Tales Of The Empire Ranch

Walter Lennox Vail was an amazing man with grit and determination.  At 27 years old he was elected to the Arizona Legislature.  The year after he purchased the Empire Ranch, the Southern Pacific built a railroad line, perfect for transporting cattle to market.  In 1889 however, they decided to up the rates by 25%.

This didn't set well with the cattlemen, who decided to drive their cattle to market in San Diego.  It took 71 days and a few mishaps to make it happen, but happen it did, forcing the railroad to relent.  They lowered the prices on the condition the cattlemen not drive any more cattle west.

I did find the names of the children Walter and Margaret had, including Nathan, Walter, Mary, W. Banning, Mahlon, Edward and Margaret.  Some were raised on the ranch with Walter, his brother Edward and Uncle Nathan, who eventually joined the business.

With so many cowboys required on the ranch, Walter built on again, adding a cowboy kitchen and dining room.

The brown on the walls is adobe mud, part of the restoration of the buildings.

It was here I found the fattest lizard EVER!!  

If you've got cowboys, you need a place to do laundry.  They even had their own bathroom and shower.  One for all of them!!

It is not known who stayed in this room, probably Walter or possibly Hislop.  It was later used as a storeroom.  

One day some unknown female visitor to the ranch wanted to see a gila monster.  Walter said he had not seen one in a long time, but if he did, he would bring it back for her to see.  Out with the vaqueros one day, he found one, killed it and stuck it in his saddlebag.

When he went to retrieve it to show her, not truly dead, it bit him on the finger.  They tried everything to remove it, but it hung on tight.  They finally cut it's head off and pried it's mouth open.  Thinking he was probably dead himself, Walter took out his penknife and cut away pieces of his finger.  

The cowboys added a tourniquet, whereupon Walter rode 30 miles to a doctor.  He survived the bite, but had hemorrhages under his tongue for the rest of his life.  Stay AWAY from gila monsters.

While Walter and his crew were readying cattle for market in 1879, a prospector discovered silver on the ranch.  The hill was described as a Total Wreck.  After a couple years of court battles, Walter and his Uncle Nathan got full control, selling shares in New York, calling it the Total Wreck Mining and Milling Company.  They even laid out a town and sold lots.

With the decrease in silver prices in 1884, they closed the mine having only been able to dig out $500,000 worth of silver.  

In the late 1880's when drought hit Arizona and railroad prices finally did increase, Walter headed west himself to look for greener pastures.  He began leasing land in California in the Temecula Valley.  Why lease when you can buy?  He purchased over 87,000 acres.  Need more?  He leased Catalina Island, becoming partners with J. V. Vickers.  They eventually bought up huge chunks of Texas and Oklahoma for their cattle business.  

In 1896 Walter moved his family to California.  The little house on the prairie wasn't as nice as the homes there.  Tragically, in 1906 Walter was crushed in a streetcar accident in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day.  He did not survive.  Having no will, everything was left to his wife Margaret.  The Empire Land and Cattle Company (the name later changed to Vail Company) was run by his five sons until 1928 when it was sold to Boice, Gates and Johnston Company.   

Frank Boice built this house on the ranch, just across the road from the adobe house.  In 1951, he assumed full control of the property, just in time for the Cowboy Movies to start filming.  John Wayne, Gregory Peck and Steve McQueen have all graced the property.

In 1969 the entire place was sold to Gulf American Corporation for a real estate development which didn't pan out.   Later it was sold to Anamax Mining Company for mining and water rights.  Since none of those worked out, the ranch continued to raise cattle.

In the 1980's the owners began to restore the buildings.  By 1988 it had become public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, becoming part of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.  That's a good thing.  It would be a crying shame to drive through that amazing country and see nothing but houses.  Better to see beautiful flowers atop thistles.

The property certainly reminds me of the glory days of cattle ranching.  It's pretty much a thing of the past except for isolated spots in Texas and Oklahoma.  There's nothing better than riding the range moving cattle, smelling the creosote bushes and your sweaty horse.  I guess it's something you are born with.