Wild Horses: Wealthy rescuer creates eco-sanctuary

Madeleine Pickens remembers watching John Wayne flicks with her father and rooting for the late Hollywood hero to save the day. "I was always sure that I would meet John Wayne and that he would fall in love with me and we would live on the range," Pickens says. "I did better. I met Boone Pickens. And we're living happily ever after." The Texas billionaire's wife wants an equally happy ending for the nation's last wild horses, too. And she wants to be the hero riding to their rescue. She has purchased two ranches in Elko County, about 25 miles south of Wells, to build a "living museum" for mustangs, an eco-sanctuary where they can roam free. Her Spruce Mountain and Warm Creek properties cover roughly 18,000 acres of private land and 570,000 acres of public land, including breathtaking desert valleys and one peak above 10,000 feet. Pickens hopes to run at least 1,000 wild horses on the rugged public land, which came with grazing rights for the same number of cattle. And she wants to let people come and view the horses, visiting an educational center that would teach children and adults about America's heritage. Visitors could sleep in tee-pees on the range and take covered-wagon rides along the routes that settled the West...more