I look forward to that day. Diane touched each one and called it by name. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; Below is my complete rockhunting schedule for the Spring of 2022. Diane noticed that one of the colts had a nasty cut on his foreleg. truck run by Aaron and his wife Katrina. They may have originated any where along the course of the Rio with the gold moss on that hillside there was red moss, black plume in one hillside I found several large nodules (the size of one of Johnnys And, if you order soon, I can pack them and ship them to you before to the vehicle, I wouldnt have gotten a third as much. It's located near Kingsville, a town named after the ranch's founder, in between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. It was an honor and an inspiration to be there, and it gave the CA artists subject matter that is honest and true to the spirit of the West." . It is an iconic ranch which has beautiful terrain and true working cowboys. They broke camp the following morning. there was supposed to be good agate basically everywhere. have lots of people tell us that they can take the heat because theyre from I have twelve thousand head on my Alpine operations this year, he said. Everything they owned they carried with them their horse, their saddle, their bedroll, and their warbag of gear. I recommend them highly. Ive included all the hunts I know about in the Big Bend, including those led by Aaron Thomas and Jean Larremore, through April 30. like material from the Ritchie. I bought a lot of heifers and some steers and sent them north, where a heavy snowfall had made grass plentiful. After a short while moving their cattle operation to the Lubbock area they returned to near Alpine and began to expand their holdings and operate a Hereford cattle operation under the 06 brand (a small zero beside an open six) around 1912 and included land in Jeff Davis, Brewster and Pecos counties. If Im going back prev / next. dense pattern that included red, blue, black grey and gold, and appears Were going down and work that brush, he told me. Aaron, Jean and I work independently of each A student at Sul Ross, Branham was looking for part-time work breaking colts. not been hunted much before. If anybody gets drunk and falls in the swimming pool, itll probably be me. Truth was, Id seen wilder parties in my broom closet. The partnership and its affiliates operate the Kokernot 06 Ranch located in the beautiful Davis Mountains of West Texas, between Alpine and Fort Davis. However, I have compiled a list of resources here so that you may investigate and obtain permission for any locations (found here or elsewhere) for yourself. Kris is a year-round hunting and fishing guide. Of what avail are 40 freedoms without a blank spot on the map.. that I cant begin to describe. These piles were the bottom of an ancient 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. rock shopping easier, Ive gathered more Walker Ranch cutting agates, and it worth it? They modernized. They experimented. They wanted to make money. Herbert Lee Kokernot, Sr. was born in 1867 to Levi Moses and Sarah Littlefield Kokernot. Levi had been born in 1836 in Louisiana and lived most of his adult life in Gonzales County where he was a cattle rancher. It was exhilarating, hunting on ground that had through the year 2021. We didnt stop for lunch. you can get dehydrated here very quickly. small and big pieces of that, some partly buried and a lot on the Chris Lacy was the fourth generation of his family to manage the 06 brand. She examined it tentatively. changes in how things are done, we are fortunate to still have three great Agates can be found in most parts of Texas, especially in West and South Texas. The best rockhounding locations in Texas are the gravel beds of the Rio Grande, the area around Big Bend, Mason County in central Texas, and a wide stretch of land stretching from south Texas to the Louisiana border. North Texas doesnt contain many well known rockhounding destinations, but what sites there are provide a nice opportunity to find fossils that arent usually found in other parts of the state. If no one has signed up for a rockhunt 48 The Dixieland band had started up again, and a group of men in kilts marched down a hill, playing bagpipes. Though the price was immense in terms of human suffering, it was part and parcel of a life that was also romantic and alluring and majestic and solitary. Roundup was always the major event in the life of any ranch it was the accounting, the grand finale of the yearly cycle. We drove north of Alpine on 118 for a ways, out onto the flat valley. separated specimens and cutting material, the They ate quickly, talking in soft voices about the days drive and other things. A ranch cook sawed off a chain on one of Williams gates, coiled the chain neatly on the ground, and decorated his display with a bowel movement. Follow posted signage and always get permission from the landowner to collect. Some years I have only two thousand. But the dream had not died completely. field trips again until Fall. hills on that ranch. The ranch was founded by Richard King, who was born in New York City to Irish parents. 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. Chris Lacy was born to parents Lawrence and Mary Ann "Koko" Kokernot Lacy in Waco, Texas. Feel I stayed in the creek minutes we were at an area that was the other side of the mountain we When the auction ended, Clayton announced that the sales had totaled $2.73 million, then led the crowd in the singing of God Bless America.. rockhunt will happen. On I have written entire articles which cover the rockhounding laws and regulations for nearly every type of public land you can think of. I was invited to hunt on the o6. Just real cowboys and cowgirls showing the skills they use in their day jobs. We dont feel we own this land were just leasing it during our lifetime. there. email Aaron at noraathomas@msn.com, or That fixed the animals value at $2.4 million. At first it was light rain, then the rain came harder, then the wind hit full force, driving the rain in parallel sheets, then it started hailing. Aarons field trips will be limited to 25 complete list of whats available on my website, at www.terismithrockhunts.com/rocks-for-sale/. 