Didnt any of them have to work or suffer to get it. 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. What does it take to be a good cowboy? I ask. Guy had a weakness for the ladies; he once skipped town with the lead actress from a traveling burlesque show. Quanah delivered the land to the Waggoners and other cattle baronsat one time, Waggoner and son leased 650,000 acres for an annual payment of $30,000and the cattle barons made Quanah rich and famous. The ranch is reported to be the largest contiguous ranching operation of its kind under one fence in Texas, and one of the largest in the United States. Today, it is estimated there are over 1,000 producing oil wells on the Waggoner Ranch, with the W.T. In later years, W.T. Find a huge selection of trailers from DooLittle and SureTrac in MO. Now 56, Bucky is one of the protagonists in the battle over the future of the ranch. Hawley is the ranch manager, and Im sitting in the passenger seat of his pickup, holding my third cup of coffee. 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. It was notable for being the largest ranch within one fence in the United States. Its second only to the King Ranch in size, and second to none in its history of drink, divorce, and dissension. We opened it up. Today the home is bright and welcoming. The Bronc-busting, Cow-punching, Death-defying Legend of Boots ONeal, At Texas Swingers Clubs, the Lifestyle Is Booming. Located about a three-hour drive north-west of Dallas, the Waggoner ranch was founded in 1849 and has remained in the family ever since. In early 1963 Buster filed a lawsuit, seeking a dispensation to sell shares, but he died before the matter was litigated. 510,527.00 Biggs second in command was comptroller Killen Moore, a onetime Internal Revenue Service agent. Though their homesteads are only a few miles apart, the families of Bucky Wharton, the original Electras grandson, and Gene Willingham, Electra IIs son-in-law, might as well live on separate continents. Waggoner Estate Ranch and related assets are now, for the first time ever, being offered for sale at a guideline listed price of. Vernon, the county seat of Wilbarger County, is located approximately 12 miles due north of the ranch. Things were working smoothly at that moment, but neither side believed the harmony would last. Who was going to be responsible for it? Settling into an apartment attached to Busters former home at Zacaweista, he enrolled at Midwestern State University, in Wichita Falls, and commuted between ranch and campus, pursing a degree in business administration while learning the ins and outs of the estate. The ranch is fenced and crossfenced, with an estimated several thousand miles of ranch roads and ranch fencing. While drilling for water, W.T. At every opportunity, Dan Waggoner purchased land. [6] Meanwhile, Electra Waggoner Biggs became a renowned sculptor. Leave them blank to get signed up. The cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch are living legends, men who embody the attributes of the lean and dusty riders who braved the wild a century ago to make room for a herd. [8] By 1903, he sold some of the land near China Creek to developers. Millionaire ranchers from Argentina and the elite of East Coast society came in their private planes for weekends of polo and debauchery. Thats the only reason anyone would want to sell.. Nobodys sure. We invite you to browse through our store and shop with confidence. Today, the W. T. Waggoner Ranch is managed by Sam Connolly of Bozeman. The squabbling that has ensnared the ranch for almost a century began on Christmas Day of. Legend has it that Electra once blew $1 million in a single day at Neiman Marcus. Consequently, climate data can vary over such a large area of the state. At one dinner party, two Texans pulled six-guns from their dinner jackets and shot up the ceiling. One of the striking sights as you leave the ranch is the sudden appearance of enormous green fields of cotton, wheat, and alfalfa. Its a weird deal. reclaimed all land and assets in 1923 and placed them in a so-called Massachusetts trust, a draconian arrangement in which he, as the trustee, controlled everything, including one of the biggest shallow oil fields in the world. 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. Cowboys ambling from the bunkhouse to the cookhouse for their five-thirty breakfast see her loping across pastures, dodging bulls and pump jacks. The ranch has perfected water right permits to pump approximately 3,893 acre feet of water annually, which is used to irrigate farmland and water the grounds around major headquarter improvements. 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. Oil production soon followed. Apparently they just agreed to continue to disagree. Very few test wells havepenetrated the remaining 400,000 acres. Patel Brothers - largest Indian American supermarket chain. As the frontier pushed westward, he expanded his herd and bought more land, in Clay and Wichita counties. He was a nineteen-year-old Army sergeant at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, when he learned that the lawsuits had been resolved and that he was heir to 50 percent of the W. T. Waggoner estate. Some people dont see it, but shes beautiful. Disgusted, he continued drilling for water. A granite marker, weighing four tons, notes his grave site. Or you draw a line and Ill take first pick.. In 1877, Burk Burnett (6666 Ranch), Col. C.C. We love our customers, so feel free to visit during normal business hours. When I asked Joline if they had found any memorabilia from Electras time, she laughed. I saw them together at a backyard wedding two years ago, but they stayed on opposite sides of the yard, Jim Hughes told me. He pointed to an impenetrable thicket of mesquite and told me, Thirty years ago we cleared that pasture, all the way to Beaver Creek. In May, Judge Neely heard the motion for partial summary judgment and made his ruling. The answer lies in the rich and rowdy heritage of the Waggoner clan. Its absence symbolizes the fate of the Guy Waggoner clan in the history of the ranch. Guy, who eventually settled on another ranch the family owned in New Mexico, married eight times. Today the ranch consists of approximately 535,000 acres, and is recognized as the largest ranch in Texas under one fence. You have no voice here and you never will.. [6] It is the second largest ranch in Texas (after the King Ranch),[6] enclosing 510,527 acres (207,000ha; 798sqmi; 2,070km2) of land. The majority of the ranch is in native pasture, supporting a mixed variety of palatable native grasses. 