But he has helped fuel a rush for Texas ranchland by city slickers more interested in recreation than ranching. Ground zero for ranch mania is the hill country. Architectural firms such as Kerrville's Artisan Group are busy building homes as big as country clubs with private jetports. They even change the direction of streams. Windshield ranchers have also been busy creating their own personal game preserves.
Veterinarians report a land-office business treating exotic pets.
Hunting is what initially attracted many to the hill country. Others have fond memories of childhood summers spent at the area's two dozen-plus camps and see it as a nostalgic family retreat. Tom Fatjo, the multimillionaire founder of Waste Corp. of America, fell in love with the Guadalupe River at age 5. Now he flies in by charter jet from Houston to his 200-acre ranch outside Kerrville and brings along his four kids, ages 3 to 11, to hunt, fish and swim on holidays. Fatjo watches over his herd of 60 axis deer and whitetail deer from the luxury of his truck or golf cart.