Billionaire Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke tells hundreds of fixed income residents in Texas to get off his newly-bought land 

  • LA Rams owner Kroenke bought the land in February
  • Hundreds of residents received non-renewal notices for their leases this month
  • The legendary ranch property had belonged to the Waggoner family for 164 years before Kroenke bought it
  • The billionaire wants to return the land to its natural state for the 'microecosystem'

By Kiri Blakeley For Dailymail.com

Published: 17:45 EST, 12 August 2016 | Updated: 10:35 EST, 13 August 2016

Hundreds of Texas residents, many elderly and on fixed incomes, will have to move from the land they've been leasing for decades thanks to a billionaire who bought the land and is forcing everyone off of it.

Los Angeles Rams billionaire owner Stan Kroenke - who also owns north London football team Arsenal - bought up 535,000 acres of legendary ranch land near Lake Diversion outside of Wichita Falls in February, reportsDallas News.

Los Angeles Rams owner and billionaire Stan Kroenke bought up 535,000 acres of legendary ranch land (above, photos by Jeremy Enlow)

Los Angeles Rams owner and billionaire Stan Kroenke bought up 535,000 acres of legendary ranch land (above, photos by Jeremy Enlow)

The cowboys of Waggoner ranch are legendary and now many are worried about losing their homes if their plots of land are next to be cleared out of inhabitants 

The cowboys of Waggoner ranch are legendary and now many are worried about losing their homes if their plots of land are next to be cleared out of inhabitants 

Lake Diversion is home to hundreds of residents who leased land from the Waggoner family, which has now traded hands to billionaire Stan Kroenke - above, the view from a leaser's window

Lake Diversion is home to hundreds of residents who leased land from the Waggoner family, which has now traded hands to billionaire Stan Kroenke - above, the view from a leaser's window

Cowboys and ranch hands who have been working the land on Waggoner Ranch (above) might now be homeless

Cowboys and ranch hands who have been working the land on Waggoner Ranch (above) might now be homeless

Lake Diversion, above, snakes through 535,000 acres of legendary ranch land in Cara Blanca Park

Lake Diversion, above, snakes through 535,000 acres of legendary ranch land in Cara Blanca Park

Although it's unclear what he paid, the land was listed for listed for $725 million.

The Cara Blanca Park land had been in the Waggoner family, which established the property 164 years ago. The family then leased the land near the northern part of the lake in plots to hundreds of residents, who paid for homes.

The ranch is the biggest in the US and was settled by the Waggoner family 164 years ago

The ranch is the biggest in the US and was settled by the Waggoner family 164 years ago

Families who have lived on the ranch for decades will now have to find a new place to live

Families who have lived on the ranch for decades will now have to find a new place to live

It's unclear yet if the entire 535,000 acres will be cleared but residents on Facebook were worried

It's unclear yet if the entire 535,000 acres will be cleared but residents on Facebook were worried

An eviction notice sent to the residents posted on a GoFundMe account says they must be off the land by January 31, 2017.

Kroenke says he wants to return the land to its original 'natural, uninhabited landscape to support and improve the microecosystem' read the eviction notice.

Residents who lease plots on the land received notices of nonrenewal and will have to pack up and leave by February 1, 2017 - many say they do not know where they will go

Residents who lease plots on the land received notices of nonrenewal and will have to pack up and leave by February 1, 2017 - many say they do not know where they will go

At the time of the sale, Kroenke said he was 'deeply committed' to the 'proud legacy' of the Waggoner ranching family, but that apparently did not include honoring a promise the residents say the Waggoners made to allow the families to continue leasing the land.

Kroenke is already enemy number one in St. Louis for moving the Rams to Los Angeles. He is married to Ann Walton, a Walmart heiress. 

'We've got family members that have had leases out here for 50 years,' resident Annette McNeil told the St. Louis-Post Dispatch. 'Texas is kind of a good old boy state. You take a man at his word. We've never doubted the Waggoners because we never had any reason to doubt them.'

McNeil says she lives in a rock home 1926 that can't be moved. She says she poured her savings into it and expected to retire there.

Paul Appel, a Vietnam War veteran with medical problems and a fixed income, says he has no idea where he is going to go.

'I have no money and I'm on Social Security and disability. I live month-to-month and can't afford rent anywhere,' he told the Times Record News.

According to the GoFundMe account established by the daughter of two of the residents, Lillian Siber Gifford, the land had been leased for the past forty years.

'This land property is inhabited by mostly retired and semi-retired people who have lived there for many years. For example, my elderly parents ages 79 and 80, have lived there for the past 36 years,' she wrote.

She also mentions an elderly couple in their 70s or 80s, and someone who leased land and just built a house there last summer. She also notes that her nephew, an Air Force veteran who served in Kuwait and Iraq and lives with his three children, is being forced to move.

'This is deeply morally wrong and completely unjust,' she wrote. 

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