Dan Meyer has lived on Meyer Ranch in Norman near Indian Hills Road for over 40 years — but his family has owned property in the area for even longer.
“I have 75 acres but the 500 and something acres over there is what granddad bought back during the Depression. He bought this land over here I think in the 70s and then he asked me if I'd like to move out here on it, and of course I did. I jumped at the chance,” Meyer said.
For many years, he was also working on the land.
“I've retired. I was doing all the farming and ranching and I have that leased out to a friend of mine that is younger and has got more energy than me. I'm just trying to take care of the rentals and the property and manage my place here in the ranch,” he said.
Cindy Hicks has been leasing 500 acres of Meyer’s property for the last five years to operate her cattle ranching business, Little River Ranch.
“It is such a wonderful place. It has plentiful hay and plentiful grazing for the cows, it also has plentiful shelter for them. And there's some wooded areas. That is perfect for them when it gets cold, to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain,” Hicks said.
She and her husband, Kevin, have made multiple improvements to the ranch including building a solar-powered water pump for the around 50 cows they are raising.
“Fresh water is extremely important for the cows, especially when we haven’t had rain. It provides that fresh source that they just love,” she said.
It’s not just her cows thriving on the property — she’s thriving, too. The land gave her the opportunity to do what she loves again.
“I was raised in a rural town in Southwestern Arkansas and we did raise cattle and I always loved it. And then I moved away and came back here and was able to start again with livestock. I absolutely love it and can't imagine a day not doing this,” she said.
Earlier this year, The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority notified Meyer, who in turn notified Hicks, that Meyer’s property may be taken through eminent domain for the construction of the ACCESS Oklahoma Turnpike.
Meyer said the entire time since the project was first announced in 2022 has been confusing and stressful.
“It's been up in the air for like five years now, so we really don't know what to do, when to do it. I’ve lost a lot of sleep over it and everything else trying to figure out what I can do,” Meyer said.
Hicks said she wouldn’t be able to find anything like Little River Ranch anywhere nearby, and she doesn’t think she could continue ranching elsewhere.
“Where do you go? Where do you find what you already have? And as you get older, that process becomes even harder,” she said. “How do you move? How do you reinvent yourself? Do you have enough energy to do it over again?”
Meyer doesn’t want to move away either. He said he would have difficulty managing the rental properties he owns in Norman if he had to leave the area. He’s also concerned about not living close enough to a hospital for medical care. But above all, he doesn’t want to lose the future he had planned.
“I was planning on passing it down through the generations to the family and just keep going doing what we've been doing and that's all getting disrupted,” he said.
Meyer and Hicks don’t yet know how much — if any — of the land will be taken by the OTA through eminent domain. Surveyors from the agency have come to the property, but Meyers and Hicks still have questions about what comes next.
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