kokernot 06 ranch rock hunting
30.12.2020, , 0
. In early november I visited Clayton Williams roundup. Before the arrival of Clayton Williams on the scene, the roundup had been by far the biggest event in the area. He had come out this morning to watch Lance, his great-grandson and potential heir to the 06, play baseball. The dominant agate was These were men who paid $400 for a pair of knee-length work boots and $40 for a pair of dress boots. After almost three years of drought, two full growing seasons, fifteen inches of rain hit the ranching country in the Davis Mountains one night in June fifteen inches was an average years supply. Most ranchers would have limited a pasture this size to a few dozen head, but most ranchers didnt believe, as Williams did, in rotation grazing. This particular camp, called Number Nine, was the cowboys favorite. Thunderheads were building off to the west. sometimes rainy, with occasional thunder storms which can bring lots of hail, At the floor of the valley, near a tank, the cowboys circled the herd and held it while Chris and Diane Lacy and Joel Nelson cut out the steer calves and their mamas, separating them from the cows with heifer calves and the young calves that had been born since spring branding. They were as authentic as cowboys got. What they also knew, though, and what embittered them, was that even if Williams did turn out to be wrong in the end, as they all hoped, he would simply write off the experience and go somewhere else. Nobody ate better than the cowboys at the 06. The He was a generous benefactor of Sul Ross and provided scholarship money to educate its students. February. should find better material. Out in West Texas closer to the New Mexico border the variety and quality of rockhounding sites increase a bit, which is a welcome change from the quartz family mineral specimens which dominate the rest of the state. Walker, Singleton and other ranches. Except during branding or roundup, line camps were seldom used any more, but Cienega, Willow Springs, and Berrendo Flat along with Casa del Monte, where Kokernot and his wife lived were permanent bases. The idea of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bull seemed as absurd as having bulls wear real pearl necklaces, which Clayton had done at an auction held in the lobby of his ClayDesta National Bank in Midland. Walker Ranch Feel is everything. We stopped at a huge valley with a pipe-and-wire corral in the middle of a lovely set of mountains. They also have a Facebook buy and sell group the morning you dont know what youll find later, and when youre At that time Mr. H. Kokernot Jr. was still alive. probably came from a large seam somewhere up the mountain. Clayton Williams, his maroon pants stuffed in his maroon and white boots, talked with a group of prospective buyers who were inspecting the pens of cattle near the auction tent. Reports - Mineral 5 Section Reports - Beading 5 Texas MIneral & Fossil Show, Conroe 6 Featured Member:. The Kokernot 06 Ranch. Email me if you wish to attend.Second, for all hunts, COVID protocols will be in place: wear a mask when people are gathered, or when you are carpooling with someone you dont live with. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. hint. His family had a mercantile business and a large cattle ranch. It was there that I came across the only annoyance of the day, in the 06 Ranch, a historic ranch in Brewster County, Texas, and a new agate hunting destination for rockhounds". and Garnett Street in Alpine. You might learn it in one minute. That was the kind of sentiment the new breed of ranch owner would not understand, a romantic notion that flew in the face of technology and quantum leaps but that went to the heart of what Joel and Barney believed. Look at the stretch and length of that female. There were a lot of Gig em Aggies and jokes about what good-looking wives Brangus breeders have, and at one point Clayton even took the microphone and sang a verse of The Eyes of Texas. He stood on the auctioneers table and waved his arms and implored the crowd to buy, buy, buy he had been known to actually get down in the arena and paw dirt. Farmers went broke anyway, because it was not economically feasible to farm cotton out there. Nobody had eaten or had a drink of water since before daylight. Tradition had served the 06 well. Most of them were more interested in hunting deer and antelope than raising cattle, and those who did get into the cattle business usually approached it without regard for the old traditions and without love of the land. Pieces can be quite large: The Henderson Flat, the property next to the 06, was his showpiece. February. There are a few buckets left In about 20 Also, After that there will need to be more appointments, each with a number of variables which can go wrong, thus pushing back schedules even farther. It was something like buying the stud rights to Secretariat. It was six or seven miles back to camp, so we stopped at a tank to water the horses. truck run by Aaron and his wife Katrina. What's more Texas than cowboys, beef, and billionaires? Out here your values change, she said. We turned right into a dirt road, and drove east on dirt roads for about half an hour. My total adventure cost $213: $60 entrance fee and $153 for rocks. Then Ill sort and sell some smaller lots of things and perhaps special individual rocks, and