Billionaire media mogul, philanthropist and conservationist Ted Turner is opening a select number of his vast property holdings to the public, offering people the opportunity to enjoy what amounts to their own private national park and experience what is akin to an African safari on American soil.
Ted Turner Expeditions is an eco-luxury affair without the attitude or ostentation. It’s a snippet of life as Ted Turner leads it: grand, nature-oriented, active—and with a purpose.
Sure there is hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, hot springs bathing, migration awing, bird watching, art tours and helicopter tours. The magic kernel of consumption on these southwestern safaris, however, lies in the majestic beauty Turner is holding out for the world to see. It’s the Continental Divide rolling flat along the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts, scattered with scrub brush and sand-soaked plains slimming upon the face of rust-colored buttes and ranges of mountains overtaking one another in a competition of peaks rising out of the distance and carving stark silhouettes against the big, blue New Mexico sky. Here, Turner’s Armendaris and Ladder ranches sit near each other. To the north is the Vermejo Park Ranch, which is so large it also creeps into Colorado.
Turner is the second-largest private landowner in the U.S. (Liberty Media’s John Malone ranks first.) All told, Turner properties equal some 2 million acres, or an area that is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Trying to describe just how vast the ranches extend is difficult. On the two-hour drive to the town of Truth or Consequences, N.M., from Albuquerque, a mountain range appears in the distance. Jeff Mokotoff, vice president and chief administrative officer of Ted Turner Expeditions, points to it and says that’s one.
“One what?”
“One of the ranches,” he says.
We drive for miles. Turner has 17 ranches of various acreages. The size and scale of the accumulated properties, which Turner has built up over the past 20 years or so, are mind-blowing. The three ranches consist of more than 1 million acres, about half of Turner’s total land holdings.
To be sure, the lands haven’t been acquired for aggrandizement or exploitation. Turner, a well-known environmentalist and philanthropist who famously donated $1 billion to establish the United Nations Foundation, wants to keep the land intact for generations. Which is partly why he and his team are launching an eco-tourism program: The properties, now part of a trust, are eventually to be self-sustaining. It may be the ultimate act in sustainability and conservation, even at a time when wilderness philanthropy has become en vogue among billionaires. Turner may be partially responsible for the trend: The Financial Times, in a November 2015 story about the global trend of land conservation, says, “Wildlands philanthropy is a particularly American idea, rooted in traditions of free enterprise.”
So I asked Turner why ecotourism on the lands and why now?
“Now seemed like the perfect time to move forward. The Turner Ranches have always had a dual purpose—to unite economic viability with ecological sustainability,” he says.
Truth or Consequences itself is giant knickknack-looking town of 7,000 people. This is where the expeditions begin. Guests arrive at the Sierra Grande Lodge and then head out. At the Armendaris Ranch, there aren’t accommodations, but guests can visit the property. From there, there are heritage tours and mountain hikes. At the Ladder Ranch, there is mountain biking, photography and art walks, among other activities. Vermejo has its own agenda and sits apart from the Armendaris and Ladder ranches and the Sierra Grande Lodge. And a new property has been added, according to Mokotoff: Ted Turner’s private island in South Carolina, St. Phillips Island. It sits between Savannah and Charleston and is relatively untouched and unspoiled except for the home on the property.
The purchase of the Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa in 2013 really sparked the move into hospitality, though. “We decided it was time to open up these properties to others in the hopes they will experience and appreciate the wonders of nature as much as we have,” he explains.
The Sierra Grande Lodge is just 18 rooms. But Turner’s endeavors are never small. The lodge is merely a gateway to the big, bold and beautiful land beyond. Turner is the personification of “go big or go home.” Take CNN and the original cable TV “superstation,” TBS. They disrupted the norms of television programming and viewer habits. Yet they began humbly on cable. Or take Ted’s Montana Grill, an ambitious restaurant concept that now includes 45 locations. The restaurant chain, while a sizable venture itself, is but a doorway to an even bigger concept: repopulating bison.
Millions of bison used to inhabit North America until the turn of the century, when they were slaughtered to near extinction. Enter Turner, who founded a commercial industry for bison with the goal of increasing heard counts. Now the buffalo population amounts to about 150,000 and the species is no longer deemed endangered.
“One way we have achieved success and balance is with bison ranching,” Turner says proudly. The ranches, the restaurants and the reforms he has made to wild land ecosystems all come together in a balance of nature and commerce.
“There is something inherently powerful and beneficial about spending time in nature and appreciating our reliance on a healthy, functioning ecosystem. That’s one of the reasons we decided to launch Ted Turner Expeditions. We want visitors to enjoy the outdoors, while educating them at the same time. Experiential education is not a new idea. Lifelong learning is often facilitated by time spent in the wild. These experiences provide an arena for connecting with the natural world in a meaningful way, especially when young people and families can share in a moment of discovery through actually ‘doing’ together,” Turner says, his comments remarkably sanitized for someone who has been called “the Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous.” Perhaps he so carefully weighs his remarks because he cares so much about the land, what’s on it and how it’s cared for.
