I worked a couple of weeks gauging wells. When they presented the map to Gene, they say, he asked for more details. Today, the ranch boasts 7 stallions and over 90 broodmares containing bloodlines of Poco Bueno, High Brow Cat, Peppy San Badger, Top Sail Cody, Smart Chic Olena, and Wimpys Little Step. Perhaps they are afraid of ghosts. was determined to keep Electra nearby. The majority of the cultivated land is farmed on a dryland basis, but three circle pivot systems are used to irrigate a small portion of the farmland. We would love to have our customers come by and see us and see our newly remodeled store. The ranch was established in 1849 and spans six Texas counties and almost 800 square miles. Both families are already fabulously wealthy, though the wealth is in the land rather than their pockets. She took everythingthe furniture, even the light fixtures. Handsome and trim, Joline once competed in the New York and Paris marathons and still gets up before first light to run. The house eventually fell apart and was torn down. At that time, Gene wanted to sell leases to hunters and Bucky didnt. In one, he wished Electra happy birthday and said, I bought you a $2,500 bond.. He offered to pay Buckys attorney fees and pitch in an extra one million. This was a time when much of Texas was open range and unexplored. Two of the camp divisions, the Zacaweista and the Santa Rosa, are very highly improved. Under the terms of the trust, each of the children owned one third of the 100,000 shares in the estate, elected the board of directors of the trust and served on the board themselves, and retained their homesteads. One closet was filled with fur coats, another with 350 pairs of shoes, and yet a third with the latest gowns from Paris and New Yorkand she was said never to wear one more than once. While the last of the calves are being loaded onto the trucks, I talk to a 22-year-old cowboy named Shane Bone, a handsome young man in dusty brown chaps and a well-used cowboy hat. While drilling for water, W.T. The W. T. Waggoner Estate is the nation's largest ranch under one fence. Beaver Creek feeds Santa Rosa Lake, and the Wichita River feeds Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion. And You Thought Feral Hogs Were Bad. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire, More Colorful Texas Sayings Than You Can Shake a Stick At. When my wife got sick with cancer, Gene and Buck got the company plane to fly her to M. D. Anderson. How could things have spun so wildly out of control? had said, I want to run the most cattle, breed the best horses and work harder than anyone. When he was 17, his dad made him a full partner. Apparently they just agreed to continue to disagree. Maybe thats why Judge Neely told me that he has no intention of setting a deadline. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. They built him a grand home on West Cache Creek, the only permanent structure between Fort Sill and the Texas border, and the chief decorated the roof of his Comanche White House with fourteen stars, symbolizing his generalship in battle. (Waggoner) hit oil instead. By the 1880s, the Waggoners Victorian mansion, El Castile, was the most prominent structure in Decatur. He sits across the table from me in his starched jeans and freshly shined boots, ramrod straight, his hat resting in his lap, his gray hair slicked down. . Dan and W.T. What must be going through his mind? But the Willinghams arent talkingabout the lawsuit or anything else. Waggoner Ranch livestock have access to water at both lakes. In later years, W.T. Texas Almanac Rainfall Records show the lowest annual rainfall for this six county area is in Foard and Knox Counties, at 24 inches and 26 inches per year, respectively. We could drive the 60 miles from Bull Run Pasture, on the northeast corner, where the 10th Cavalry camped in 1871, to the David Camp, on the southwest corner, and never venture outside the Waggoner fence. Santa Rosa Lake covers approximately 1,400 surface acres when full. [13] He once played there with polo champion Cecil Smith. After Biggs fell ill with cancer in the early seventies, Moore was essentially running things, and the boardwhich then consisted of Electra II and Buckyappointed him trustee after Biggs died, in 1975. Bucky looks more like a Little League coach than a cattle baron. At one dinner party, two Texans pulled six-guns from their dinner jackets and shot up the ceiling. The party bagged seventeen wolves (some of which were really coyotes), and the president beat a five-foot rattlesnake to death with his quirt. Electra prevailed, as usual. Vernon Regional Airport has a 5,100 foot long runway. He owns a bank, an oil company, and a cattle company, but he is happiest when he is working outdoors or having dinner with his family. King Ranch. Since his retirement, in 1991, Proctor has lived in Vernon, raising a few cows and tending his yard. The sale of the iconic Waggoner Ranch, while marking the end of one era, creates for a new owner the opportunity to begin another. the estate. Judge Neely accepted this language. The main set of shipping pens are located along the highway at the Zacaweista Headquarters Division. Waggoner Ranch is a working one, with 20 cowboy camps scattered throughout the property to house the more than 120 workers. Thistle Hill, as Electras mansion was called, stands to this day on the crest of Summit Avenue, near downtown. The 1905 hunt was a classic Waggoner production. A granite tombstone, set in the center of a small, neatly trimmed pasture, marks the grave of the greatest cutting horse of all time. