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T. Boone Pickens Had Deep Ties To Texas Panhandle

High Plains Public Radio
Published September 11, 2019 at 6:14 PM CDT
Wikimedia Commons

A legendary Texas panhandle oil tycoon has died.

As ABC news notes, T. Boone Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and rose to prominence after founding Mesa Petroleum in West Texas in 1957.

By the dawn of the 21st century, Pickens was a dyed-in-the-wool billionaire.

The oilman had deep roots in the Texas panhandle, having moved to Amarillo during the great depression. He graduated from Amarillo High School, where he was a star point guard on the basketball team.

For the past few years, Pickens' former ranch north of Pampa has been on the market for a quarter of a billion dollars.

Pickens was famous for getting in scraps with other Panhandle folks, including a prominent fight with the Amarillo Globe-News in the 1980s and multiple dust-ups with Texas farmers and ranchers over water rights.

T. Boone Pickens passed away in his Dallas home on Tuesday, with family by his side. He was 91 years old.
 
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