Southfork: Too Big For Its Britches?

Ever since millions watched J.R. Ewing take his first diabolical gaze over Southfork’s back forty eight years ago, the Piano ranch has become the object of worldwide fascination. In the past year or so, however-largely due to the efforts of real-life Texas real estate tycoon Terry Trippet-the 200-acre back-drop for the television series “Dallas” has become a bona fide Metroplex tourist trap.

Want an overpriced Southfork coffee mug or T-shirt? A visit to the Southfork tourist shop is sure to please. Want to spend a night with friends at Southfork’s 8,000-scquare-foot mansion? No problem, pardner, as long as you can afford the whopping $2,500 price tag. Want to impress a few hundred clients with a western-style party or bring together your company’s entire sales force for a convention meeting? Has Southfork got a deal for you: the convention center seats up to 2,800 persons and caters meals and drinks to conventioneers and clients.

With 300,000 visitors last year and 500,000 expected in 1986, tourism at Southfork seems to have gotten as big as the television series itself. So big, in fact, that the folks who run the ranch’s booming business claim the “Dallas” film crew and actors are getting in the way while filming episodes of the series at the ranch during June, July, and August-the peak tourist season.

“There is a certain glitz and glamour connected with South-fork,” says ranch general manager. Ken Brixey. “Our business here basically revolves around people trying to impress other people.”

Now that Trippet is currently conducting a feasibility study on building a hotel on the ranch. Southfork could grab an even bigger chunk of the area’s convention trade.

“It’s really not like we’re trying to hoard all the money,” says Brixey. “We spread it around. When they visit Southfork, people stay in Dallas hotels and they see other Dallas sights. What we’re taking away in the convention business, we’re giving back in tourism.”