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? Jim Jennings, in a 2005 article in The Quarter Horse Journal, states, By 1868, the Waggoner outfit had grown considerably, but help was still short. He built the newlyweds an eighteen-room mansion in Fort Worth, where he later built a twenty-story office building as the base for his empire. At midnight, March 31, 2003, the clock ran out on the W. T. Waggoner trust. They ride the trails of their forebearers, living a life and practicing skills that have almost disappeared. . Because of Toms great influence on the horse industry, he became a founding member of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA). The substantial structural improvements, thousands of miles of fences and roads, hundreds of earthen pond dam sites, rolling stock, waterlines, natural gas and oilfield lines, oil field equipment, the Waggoner office building, the included livestock (horses and cattle) and the entire operation are offered as a turn-key sale on an as-is, where-is basis. [10], By 1909, W.T. Genes got to drive within fifty feet of Buckys house every morning and again every evening to get to his own place. Each camp manager is responsible for the operation of his specific unit, but all of the managers and cowboys work together during spring branding and shipping. When Judge Tom Neely, who is in charge of the current lawsuit to break up the ranch, was a young attorney in a previous round of Waggoner lawsuits during the sixties, he and other lawyers found some of E. Pauls letters to Helen. Bucky and Gene run the operation from offices in the W. T. Waggoner Estate Building. The two sides have never been able to agree on a replacement. Thats how it was reported in nearly every newspaper in Texas, including the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Houston Chronicle. Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival Is More Than an Event. Today, Waggoner descendants still reside at the ranch in two main compounds: Albert B. Wharton, III lives at the Zacaweista (Indian term for good grass) Headquarters and Helen Biggs Willingham and her husband Gene live at the Santa Rosa Headquarters. They work six and sometimes seven days a week, from daylight until the job is done, often late at night. B. In early 1963 Buster filed a lawsuit, seeking a dispensation to sell shares, but he died before the matter was litigated. Thats where Electra Waggoner Biggs lived and where she kept her studio, Hughes tells me. Historically, the Waggoner Ranch has been operated as a cow/calf ranching unit, with stocker cattle used for seasonal grazing on wheat fields. For years, its two feuding clans have agreed on only one thing: They want to break up their vast eight-hundred-square-mile spread and close this chapter of Texas history. In fact, when this ranch was first established, Abe Lincoln was in Congress, California was petitioning to join the U.S. as a free state, and neighboring Oklahoma was Indian Territory. a full partner, gave him $12, a group of drovers, and fifty hard-used saddle horses, and sent him to Abilene, Kansas, with a herd of five thousand steers. As their cattle business grew, the ranch needed more grazing land, especially as barbed wire began to close in the open range. So what does it all mean? A full moon hangs over West Diving Board Pasture. Things were working smoothly at that moment, but neither side believed the harmony would last. W T Waggoner Ranch Brand Honoring Waggoner Ranch Family and Owners Framed Print by Richard W Linford. The ranch is fenced and crossfenced, with an estimated several thousand miles of ranch roads and ranch fencing. The Waggoner Ranch owns all of the land surrounding and under these lakes, but the water itself is used for off-site municipal water purposes. He borrowed a large sum from his nonagenarian grandmother, Ella, who later transferred the note to E. Paul. Bucky wanted to make it clear that he believed the situation was untenable. It would be Helens husband, Gene Willingham, who would one day become Bucky Whartons main opponent in the struggle over the Waggoner Ranch. All framed prints are professionally printed, framed, assembled, and shipped within 3 - 4 business days and delivered ready-to-hang on your wall. We have unique items that feature our brand. Traveling to the Four Corners line camp, where Guy Waggoners great home once stood, I tried to imagine that day in the twenties when Anne Burnett Waggoner, the fifth of Guys eight wives, decided shed had enough. Busters card room, on the second floor, which was once walled in leather, now has the original wood exposed. [6][12], When Guy Waggoner died in 1950, his sons sold their share of the estate to members of the family. Our horses are American Quarter Horses and we raise them for our use on the ranch. With the trust on the verge of expiring, Bucky and Electra II agreed to extend it until March 31, 