the equipment I decide not to take with me to California. It gives them a lot to talk about on the golf course and at the country club dance, Joel said. pink that went to maroon and gold. If anybody gets drunk and falls in the swimming pool, itll probably be me. Truth was, Id seen wilder parties in my broom closet. It screamed with good times, but it was also a textbook example of showmanship and merchandising. David was educated at Southwestern University in Georgetown and later at University of Texas in Austin. perhaps the size of a brick. I recommend them highly. agate is $200 per bucket and the South Larremore Ranch is still open for rochunts Both Aaron and I That fixed the animals value at $2.4 million. It galled him that the 06 got away with romanticizing a way of life that was fast becoming an illusion. Particularly of note are the pegmatites and stream beds in Mason County, where rockhounds flock for a chance to find blue topaz. yellow/gold/brown moss in a background of cream, white, or blue We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Ted Gray, an old cowboy survivor and ranch owner, had said it eloquently in a passage from Barneys book, The Last Campfire: If you talk to an old man sometimes, you can learn something it maybe took him forty years to learn. Even in a state that is not well known for its rockhounding, the Texas Panhandle is relatively lacking in rockhounding locations and varieties of rocks to be found. Williams didnt actually ship cattle in the traditional sense, meaning he didnt sell them. Aarons field trips will be limited to 25 I cant tell you what Ill get, but itll be about double what theyre getting now.. called the Circle T Rock Shop in honor of Aarons familys ranch. Joel and the others had ridden at least twice that far, every day for two weeks, and they still had two weeks to go. The opening bars of the Aggie War Hymn rattling from his lips, he slammed on the brakes and flew out of his Bronco, waving his arms and shouting, Oh, man! He was making considerably more than that now, but the dream had mostly vanished because of the influx of newcomers and the corresponding rise in land prices. Im a cattle entrepreneur, he said. Every mile or so there was an oasis elaborately constructed Hollywood facades with cute names like Margaritaville, Fort ClayDesta, and Clayties Chicken Ranch where neatly groomed young people in Western costumes dispensed beverages and tough-looking, heavily armed, off-duty lawmen checked credentials. Spring Works at Kokernot 06 Ranch, Davis Mountains, Texas. prev / next. Grass needs time. He was looking for pickup drivers, swimming pool maintainers, weed poisoners. Kokernot o6 Ranch Ranching/Horses/Hunting/Ranch tours Welcome to the Kokernot o6 Ranch. Ive done some rock hunting in California, and had fun, but a lot of the places Ive wanted to go have been closed due to the wildfires or the concern that new wildfires could break out and there would be no firefighters left to put them out. We dont grow cattle we grow grass. He expected to ship fewer than 1000 cattle in October, as opposed to at least 2500 in normal years. Most of the time I couldnt even see Ty Holland or the other two cowboys in our group, but Goddard knew where they were. Everyone knew that the water table was dropping, yet Williams was constantly watering the manicured meadow behind his ranch house. The horses were almost as expert as the riders. A veteran of the War of 1812, David had also served in the south as a ships pilot for the United States Revenue Cutter Service around 1830. The best rockhounding locations in Central Texas are the areas surrounding the towns of Mason, Llano, and Fredericksburg. At the sight of the waves of rich grasses growing, Folks in fort davis didnt need invitations. It was too wet to work, but even during the drought there wasnt a lot to do this time of year except get ready for roundup in October. Chris Lacy believed, for instance, that the drought dictated a severe cutback in 1984. About half of the fifteen cowboys taking part in the roundup were drifters who followed the flow Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, wherever there was work branding or gathering. This is the kind of country that doesnt adapt itself much to change, he said. Mask wearing is required for the fieldtrips: you must wear a mask or you dont go on the field trip. Ive attached his schedule to the bottom of this email and will put it on my website. The other hillside had some blue botryoidal pieces with crystals, a Chris had managed the ranch since 1971, when his grandfather Herbert Kokernot, Jr., stepped aside. bed for a while, then ventured only a little ways up each hillside. The groups fanned out in separate directions, making a wide circle through the canyons and draws, gathering cattle as they found them. going to California at the end of June. Store Name: Joe's Rock Farm ; Vendor: Joe's Rock Farm; No ratings found yet! I take checks, PayPal, When the squall had passed, the cowboys examined the tepees, which were their individual shelters. sometime near the end of August or beginning of September. The ranch is still owned and managed by descendants of the original founding Kokernot family, Chris and Dawn Lacy. email me at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net Larry, you son of a gun, you stole my heifer! to rockhounds across the country via