NAF News

OLD TIME COWBOYING

One hundred years have passed since J.L.Whipple purchased the Horton Ranch, 1904, at Sunnyside in lower White River Valley, Nye County. It was to become one of the major ranches in that area and one where cowboying, with few exceptions, was not much different than the days of the Chisholm Trail in the 1860s. A grandson, Keith Whipple of Hiko some 80 miles south in Lincoln county, still operates on a ranch once integrally tied to the Sunnyside property and what might be considered an extension of the original ranch. Two other grandsons, Dean and J.L. (named after his grandfather), also remain in farming and ranching but farther north in Lund and not as associated with Sunnyside.

This story is one that has been told before. It is about following the seasons, the grass and the herds - something men have been doing for thousands of years. It's about a life to which these men become addicted. They cherish the freedom of vast distances and of great outdoor scenery, the vigorous and athletic work, sharing experiences with their friends and the challenges faced and overcome from weather to markets. These things alone won't, however, keep them in business. What does is that they produce a product vitally needed by people who are willing to pay for it. There would be no herding if people didn't relish and need the nutrition of a good steak, a pair of good leather boots or jackets, or the many other byproducts of what they do.

John Lytle Whipple, then 24 years old, arrived in White River Valley in 1898. He was sent by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to take charge of a ranch and cattle owned by the LDS Church. The Church came by the ranch, called the White River Land and Livestock Company, as reparation for seizures of Church properties and assets including large herds of cattle as a result of the 1887 Edmunds - Tucker Act. It was these properties located where the towns of Lund and Preston are now that Whipple was to manage.

J.L. was well qualified for the job. He stood close to 6' 4" tall, lean and experienced. He had been "punching" cows since he was 14 and had spent many a hard day on the trail. In getting to White River Valley, a place he had never before been, he had ridden horseback alone from St. George, Utah. During that journey he had passed by the Sunnyside area and liked what he saw. It is about 35 miles south of Lund. He was the first of many LDS people who came a few months later to establish the LDS communities of Lund and Preston. As these settlers arrived, the Church sold ranch acreage to them. Whipple managed the remaining land and cattle for some four years but by that time the Church had sold it all. J.L. was out of a job and he and wife Rose had a growing family of four. (They would eventually have 10 children, three boys and seven girls.) He gathered up what money he had, borrowed more and bought the Horton Ranch down at Sunnyside, the area that had first impressed him when he entered White River Valley.

The ranch grew. J.L. acquired some more property including the neighboring Lewis Ranch. In 1917 he sold half of that property to Ed Hendrix. The Whipple Ranch by the early 1930's was a major ranch in the area. Eldest son Murry bought the Hiko ranch in 1936. Murry and wife Quida were starting a family and Keith was their first born. Brother Kent would come along seven years later. The J.L. cattle, the largest herd, coupled with Murry's along with Hendrix's and those of Jim Riordan amounted to about 3,000 head. They all ran cattle together and all year around on open range. They wintered the cattle 100 miles south in Coal Valley and summered them in the Egan Range which flanked the upper White Rive Valley on it eastern border. The drives of this good sized herd from Hiko and Coal Valley north in the spring and back again in the fall were what cowboy lore is all about. At first when horses pulled the chuckwagons it was no different, though shorter and with less cattle, than the legendary drives up the Chisholm trail.

Murry Whipple, also tall and lean, had the reputation of being one of the two best cowboys in White River Valley and some say in all of eastern, central Nevada. The other was Dard Bruno. Murry excelled as a competitor in local rodeos both riding rough stock and in roping. He was said to be a superb roper, very good at rodeos but maybe better as a working cowboy. Keith related a story told about his dad and roping Once when they were branding the other hands came up with a bet amongst themselves. One group bet that Murry could rope more calves sunup to sundown (with an hour lunch break) than could Tom Adams, a Native American cowboy and also a good roper. The other group bet on Tom. With. just a few minutes left before the sun set below the western horizon, Murry was down a calf and Tom was dragging another in. Murry then rode into the herd, roped two calves with one loop, pulling both to the branding fire. The two calf loop tied the score and nullified both bets. Another little aside about Murry. This writer's father who had grown up in Lund always liked Gary Cooper in western movies. He said he liked him because he resembled Murry Whipple, a real top hand.

Ownership of the Sunnyside Whipple Ranch changed in 1935 when J L. leased the ranch to his youngest son Clair (Punk) and later sold it to him. Some minor changes were made in how the cattle were handled. Earlier the drives, extending a number of months, included all 3,000 head but according to Keith difficulties arose when trying to mother up the calves after each days drive. The calves tend to get tired and lag with most of them winding up in the drag, or tail end of the herd. With the large amount of cattle it was always a bawling mess when cows and their calves tried to get together at the end of the days trek. As a result the cattle were split roughly into two herds of 1500 each which made the mothering up process easier.

Ironically, Murry's life was ended in 1945 as a result of a roping accident working his cattle. His wife then leased the ranch to Allen Oxborrow who had married Vivian Whipple, one of Murry's sisters. In 1950, Keith was old enough to take over the ranch. He had been working the place with his uncle Allen and was ready to manage. In. talking about those cattle drives Keith said, "by this time, Myron Adams had purchased the Riordan ranch." It is located in White River Valley some 15 miles north of the Sunnyside Ranch. Keith explained, "Clair ran about 1300 head of cows, we had 600, Hendrix 700 and Adams 300."

