ranch dynasty facing the same crisis. The patriarch, J.A. Whittenburg III, died in December 2016. His only son died ten months before him. The family scattered. The land stayed. This is the story of what happens when the last person who knows how to run a ranch like this is gone. Sources: Texas State Historical Association — Handbook of Texas entries on Turkey Track Ranch, William Thomas Coble, and Adobe Walls Dallas Morning News — J.A. Whittenburg III obituary, December 2016 Icon Global Group — Turkey Track Ranch listing announcement, October 1, 2026 Texas A&M Forest Service / CNN / Texas Tribune — Smokehouse Creek Fire coverage and Xcel Energy investigation, February–March 2024 The Land Report — Turkey Track Ranch feature and sale history Panhandle-Plains Historical Society — Adobe Walls battle sites, archaeological records, and W.T. Coble's 1924 donation of the battlefield tract