USPS, and every box has gotten there safely. cab. I have twelve thousand head on my Alpine operations this year, he said. Hotels and motels in I dont need him right now, and hell eat better at your place anyway., After Joel had delivered the bull to his pasture on the mountainside above Fort Davis, he drove into town, looking for Chris Lacys pickup. A locations listing here is not a guarantee of accuracy. Lacy ran his operation well. There was mesquite too, and black brush and some scattered strands of gramas. Polished Laguna Slab $ 125.00 Add to cart. Blue topaz can be sparingly found in central Texas. Re: If you could pick a ranch to hunt. Aaron and James and the other guys that were there When it was too dark to pitch horseshoes, some of them played cards and other gathered by the cook fire, drinking coffee and swapping stories. Frankly, Lacy said, we prefer it that way.. Commercial mining never really took root in Texas and, while there are some old mining dumps to be picked over by rockhounds, most of the best rockhounding sites are in the gravels of rivers and streams and exposed hillsides. Im back in Alpine, Texas, in time to start field trips next week. His cows were Herefords, but they ran with a mixed breed of steers. Hi yall! At the sight of the waves of rich grasses growing in Catclaw Pasture, Clayton Williams was overcome. Presently Goddard spotted another rider scrambling up a ravine of brush, chasing a group of seven or eight calves. In 1900 his son was born, and in 1912 he became sole owner of the 06 a spread thereafter referred to as Herbert Kokernot and Son. Despite the absence of cross-fencing, the same 06 cows were found, year after year, in the same 06 pastures. His competitive business instincts pushed him to make his ranch operation profitable and it was. They were unfailingly polite, especially to strangers, and even the give and take among equals showed a respect rare among professionals. Kokernot 06 Ranch Texas $ 45.00 Add to cart. We usually go, Barney said. Theres no way you can make money on beef cattle paying a million dollars for bulls, Joel said. for rockhunts and pick them up yourself. during the COVID pandemic. After nearly a week of isolation, Chris Lacy and his family took an alternate route over the mountains and into Fort Davis. It was on top, high above the streams and trees and paved roads. The 06 made a healthy profit during good years and was stable enough to survive bad years. How about all of them put together? rock shopping easier, Ive gathered more Walker Ranch cutting agates, and Some of the complaints were ludicrous, as when one Fort Davis merchant charged that the oilman raised black cows rather than the red Herefords that were traditional to the area. you can reach Aaron Thomas at noraathomas@msn.com or I still have agate available from the Singleton Ranch ($125 for an unsorted Cattle cycles are supply and demand, pure and simple, When prices go up again, ranchers will be buying heifers to replenish their stock. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. I try to meet with everyone once theyre out again in 2 weeks. Bison Texas 222 Texas 29, Bertram, TX 7860. There had been lean times, of course, especially since the onset of the drought. There had been arguments over property lines, over water rights, even over the right to host wild parties. buckets of agate from the Singleton Ranch are completely unsorted. In This site contains affiliate links to products. even great rocks, but large Aaron Thomas rockhunts: email him at texastakeahike@gmail.com, or visit Claiming 800,000 acres, King Ranch is the largest cowboy ranch in the United States for over 160 years. Ive gone through different buckets to find Ranches W of Mason, area pegmatites (fee), Banks of Llano River, in gray/black limestone, Large area between Crockett, Trinity, and Groveton, E of New Caney, in area creek beds and banks, Btwn Groveton & Trinity, all surrounding area. The Stillwell Ranch had a whole bunch of different types of agate, Williams wasnt dependent on the land for his livelihood the way they were. Across the fence, however, on the flats of the 06, there was an abundance of catclaw, a vicious, spindly shrub that sucks up water and shows its appreciation by tearing open the hides of cows, and sometimes cowboys, with spiked claws on stems that grow as tall as ten feet. It didnt take a psychiatrist to see that something didnt square here; any old-time rancher would have been willing to point it out. black. Most had been married at some time, but cowboying could take its toll on a marriage. He described the party as Woodstock without sex. His guests were going to pay some fancy prices for cows, and Clayton wanted them to enjoy the experience. Ive finally got a rockhunt schedule for Fall 2020. Cowboys from the 06 had started carrying hacksaws and bolt cutters in their trucks and saddlebags in anticipation of locked gates. Two hundred twenty square miles of lush, rolling pastures, sheer rimrock bluffs, and jagged canyons stretched across the top of the Davis Mountains from just north of Fort Davis to the city limits of Alpine, thirty miles to the south. Amp ; Fossil Show, Conroe 6 Featured Member: the give and take among showed... Of Clayton Williams on the scene, the property next to the Kokernot o6 ranch time. 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kokernot 06 ranch rock hunting