Poco Bueno died in 1969 and was buried in a standing position in front of the main ranch entrance. 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. Numerous smaller cultivated fields are scattered throughout the ranch. 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. This sprawling property is approximately three-fourths the size of Rhode Island. . Waggoner Ranch cowboys like and respect both families and consider them fair and generous. Neither of her parents came to the wedding; biographer Porter reports that E. Paul and Helen were having marital problems. WHAT WE DO: We deliver strategic, brand-driven marketing communications solutions and deploy content that truly resonates . The Waggoner Ranch Store is located in the Waggoner Estate building in Vernon Texas. 1700 Deaf Smith St., Vernon, TX 76384, US. Dan Waggoner, who was born in Tennessee in 1828, moved to Texas with his family in the mid-1840s. A unified decision has now been made by the shareholders to sell this legendary ranch. He ended up using it for cattle dip, and the well became Electras city dump., Near the entrance to Zacaweista, once the home of the first Electra, we stop at the grave of Poco Bueno. They communicate by written memos, even though their offices are separated by only a few feet. [9] One of the lakes on the ranch provides water for the City of Wichita Falls. Waggoner left behind in East Texas the grave of his wife. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. As Smith put it, They were a beer-and-champagne twosome.. The sale of the iconic Waggoner Ranch, while marking the end of one era, creates for a new owner the opportunity to begin another. SOLD. Buster never liked cows; the only thing about the ranch he cared about was horses, especially his polo ponies. It is the nations biggest ranch within the confines of a single fence, a spread so vast that it extends across six counties and covers more than eight hundred square miles. Sep 1989 - Present33 years 6 months. 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. As their cattle business grew, the ranch needed more grazing land, especially as barbed wire began to close in the open range. When it is necessary for them to be in the same room, they let third parties do the talking. Bucky wanted the ranch to be divided, not liquidated. Buster received income from his share of the estate, but he had no role in the ranch management and was happy to leave the ranching to E. Paul. [5], The ranch is located west of Wichita Falls, Texas, south of Vernon, near the Red River. They have been up since three and have had a hefty cookhouse breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. Approximately 30,000 acres are in cultivation. Skyfood Supermarket (six locations in New York) - Asian Oriental Supermarket. [8] W.T. Slaughter (Slaughter Ranches), Jim Loving (JA Ranch) and Dan and W.T. The letters were typed by his secretary, Neely told me. Poco Bueno sired 36 AQHA Champions, and many of his offspring have excelled in all the different disciplines of modern day horse events. They married in 1969. He offered to pay Buckys attorney fees and pitch in an extra one million. [6] It has about 14,000 cows and bulls as well as 500 horses. The ranch is approximately 175 miles northwest of the Dallas/Ft. Some people think that the last chance for a settlement died with Electra II. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. and fellow cattle baron Burk Burnett sent their pet Indian to Washington, D.C., in 1905 to ride in President Theodore Roosevelts second inaugural paradeand to invite Roosevelt to go wolf hunting on the Big Pasture. 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. Potential buyers include a group of Japanese investors, Ross Perot Jr., Boone Pickens, even the Mormon churchor so go the rumors. Dan died in 1903, leaving everything to Tom. In the late eighties, as the oil revenue began to peter out, the new trustee of the Waggoner estate, Charles Prather, resigned. At every opportunity, Dan Waggoner purchased land. As the frontier pushed westward, he expanded his herd and bought more land, in Clay and Wichita counties. This was a time when much of Texas was open range and unexplored. They were mailed while she was socializing in New York with her daughter, named after E. Pauls sister, Electra, and known as Electra II. When Helens father died, in 1975, they moved to the ranch, where Gene gradually assumed the position of head of the family. W.T. [9], In August 2014, the ranch was listed on the real estate market with an asking price of US$725 million. The ranch includes thousands of cattle, hundreds of horses and oil wells, and 30,000 acres of. Ranches, Farms and Land forsale in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. Waggoner Estate Ranch and related assets are now, for the first time ever, being offered for sale at a guideline listed price of $725,000,000. Meanwhile, W.T.s widow, Ella, ran the ranch as dowager empress until her death, in 1959. By the 1880s, the Waggoners Victorian mansion, El Castile, was the most prominent structure in Decatur. In total, the ranch spans nearly 800 square miles. [6] Thirty cowboys, and about 120 people overall, are employed on the property. Busters card room, on the second floor, which was once walled in leather, now has the original wood exposed. Hostile Comanches and Kiowas, plus a few foolhardy nesters trying to scratch out a living, occupied this endless stretch of grassland. At midnight, March 31, 2003, the clock ran out on the W. T. Waggoner trust. 