“The Chew Ranch headquarters, straddling Utah’s Green River near the Dinosaur National Monument, found its humble beginnings in a Mormon caravan. In 1865, thirteen-year-old Jack Chew and his family joined 29 other families in a journey from Iowa to Salt Lake City. These Mormon travelers all pulled handcarts containing provisions and belongings. The carts had solid wheels and were two to three times the size of a large wheelbarrow.” – Jim Keen, Great Ranches of the West Author Read More …
“I’m instantly enchanted by this family – by their appreciation of history, their concern for the land, their creativity. For example, Ladd’s wife Ree recently launched a modern Little House on the Prairie blog that gets more than 3,000 hits a day. Is she a pioneer woman like the last century’s Addie Drummond? ‘I am nearly a mirror image of her,’ she says. ‘Well, except I grew up in the city and never set foot in the country Read More …
“In the 1820’s, Taylor White began driving his cattle on a path that retraced the Old Spanish Trail all the way to New Orleans, where he could get $12 per steer as compared to $5 per steer back home in Texas, and soon hordes of other ranchers joined him. Until the Union Pacific Railroad finally linked Houston and New Orleans in 1881, the Opelousas Trail echoed with cattle bellows and marked the land with its hieroglyphics of hoofprints Read More …
“Nine days after my departure, Helena, Yelena, and Bryan start out on a typical 65-mile trek from the ranch to the post office, unaware of the tragedy awaiting them. There is a terrible automobile accident. Miraculously, Yelena and the baby survive, but Helen is killed instantly. Sorrow descends over the Monitor Valley, but still the Pine Creek Ranch endures. The Hage family soldiers on, hanging in a delicate balance between desert and mountain, between civil liberty and government Read More …
“The sagebrush was huge, sometimes towering over them and their shared horse. The brush was so thick that a straight path wasn’t possible. The frequent backtracking slowed their progress and used up their slim resources. Jose Navarro and Antonio Azcuenaga began their journey from Nevada in 1889 to seek their fortunes farther north. Originally from the Basque country in the western Pyrenees Mountains of northern Spain, they found this territory very different and difficult. At the beginning of Read More …
“When the Bells originally bought this ranch, their first foreman, Val Cason, had worked for the notorious Mexican bandito Pancho Villa. As I settle into the ranch house in this southeastern corner of Arizona, I have a few fleeting thoughts about the old Wild West movies I saw as a boy: the shootouts, galloping posses kicking up dust, and banditos threatening villages. I wonder why no one else is staying with me at the hacienda; it seems to Read More …
“The Bonds Ranch is particularly distinctive for a couple reasons. First, it’s the only ranch I visited hosting a full-scale dance studio. Pete’s wife Jo teaches ballet and tap to pre-school through high-school students right on the ranch, bringing a dose of culture to this cattle-centric acreage. Second, it’s one of only a few ranches where I heard favorable comments about the U.S. Departments of Agriculture’s NAIS program. The National Animal Identification System tags each cow by fastening Read More …
“The century-old tale has been passed down through six generations of ranchers, undiluted by time. In 1893 – fifteen years before Oklahoma would become a state, Oscar Chain traded $50 and a shotgun for 160 dusty acres situated between the North and South Canadian Rivers in Dewey County. Looking over the ranch today, it seems to me that the founder of the Chain Land and Cattle Company got a fabulous bargain. With 60,000 acres spread over seven different Read More …