Dad's Ranch

Dad's ranch was ten sections or 6,400 acres in New Mexico and Arizona's border. It was about 30 miles from Virden, New Mexico. The old ranch house was made out of adobe. It had a couple of windmills that pumped water for the house and livestock. There was no electricity. On our ranch up at Cherry Creek was the site of a gun battle between the Bradberry's and Meanes families. The Bradberry was the sheriff of Clifton, Arizona and his brothers were his helpers. The Meenes were ranchers turned train robbers. The Bradberry's caught up with the Meenes at Cherry Creek and a gun battle ensued. John Bradberry stuck his head up and was shot in the mouth and killed. One of the Meenes was shot in the arm. I met him years later when he got out of prison.

There were a lot of gold mines on Dad's ranch. He told me never to go into any of them. There was one big mine called the "Glory Hole"-the mine was engineered by Herbert Hoover. The "Glory Hole" they found 7 million dollars of gold in the hole. They sunk a deep mine shaft next to it, but they never did find the vein. There was dormitories and buildings there.

When I was a young kids, my dad would have dynamite on our flat bed truck to the miners over this real steep rocky road. One day my dad and I had the back of the truck loaded with dynamite and a box of blasting caps was on the seat between us. Going up the steep part of the road, my dad opened his truck door and had me open mine. He told me if the truck stalled, killed or missed a beat to jump out. We made it okay. I remember sleeping at night in the ranch house and listening to the pumps pumping the water out of the mine shaft.

Burros

Clyde Pace (my cousin who was 2 or 3 years older than me) and I were out on Dad's ranch and two burros had come up to the corral. Dad didn't know whose burros they were. One was an old white burro and one was a young brown burro. We put them in the corral. I got on the young burro and Clyde jumped on the white burro. I was laughing at Clyde because the white burro was kicking up a bit. The next thing I knew I was bucked off and landed on my nose in the horse manure. The young burro was a good bucking burro. We decided to take the burro to Virden. We rode horses and took the burro across the county which was about twenty miles. Dad had killed some quail and cooked them for our lunch. On the way in we stopped at the old Martin Homestead, which was abandoned. There was a spring, so we scrapped the moss back and drank the water. We went up the spring and there was a dead squirrel in the stream. We were eating the quail and the burro acted like he wanted a piece, so we gave him a piece and he ate it. The burro was a big hit with all the kids in Virden because all the kids tried to ride him. I don't know who ended up with the burro. I was about 9 or 10 years old.

Rattlesnakes

Clyde Pace and I when I was about 10 years old rode horses up to a cattle watering area on the ranch. When we got there, there were many rattlesnakes which were crawling away from the water hole. We killed as many as we could kill with rocks before they got away. I had never seen so many rattlesnakes in one spot.

Horses

Dad had a lot of horses on the ranch. He caught this wild horse in the Black Hills and broke him. But the horse was not broken all the way . dad said he was the smartest horse he had ever had. He would get loose every once in a while and Dad would have to go catch him again.

In those days the ranchers used to graze their cattle over hundreds of miles. Dad loved the round up where the ranchers would round up the cows and new calves. They would brand the new valces so they would know who they belonged to.

Dad's horse was such a good cattle horse that all the ranchers wanted to buy him. Dad sold him several times. Because Dad was the only one who could ride him, the horse would throw the new owners off and they would return the horse to Dad.

Dad Roping

Dad was a very good roper. He could rope anything. One day on the ranch he roped a bobcat. As he was walking down his rope to choke the wild cat it bit threw his foot, just missed his toes. He choked the bobcat and hung him over the bluff because he was so mad and never got his rope off.

Fencing

Dad and I used to carry the barbwire out on horses and we would cut cedar posts and put the posts in the ground with shovels and bars. We had to use pack horses to carry all this stuff because there weren't any roads. It was really hard work for me at 10-11 years old. I hated it.

Mule

One day Dad was trying to shoe a mule on the ranch. He wasn't having any luck. He tied up one leg on the mule and still couldn't shoe him. He got so mad he took the claw hammer and showed the mule and then he hit him in the head and scrapped all his hide off his head between his eyes. He went back and then the mule was a perfect genetlemen. He had no problem shoeing that mule from then on.