The property, which could be sold as soon as Tuesday, is the Christmas Mountains Ranch, a 9,270-acre tract abutting Big Bend National Park near the Rio Grande. It was given to the state in 1991 and leased to the nonprofit association of local residents to patrol.

The pending sale of the property, which is limestone hills and Chihuahuan Desert scrublands, has created an uproar.

Originally, the General Land Office planned to convey the property to the National Park Service or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. But neither agency would commit the resources to acquiring it, leaving it closed to the public. Since then, it has been patrolled by local property owners, including the Christmas Mountains Association, which now has 13 charter members and 5 associates, many of them naturalists, who pay the state an annual lease fee of $927, or 10 cents an acre.

A scheduled sale was canceled on Sept. 18 after the state said a property map was inaccurate. The highest bidder of six then was Louis A. Waters, retired founding chairman of Browning-Ferris Industries, who, with his family, offered $652,000, or $70 an acre. The family proposed to limit the preserve just for environmental study, promising, “Under no circumstances would we open the Christmas Mountains to the public.”

Posted: 11|3|07 at 10:32 am. Filed under: US Property.