PATAGONIA, AZ — History and beauty are for sale at a special site in Patagonia—-for just under $30 million.
ABC15 sister station KGUN9 got an inside look at a large ranch that could be one of the biggest real estate deals in Southern Arizona.
The history of the Rail X Ranch reaches back to well before Arizona was even a state. A series of owners have lived on this land, and loved it, whether it was mainly a working ranch or a spectacular home.
Ferdinand von Galan’s family bought the Rail X in the 1970s. It was quite a change for someone born in Germany.
“As a kid, it was a massive adventure. I mean, it was fantastic. We used to spend the month of August here playing cowboys and Indians and riding horses and you know, in some cases, friends of mine catching tarantulas and doing some scary stuff. But it was an adventure because it was so different. It was a completely different world.”
He says an east coast industrialist built the huge main house in 1937. That house, along with some smaller ones, adds up to 16 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, and about 2.7 square miles of land.
The ranch stakes another claim to Southern Arizona history. Starting in the 1940s, the family of longtime Congressman Jim Kolbe operated the Rail X as a dude ranch. Kolbe worked on the ranch when he was young.
Ferdinand von Galen says respecting and maintaining the big ranch is a big responsibility and after roughly 50 years of ownership, it’s time to step away. He hopes to find a buyer who will maintain the property as a natural area and wildlife preserve.
“There's so much variety here. Is there a particular part that you will miss?" KGUN9 reporter Craig Smith asked.
“The house because it's my youth. I mean, I came here the first time when I was five years old. I've never been a huge cowboy. So that's not so much it but I miss the house because it's sort of the setting of my youth in a way.”
And now, after building so many memories, the Rail X Ranch is waiting to build more.
