Billionaire’s mansion helps conserve Kings River

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Becky Gillette – Hidden back in the woods off Rockhouse Road is the type of mansion complex few would expect to find in rural Carroll County. Built by Texas billionaire oilman Hugh Liedtke, the main house has a stunning, enormous rock fireplace, cathedral ceilings and soaring glass walls that lead to a spacious deck with a panoramic view of the Kings River Valley.

The ranch was once the playground of the superrich and politically connected, including the family of Liedtke’s earlier oil business partner, President George H.W. Bush. Liedtke and his brother Bill, co-founded Zapata Corporation in 1953, then acquired South Penn Oil and merged the companies into Pennzoil. Bush divested himself to run for Congress.

There are two bungalows adjacent to the main house with those same colossal glass walls providing stunning views. The property once boasted a landing strip, polo field, skeet shooting facilities, a firing range, tennis courts and croquet field.

Liedtke likely had no problem affording his retreat on the Kings that is now owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

“Hugh Liedtke pioneered the hostile takeover and once teamed with then-future President George H.W. Bush to drill 130 straight oil wells without a single dry hole,” said the Houston Business Journal. “But Liedtke was most famous for pitting his Pennzoil Co. in an epic legal battle against Texaco and winning a verdict of around $11 billion.”

Liedtke is also credited with staging America’s first major hostile takeover when Pennzoil used borrowed money to acquire control of a company five times its size, United Gas Corp.

During the years the Liedtkes owned the property, many famous business and political people, including Sec. of State James Baker, Gen. Brent Scrowcroft, and senior Bush when he was deciding to run for president, visited the property. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt is quoted in the David and Barbara Pryor Oral History saying Liedtke loved the Ozarks, but preferred Berryville over Eureka Springs because there weren’t so many tourists.

In 2010 the Liedtke property including the mansion and thousands of acres of land below on both sides of the Kings River was acquired by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). There is now a total of 10.5 miles of river protected by TNC.

Carol Wright, fundraiser for TNC, said the main house, now known as the Kings River Deck House, and its two nearby bungalows are part of the upland pieces of property included in the property acquisition.

TNC is primarily concerned with conservation, and normally wouldn’t have purchased something like the Kings River Deck House. But it was part of the package to obtain access to the river corridor. And now, after some maintenance needs are addressed, proceeds from overnight rentals of the Deck House will be used to help pay for conservation projects on the Kings River including erosion control projects to protect banks from erosion which has multiple benefits for wildlife, drinking water quality and recreation.

Nightly rentals are $650 a night for deckhouse or $950 for the main house and two bungalows with a two-night minimum on the weekends. The property sleeps 22 people.

“It rents well,” Wright said.

For additional photos, see the Eureka Springs Independent Facebook page or the website for the property, kingsriverdeckhouse.org/ or call Rich Carlson, (479) 253-5548.