A Koch Brother Building Private Cowboy Town 'For His Huge Collection Of Western Memorabilia'

Bill Koch Building Private Cowboy Town 'For His Huge Collection Of Western Memorabilia'

How ridiculously rich are the Koch brothers, that one of the lesser known members of that family (Bill Koch) can build himself an entire "Cowboy Town" (on public land no less) just to house his vast collection of western memorabilia? The Koch's use their vast wealth and influence to subvert democracy and twist government to their will, to ensure their extraction of wealth from Americans remain unchallenged. It won't be long before all the "little people" are sandwiched between the private empires of the extremely wealthy as they continue to gobble up the resources and countryside while continuing to further bend the will of the government to their whims.

There's a new town in Colorado. It has about 50 buildings, including a saloon, a church, a jail, a firehouse, a livery and a train station. Soon, it will have a mansion on a hill so the town's founder can look down on his creation. But don't expect to move here — or even to visit.

This town is billionaire Bill Koch's fascination with the Old West rendered in bricks and mortar. It sits on a 420-acre meadow on his Bear Ranch below the Raggeds Wilderness Area in Gunnison County. It's an unpopulated, faux Western town that might boggle the mind of anyone who ever had a playhouse. Its full-size buildings come with polished brass and carved-mahogany details and are fronted with board sidewalks and underpinned by a water-treatment system. A locked gate with guards screens who comes and goes.

Koch's project manager has told county officials that the enclave in the middle of the 6,400-acre Bear Ranch won't ever be open to the public. It is simply for Koch's amusement and for that of his family and friends — and historians. It is the ultimate repository for his huge collection of Western memorabilia.

This view of Bill Koch's re-created Old West town is from a public road running across Bureau of Land Management land. Koch wants to acquire the public land in a trade for other property he owns in Colorado and Utah. (De von Meyers, Special to The Denver Post)

Source for the above article is:
Billionaire's new Colorado town is a private Old West marvel
(denverpost.com)

Sharpie party anyone?

How was he even allowed to build this without having rights to the land? I forgot the wealthy can do as they please in this country laws are for the commoners. The Bureau of Land Management should deny this and the sue his butt off for destroying public property.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Ya know, nothing against ANYONE who worked for their money. They earned it! My issue is how they politically use their monetary power to screw the rest of us "po fok"! I see one party blame the Koch brothers then we have the other party who worships George Soros, and then we have BOTH parties who bow down to their corporate masters, while we all get screwed!!

I hope the guys that are into metal scrapping have a field day with this place! Nothing like rubbing your wealth into the faces of all the people you are screwing...........eh?

Yea shame on him for spending his own money, pumping numerous jobs into the small area, Getting the area into the news, increasing tax revenue for the city, county and state.

And probably numerous other minor advantages.


I only have a problem with the rich when they use their money to screw the rest of us in order to hold on to and grow their own personal wealth, pacs, lobbying etc...

Lots of people do that. A friend of mine built 2 tows on his 19000 acres in Tennessee. I put the railroad in for him

It's not a bad thing to be able to earn money and create with it, however I can see how frustrating it is when there isn't equal opportunity -

for example, my generation is projected to be only around 50% as wealthy as our parents - and most of my friends are lucky to have jobs that pay them enough to eat, let alone get their own places. Yet our generation is considered lazy by a generation that grew up with lavish amounts of money and job opportunities and doesn't understand our situation at all.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

Ya know, nothing against ANYONE who worked for their money. They earned it! My issue is how they politically use their monetary power to screw the rest of us "po fok"! I see one party blame the Koch brothers then we have the other party who worships George Soros, and then we have BOTH parties who bow down to their corporate masters, while we all get screwed!!

I hope the guys that are into metal scrapping have a field day with this place! Nothing like rubbing your wealth into the faces of all the people you are screwing...........eh?

Good post Seeker.
I agree completely.
And to be clear the Koch's didn't earn their money.
Their Daddy gave it to them.

Originally posted by buster2010
Sharpie party anyone?

How was he even allowed to build this without having rights to the land?

I forgot the wealthy can do as they please in this country laws are for the commoners.

The Bureau of Land Management should deny this and the sue his butt off for destroying public property.

edit on 21-8-2012 by buster2010 because: (no reason given)

Terrible isn't it?

This town is billionaire Bill Koch's fascination with the Old West rendered in bricks and mortar.

It sits on a 420-acre meadow on his Bear Ranch

below the Raggeds Wilderness Area in Gunnison County.

Does the BLM still have rights over private property?

Maybe I'm missing something

it says right in the op.

it sits on a 430 acre meadow on "his" bear ranch.

his money
his land

quit crying

This view of Bill Koch's re-created Old West town is from a public road running across Bureau of Land Management land. Koch wants to acquire the public land in a trade for other property he owns in Colorado and Utah. (De von Meyers, Special to The Denver Post)

From the OP, he is trying to acquire public land to expand his personal town to house all his memorabilia. That isn't really the point of the OP. When you have billionaires building themselves an entire vanity town to amuse themselves while more and more of America slides into poverty, we need to rethink just what is going wrong with capitalism and the free-market system. We have an ever-shrinking yet more powerful group of super-elites who are twisting and corrupting capitalism to continue to amass greater wealth, and their using their moneyed influence over government to aid themselves in that goal. To see just what I mean, see this ATS post by another member:

Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs by Paul Craig Roberts • August 19, 2009
(Paul Craig Roberts was Reagan's treas. sec. and original proponent of "trickle-down" Reaganomics - and now he is refuting that system, claiming he has seen it give rise to an oligarchy with the rest of America sliding into serfdom.)

Wow, with ALL the money they have for this, and that, and everything else including paying-off sell-out Republicans, they have the NERVE to THREATEN their employees with suggesting that they would be FIRED if their taxes slightly rise due to Obama making them pay their fair share!!! Threaten to FIRE their workers over SLIGHTLY more taxes yet they have this type of MONEY!!! Bluffing LIARS trying to INFLUENCE people with THREATS and bribe politicians with DIRTY MONEY!!!!!!!

Unbelievable!!!!!!!