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Bush at his ranch

Prairie Chapel Ranch is a 1583 acre (6.4 km²) estate located seven miles (10 km) northwest of Crawford, Texas. It is the home of President George W. Bush. Then-Governor Bush bought the land, which was a former turkey/hog farm, in 1999 shortly after earning a $14.3 million profit from the sale of the Texas Rangers. Based on fair-market land prices at the time the deal was closed for an estimated $1.3 million. When Bush, still President, stays there, the estate is known as the Western White House and it has also been called the "Texas White House".[1]

President Bush uses the compound for vacations, occasional meetings, and entertaining foreign dignitaries. In the less formal setting, dress code for meetings calls for an open collar and no tie. Guests are typically treated to meals of Southern cuisine. When not holding meetings or briefings, Bush spends his time mountain biking, jogging, fishing, bird hunting, and clearing brush.

President Bush has made clear his preference for spending time away from his official residence at the White House in Washington, DC. In 2001, he said, "I think it is so important for a president to spend some time away from Washington, in the heartland of America." President Bush is frequently criticized for spending so much time away from the White House, especially (particularly retrospectively) for the amount of time spent there during the spring and summer of 2001, prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The land includes seven canyons and three miles (5 km) of frontage along Rainey Creek and the Middle Bosque River. It is a part of land settled in the mid-19th century by German immigrant Heinrich Englebrecht, who raised turkeys and hogs there and donated some of it to found the Canaan Baptist Church (the "Prairie Chapel").

Buildings on the land built by the Englebrechts were refurbished for new uses, such as Secret Service quarters and guest houses. Bush and his wife had David Heymann, then an associate professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, design a 10,000 ft² (930 m²) honey-colored native limestone single-level home on the site. Over half of that area is from a 10 foot (3 m) wide limestone porch that encircles the house. The house was built by members of a religious community from nearby Elm Mott, Texas and wasn't completed until after his inauguration.

The passive-solar house is positioned to absorb winter sunlight, warming the interior walkways and walls of the residence. Geothermal heat pumps circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet (100 m) deep in the ground. A 40,000 US gallon (151 m³) underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof urns; wastewater from sinks, toilets, and showers cascades into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is then used to irrigate the landscaping around the four-bedroom home. Photographs of the interior of the house indicate a sophisticated take on rough-hewn living, with generous English-style club chairs covered in what appears to be printed Fortuny linen.

Bush added an 11 acre (45,000 m²) man-made pond that he stocked with 600 largemouth bass and 30,000 bait fish. There are also shad, bluegill, and yellow perch, though it's unclear which of a dozen possible types of "perch" is present. The pond reaches a maximum depth of 17 feet.

In 2002, the ranch was wired for what Bush described in a 2003 tour of the ranch as "real time, secure videoconferencing" to be used for his briefings from the CIA and Dick Cheney. Beginning in May 2001, Prohibited Area P-49 was established around the ranch by the Federal Aviation Administration, a no-fly zone with a radius of three nautical miles (6 km) from 31°34′57″N, 97°32′37″W. When Bush is there, a Temporary Flight Restriction is issued, expanding the radius to 10 nautical miles (19 km), with lesser restrictions extending to 30 nautical miles (56 km), containing some exceptions for Waco Regional Airport nearby.

Visitors to the ranch have included:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, November 2001
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair, April 2002
• Saudi King Abdullah, April 2002, April 2005
• Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, August 2002
• Chinese President Jiāng Zémín, October 2002
• Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, February 2003
• Australian Prime Minister John Howard, May 2003
• Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, May 2003
• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, July 2003
• Mexican President Vicente Fox, March 2004, March 2005
• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, April 2004
• Spanish King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía, November 2004
• Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, March 2005
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, April 2005
• Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, August 2005

• July 1999: Locals Hope Bush will create a White House in Texas, from the Abilene Reporter-News
• December 2000: Home on the Range, from TIME magazine's Person of the Year story on Bush
• March 2001: Prohibited Area P-49 established by the FAA over the ranch and enlarged during presidential visits
• August 2001: No grocery, $5 haircuts - and the Bush ranch, from the Christian Science Monitor
• August 25, 2001: President Gives Tour of Crawford Ranch, a White House press release
• December 2002: The Bush Ranch, from Cowboys & Indians magazine
• January 2, 2003: President's Remarks on Walking Tour of the Ranch, a White House press release
• July 29, 2005: Bush plans 50th ranch trip in five years, an Associated Press report published in USA Today.
• August 18, 2005: Can this bike ride be Bush's tour de force?, A report in The Times concerning the visit of Lance Armstrong to the ranch.