| Notes |
- Chicago Tribune, Illinois, February 10, 1983
Newton Bass, 79, desert land investor
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Newton T. Bass, 79, a former oil-field roustabout who parlayed a $17,000 land investment in the Mojave Desert into a $70 million real estate empire, died Sunday of complications of diabetes and arteriosclerosis, it was reported Tuesday.
Mr. Bass' success at developing the Apple Valley area of the high dessert north of Los Angeles attracted other developers who dotted the barren landscape with housing developments and shopping centers.
He moved to California from South Dakota at 18 and worked in the oil fields near Los Angeles. In 1935 he quit to begin drilling his own wells and put his profits into land.
THE LAND turned out to be over an underground lake and within 15 years was estimated to be worth $70 million. He built the Apple Valley Inn, later bought by the cowboy actor, Roy Rogers, and began raising thoroughbred horses.
Mr. Bass retired in 1977, and his Apple Valley Ranch Co. became a division of Getty Oil Co.
He is survived by his wife, Frances, two sons and two daughters.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1903 - 1983 (79 years)