Wonder Down Under
Buz Prince's Outback Western World

Build it and they will come. Imagine a small town in the Old West. The town patriarch owns the hotel, the saloon, the bank, and is the mayor, the sheriff and the justice of the peace.
     Now step forward 150 years and place a modern-day version of that deep in the woods near Magnolia between the old communities of Ventura and Oklahoma. Find a 40 acre spot that is far from any major traffic arteries, not on an intersection, and rather difficult to find. Stock it with exotic animals such as llamas, emus, peacocks, and miniature horses. Then build a giant western wear store, a museum, a huge auction facility, a rodeo arena, a wedding chapel and reception hall, and a children’s resale shop.
     Sprinkle this enchanted land with a hint of adventure, a dollop of mystery, and a truckload of rustic charm, and voila! you have Buz Prince’s magical Outback.
     Fourteen years ago Buz Prince was on the downside of a successful real estate career, and was looking for something to occupy his mind. In an unlikely location on Dobbin Huffsmith Road Prince built a western store and began a long process of creating a mercantile village that is, in every sense of the word, unique.
     Outback Western World is the crown jewel in Prince’s kingdom. The 12,000 square foot store has boots, hats, apparel, accessories, gift items, and things you wouldn’t find spending a month of Sundays in Cavender’s, D & D Farm and Ranch, and Boot Town, and at prices that, according to Buz, compare favorably to sale prices at the aforementioned stores. “It’s not rocket science,” said Prince, “we’ve got low overhead, and we pass that along to our customers.”
     Business is good at Outback Western World, and Buz Prince is looking forward to a busy spring with the coming of the annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. The store hosts some 10,000 visitors a year, including many celebrities and international travelers. “We ship all over the world,” said Prince. Buz’s wife Patty and daughter Tonja manage and do most of the buying for the store.
     Housed within the walls of Outback is a 3,000 square foot museum which, not surprisingly, comprises a diverse mix of rarities and curiosities that reflect the owner’s unusual personality. A collection of signature automobiles includes a 1913 Model T work truck, a 1986 Excalibur Roadster, a 1936 Kord Roadster, and other uncommon vehicles.
     Take, for instance, the 1987 Cadillac Allante. This luxury front wheel drive two-seater was an experimental cooperative venture with Pininfarina of Italy. At $50,000 it was a terribly overpriced rival to the Mercedes-Benz 560SL two-seater against which it was supposed to compete. Only 2,517 of these Caddies were built, and Buz has a shiny black one in his museum.
     He also has a late 1950s Trabant of East German manufacture. In an era when cheap transportation was all the rage in Europe, the Trabant was intended to be a closed motorbike. The vehicle featured a 700 cc motorcycle engine and lightweight construction. With its little trunk in the back, the 22 hp Trabant was a hit with Eastern European families, even though it took an average of 10 years to get one. Buz only paid $500 for the piece.
     There are many other items of interest in the Outback museum. A large collection of 19th century firearms covers one wall. The museum is a taxidermist’s dream, with stuffed animals and pelts on all sides. Trophy animals include a brown bear, a large set of elk horns (“from Wild Bill Hickock’s museum,” according to Prince), and the hide from a rare Vietnamese tiger, the species of which is now extinct (ask Buz to tell you the story behind that one!). Other preserved species of animals include coyote, wallaby, javalina, alligator, moutain lion, beaver, and a number of fish. The serpents are represented by a 16-foot Egyptian python skin. “I started the museum as a way to draw more people to the store,” said Buz.
     Outback Western World has hundreds – perhaps thousands – of different belts (including many exotics), and enough hats to cover every head in south Montgomery county. The selection of men’s and women’s apparel represents all the major western clothing lines, and provides a selection for every taste, from haute honky tonk to classy country formal.
     Unique gift items include painted cow skulls, adorned by Shoshone Indian artist David Eveningthunder; genuine rattlesnake walking canes; various sculptures and distinctive western jewelry.
     Just down the road from Outback, and part of Buz Prince’s entrepreneurial compound, is a wedding facility consisting of a 160-seat chapel and a reception hall with a full kitchen. Being in the western apparel business, Prince rents western styled tuxedoes to patrons. Buz occasionally allows small churches to meet in his chapel, and local bands have also been known to wrangle the hall as a practice facility.
     A stone’s throw from the wedding chapel is a 17,000 square foot auction facility with theater seating. (The seats actually came out of a defunct movie theater!) Every Friday night at 7:00 pm hundreds of people turn out to purchase everything from furniture to fixtures, antiques and knick-knacks.

All in the Family
The Princes are family oriented folks. In fact, Buz’s children and grandchildren all live on Buz’s 40-acre fiefdom, and share in the operation of various business activities on the premises. Steel pipe fencing circumscribes a small rodeo arena that hosts pole bending, barrel racing, and team roping events (which are run by one of Buz’s sons).
     Even visitors to Buz’s facilities are treated like family. He keeps a keg of beer on tap for patrons of Outback Western World. But don’t expect to stop in for a quick look around – Buz Prince’s kingdom is bigger’n Dallas! CS

To visit Outback Western World: Take Hardin Store Rd. to Dobbin Hufsmith Rd., go approximately 2.1 miles northwest on Dobbin Hufsmith Rd.