He was the first quarter horse ever to be insured for $100,000. This is the job I set my sights on, he says. These are the men who made the ranch work while the Waggoners were off in Fort Worth or New York or Europe. They plied him with extravagant gifts: engraved pearl-handled revolvers, diamond stick pins, junkets to Fort Worth, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. What the hell could he do with oil! A complete list of this inventory can be made available. [8], After the death of Daniel Waggoner in 1902, his son W.T. We would love to have our customers come by and see us and see our newly remodeled store. Waggoner Ranch is, the five-time winner of the Texas Ranch Roundup and a recipient of the American Quarter Horse Associations Best of the Remuda Award.. PRIMARY USE cow-calf, feed yard, farming, horses, oil and gas, wild game hunting, birding . Waggoner, a widower, and his young son, William Thomas, settled on Catlett Creek, near present-day Decatur. W.T. discovered oil while trying to drill for water, Hughes tells me. By the late fifties, forces were marshalling to ensure total control for E. Paul and his heirs. They work six and sometimes seven days a week, from daylight until the job is done, often late at night. Even the water in Beaver Creek was reda sign, Bucky said, that it was fresh and contained no gypsum. Today, it is estimated there are over 1,000 producing oil wells on the Waggoner Ranch, with the W.T. He had grown up in Albuquerque, where his mother, the third of Buster Whartons four wives, had moved after their divorce, when Bucky was two. The land was used primarily to raise crops, beef cattle and horses as well as for oil production. Waggoner acquired more land. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. In the late sixties Bucky attended the University of the Americas, in Mexico City. Other areas show substantial regrowth, and those areas of the ranch with a dense canopy of mesquite offer exceptional protection for wildlife. The ranch was established in 1849 and spans six Texas counties and almost 800 square miles. 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. The many improvements and related assets mentioned above combine to offer the purchaser an extremely attractive depreciation schedule. Leave them blank to get signed up. The South and Westernportionsof the ranch are within the shelf and slope regions ofthe carbonate platform where the application ofnew seismictechnology tied to solid geological models will lead to a verysuccessful venture. Bernard Uechtritz, one of the property brokers, told the. Even when he was a young lad of 14, W.T. But Buckys mother was not about to give up her sons inheritance without a fight. Buster Wharton Jr., a polo player, playboy, and famous drunk who died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1963. Some say these deer may have never heard a rifle shot. Its a trade that suits only a select few for whom the life satisfies rather than restricts. Numerous smaller cultivated fields are scattered throughout the ranch. They include a bunkhouse for single cowboys, more homes for the foreman and senior cowboys, a cookhouse, several maintenance sheds, and a truck barn. The property is divided into approximately 16 camp or division units. I cant sit down, never could, he tells me. Moore resigned as trustee in the early eighties, at a critical moment for the estate. By the time he was 27, Tom had full reins of the Waggoner cattle empire.. [11] Buster raised polo ponies and established the El Ranchio Polo Club on the ranch. All pens are very well maintained. Dan sent Tom (his son), who was only 16 years old at the time, to Kansas City with a herd of 5,000 steers. Hed consult with him and get back to us. As previously noted, this massive holding spans six North Texas counties. She finally pulled up in front of the Vernon drugstore, pieces of gate and fence hanging off the car, Bucky tells me. With the trust on the verge of expiring, Bucky and Electra II agreed to extend it until March 31, 2003. Numerous food plots are located adjacent to these protected creek bottom areas, and these food plots serve as a magnet for wildlife. Yet the Waggoner Ranch has outlasted its South Texas rival in one respect: It is still under the direct control of its founding family. In later years, W.T. These camps range in size from just over 20,000 acres to nearly 40,000 acres each. Hostile Comanches and Kiowas, plus a few foolhardy nesters trying to scratch out a living, occupied this endless stretch of grassland. When they presented the map to Gene, they say, he asked for more details. I ask him what he thinks of the family feud that threatens to end the way of life that he knew. In addition to Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion, the ranch boasts several other large private lakes, some of which, such as Santa Rosa Lake, are reserved for the exclusive use of the families. Biggss brother-in-law was the president of General Motors, and he later named a Buick model for Electra. Its now the home of Electras grandson, Bucky Wharton, his wife, Joline, and their two children. Now available for sale on the open market, the Waggoner Ranch represents a singular opportunity so rare, it only comes along every 165 years or so. Then he left the meeting and thats the last we heard. W.T. Why do they fight on? 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. [6][11] E. Paul Waggoner raised Quarter Horses on the ranch. The W. T. Waggoner Estate is the nation's largest ranch under one fence. 