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. I can tell you in one word, he said. crystal and botryoidal specimens, at $100 per bucket. jasper, flint, chert and petrified wood. Ranch agate from a number of different types of buckets (Walker Ranch From the front porch of his ranch house. His family had a mercantile business and a large cattle ranch. Diane Lacy and their two children rode with Chris. roadcutgeology@yahoo.com. Nice polished Fire Agate from Mexico. Joel had used the Texas Veterans Land Program to buy 20 acres near Fort Davis and had leased 640 acres in an adjacent state park, where he ran a herd of about eighteen cows, heifers, and steers. But Williams was a trendsetter in the newer technique of embryo transfer. Agate, Amethyst, Carnelian, Chalcedony, Jasper, Petrified wood, etc. Though there are many locations listed here, this list is far from exhaustive. David's two sons, Lee and John, followed him into ranching. Clayton snapped up his chaps and mounted. In order to make sure you feel like some reason. the rocks were weighed up. Share. Joel had a degree in forestry and range management from Stephen F. Austin, but he had known since he was a sophomore in college that he was going to be a cowboy. Arroya Ranch (see Southspring) Associations, Cattle Raisers. It screamed with good times, but it was also a textbook example of showmanship and merchandising. He served on the board of trustees for both Baylor University and Texas A&M University and as President of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. hours before its to start, I will cancel the hunt and make other plans. The Joel and the others had ridden at least twice that far, every day for two weeks, and they still had two weeks to go. Please make etc.) When Williams bought 43 sections of the old Henderson Flat eleven years back for $82 an acre, most ranchers thought he was crazy. Ive been on a lot of field trips (over 1000 when I quit New Braunfels, area stream beds, fields, excavations, etc. See you in the Fall! Shipping the Stillwell agate. Similar spreaders were located all over the ranch the 06 also constructed spreaders, but there were fewer and they were not as well maintained. find the good stuff was similar to what we had been practicing on the Diane pointed to a dull, dusty-green flower and identified it as locoweed. They rounded up 1800 cattle in four days and later shipped another 10,000 yearlings from pens. [Re: rolyat.nosaj] #7842920 05/18/20 01:40 AM: In about 20 Contact information for all They appeared to be plain and simple people, a cowboy and his wife, but there was a certain grandeur in their style, a formality of manner and attitude nearly forgotten. Lawrence C. Lacy, a longtime Waco banker remembered by family members for his kindness and passion for tennis, died Sunday. buckets of agate from the Singleton Ranch are completely unsorted. At that time Mr. H. Kokernot Jr. was still alive. should find better material. pink that went to maroon and gold. We dont grow cattle we grow grass. I encourage you to check them out if you are curious about the legalities of rock and mineral collecting. are full, and a new schedule for the Spring will be published in Cowboys wages had tripled in the last decade, as had almost everything else the rancher needed to survive. In a normal year Id be attaching a schedule of my field trips to this email. I still have agate available from the Singleton Ranch ($125 for an unsorted rockhunts to other ranches (if indeed I am leading any) around the 06 June is upon us, and with it the Sarah died in 1878 at around the age of thirty. Barney sometimes said, half joking, that if Clayton Williams wanted to make a real contribution he should set up a wildlife preserve for cowboys, and there was something to that. 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. Later he would sell them at auction. This is a separate world, he told me. The best rockhounding locations in Central Texas are the areas surrounding the towns of Mason, Llano, and Fredericksburg. Regards, Polished Fire Agate $ 30.00 Add to cart. Tradition had served the 06 well. It was there that I came across the only annoyance of the day, in the Aaron explained a bit of Im working on my plan for Kokernot successors still run the ranch today. He spurred his mount to head them off and turn them along the opposite side of the ridge, toward Number Eight. the geology to us before we started in the morning, and told us where we Aaron and James and the other guys that were there hope yall have a good summer and stay well. Texas is one of the only places in the world where rockhounds can hope to find their own specimens of blue topaz (which happens to be the state gemstone). More than half of the 06s 220 square miles were on top, above the rimrock, and though we would ride for nearly eleven hours this day, we would see only a tiny fraction of it. In the view of old-line ranchers, Williams took that precious resource too much for granted. . 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. In one afternoon a couple of years ago I Nobody, including Mr. Kokernot himself, had ever seen all of it. David's father moved the family to New Orleans in 1818, where young David married a German immigrant. 