Rancho Bismaquer was a fictional American estate owned by SPECTRE operative and wealthy entrepreneur, Markus Bismaquer. The 150 square miles of lush oasis was located in desert, approximately eighty miles southwest of Amarillo, Texas. It appeared in John Gardner's second James Bond continuation novel, For Special Services (1982).
History[]
Formerly 150 square miles of desert southwest of Amarillo, Rancho Bismaquer had been irrigated and landscaped, with massive loads of fertile soil and fully-grown trees, either flown in or brought overland by tractor. The entire site was heavily fenced off and accessible only by one of two ways: a small airstrip, and a private mono-rail system that linked to a closed station fifteen miles outside of Amarillo. While there were no roads connecting Rancho Bismaquer to the outside world, there was a road network within within the compound - and even a private automobile race track. There were auxiliary buildings; horses; fishing; Conference Centre; and a functional replica of the fictional plantation house Tara from the film Gone With the Wind. Notably, the compound also housed a laboratory and ice-cream plant from which SPECTRE developed a hypnotic ice-cream. The 150 square miles of estate was patrolled by Bismaquer's private security.