Group fighting to save western town at Storybook Ranch, recently hit by vandals It makes me more motivated to move it. We ve got to get it out of here, said Kristi Avalos after vandals damaged the inside of the historic hotel and opry house. Author: Jobin Panicker Updated: 7:45 PM CDT July 2, 2021
MCKINNEY, Texas The old western town at Storybook Ranch in McKinney has served the community for more than two decades as a place for gatherings and social events.
The historic little town is a compilation of real buildings from the 1800s, including the church, saloon, and hotel and opry house. Now most of those buildings are boarded up to keep vandals from entering and destroying the insides.
Last chance saloon for Old Western town as bulldozers circle: Bid to save estate made up of 21 buildings - all from 1800s - and a bank that was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde
The organization that ran the ranch, River Ranch Educational Charities, moved out of town and had planned to sell the property to a developer, who wants to build houses on it
Kristi Avalos is now raising funds to restore and relocate the Old Western town
The 21 buildings on the property were all built in the 1800s and were from western states
They were moved to the property in the 1950s
Nonprofit wants to save the Old West town in McKinney that attracted ‘Playboy’ and movie crews
No one has set foot in Storybook Ranch, a nearly condemned property with a jail, saloon, barbershop and more, straight from the 1800s, for three years. Now, a nonprofit is aiming to save the buildings.
A nonprofit wants to save Storybook Ranch.(Courtesy NBC5 DFW)
The 80-acre parcel in McKinney, which features several 1800s buildings that have drawn
Playboy photo shoots and movie crews, is about to be redeveloped into new housing, according to KXAS-TV (NBC 5).
The property is practically condemned, Kristi Avalos told the station. But she wants to save the ranch’s 21 historic buildings, including a jail, saloon, hotel, apothecary, fire station, opry house, barbershop, dry goods store, post office and bank.
Investor hoped to restore Western town in McKinney that hosted ‘Playboy’ shoots and was a movie set
In 2003, the new owners of Storybook Ranch planned to restore buildings and host events in the town of Dry Bones.
President of Storybook Ranch Jeong Nim Kim (lower left), with her daughter Lynn Miller and son-in-law Brandon Miller, who were general managers for the authentic multi-million dollar Western town assembled in 1981 in McKinney. Their Ranch Cowboy Gary Drake, far right, nuzzles with his horse Mississippi.(MELANIE BURFORD / 193189)
By Paul Meyer
McKINNEY It was an eccentric developer’s private fantasyland a multimillion-dollar replica Western town built from the ground up in the early 1980s on a patch of rural McKinney farmland.