“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan said buying a $330 million ranch kept him from retiring.
On Tuesday’s episode of the “Rodeo Time” podcast hosted by Dale Brisby, Sheridan said his purchase of the Four Sixes Ranch prompted him to sign a deal with Paramount and continue working.
“I was set up to retire. I was going to be done after ‘Yellowstone,'” Sheridan said.
The writer and producer said he had already paid cash for another ranch in Weatherford, Texas, and “didn’t owe anybody anything.”
“I was going to put my feet up and show horses, and have my little hobby herd over here, and that was it,” Sheridan said.
However, buying the Four Sixes Ranch meant Sheridan couldn’t retire just yet. “I knew that if I bought this ranch, I was not going to be quitting my day job for a while,” he said.
The opportunity to buy the ranch came after its then-owner, Anne Marion, died.
Sheridan, who had met her while filming “Yellowstone” there, said the ranch was set to be divided and sold, but Marion had asked her estate to find someone who would “maintain her vision.”
“And, so, the person they came up with was me,” Sheridan said.
When they approached Sheridan about buying the ranch, the property came with a hefty price tag. “I said, ‘Well, boys, I’m a little short. In fact, I’m about $300 million short,'” Sheridan said, recalling his response.
He said the prospect of buying the ranch led him to reconsider an “exclusive deal” with Paramount, which he had previously resisted.
“They were terrified that I was going to go to greener pastures and leave them and go somewhere else, which I probably was,” Sheridan said.
“But once this happened, I called them, and I said, ‘You know what? I think I’m ready to make an overall deal.’ And they said, ‘That’s great. Do you have a number in mind?’ And I said, ‘Why yes, I do,'” Sheridan said.
However, Sheridan’s partnership with Paramount may soon be winding down. Puck reported in 2025 that he was set to leave Paramount for NBCUniversal once his current deal expires.
Inside Sheridan’s piece of Texas history
Founded by Samuel “Burk” Burnett in 1870, the Four Sixes Ranch is known for its Angus cattle and Quarter horses, per its website. It remained under the Burnett family for generations, eventually passing to Marion, Burnett’s great-granddaughter.
Marion’s will required the family’s ranching operations to be sold after her death, according to the property’s listing. The main Four Sixes Ranch, spanning 142,372 acres in King County, was listed for $192.2 million. It was offered together with two separate properties, the Dixon Creek and Frisco Creek ranch divisions, which were listed for $137.3 million and $12.2 million, respectively.
Texas Land Magazine reported in June 2022 that Sheridan put together a group of investors to buy the ranch. It said the deal closed in January that year, and “all parties signed a confidentiality agreement preventing disclosure of the final sale price.”
“The deal was all-inclusive — three ranches and all inventory,” Sam Middleton, the listing agent and broker who represented Marion’s estate during the sale, told the magazine.
Sheridan, meanwhile, said the scripts he wrote while “Yellowstone” production was shut down during the pandemic helped him secure a controlling stake in the investment.
“I wrote a bunch,” Sheridan said in an interview with The Land Report published in June 2022. “I sold enough scripts that I was able to become the majority owner in the partnership.”
