What Jeff Bezos' Purchase Of 400,000-Acre Texas Ranch Did For The Town Of Van Horn

The arrival of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has turned the once-sleepy West Texas town of Van Horn into a burgeoning space industry hub.

In 2004, Bezos purchased the 30,000-acre Figure 2 Ranch just north of Van Horn. Now known as Corn Ranch, the property has grown to 400,000 acres and is the launch site for Blue Origin, the aerospace company Bezos started in 2000.

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The influx of highly skilled workers revitalized local businesses, with restaurants and shops seeing a significant uptick in revenue. Blue Origin employees have also become integral to the community, volunteering at the local school and museum.

Blue Origin employs 275 people, supplemented by 50 on-site contractors. While the company recruits engineers for specialized roles, it also hires local residents for a variety of positions, including construction, procurement and food service.

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Lisa and Vance Cottrell own the NAPA Auto Parts franchise, which sells parts and equipment to Blue Origin. The couple also owns two restaurants, and their daughter Starvanna manages Hotel El Capitan.

The hotel fills with Blue Origin employees before a launch, and they celebrate afterward. Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket system, a 63-foot-tall vehicle composed of a booster and crew capsule, has completed 15 unmanned test flights.

"They do a good job about making us feel like we're part of the team, and we're all pitching in to help make it happen," Starvanna Cottrell told the Houston Chronicle.

However, the rapid transformation brought its own set of challenges. The town's economic profile has shifted dramatically, disqualifying it from certain federal grants typically reserved for low-income communities. This has left Van Horn grappling with infrastructure issues, including a strained housing market and an aging water system.

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Despite the challenges, a sense of anticipation hangs in the air. Residents are eager to see what the future holds, with the possibility of Van Horn becoming a major launch site for space tourists.

This wouldn't be the first time Bezos has revolutionized an industry. Known for transforming online retail with Amazon.com Inc., Bezos launched into the world of space exploration with a quieter approach. He launched Blue Origin in 2000, just six years after Amazon's inception, and later began construction on the West Texas launch site. Now, Blue Origin's presence has become a catalyst for Van Horn's Transformation, raising both hopes and concerns for the future of the small town.

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"At the beginning of Blue Origin, everything was hush, hush, hush," Paradise Beauty Salon owner Cruz Parada told the Houston Chronicle. "They wouldn't tell you what they were doing."

Blue Origin's facility is in the mountains about 25 miles north of Van Horn near another of Bezos' ambitious projects — a clock designed to keep precise time for 10,000 years. Bezos acquired his vast Texas property through a strategic land-buying spree reminiscent of Walt Disney's tactics in Florida. According to Culberson County Attorney Steve Mitchell, Bezos purchased the land piecemeal under different names to avoid driving up property prices.

"At that early stage, nobody ever really knew it was all a mosaic to put them together," Mitchell told the Chronicle.

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