Hunting Land Becoming Prime Real Estate In Western Oklahoma

Sunday, May 14th 2006, 11:13 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Land prices have doubled in one far western Oklahoma county as quality hunting grounds have attracted buyers whose pockets are filled with money made in the oil business.

Drawn by the presence of white-tailed deer, turkey and quail to be hunted around the federally protected 31,300-acre Black Kettle National Grassland in the heart of Roger Mills County, land buyers have been paying twice what they did five years ago.

``We've definitely seen a trend,'' said Tom Goodwin, a Cheyenne attorney who handles land transactions. ``Lately, we've seen a lot of land sold for recreational purposes such as fishing and hunting.''

County Assessor Glenda Kirk said more buyers are coming from outside the county and the increase in land value has some locals considering selling their land. Farmers in the area are growing older and fewer young people can afford to pay the higher prices for farmland, Kirk said.

``The last auction I was at there was a guy from Phoenix,'' said Bethany resident Robert Frost, who bought 160 acres in Roger Mills County three years ago. ``They come for the hunting. I've seen hunters from Georgia, Alabama, Florida _ all over. They come to quail hunt and to hunt for turkeys in the spring.''

Neighboring Dewey, Beckham and Washita counties have also been affected, Elk City auctioneer Cindy Grant said.

``Prices have gone up all over,'' Grant said. ``Basically, we're seeing land prices go up wherever there is oil money. There's simply a lot of money in Roger Mills County.

``But hunting is also a factor. What we've noticed is a lot of local ranchers and farmers are bidding against hunters for the land.''

Dwayne Roark, a trucking operator, paid $860 an acre last year for a plot of 560 acres of native grassland that included a section where his father, Lee, grew up. He associates the price with all the oil drilling rigs dotting the countryside.

``People just got a lot more money in their pockets,'' Roark said. ``The oil field is going strong out here. Oil-field workers and folks with (oil and gas) leases simply have more money to spend. And a lot of people want to put that money into land.''

The changing prices have also made bankers' jobs more difficult. Joe Yowell, the vice president and loan officer at a Cheyenne bank, said river-bottom land was the prime real estate 15 years ago.

``Now we're seeing native shortgrass land _ land that would have been considered sorry at one time _ selling for nearly as much as the river-bottom land and sometimes for more,'' Yowell said.

``Every time we think we have some property appraised right, we just come back shaking our heads.''