"We'd start in February from Hiko pushing into and gathering in Coal Valley," Keith said, "and then we'd leave there in May starting the cows north, going slow and grazing along the way. We'd push up to Murphy Meadows usually around June 6 (remembered well since it was his uncle Clair's birthday) branding calves right out on the open range as we went along. Some riders would hold the herd, others rope calves, while others would wrestle the calves holding them down while the branding crew put the irons on the 'doggies.' They also earmarked, castrated and gave them whatever shots were needed. We'd rest them awhile and continue on up the valley usually getting them into the Egan range by late June. We'd then spend a week or so in July spreading them out in that high country." Keith added that the only difference in what they did compared to the earlier drives was to pull the camp wagons with pickups. He said they'd start the fall ride in early September, get back to Coal Valley before Thanksgiving and to Hiko mid-December.

"When you've got a herd of 1500 head of cows they stretch out," Keith said, "and vivid in my memory is looking back from a high vantage point at the winding chain of cattle extending for what was close to five miles." Keith continued, talking about the last lap of the drive from Blind Springs to Longwater, a distance of 20 miles, "I'd start out with the leaders at 4:00 in the morning and usually get there about 10:00 A.M. The drag would not arrive until 5:00 or later in the afternoon." Longwater was a creek draining off the westside of the Egan. It flowed from springs near a high pass breaking over to Long Canyon and the summer range.

What the operation amounted to was about eight months mostly in the saddle pushing and working cattle. In this way it was not much different than the nomadic existance of those early American cowboys and, indeed, drovers that came years before. This type of animal agriculture pretty well fits the seasons and the welfare of the grass or in a broader sense the whole range. The cows were on winter range just over 2 1/2 months, not a long time. In Coal Valley, or more southern Nevada, spring comes earlier than further north. When the drive started in February from Hiko it was taking advantage of early spring green up or the coming of a new grass crop. The moving cattle benefitted from the new grass but were not long enough on it to cause any significent stress to the plants. Indeed, there was plenty of spring left to set seed after the cows had passed. It was this way all along the trail. When the cows topped Longwater into Long Canyon and Cave Valley, late June, the grass there had matured and already had set seed. Again the cattle would only be on summer range from early July to early September. Dr. Paul Tueller, retired range scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno would note that the grazing stimulation of the passing herd invigorated grass production. Likely, especially after 1934 and the passing of the Taylor Grazing Act, these were the only cattle using the area.

Today these long drives no longer exist and haven't for almost 30 years. In the early 1960's Clair sold the hub of the operations, the Sunnyside Ranch J.L. had built. His reason for doing so, according to Keith, was primarily the same reason (drought) that Keith had in giving up all grazing rights on public domain in favor of a total inside enterprise - that is completely on private and fenced pastures. After Clair sold out Keith still drove his cattle north to Cave Valley and back again for about 10 more years. These trips, however, were not like the old drives. They didn't involve months on the trail. Keith said,"We were just interested in moving the cattle as quickly as reasonable and managed the drive in seven days from Hiko to Haggerty Ranch in Cave Valley. We were making about 15 miles a day."

Why did Keith quit public domain? "The major reason," he said, "was because of an extended drought in the area Clair sold out mainly because he just wasn't fattening his cattle anymore on the allotements, in fact, some cattle lost weight and a lot of it. I was experiencing the same thing. There just wasn't the feed that used to be. In the earlier days 900 gallons a minute flowed from springs at Haggerty Ranch. I raised alfalfa hay and good meadow pastures. When I sold Haggerty in 1973, only 70 gallons a minute were flowing." This represented dwindling snowpacks, less moisture and a depleted water table. The proliferation of pinyon-juniper in Cave Valley might have had an adverse impact on the water table. Keith agreed. Haggerty Ranch in Cave Valley was owned by the Whipple's for years. There was a nice ranch house, storage sheds, corrals, fenced fields and pastures on the ranch located in Cave Valley a few miles north of Shingle Pass. It was the line camp or headquarters for their summer range work in Cave Valley.

It was the old days of the Whipple operation that this writer remembers. I spent a week in 1945 riding the lower end of Cave Valley on a spring round-up and calf branding outing with Clair Whipple and his son Warner along with a number of other cowboys. It was an experience I'll never forget. I also rode a couple of days during two or three fall gathers in Cave Valley while deer hunting with Clair's nephew, Guy Robison. It allowed me a glimpse of what old time cowboying was all about.

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Cattle on Nevada range year around was the story of Whipple ranching and this entailed months in the saddle. The saddle work was necessary in trailing the herds from summer range to winter range in the fall and back again in the spring.

Old time cattle drive as depicted in a painting. It illustrates what drives used to be like with cow stretched out over miles. The watercolor is by Dave Mathis who wrote this story.

Keith Whipple as a young cowboy on the first horse he owned. The name was Ted. Before he had ridden ranch horses but his Dad broke the horse and gave it to him. He rode many a long mile on Ted during those many years of drives.

Dust was always a constant companion and nuisance when trailing and working cattle. This photo shows an oldtime branding session. Note far right rider who is almost obscured by the dust cloud.

A Pahranagat Valley meadow and cattle pasture privately owned, managed and irrigated. It is now the way Keith Whipple is ranching - that is inside or totally on his own private land and no longer on the public domain.