With no heirs to leave it to, this billionaire is pouring his fortune into a Texas ghost town of about 25 people

The $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer is underway , and baby boomers are passing down their fortunes to their heirs.

But what happens when an ultrawealthy person has no descendants?

In the case of 81-year-old billionaire John Poindexter , he's getting creative and funneling some of his wealth into a quite unexpected cause: a super small town in West Texas.

Shafter, Texas, is a ghost town in a county that just keeps getting emptier. 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. The median household income is just $43,802 (about half the median U.S. income ), nearly one in five residents lives in poverty, and only about 1.6 people live per square mile.

But Poindexter, a Houston manufacturing magnate, is betting on it anyway. Since late 2020, his Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation has taken in nearly $67 million in contributions, according to IRS filings compiled by ProPublica . That includes $20.6 million in the fiscal year ending November 2024, when the foundation reported $62.5 million in net assets.

The foundation's signature project is Shafter, the former silver-mining town where about 25 people live, according to the Big Bend Sentinel . The plans, according to the Times , 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.

When the Times asked why his family won't inherit his wealth instead, Poindexter said: "I've never been married, I have no children." That's a different path from Warren Buffett, who has directed his $140 billion wealth to four of his family's foundations so they can choose how to spend it. With no children to hand the reins to, Poindexter is building his own. Poindexter's foundation will eventually own all of his properties, the Times reported, including the 30,000-acre Cibolo Creek Ranch where Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016 .

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. For now, the closest place to buy groceries is Presidio, which is 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.