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. Enlow is an advertising, media and fine arts photographer based in Fort Worth. In one last attempt to keep the range open, W.T. Now 56, Bucky is one of the protagonists in the battle over the future of the ranch. What does it take to be a good cowboy? I ask. After the first freeze, 120,000 geese will land on Santa Rosa Lake and feast on winter wheat fields. Two of the camp divisions, the Zacaweista and the Santa Rosa, are very highly improved. Guy, who eventually settled on another ranch the family owned in New Mexico, married eight times. Vernon Regional Airport has a 5,100 foot long runway. Cowboying isnt a profession, its a life, but if the Waggoner Ranch is broken up into pieces, that life will exist no more. There is also a rumor that the Willinghams have already bought a home in Fort Worth. It may be hard to truly comprehend the sheer vastness of the Waggoner Ranch. Buster too had multiple spouses (four, to be exact), but his only heir was A. The only time we dont work, Hawley tells me, is when its raining and lightning, or when its very hot. Salt cedar is found along creek and river courses, and cedar is moderate to dense in the rougher, eroded areas of the ranch. One thing you dont see on the ranch is windmills. The house sits on high ground, mostly hidden by oak and pecan trees and a fieldstone wall. In over 165 years of the Waggoner family ownership, commercial hunting has never been allowed on this expansive ranch. He pointed to an impenetrable thicket of mesquite and told me, Thirty years ago we cleared that pasture, all the way to Beaver Creek. Electra died in 1925 at the age of 43, her life and much of her fortune spent on extravagance. This iconic ranch property has been owned and operated by Waggoner heirs for approximately 165 years. (Tom) Waggoner had a good eye for quality horse flesh and developed a herd of broodmares to produce working ranch geldings for his cowboys. He knows the ranch, its cast of characters, and its skeletons and stories as well as any outsider. W. T. Waggoner Ranch is located 13 miles south of Vernon, Texas with office headquarters in Vernon. The party bagged seventeen wolves (some of which were really coyotes), and the president beat a five-foot rattlesnake to death with his quirt. At that time, Gene wanted to sell leases to hunters and Bucky didnt. As a consequence, the King Ranch scions moved comfortably in elite Texas social, political, and business circles, while the Waggoners never achieved the same degree of prominence. Waggoner Estate operating approximately 150 of these wells and 40 independent operators operating the balance. Slaughter (Slaughter Ranches), Jim Loving (JA Ranch) and Dan and W.T. Killen told Bucky, Take this, go back to New Mexico, and live your life. The W.T. My dockets not that crowded, he said. [11], The ranch has been surveyed by the United States Department of Agriculture for matters of preservation. But even as board members, they were powerless to exercise any authority over the ranch, except to elect future trustees. I tried college in Vernon for a little while, but it wasnt for me. Very few test wells havepenetrated the remaining 400,000 acres. Its like watching the death of a huge and magnificent animal: People cant bear to look, yet theyre powerless to turn away. 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. A number that denotes the foal's dam is placed on the left shoulder, and the ranch's famous D brand is placed under that. Millionaire ranchers from Argentina and the elite of East Coast society came in their private planes for weekends of polo and debauchery. This huge block of farmland is crossfenced into large manageable fields which are suitable for grazing thousands of head of wheat pasture cattle. After the Biggses requested liquidation, he hired Hughes and Roberson to draw a map, splitting the ranch in a way that would be acceptable to both sides. But the difference is that the cattle barons of the King Ranch led private, almost secretive lives, running their empire themselves and living on the land, while the Waggoners turned their ranch over to professionals, moved away, and pursued flamboyance. After a hard rain, this endless maze of graded red clay becomes a network of quagmires. The squabbling that has ensnared the ranch for almost a century began on Christmas Day of. Since his retirement, in 1991, Proctor has lived in Vernon, raising a few cows and tending his yard. The Wichita River, the two branches of Beaver Creek, countless small streams and tributaries, and dozens of stock tanks supply the ranchs water. Santa Rosa Lake covers approximately 1,400 surface acres when full. Thats the only reason anyone would want to sell.. The ranch is approximately 175 miles northwest of the Dallas/Ft. [3][14][15] It was ultimately sold in February 2016 to billionaire Stan Kroenke, the husband of Wal-Mart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke and current owner of the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams and the Premier League's Arsenal F.C. The other half belonged to Electra Waggoner Biggs, through various trusts. Then, in 1997, Bucky and Roberson drew another map, this time setting aside the two homesteads, and again offered Gene first choice. When my wife got sick with cancer, Gene and Buck got the company plane to fly her to M. D. Anderson. 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. the estate. Judge Neely accepted this language. Dan Waggoner passed away in 1903, and his son, W. T. (Tom) Waggoner continued to expand his ranching interests. 940-552-2521 x:270. All-night parties that started at Shadowlawn sometimes ended up on the ranch, after a trip by private railroad car, so that Eastern dandies could be treated to the sights of cowboys branding and castrating calves. Its a constant battle. Over these past three decades, Bucky has absorbed every inch of this ranch and most of its colorful history. Wichita Falls, the county seat of Wichita County, is approximately 20 miles east of the eastern boundary of the ranch. Some people dont see it, but shes beautiful. At every opportunity, Dan Waggoner purchased land. 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. Hunting big game in Africa and hosting extravagant parties at the ranch occupied most of Busters time. Either Guys two children would become their partners or E. Paul and Buster would have to buy them out. G. Its second only to the King Ranch in size, and second to none in its history of drink, divorce, and dissension. For the past 15 years, champions at both the National Reining Association and the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity have had Waggoner bloodlines in their pedigree. By all rights the Waggoner Ranch ought to be the equal of the King Ranch in Texas lore.
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