Mr. Kokernot and Mr. Gray were true Gentlemen! you can reach Aaron Thomas at [email protected] or cutting agate, $250 per bucket. The lesson Williams said he had learned from his fathers ranch that one had to listen to nature was in direct conflict with his current hardscrabble philosophy of molding the land into new forms of usefulness. Indeed, his fathers experience begged the obvious question: what if Williams turned out to be wrong? lbs. It would be several days before Lacy and his family could make contact again with the outside world and weeks before the highway between Fort Davis and Balmorhea would be open. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. More armed men were mounted on horses, and several helicopters patrolled overhead. By the end of October the last of the cattle had been shipped. stick on. Ill check in the middle of October whether the rate in Texas has gone down, and then decide if Im coming back for November. Rio Grande, in gravels S of Rio Grande City. The best places to rockhound in West Texas are the areas around Big Bend, Alpine, Van Horn, and Sierra Blanca. This sideshow had nothing to do with that discipline. There were outcroppings of basalt here and there. Clayton held center stage throughout the auction, wiggling and dancing and inciting the crowd like a berserk cheerleader. Droughts did freaky things to ranchers. Jack is short of grass, Joel said. N of Cross, area fields, banks, cuts, washes, etc. should find better material. This particular camp, called Number Nine, was the cowboys favorite. yourselves until its time to get together at the end of the day. The valley we were in now was not very wide, and Almost every institution in town had been owned or controlled or at least deeply touched by the Kokernots the First National Bank, the newspaper, the Masonic lodge, the Baptist church, the various cattle associations, Sul Ross University. the Walker and Woodward Ranches, in addition to the pieces in the gravel piles He was also a co-founder of the Baptist Foundation of Texas, now known as High Ground Advisors. Kokernot 06 Ranch . We dont grow cattle we grow grass. Im not holding out any cutting material that There will be some protocols in place for extra safety How about all of them put together? We usually go, Barney said. Given Texas reputation for defending private property, this is probably even more important than it is in most other states! Kokernot 06 Ranch || Alpine & Fort Davis, Texas || Hereford Cattle A company I worked for used to lease the Kokernot 06 Ranch in Alpine. When he died, he was referred to as a Texas patriot for his service to the area, including the Texas Revolution. This site contains affiliate links to products. Starts at 8 a.m. at Tri-la-Bite, and is $40 per person. When Williams bought 43 sections of the old Henderson Flat eleven years back for $82 an acre, most ranchers thought he was crazy. A tank truck sprinkled precious water to hold down the dust. Goddard and three others were generally referred to as the Montana cowboys, though only one of them, Bob Blackwell, was from Montana originally. And the good stuff was indeed Because this ranch is now closed to rockhunting, the buckets are When I die, he said, the catclaw of the world will hold the damnedest celebration you ever saw., To put it bluntly, Clayton Williams did not believe in bending to nature. When the herd had come together at the Number Eight pens, the cowboys saddled fresh horses from the remuda and we started down with the herd. Anglesite, Barite, Bromargyrite, Malachite, Microcline, Quartz, Azurite, Chrysocolla, etc. In my last email, I detailed the reason that I dropped the price on the Ron Goddard, a young cowboy from Montana, had been married when he worked at the 06 the past spring. His trouble is he has no feel for the land. Rockhounds can hope to find all manner of quartz-family minerals including several varieties of agate, jasper, and petrified wood, as well as less common specimens like geodes and turquoise. counting), and this is one Ill remember for many years. Levi had first married the former Sarah E. Littlefield with whom he had a number of children including Herbert Lee. Tip: Check out my Complete Rock Tumbling Guide to make your rocks and gemstones really shine! I look forward to that day. Grande, from Southern Colorado through New Mexico and the Big Bend of Many will make only one cab, and to do that youll need circumstances (such as your bringing your pet aardvark along, bringing a bulldozer, the rocks were weighed up. to help dig and carry were helpful and nice. On rockhunt will happen. There