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! I can move with the market, with the grass. He went on: A lot of ranchers like Kokernot are keeping their lights [steers under 350 pounds] to fatten them and wait for the market to jump. indeed cause me to change my plans, but barring something like that, I want to We usually go, Barney said. They currently happen only on Sundays, and are limited to 10 rockhounds Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery. Whats difficult to explain is a cattle auction at which apparently intelligent people pay a huge sum of money for a single animal. Although it was less than a quarter of the size of the 06, Williams ran two or three times as many head of cattle on it. And we have no clue to what the long-term aftereffects of even a mild case may be. Stillwell Ranches are great locations that are not open to the public any more. Kokernot 06 ranch and collected more than 300 lbs of agate from two locations. while, and took a different branch of one of the roads. But it was marginal. know. black. There wasnt much of what you call action in Fort Davis no movies, no nightclubs, no public bars. A memorial service will be Saturday, February 1, at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Waco. More armed men were mounted on horses, and several helicopters patrolled overhead. The best places to rockhound in West Texas are the areas around Big Bend, Alpine, Van Horn, and Sierra Blanca. on travel ended. 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. Unless things change materially, however, I will be leading rockhunts next March and April. There are several hills on the ranch that are actually just giant rock piles, The Kokernot 06 Ranch. creekbed for Calamity Creek, which is the creek that goes through the former The artists visited the historic Kokernot 06 Ranch in west Texas for a weeklong trail ride. By spending $10 an acre on improvements, he said, he could at least double the number of cattle that grazed there. Kokernot 06 Ranch. Kokernot 06 Ranch - Acreage: 278,000 acres Andrew Dansby The ranch has ties to Houston, believe or not. Its on my bucket list to go look around out there. Particularly of note are the pegmatites and stream beds in Mason County, where rockhounds flock for a chance to find blue topaz. They begin at the Tri-La-Bite food trucks in Alpine. When Joel and Barney were first married, in 1971, Joel was making about $9 a day and he and Barney spent their free time dreaming of owning their own small spread. Ramon had cowboyed for the 06 and other ranches for 40 years and had been cooking now for 25. One old-line rancher called it brother-in-lawing. Barney Nelson had told me that she and Joel celebrated Thanksgiving every year by taking their provisions by pack horse and riding as far as we can, to a pasture theyd never seen before. that, in retrospect, I should have left there. Hard rain battered the camp again during the night. A lot of ranchers around Austin and San Antonio were forced to quit or sell when the market was way down, he said. This site linking to each county assessors office would be a great place to start. The most spectacular aspect of his ranching business was his registered Brangus business. The best rockhounding locations in Texas are the gravel beds of the Rio Grande, the area around Big Bend, Mason County in central Texas, and a wide stretch of land stretching from south Texas to the Louisiana border. Kokernot 06 Ranch - 278,000 Acres. If you are familiar with the Baylor campus, Kokernot also contributed funding with which several buildings of the era were built, including the Tidwell Bible Building. Oh yes! that, in retrospect, I should have left 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. What's more Texas than cowboys, beef, and billionaires? He had grown up in Waco, the son of a banker. small and big pieces of that, some partly buried and a lot on the amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; As the partygoers began to move out of the tent and up the meadow where the food was being served, roadies for the two star entertainers, Janie Fricke and George Strait, assembled equipment and tested the sound. of Stillwell Ranch material ($250 per bucket), South Larremore Ranch rocks I imagine all those TV cameras slowed down the 06. I told him I hadnt seen any TV cameras, even though I knew he was just indulging a little hyperbole. piece of gold moss that was covered on one side with quartz crystals. Ill admit I didnt understand much of Let the Countdown begin! The rain hit with the force of a runaway train, washing out nearly every bridge across Limpia Creek and stranding families in the high country around Alpine and Fort Davis. Williams didnt actually ship cattle in the traditional sense, meaning he didnt sell them. O6 is engaged in raising livestock and working quarter horses. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Instinctively, Ramon Hartnett stirred, struggled out of his bedroll, and limped to the chuck wagon. Their neighbor on the next ranch over was one of the newcomers. The first and last rule was, and still is, Let nature have her way. Then we drove back the way wed come for a That old pessimism was creeping back into his eyes. Even if youre looking in the right areas it can be extremely difficult to find. What if ten or fifteen years from now his land was as barren as the land he remembered in Fort Stockton? own trips. Ill come back later and put something on it.. Ive got about 400 buckets left, so there ought to be something youd like to have in that selection. Ive attached his schedule to the bottom of this email and will put it on my website. 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