In 2022, Taylor Sheridan's Group Bought A 260,000-Acre Ranch Listed At $330M; It Ended His Retirement

Considering the fact that writer and director Taylor Sheridan had a major hit on his hands with his show "Yellowstone," he thought he'd made it big enough to step back from the entertainment industry. By basically anyone's standards, he had. For its creator, "Yellowstone" became a rags-to-riches story that totally changed Sheridan and his wife's lives. So, he planned to retire when the series was finished. Ironically, though, it was someone he met while filming "Yellowstone" that changed those plans. 

During Season 4 of "Yellowstone," Sheridan got in touch with Anne Marion, owner of the Four Sixes Ranch, to use it as the setting for a few episodes. The approximately 260,000-acre ranch was the perfect fit for the show, and Sheridan likely thought his relationship with the ranch and Marion was over after that. When she died, however, he learned that the ranch (seen in the video above, alongside Sheridan and his horses) would be divided into parts and sold. "But before they did that, she had asked if they would try to find someone who would maintain her vision," he explained on the "Rodeo Time" podcast. "And so, the person they came up with was me." 

The only catch? It was $330 million. Sheridan ended up making a deal with Paramount to have the funds for the Four Sixes, which he bought with other investors in 2022. "I was set up to retire. I was going to be done after 'Yellowstone,'" he added. "And I was going to put my feet up and show horses and raise my little, have my little hobby herd over here and that was it. And I knew that if I bought this ranch that I was not going to be quitting my day job for a while."

Taylor Sheridan was looking forward to retirement. Evidently, though, owning the Four Sixes Ranch was too good an opportunity to pass up. Yet, there was one big catch beyond the cost: his then-ten-year-old son, Gus. "My son was young, and ... I said, 'You're too young for this conversation, but we're going to have to have it anyway, because if I buy this ranch, someday, you're going to have to run it. So, if you tell me you don't want to do that, I'm not going to buy it," Sheridan recalled on the "Rodeo Time" podcast. Gus approved, and the rest is history. 

Fans of Sheridan's work are surely thrilled about how this story turned out, considering just how much television he has created since then, when he could have otherwise been retired — including "The Madison," "Dutton Ranch," "Tulsa King," and "Landman," to name a few. It seems that retiring after "Yellowstone" would have actually been a tragic turn in Sheridan's life, not just for his fans, but also for him. Sheridan seemingly loves juggling his primary residence, Bosque Ranch, with the Four Sixes Ranch, and feels fulfilled with the path he's chosen. "It's a love affair with the land of West Texas," he explained to Fort Worth Magazine in 2022, noting, "There's a tremendous amount of discipline that it takes to build a ranch like this. It takes strength, excellence, integrity, and faith, and that's the main mission statement of the ranch."