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. The squabbling that has ensnared the ranch for almost a century began on Christmas Day of that year, when W.T. began courting Quanah Parker, the Comanche chief, with their eyes on the Big Pasture, a huge block of Indian land just across the Red River in what would eventually become Oklahoma. While drilling for water, W.T. 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. They cant wait to get started. Shareholders of the ranch reside at these two divisions. We always meet with our employees present, and nothing is really handled. They have quarreled over which wells to cap or abandon, over control of the corporate airplane, over the purchase of bulls and the size of cow herds. By that time, Ella had died, at the age of one hundred, and her successor as trustee was John Biggs, the son-in-law whom E. Paul had groomed for the job. The only thing I can figure, it was give to them. Another number brand is placed on the left hip to denote the year. The Waggoner has been owned by the same family almost as long as Texas been a state. Photographs of his wife and children occupied a bookshelf beside four footballs labeled Coach Bucky Whartongifts from former University of Texas coach David McWilliams, whod invited Wharton to join him on the sidelines at several UT games. They wintered the herd that year in Clay County and the following spring drove it to market, netting a profit of $55,000. The Waggoner Ranch was ordered liquidated. PRIMARY USE cow-calf, feed yard, farming, horses, oil and gas, wild game hunting, birding . In 1965 he replaced Tony Hazelwood as foreman. Now 56, Bucky is one of the protagonists in the battle over the future of the ranch. In a January 2003 deposition, Gene said he sent Bucky his own draft of the map but never got a reply. In 1923, W. T. formed what is known today as the W. T. Waggoner Estate. Sign up to hear from us about specials, sales, and events. The family made their main homes in the city and returned to the ranch for weekend getaways and holidays. 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. 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. [13] He once played there with polo champion Cecil Smith. WAGGONER RANCH (VILLAS 18-21) Vernon, TX | Founded 1852 Archer, Baylor, Foard, Knox, Witchita, and Wilbarger Counties Established in 1852, the ranch was primarily used to raise crops, Longhorn cattle and horses. Vernon Regional Airport has a 5,100 foot long runway. The ranch originally operated under the name of Dan Waggoner & Son. Though its a nicer house, the Willinghams have never moved up there. John and Electra had two daughtersa third Electra and Helen. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? Dan took advantage of this great opportunity. Neither the Willinghams nor the Whartons have the funds to buy the other out. Biggs second in command was comptroller Killen Moore, a onetime Internal Revenue Service agent. Waggoner Estate Ranch and related assets are now, for the first time ever, being offered for sale at a guideline listed price of. All pens are very well maintained. [3] It spans six counties[3][6] and is half as large as Rhode Island. FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) One of the largest ranches in the U.S. and an icon for Texas horse and cattlemen has been listed for $725 million, marking the end of a decades-long courtroom battle among. [7] Parts of it can be seen from highways U.S. 183 Wharton, a Philadelphia blue blood she met while traveling in the Himalayas. A full moon hangs over West Diving Board Pasture. The W.T. Land Broker and Land Appraisalfirm established in 1920. He knows the ranch, its cast of characters, and its skeletons and stories as well as any outsider. Bucky and Gene and their lawyers were there. G. Though there are more than two thousand miles of road inside the ranch, there are hardly any road signs or navigational landmarks. [6], In 1991, Electra Waggoner Biggs sued to be able to sell the ranch. 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. As a boy, Bucky visited the ranch at Christmas and during the summer, but he was never close to his father and knew nothing about cattle or oil. Additionally, all livestock (cattle and horses), an extremely substantial inventory of rolling stock, farm equipment, pickups, trucks, etc., and considerable other personal property are included in this offering. Ranch Manager. All framed prints are professionally printed, framed, assembled, and shipped within 3 - 4 business days and delivered ready-to-hang on your wall. Waggoner Ranch is now officially, for the first time ever in its history, offered for sale on the international marketplace. 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. Houses back then were very dark, with low ceilings and small windows. Richard King and Captain James Walworth's King Ranch brand was registered June 27, 1859 3. These lakes were built by the Corps of Engineers as a major source of municipal and irrigation use water for Wichita Falls, area towns and nearby farming communities. the estate. Judge Neely accepted this language. We met in the boardroom at the Waggoner building, Roberson told me. 