Texas oil baron's billionaire son, 37, builds 20 miles of barbed wire fence ... trends now
A Texas oil baron's billionaire son is clashing with the descendants of original settlers after he built 20 miles of barbed wire fence to keep them off his $105 million ranch.
William Harrison, 37, bought the 88,000-acre expanse of land, named the Cielo Vista Ranch, stretching through the San Luis Valley in Colorado in 2017.
Hundreds of locals, who are descended from original Mexican and Spanish settlers, claim to have the right to legal access to the property under a 1844 agreement which allows them to graze their livestock, hunt and harvest timber.
But after he bought the property, Harrison started construction a miles-long, eight-foot-high barbed wire fence, claiming it is necessary to contain his herd of bison and keep out trespassers.
Locals say the fence is like a prison yard, separating deer from their young and destroying an irrigation system, as one man, Joseph Quintana, told The Colorado Sun: 'It's a way of him marking the territory of his prized possession, a vanity thing.'
William Harrison, 37, bought the expanse of land, named the Cielo Vista Ranch, stretching through the San Luis Valley in Colorado in 2017
Hundreds of locals claim to have the right to legal access to the property under a 1844 agreement
Since Harrison bought the land, the community has been embroiled in a series of lawsuits, arguing over access and usage rights.
He built 20 miles of fence before a group of residents, descended from the original settlers of the land, convinced the state district court to order a one-year moratorium on fence-building.
The ban runs out in September, with a trial set for the fall to decide whether the existing structure will have to be torn down.
Shirley Romero Otero, whose Jicarilla Apache ancestors were among the first settlers in the valley, told the Colorado Sun: 'What's hard for us living here on a daily basis to internalize and verbalize is the psychological impact.
'He's doing this to us because he's always treated this community as second-class citizens.
'The bottom line is he wants to keep us access holders from accessing our rights, and that is never going to happen.'
Residents say that cameras and drones keep watch on the fence while armed security guards man the gates, meaning even those with keys to the gates have allegedly been harassed.
One resident - who