2003. Many carry the bloodline of Poco Bueno. For more than a century the520,000-acre Waggoner Ranch has been an inseparable part of the culture and fabric of the Red River country west of Wichita Fallsand of Texas itself. He began buying land in western Wise County in 1870. The summer after his discharge, in 1970, Bucky decided it was time to move to the ranch and begin his real education. Since Electra IIs death, in 2001, the board has been composed of these two men who rarely speak to each other. Its a perfect October morning, cool and crisp, and the ranch spreads out in every direction, 25 miles north to south, 30 miles east to west. He served as trustee, and his three children, Guy Waggoner, Electra Waggoner Wharton, and E. Paul Waggoner comprised the Board of Directors. He went on and on about how heartbroken he was and how much he missed them, but he didnt write them. Buckys pride in this place was unmistakable. The second Electra was, like her namesake, a globe-hopping socialite (she was once linked romantically to Cary Grant by Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons), but she also was an acclaimed artist, who knew all the celebrities of her day and sculpted busts of many of them. On the map of Texas it appears as a great emptiness south of Vernon, occupied only by the thin strip of U.S. 183/283. As the large ranches of Texas, such as the Waggoner, 6666, JA, Slaughter, King Ranch and others, were established, fenced and began to operate, these legendary holdings were, at times, confronted with the problems of Indian raids and cattle rustlers. This legendary horse was named the Grand Champion Stallion at Denvers National Western Stock Show, the Fort Worth Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, and the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City. They include a bunkhouse for single cowboys, more homes for the foreman and senior cowboys, a cookhouse, several maintenance sheds, and a truck barn. Electra II married twice, the second time for keeps to John Biggs, a Texan who worked for International Paper Company, in New York, in 1943. We met in the boardroom at the Waggoner building, Roberson told me. What does it take to be a good cowboy? I ask. Our ranching operation includes, cattle, horses and the farm. The gifts were not entirely altruistic. Northwest Texas was open range in the 1850s, when Dan Waggoner and his fifteen-year-old black slave trailed 242 Longhorn cattle and 6 horses to Wise County. cattle inventory, horse inventory, horse facilities, brands . In the lower draws and creek bottoms, hackberry and soapberry trees are common. Be alert all the time and ready to go, he says in a strong, sure voice. The wooded river and creek courses offer exceptional cover and desirable habitat for native game. Many thousands of additional acres of native pasture are suitable for cultivation, if desired. E. Paul, a whiskey-drinking, poker-playing party animal, stayed married to his wife, Helen, for fifty years, but few people doubted the rumors that he kept mistresses in Mexico and South Texas. Dan Waggoner passed away in 1903, and his son, W. T. (Tom) Waggoner continued to expand his ranching interests. Waggoner had built a great ranch, but in 1909 he was 57 years old and thinking about its future. He either didnt care or didnt notice that E. Pauls clanespecially his socialite wife, Helenconsidered Electras line of the family to be tainted and Buster to be an irresponsible spendthrift, and they were plotting for the day when they could force the Whartons out. Originally, the trust was supposed to expire after twenty years, in 1943, but the terms of the trust allowed it to be routinely extended in twenty-year increments until 1983. A good cowboy does what the foreman tells him and waits for his paycheck and for the sun to go down., Now the sun is going down on the Waggoner Ranch, perhaps forever. (Tom) Waggoner was heard to say, There I was with more t, han 5,000 big, wild steers, 50 sore-backed horses, $12 and 16 years of my life.. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vista Caliente - Signed Print by Woodrow M. Blagg - Cowboys - Waggoner Ranch at the best online prices at eBay! She was strikingly pretty, with a long, sensitive face and dark, sparkling eyes. Passing under a granite arch, we head down a long, paved driveway to Zacaweista, an Indian word meaning good grass. Its the name of both the ranch headquarters and the sprawling rock-and-wood home that Electra built in 1910. Very few test wells havepenetrated the remaining 400,000 acres. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Buster never liked cows; the only thing about the ranch he cared about was horses, especially his polo ponies. The Waggoner Ranch, 550,000 acres extending into six counties, a realm steeped in Texas history, teeters on the brink of liquidation. Enlow is an advertising, media and fine arts photographer based in Fort Worth. Houses back then were very dark, with low ceilings and small windows. The Waggoner Ranch has been very well managed over time, and considering the recent four-year drought, the worst in recorded history, the ranch supports an overall good turf of native grasses. The family feud began the moment the old man rigged the game.
