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Kona coffee exec
buys late actor’s
former ranch

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Associated Press

HONOMALINO, Hawaii -- A 1,570-acre Big Island ranch once owned by actor James Stewart was sold at auction for $7.4 million.

Dr. Thomas Atwood, a California physician, had bought the Kona Coast property for $3.2 million in January 1999, three months after Stewart's family put it on the market.

Kona-Alii Coffee Co. Chairman Guy Cobb outbid 13 other registered participants yesterday to buy the land. In addition to Hawaii, the bidders came from California, Colorado, Iowa, Washington state and New Zealand.

The property called Hoomau Ranch features pasture and forest land and a macadamia nut orchard. Three houses located on the property are used as lodging for ranch personnel.

Stewart died in July 1997. He and his wife, Gloria, honeymooned in Hawaii in 1949 and returned often to the islands.