Sale of N Bar Ranch makes headline news

The Wall Street Journal reports the sale of the N Bar Ranch, a 62,000-acre Montana ranch listed by Hall and Hall at $45 million.The Wall Street Journal's Juliet Chung writes:The new buyer was a Texas domestic limited partnership principally owned by brothers Dan and Farris Wilks, who founded Frac Tech, a Cisco, Texas-based oil-field drilling-services firm. A spokeswoman said in an email that they own other ranches and "have a long-time love for the land...and intend to continue the ranch's current operations."The ranch supports 1,500 head of cattle and includes about 51,400 deeded acres and about 10,600 acres of leased lands. Its headquarters is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Joel Leadbetter of Hall & Hall had the listing.The Land Report adds that for the past 10 years, the balance of cattle operations with wildlife needs was a top priority. The International Business Times and the Billings Gazette expand on the history of N Bar Ranch to its beginning, when the Newman brothers left Nebraska in 1878 with 12,000 N-Bar-branded cattle and a government contract to provide meat for the Indian reservations. The Billings Gazette also reports that Chelsea Clinton worked on the ranch as an intern during the summer of 1999, when her father Bill Clinton was president.Reporter News has more information on Frac Tech and the official buyer, Wilks Ranch Montana Ltd., also owned by Dan and Farris Wilks. The brothers will keep their primary residences in Texas.Hall and Hall is a ranch real estate company that emphasizes land stewardship. Hall and Hall brokers work as a team to provide clients from around the world with services such as real estate marketing, resource management, loan underwriting and real estate appraisals. For more information, visit http://hallhall.com/.