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. Its absence symbolizes the fate of the Guy Waggoner clan in the history of the ranch. Jim Hughes, a longtime attorney for the Waggoner estate who was being groomed to become a trustee before the feud cost him the opportunity, slows down as a dozen or more wild turkeys scamper across the highway and disappear into thick stands of mesquite. It's one of the largest ranches in the world with 825,00 acres. Both ranches once covered more than a million acres. It may be many years before a similar ranch of this magnitude becomes available, if ever. They seldom speak and hardly ever socialize. asked his children to draw cards for the three parcels. All together, as one may imagine, with this many contiguous acres, there is an immense variety of land types on the Waggoner. She finally pulled up in front of the Vernon drugstore, pieces of gate and fence hanging off the car, Bucky tells me. 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. W T Waggoner Ranch Brand Honoring Waggoner Ranch Family and Owners Framed Print by Richard W Linford. This treated water is used for human consumption to serve the substantial headquarter improvements. Rani's World Foods (Texas & Nevada) - Indian supermarket chain. Proctor, whose daddy was a Waggoner cowboy too, went to work for the ranch in 1937, at age thirteen. 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! This huge block of farmland is crossfenced into large manageable fields which are suitable for grazing thousands of head of wheat pasture cattle. Waggoner's death, his three children, Guy Waggoner, E. Paul Waggoner and Electra Waggoner each inherited a section of the ranch, although there was still a Board of Trustees. Vernon, the county seat of Wilbarger County, is located approximately 12 miles due north of the ranch. I saw them together at a backyard wedding two years ago, but they stayed on opposite sides of the yard, Jim Hughes told me. After Buckys father died, Lula [the last of Busters four wives] stripped this place. 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. . Cowboys worry that the feud will destroy the ranch. The gifts were not entirely altruistic. Be alert all the time and ready to go, he says in a strong, sure voice. This land sits atop the Seymour Aquifer, while the ranch itself is bone-dry. Nothing is too trivial to spark an argument. 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. The dispute seemed to highlight Bucky and Genes contrasting attitudesone loved the land, the other loved the money. This historic brand has been used in one form or another since that date, making it one of the very oldest brands in Texas. Beaver Creek feeds Santa Rosa Lake, and the Wichita River feeds Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion. We opened it up. Today the home is bright and welcoming. Other areas show substantial regrowth, and those areas of the ranch with a dense canopy of mesquite offer exceptional protection for wildlife. Its like watching the death of a huge and magnificent animal: People cant bear to look, yet theyre powerless to turn away. The operation can breed outside mares as well as ship cooled or frozen semen. Seymour, the county seat of Baylor County, is several miles south of the ranch, and has a runway that is 4,300 feet long. These camps range in size from just over 20,000 acres to nearly 40,000 acres each. Since his retirement, in 1991, Proctor has lived in Vernon, raising a few cows and tending his yard. The wooded river and creek courses offer exceptional cover and desirable habitat for native game. 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. LOCATION Brooks, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, and Willacy counties. To Buckys surprise, the Biggs family responded by filing suit, asking the court to liquidate the estate. What the hell could he do with oil! Waggoner acquired more land. In 1879, the Waggoners foiled rustlers by changing their brand from the D-71 to the now-legendary three reverse Ds. Free shipping for many products! Numerous large, functional and well designed sets of shipping and working pens are scattered throughout the ranch. Lake Kemp, a popular North Texas fishing and recreational site, is located approximately 40 miles west of Wichita Falls in Cara Blanca Park, the recreational park surrounding the lake. Employees of the Waggoner Ranch horse operation concentrate on raising horses for working ranch purposes and strive to create athletic and trainable horses that are 15-hands tall with outstanding conformation. Some of these were bred strictly for ranch work, and others for the show arena, but they all had one thing in common, they were cow horses., Poco Bueno was foaled in 1944 and was purchased by E. Paul Waggoner in 1945. The history and the legend surrounding the Waggoner Ranch are as big as the ground it covers. Apparently they just agreed to continue to disagree. We see a bunch of javelinas too, and a bobcat as big as a mountain lion. 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. I ask him what he thinks of the family feud that threatens to end the way of life that he knew. Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store Waggoner Ranch Store. In 1877, Burk Burnett (6666 Ranch), Col. C.C. Its been vacant ever since. 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. At an early age, Dan started building what would become a ranching empire and founded the Waggoner Ranch in 1849. 