Formerly known as the Triple U, the Standing Butte Ranch’s 46,000 acres are native prairie grassland that has never been scarred by disc or blade. After more than a half century of stewardship, the Houck family decided to sell their ranch and awarded the listing to Tom Metzger of Hall and Hall. Metzger’s colleague, Scott Shuman at Hall and Hall Auctions, began prepping for the sale, which was scheduled for last July in Fort Pierre. But in late June, Hall and Hall announced that the ranch would no longer go to auction; a single buyer had emerged. Ten weeks later, a succinct announcement out of Atlanta confirmed the new owner: “Turner Enterprises’ purchase of the property kept its size and scale intact, saving Standing Butte from being subdivided into multiple parcels at auction. Some of the parcels would have undoubtedly been plowed and farmed by new ownership, fragmenting the pristine native landscape.”
Read more about this 2015 Land Report Deal of the Year in the Spring issue of The Land Report.