His marketing materials also wax poetic about the tour offerings: “Ted Turner Expeditions is rooted in two million acres of wild, private North American landscape acquired by Ted Turner as a pioneering investment in balancing conservation and economic sustainability. The restoration of habitats, conservation of threatened and imperiled species, and increase of biodiversity are the cornerstones of Ted’s vision. His vast, pristine, working landscapes and their ground-breaking conservation practices give voice to the visionary in all of us. ... Ted Turner Expeditions is committed to making a difference by inspiring individual action to preserve the wonder of nature.”
The tours are different enough—“extraordinary” is an apt descriptive. Waking up on the Ladder Ranch in the bedroom Turner’s ex-wife, actress Jane Fonda, designed, with its four-post bed, pink walls, Mexican blankets and bearskin rugs, the sunrise beats a hard blood orange against the jagged cliffs, crafting an illusion of color reminiscent of a lavish Bierstadt painting. On the nightstand is a piece of memorabilia with Henry Fonda’s name on it; a buffalo statue that was a gift from Burt Reynolds stands on another table, as well as a collection of family photos. If you have ever wanted to step into the shoes, nay boots, of a billionaire and experience life as he would have it, this is the opportunity.
To be sure, this is no Four Seasons resort. The rustic Americana accommodations match the environs. But at the Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa, you’ll dine on fine cuisine and drink fine wine if that is of interest. You’ll take in a famed mineral bath and perhaps indulge in a massage. At the Ladder Ranch, there is a private chef, tour guides and staff to suit every need. Just wandering around the property is actually an activity in and of itself. That’s because the surroundings present a certain kind of solace. It sets the destinations apart from the typical adventure tour or national park. Ted Turner Expeditions have all the makings for mass appeal yet also cater to the eco-conscious elite.
Mokotoff says from a business and marketing perspective, his biggest challenge is to not pigeonhole the type of client who may enjoy many of the more provocative aspects the expeditions have to offer. “We may have a client with a different economic means who could stay at Sierra Grande and do a half-day or a full-day tour on either the Ladder or Armendaris, for example. That type of client could be someone who doesn’t have the desire to exercise like I might want to, and so we have driving tours. ... We have high-energy tours where you may be doing moderate to extreme hiking, moderate to fairly extreme mountain biking. We’re going to be offering mountain climbing.”
Money is another differentiator. “We would expect to speak well to those clients who have the means to experience Ted’s landscapes exactly like Ted experiences them. So those are the folks that would stay in Ted’s Ladder house or go onto Ted’s private island or perhaps stay at Casa Grande in Vermejo,” Mokotoff says.
Room prices are as low as $145 per night at the Sierra Grande to $6,000 at the Ladder Ranch. Tour prices range from $150 to $600 per person.
Because of the privacy and quiet they afford, the locations are ideally suited for family office gatherings, foundation retreats or academic and organization meetings.
Net worth and adventure aptitude aside, there is a shared ethos on the Turner ranches. It seeps through every executive, every ranch hand, every staffer and even guests.
“Here’s the deal,” says Tom Waddell, the hard-worn cowboy who has managed Turner’s Armendaris Ranch for the past 22 years. “We’re all focused on putting Ted’s vision on the ground. Guests are now part of the team and so we hope will be their children. It’s long-term thinking.”
Steve Dobrott, the ranch manager at the Ladder Ranch, speaks of the painstaking effort that has gone into preserving the land there, bringing it back to the way it once was.
Biologists are nearly always on site. Land surveys, animal population tracking and vegetation diversity are constant projects. To accommodate the animals’ movements, or as it might be said, to let the buffalo roam, 250 miles of fencing was removed—a project that took three years. Universities regularly send students here to conduct scientific research. Innovative models for biodiversity have been developed. Studies on ways to shift resources have been devised. For example, diverting watering spots that predators utilize can spigot prey populations—important when there are mountain lions about.
The efforts are made to provide Earth the opportunity to make its own kind of balance. The payoffs are infective.
Coming around the bend of a dirt road to find a herd of bison peering at you above the tall grass, or watching a wild turkey dance its way over boulders, or matching your handprint to the bear claw marks on a tree, whose bark they use as a kind of aspirin (then trying it yourself), or discovering a shard of a Native American artifact on the ground, or a petroglyph on a stone, are sights and experiences that memory will serve up over and over again.
The land instills and attracts a certain kind of virtue—to live free, unbound.
Sir Richard Branson’s Spaceport is close by and “once they start space fights, the astronauts, or the clients of Virgin Galactic, will stay with us,” says Myra McNamara, general manager of the Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa.
There is a close relationship between the two billionaires, so much so that they even share a chef: Tatsu Miyazaki. He runs the restaurant at the Sierra Grande Lodge and caters Virgin Galactic affairs.
Turner Expeditions executives say many of the astronauts—who will pay up to of $250,000 for a spaceflight—will be coming to the area with large entourages, further bolstering tourism in the area, namely the expeditions.
For the original business disruptor, Turner is creating order, a natural order of ecosystems. On his land are flora, fauna and the found items of lost generations; dinosaur fossils were even recently discovered. Catch sight if you can. Visit if you might.
“For years, my family and I have wanted to give people the opportunity to visit and experience my properties that are so dear to us,” Turner says. “These places offer so much natural beauty, and the wildlife is just incredible. We hope that the people who do visit one of our properties enjoy themselves. But, almost as importantly, we hope that these properties ignite a deeper appreciation and love for nature, wildlife and our planet. I believe that if you grow to love something, you wish to protect it, not destroy it.”