Filmmaker behind ‘Yellowstone,’ ‘Sicario’ to buy historic Texas 6666 Ranch, reports say

The filmmaker behind the sprawling Paramount Network series “Yellowstone” will soon be purchasing the famed Western Texas ranch where he’s shot scenes from the show, media reports indicate.

Taylor Sheridan, nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for penning the script for “Hell or High Water,” is leading a buyer group set to purchase the 6666 Ranch, the ranch’s broker told The Texas Spur. The 266,000-acre Burnett family ranching operation, spread across two locations, was put up for sale last December after longtime owner and Fort Worth native Anne Marion died at 81 of lung cancer. The price tag was $347.7 million, as stipulated in her will.

Sheridan told The Texas Spur he couldn’t comment on the transaction but noted “the legacy of the 6666 Ranch and Miss Marion’s vision for the ranch are vital not only to the ranch itself, but the rich heritage of ranching in Texas.” Scenes from the Kevin Costner-starring “Yellowstone” shot at the ranch near Borger in October 2020, according to radio station 101.9 The Bull in Amarillo. Sheridan told The Texas Spur he plans to highlight the legacy of the ranch — also known as Four Sixes — in the upcoming fourth season.

On top of “Yellowstone,” a spin-off series from Sheridan, currently titled “6666,” is in the works at Paramount Plus, Entertainment Weekly reported in February. The show will focus on the ranch started in 1870 by Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett, “where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Sheridan, a rancher himself and a native Texan, is also poised to continue leading the ranch that has garnered a reputation of producing strong horses and quality cattle, per the The Texas Spur. He grew up on many ranches, including one in Fort Worth, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Sheridan described in an interview with Cowboys & Indians Magazine last December that he now has ranches outside Weatherford and in Jacksboro, and he feels a duty to represent the state.

“Being a Texan today and what it means to live in Texas — there’s a responsibility that comes with it, in that you really do represent the entire state,” Sheridan told the magazine. “Everybody in Texas always represents the state.”

The 6666 headquarters is located near Guthrie and the Dixon Creek Ranch is between Panhandle and Borger, according to its website. The ranch says it’s dedicated to its cows and its stallions — from its racing horses to its ranch and sale horses — as well as cultivating the land with resources like 18 solar wells and 29 windmills.

In the 1880s, Samuel Burnett negotiated with Comanche Chief Quanah Parker for lease of the lands, according to his biography on the 6666 website. He acquired the expansive grassland that makes up the ranch and upwards of 10,000 cattle while respecting the Comanche people, his biography notes. He was known to be friends with Parker.

Marion never got to meet Burnett, her great-grandfather, who died in 1922 before she was born. But she grew up on the ranch, according to her 6666 biography, and later in life inherited it from her parents as she developed a reputation as a respected horsewoman. She was also known for her major contributions to the Fort Worth art community, including the Kimbell Art Museum.

Sheridan, whose work has focused on the feeling and the tradition of life in Texas, seems to be a fitting match with the historic ranch. In “Hell or High Water,” two brothers try to steal from a string of banks across Western Texas in order to pay off the mortgage their family owes the bank. A pair of Texas Rangers try to track them down.

Sheridan’s films “Sicario” and “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” which he wrote, focus on the drug trade on the other side of the border in Mexico and the American agents investigating it.