Last Dollar Ranch - the historic ranch near Telluride that has become a favorite setting for Marlboro ads, Budweiser commercials, and television programs - sold at auction for $6.27 million Thursday, with J.P. King Auction Company managing the sale.
The widely promoted auction attracted 16 registered bidders from Colorado, Utah, Texas, California, Montana, Mississippi and Belgium. When the bidding contest ended, Randy Lewis, of San Antonio, Texas, had emerged as the high bidder.
"I'll confess to some sadness in parting with the Last Dollar Ranch, but I know that Mr. Lewis is also a Colorado rancher who loves the land as I do, and he will carry on the tradition we have established," said Vincent Kontny, the former international construction executive who bought the ranch in 1989 and restored it.
"The auction enabled us to know the date on which it would sell, so we were free to move ahead with our future plans," Kontny said.
The turnout of bidders from a broad geographic area reflected the widespread interest in the ranch, according to Craig King, president of J.P. King.
"There's truly nothing else like the Last Dollar Ranch, and it has been an honor to market the property for Mr. Kontny," said King. "He created something really special with the painstaking restoration of the home and log buildings dating back more than a century," he said.
Also selling in the auction was Eagles Nest, a newly built home in Ridgway. The home sold for $1.41 million to Tom and Judy Christopher, of Coppell, Texas.
J.P. King, based in Gadsden, Ala., is the nation's leading auction marketing firm specializing in high-value properties such as ranches, superluxury homes, condominiums, land and developments. Upcoming sales include a ranch in Bayfield, hunting land in Wisconsin and Georgia, and townhomes in Florida.