CROWELL It’s official: 3 Rivers Ranch (3RR) is now part of the Texas Tech University System (TTU System).
Nearly 150 members of the surrounding communities and the TTU System family gathered for a Community Luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 3, to celebrate the beginning of a new partnership and new opportunities at the ranch in Foard County. The 6,000-acre ranch was gifted to the System by Dr. Fred Koch and the 3 Rivers Foundation for the Arts and Sciences (3RF).
“The 3 Rivers Foundation could have given this property to anybody or sold it and taken the money, but what distinguished the Texas Tech University System from every other reasonable alternative was their dedication to serving this region,” said Don Malone, attorney for 3RF.
During the event, leaders from the TTU System thanked Koch and 3RF for their generosity and service to Foard County residents and the surrounding areas. The TTU System also reiterated its commitment to keeping the 3RR open to the community, including continuing public star parties at the ranch.
“We have to take care of the people in rural Texas who take care all of the people of this region, state, and, to a large extent, the people of this nation and even beyond our borders,” Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., chancellor of the TTU System, said in a news release. “A piece of property like this is indeed a wonderful community asset for everybody, and we fully intend to ensure that, moving forward, we continue this tradition and do more for the communities we serve in this area.”
Hosted by the College of Arts & Sciences at Texas Tech University (TTU) and the Department of Physics and Geosciences at Angelo State University (ASU), star parties provide opportunities for telescope viewing led by staff who will assist the public in understanding astronomy. Star parties will also have public-level science discussions from TTU and ASU astronomers about modern research in astronomy.
TTU System leadership also expressed excitement about future projects led by researchers from each of the System’s five universities and shared how those activities will ultimately lead to advances in areas such as agriculture, STEM, astronomy, medicine, and more.
Among those looking excitedly to the future is TTU System Board of Regents Vice Chairwoman Ginger Kerrick Davis, a TTU alumna who once ran the university’s observatory before becoming the first female Hispanic flight director at NASA.
“When this partnership opportunity between the TTU System and 3 Rivers Ranch was first brought up, there was a scream of excitement,” Kerrick Davis said. “I just can’t wait to see what’s going to happen here.”
About 3 Rivers Ranch
The 3 Rivers Ranch is a 6,000-acre property located 10 miles west of Crowell, Texas, that sits in the “Big Empty,” an area that stretches from outside the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to Amarillo and presents significant research, educational and community engagement opportunities for the TTU System and its five component universities.
The historic gift, made by Fred Koch, M.D. (pronounced “KAH”), is the first of its kind and the largest real estate donation to the TTU System. A Quanah, Texas, native, Koch is a 1975 graduate of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
The 3 Rivers property – named after the region’s rivers, the Pease, Red and Wichita – enjoys vast biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem common in short-grass prairies. Facilities on the property include state-of-the-art telescopes, observatories, living classrooms and laboratories, a pavilion, and lodging for students, faculty and the surrounding communities. This property also includes extensive undeveloped land, allowing for greater research and learning opportunities spanning agriculture and environmental sciences, arts and humanities and health and medicine.
From astronomy and agriculture to community outreach, 3RR offers tremendous collaborative opportunities for each of the TTU System’s five universities. It also further cements the TTU System’s established footprint in rural Texas as they discover new ways to serve and collaborate in the region and beyond through lifelong learning and innovations in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), art, health sciences and more.