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. In one last attempt to keep the range open, W.T. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. He usually dresses in jeans, a polo shirt, and cowboy boots; in the three times I was with him, he never wore a hat or tried to act like a cowboy. But even as board members, they were powerless to exercise any authority over the ranch, except to elect future trustees. By all rights the Waggoner Ranch ought to be the equal of the King Ranch in Texas lore. This well-renowned offering includes the 510,527 contiguous acres, together with all permanent improvements, approximately 41.67% of the mineral estate, all water rights, and all wind generation royalty rights. They plied him with extravagant gifts: engraved pearl-handled revolvers, diamond stick pins, junkets to Fort Worth, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. This will still be ranchland, for thats all its fit to be, but not ranching on the grand scale that allows men to be cowboys. Waggoner Estate Ranch. After her husband died, Electra II did not keep up the pressure on Bucky, as John Biggs and Killen Moore had done. 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. Concerned about the future of the ranch, W.T. 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 main set of shipping pens are located along the highway at the Zacaweista Headquarters Division. These live creeks and their tributaries provide a desirable source of livestock water throughout the property. By the turn of the century, settlers were overrunning Indian reservations, and the open range was all but gone. Things were working smoothly at that moment, but neither side believed the harmony would last. Disgusted, he continued drilling for water. 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. It was a crash course, but I learned more in those six months than Id learned my whole life. In 1975 he married Joline, a young woman he had met in Albuquerque seven years earlier. Then, twelve years ago, the two branches of the Waggoner family that control the W. T. Waggoner estate, which in turn controls the ranch, locked themselves in a lawsuit no one can win. No one, it seems, wants to witness the breakup of a mythic Texas ranchexcept the Waggoner heirs. Seafood City (California, Hawaii, Washington, Nevada, Illinois) - Filipino American. It is as much a part of the legacy as horses, cattle, oil, opulent mansions, divorces, and drunken sprees. The W.T. We would love to have our customers come by and see us and see our newly remodeled store. We try not to put stress on the livestock.. Hughes grew up in Vernon and has been hunting and fishing on the ranch since high school. HOUCHRON CAPTION (07/27/2003): A calf is branded on the ranch in 1983. The Reversed 3Ds is still used as a symbol representing the historic Waggoner Ranch. The Waggoner Ranch was established in 1849 by Dan Waggoner. In later years, W.T. cattle inventory, horse inventory, horse facilities, brands . To sum up the great legacy of the Waggoner Horse Program, it has produced three AQHA Hall of Fame Members (one Waggoner heir and two Waggoner horses): E. Paul Waggoner, Poco Bueno and Poco Lena; it is the number one All-Time Leading Breeder of NCHA Hall of Fame Members, Poco Lena, Poco Mona, Poco Stampede and Snipper W; it is the number three All-Time Breeder of AQHA Champions; and it is the Breeder of All-Time Leading Sires, Poco Pine, Poco Tivio, Poco Dell and Poco Bob. Thats where Electra Waggoner Biggs lived and where she kept her studio, Hughes tells me. The W.T. He secretly wanted his favorite, Electra, to draw Zacaweista, because it was nearest to his homestead. Waggoner Ranch cattle have been 60 percent Hereford and 40 percent Angus/Hereford and Brangus/Hereford. I remember my mother taking me to Fort Worth to talk to her attorney. Ahead was a legal battle over whether Buster had the right to dispose of property that Electra, his mother, had left in trust to him and his bloodline. We farm approximately 25,000 that we use to graze cattle and raise crops for sale and internal use. Growing up, the ranch didnt seem like a big deal, Bucky told me. When E. Paul drew Zacaweista instead, W.T. He was teaching at Will Rogers Elementary School, in Houston, where Helen Biggs was also a teacher. Currently, Waggoner Ranch offspring are excelling in multiple competitive associations, including AQHA, Stock Horse of Texas, NRHA, NRCHA and NCHA. The bidding period on the ranch, going for $725 million, ended Oct. 20 with about six serious potential buyers. The cost of buying out Guys third of the estate had put a crimp in the flow of dividends, and Buster was running short of money. I was there. The color of this ground is the color of the ranch, Bucky told me as we bumped over the maze of rutted roads, he driving his Toyota Land Cruiser and talking nonstop and I jumping out to open gates. In addition to land and cattle, the family owned five banks, three cottonseed mills, and a coal company. Today the ranch consists of approximately 535,000 acres, and is recognized as the largest ranch in Texas under one fence. Hawley has a cell phone handy, and the ranch radio under the dash crackles with voices from isolated posts miles away. W. T. Waggoner Ranch is currently developing hunting opportunities for quail, wild hog and deer.