AUSTIN (KXAN) — In Texas, the land you own matters — but what’s beneath can be worth millions. Now, one Texas family is doing something unusual: raffling off 100-acres of their mineral rights for the price of a cup of coffee.
“There’s the old adage in Texas: never, ever sell your mineral rights. And that’s what I was brought up with,” said Justin Jones, a teacher in south Austin.
His family has lived in Texas for more than a century, picking up parcels of land over the decades. Much of it was bought while Jones’ grandfather, who graduated from Texas A&M in 1919, while working for the Missouri Pacific Railway.
For years, groups have come in with offers to buy the mineral rights for Jones’ family land in Frio County. The manager of the family’s mineral rights, Jones says offers come in at $50 an acre…