BANDERA, Texas – The Flying L Ranch was sold for $3 million at auction Tuesday on the steps of the Bandera County Courthouse.
According to bankruptcy court records, Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union was owed just under $3.2 million. It had put in the only other bid of $2,950,000, until Cindy Stevens caught the auctioneer’s attention.
SEE PHOTOS OF THE RANCH HERE
At $3 million even, Stevens had the highest bid on behalf of her and her husband Don Stevens, president and CEO of Equalizer Inc.
The Waco-based company deals in several commodities including cattle feed, wholesale fertilizer, as well fracking sand and other services for the energy industry.
RELATED: Bandera's historic dude ranch goes on auction block Tuesday
Cindy Stevens said she and her husband had bought a ranch near the Flying L Ranch about a year and a half ago.
"We love this community," Stevens said. "We're going to make the Flying L even greater."
Seventy years ago, the Flying L became the nation's first dude ranch with an air park for that era's rich and famous who often flew in to stay there.
The landing strip was later replaced with an 18-hole golf course.
Stevens said the golf course will stay and she wanted to reassure homeowners and those with time-share condominiums.
"We don't want anyone to move," she said. “We love it here and I know they love it here.”
Penny Bateman, who chairs the Flying L Property Owners association, hugged Stevens after the bank accepted the high bid.
“I knew I had a good feeling about you,” Bateman told Stevens when they met.
Stevens also said she and her husband want to preserve the Flying L’s history and spirit of the Old West.
That’s welcomed news for Buck Shannon, the Flying L’s entertainment director.
"Being that Bandera is known as 'the cowboy capital of the world,'” Shannon said, “It’s important for us to carry on the tradition of the cowboy.”
Seventy years ago, the Flying L became the nation's first dude ranch with an air park for that era's rich and famous who often flew in to stay there.
The landing strip was later replaced with an 18-hole golf course.
Stevens said the golf course will stay and she wanted to reassure homeowners and those with time-share condominiums, "We don't want anyone to move."
Flying L foreclosure sale.pdf by David Ibanez on Scribd