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. W. T. Waggoner Ranch is located 13 miles south of Vernon, Texas with office headquarters in Vernon. Wharton, a Philadelphia blue blood she met while traveling in the Himalayas. Its now the home of Electras grandson, Bucky Wharton, his wife, Joline, and their two children. (and future trustees) would have the sole right to make all management decisions. Neither of her parents came to the wedding; biographer Porter reports that E. Paul and Helen were having marital problems. Depending upon weather and moisture conditions, the ranch has been operated with 11,000 14,000 mother cows, plus calves, bulls and replacements; however, due to the recent drought, and in order to protect the ranch, current stocking rates have been reduced to around 7,000 mother cows/calves, plus replacements and bulls. One morning she packed, jumped in her car, and headed for town, not bothering to stop and open any of the ten gates on the way. Nearby Vernon, which serves as the famed headquarters for the ranch operations office complex, receives an average of 28 inches per year. Some say these deer may have never heard a rifle shot. [9] In 1902, W.T. At midnight, March 31, 2003, the clock ran out on the W. T. Waggoner trust. [6] Guy Waggoner lived there with his wife Anne Burnett, the daughter of Samuel Burk Burnett and heiress of the 6666 Ranch from 1922 until their divorce. [8] Although it still spans six counties, it is primarily centered on Wichita County and Wilbarger County. These camps range in size from just over 20,000 acres to nearly 40,000 acres each. Thistle Hill, as Electras mansion was called, stands to this day on the crest of Summit Avenue, near downtown. Bernard Uechtritz, one of the property brokers, told the. When E. Paul drew Zacaweista instead, W.T. The cowboys sided with Bucky, who felt that hunters left litter, cut fences, and left gates open. The Waggoner Ranch was founded by a man named Dan Waggoner around 1854 when he and his son relocated to a 160-acre farm in Wise County, TX, after the untimely passing of Dan's wife Nancy in 1853. A portion of this acreage is seeded to very productive Coastal Bermuda. Electra died in 1925 at the age of 43, her life and much of her fortune spent on extravagance. Waggoner Ranch, the 800-square-mile plot of land in North Texas, is really big. W.T. Heath Ownbey. Dan died in 1903, leaving everything to Tom. They chose the latter. 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A full moon hangs over West Diving Board Pasture. At the same time, they amended the bylaws to allow either party to give notice of termination within certain windows of timean amendment that would later prove crucial in the battle over the ranch. [10], By 1909, W.T. Moreover, a sale would be taxed and so would the distribution of the money. The United States Department of Agriculture, as part of a conservation project, had surveyed every foot of ground on the ranch, and Roberson fed this information into a database. After a hard rain, this endless maze of graded red clay becomes a network of quagmires. As it turned out, he didnt. Gene has told people that the ranch would sell in no time, the whole 520,000 acres. We would love to have our customers come by and see us and see our newly remodeled store. Houses back then were very dark, with low ceilings and small windows. Much of the ranch is covered with mesquite, cedar, and prickly pear, and when the sun softens late in the evening, the dull green of the vegetation and the deep red of the soil give the ranch the pastel serenity of a Mexican village. Stretching across six North Texas counties, the Waggoner Ranch is considered to be extremely well located. WHAT WE DO: We deliver strategic, brand-driven marketing communications solutions and deploy content that truly resonates . Now he lives in the bunkhouse. The Waggoner is one of the 20 largest cattle ranches in the U.S. and is known worldwide for its quarter horses. These are the men who made the ranch work while the Waggoners were off in Fort Worth or New York or Europe. One thing you dont see on the ranch is windmills. In the lower draws and creek bottoms, hackberry and soapberry trees are common. Hostile Comanches and Kiowas, plus a few foolhardy nesters trying to scratch out a living, occupied this endless stretch of grassland. Joe Roberson showed me how to read the books. Even when he was a young lad of 14, W.T. The Waggoner is the largest U.S. ranch within one fence, measuring 520,527 acres (207,000 hectares) or 800 square miles (2,072 square kilometers). Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. Without question, this legacy ranch represents a once-in-a-lifetime chance for an investor with vision and love of the land the rare opportunity to take this legendary offering to the next level. The Waggoner Ranch Reversed D Brand is burned on the right hip of calves, and dates back to June 11, 1849. Slaughter (Slaughter Ranches), Jim Loving (JA Ranch) and Dan and W.T. It may be many years before a similar ranch of this magnitude becomes available, if ever. . Waggoner Ranch is a working one, with 20 cowboy camps scattered throughout the property to house the more than 120 workers. Copyright 2023 W. T. Waggoner Ranch Uptown Style WordPress theme by, 2013 Gelding (Cat Man Do X Smoked Diamonds), 2015 Stallion (Cat Man Do X Smokin and Swingin). She left the motor running, didnt even bother to shut it off, and walked to the depot and took the next train out of town. When Guy moved to New Mexico, Tony Hazelwood, who hated his guts, showed his disrespect by storing oats on the homes prized hardwood floors. The headquarters at Zacaweista is a small, self-contained village built around a park that the cowboys call the square. In its center lies the grave of Tony Hazelwood, a legendary Waggoner cowboy and longtime foreman, who died in 1965. Some of the larger main shipping pens are equipped with hydraulic chutes and scales. [6] Thirty cowboys, and about 120 people overall, are employed on the property. The two sides have never been able to agree on a replacement. All together, as one may imagine, with this many contiguous acres, there is an immense variety of land types on the Waggoner. This land sits atop the Seymour Aquifer, while the ranch itself is bone-dry. Busters card room, on the second floor, which was once walled in leather, now has the original wood exposed. Yesterday a helicopter herded one hundred mother cows and their calves into a trapa corner of the large pastureand soon cowboys on horseback will be stripping the calves away from their mothers, herding them into separate pens and loading them onto trucks for transportation to other parts of the ranch. Two of the camp divisions, the Zacaweista and the Santa Rosa, are very highly improved. Hughes grew up in Vernon and has been hunting and fishing on the ranch since high school. Recently, new ownership has brought substantial investment in both equipment and design. An enormous picture window with a panoramic view of the ranch replaced the porthole-size window of 1910. Sign up to receive timely, useful information in your inbox. The land was used primarily to raise crops, beef cattleand horsesas well as for oil production. We were talking in Buckys office, a large corner suite on the second floor of the long, low W. T. Waggoner Estate Building just off the main highway in Vernon. [6] His children would elect a Board of Trustees, who would make decisions with him at the helm. Originally, Dan Waggoner burned the Reversed 3Ds into the right hip, thigh or rib of his cattle; however, as the price of hides increased, it made economic sense to only use one Reversed D in order to save more of the hide. SOLD. She was strikingly pretty, with a long, sensitive face and dark, sparkling eyes. I can remember the Firestones and the Beverages and the cream of New York society flying in for those matches, Don Ross Malone, a Vernon attorney and son of the former game warden for the ranch, told me. I just knew that life there was a lot different from life in Albuquerque. In 1963, when Bucky was fifteen, Buster Wharton died, leaving a will that gave his share of the Waggoner estate to his widow and his shotguns to Bucky. Bucky Wharton didnt think of the ranch as his heritage until he was in high school at Culver Military Academy, in Indiana. Salt cedar is found along creek and river courses, and cedar is moderate to dense in the rougher, eroded areas of the ranch. Approximately 41.67% of the mineral rights with a pro-rata portion of the executive leasing rights are expected to convey with the sale. Hunting big game in Africa and hosting extravagant parties at the ranch occupied most of Busters time. 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 left an enduring reputation and two children from the first of her three marriages: Tom Waggoner Wharton, who died of syphilis at age 25, eight-times married but childless, and A. Thats what folks in Vernon, Electra, Seymour, and other towns near the Waggoner Ranch are asking as they watch one of Texass greatest ranching empires teeter on the brink of disintegration. He borrowed a large sum from his nonagenarian grandmother, Ella, who later transferred the note to E. Paul. They are already being augmented by Kroenke Ranches' world-class commercial Angus herd. Waggoner raised Quarter Horses on the ranch, including Poco Bueno, who was buried on the ranch. Waggoner Estate office building in downtown Vernon, and most importantly, the exclusive right and use of the iconic Waggoner Ranch name, historic brand, and related rights are expected to convey within the sale. In 1923, W. T. formed what is known today as the W. T. Waggoner Estate. In his entire life, he never drew a paycheck from anyone but the Waggoners. 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. Now the fate of the ranch was up to the court. Bucky and Gene and their lawyers were there. Waggoner Ranch livestock have access to water at both lakes. W T Waggoner Ranch Brand Honoring Waggoner Ranch Family and Owners Canvas Print by Richard W Linford. When full, Lake Kemp covers an area of over 16,540 surface acres and Lake Diversion covers approximately 3,420 surface acres. [5], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}3354N 9900W / 33.9N 99.0W / 33.9; -99.0. The W.T. The Waggoner Ranch was established in 1849 by Dan Waggoner. The party bagged seventeen wolves (some of which were really coyotes), and the president beat a five-foot rattlesnake to death with his quirt. 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. My first job was walkin hotscooling down winded horsesbetween chuckers. Electra married A.B. The major block of this farmland, which is located on the northwest side of the ranch, contains approximately 14,000 acres. The W.T. The summer after his discharge, in 1970, Bucky decided it was time to move to the ranch and begin his real education.