Billionaire Without Heirs Pours Fortune Into Texas Ghost Town
John Poindexter, an 81-year-old Houston manufacturing magnate with no children, is directing tens of millions of dollars into restoring Shafter, a West Texas ghost town of about 25 residents, through his Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation.
An 81-year-old Houston manufacturing billionaire with no children is directing a substantial share of his fortune into an unlikely cause: reviving a West Texas ghost town of roughly 25 residents. John Poindexter, founder and sole owner of J.B. Poindexter & Co., has funneled nearly $67 million into his Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation since late 2020, according to IRS filings compiled by ProPublica. The foundation reported $62.5 million in net assets in the fiscal year ending November 2024, including $20.6 million in contributions that year.
The foundation's signature project is Shafter, a former silver-mining town in Presidio County. Plans call for a resort and living history museum anchored by a rebuilt saloon, general store and post office, with about a dozen adobe homes available for overnight rentals. Poindexter's foundation will eventually own all of his properties, including the 30,000-acre Cibolo Creek Ranch where Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016.
When asked why his family would not inherit his wealth, Poindexter told the Times: «I've never been married, I have no children.» His path differs from that of Warren Buffett, who has directed his $140 billion fortune to four family foundations. With no children to hand the reins to, Poindexter is building his own philanthropic vehicle.
The bet on Shafter runs against the demographic tide. Presidio County had an estimated 5,433 residents in 2025, down 11.4% since 2020 and down from 7,818 in 2010, Census Bureau data shows. Median household income is $43,802, about half the national median, and nearly one in five residents lives in poverty. Only about 1.6 people live per square mile.
Shafter's Presidio Mine operated from 1883 to 1942 and produced 35.2 million ounces of silver, according to Black Bear Minerals, which now owns it. After the mine closed, the town emptied out. By early 2025, Poindexter had bought several Shafter properties and offered to restore the historic church at the town's entrance, the Big Bend Sentinel reported.
Not every resident is sold on the plan, but a new restaurant and shop would likely be welcome. The closest place to buy groceries is Presidio, 19 miles away. Shafter resident and water board president David Long told the Sentinel the preservation efforts could spur more people to move to the ghost town. «This is a wake-up call for sure, for people to start considering what's going to happen to the town,» Long said. «Once we get a dependable, good water system in here, the place is going to boom.»
Poindexter served in Vietnam, received two Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts, and spent 14 years in finance before founding J.B. Poindexter & Co. in 1985. The company grew from $40 million in revenue in 1994 to more than $2.7 billion in annualized revenue through more than 40 acquisitions, according to a 2024 EY announcement naming him a regional Entrepreneur of the Year. The company builds the bodies of UPS's brown delivery trucks and says it produces 66% of the step vans in the U.S. class five delivery market.
Poindexter isn't the first wealthy American to try to restore a town's past. Henry Thompson, an officer of Poindexter's foundation, compared the Shafter plan to Colonial Williamsburg, where visitors can stay in town while some structures serve as museum exhibits. The Colonial Williamsburg restoration dates to 1926, when John D. Rockefeller Jr. began quietly buying properties in the former Virginia capital and committed $5 million to restore the whole town. When the Rockefellers were revealed as the donors at a town meeting, at least one resident stood up to object.
Poindexter is taking a more public approach. He invited about 200 guests to Shafter over Labor Day weekend, the Times reported. His bet also differs from those of today's tech billionaires. A group of Silicon Valley investors spent roughly $800 million buying Solano County farmland to build California Forever, an entirely new city, and faced local backlash. Poindexter wants to bring back the past rather than build the future from scratch. «I think that we've forgotten our origins,» he told the Times. «We've forgotten this enormous debt we have to prior generations.»
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