were Corn Ranch, also known as Launch Site One, is a spaceport owned by billionaire and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. should find better material. Ill also have buckets of agate for sale. $250 each. The partnership and its affiliates operate the Kokernot 06 Ranch located in the beautiful Davis Mountains of West Texas, between Alpine and Fort Davis. Out here your values change, she said. Clayton Williams, like his neighbor Herbert Kokernot, Jr., was a graduate of Texas A&M, an Aggie right down to his boots, which on special occasions displayed the emblem of his alma mater, as did the swimming pool at his ranch in Alpine and many of his other earthly possessions. Full grown human: 0, Bee: 1. Awesome displays of lightning split the sky over the mountains of the Big Bend to the south and the deserts of Fort Stockton to the east, but up here you could see the Milky Way as clearly as most people could see their ceiling. Im back in Alpine, Texas, in time to start field trips next week. When they finally started to move, it was in our direction. His cows were Herefords, but they ran with a mixed breed of steers. My apologies to everyone for not emailing you sooner concerning rockhunts this fall and winter. Stay here and watch for strays. I interpreted that to mean Stay the hell out of our way, which I did. His competitive business instincts pushed him to make his ranch operation profitable and it was. minutes we were at an area that was the other side of the mountain we But the communal trust had been violated, or at least abridged, and that showed up in things like padlocked gates. with the gold moss on that hillside there was red moss, black plume in surface. Mapcarta, the open map. Herbert, Sr. died in 1949 and is buried at Mission Park in San Antonio. 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. The most common minerals found in Texas include agate, chalcedony, petrified wood, jasper, quartz, and barite. Mary Ann Koko Kokernot Lacy, 91, died peacefully on Sunday, January 12, 2014. Lawrence C. Lacy, a longtime Waco banker remembered by family members for his kindness and passion for tennis, died Sunday. This is a separate world, he told me. Im a cattle entrepreneur, he said. agates that came from there. On the one hand, it didnt make that much difference if a few of Williams experiments didnt work out. The partnership and its affiliates operate the Kokernot 06 Ranch located in West Texas. I actually wrote an entire article about how and where to find it, which Id suggest you check out: In Texas, blue topaz is only found in centrally located Mason County, particularly the towns of Mason and Grit. A piercing blue sky illuminated the mountains, and the great highland pastures swept off in all directions, clean, bright, and suddenly, magically, emerald-green, as though the storm had transformed the world from black and white to Technicolor. Having women at roundup went against the grain of tradition, and some of the cowboys no doubt resented the intrusion, but Chris had decided that that was how it would be done at the 06 and Chris was the boss. Most had been married at some time, but cowboying could take its toll on a marriage. Once were rockhunting, however, you and your group can remove the But first and foremost he was the grandson of a Kokernot. David Kokernot acquired the Kokernot 06 brand in 1837. Until then, please consider Aaron Thomas field trips to the 06 Ranch, the Larremore Ranch, and Needle Peak. Now in his early fifties, he was as lean and fit as a cheerleader and so ultrahyper that he couldnt sit still for more than a few minutes. In order to make sure you feel like 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. It was quicker, cheaper, and considerably more efficient than the elaborate ritual at the 06. We drove north of Alpine on 118 for a ways, out onto the flat valley. 06 Ranch, a historic ranch in Brewster County, Texas, and a new agate hunting destination for rockhounds". The brand was registered in Calhoun County about 1837 and had been in the Kokernot family since 1872. Several 06 pickups, including the one hauling the chuck wagon, had made it up here before the most recent rain, but getting them down again might be a problem. Clayton was a little nervous that I was there. 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. can send you a bucket that Ive curated, taking the best cutting "Rock Hunting on the Kokernot 06 Ranch-A Rockhound's Dream" by Terry Roberts, East Texas Gem & Mineral Society (SCFMS) From: Rock-N-Rose, 4/21 4. His operation was showing a handsome profit now, but he had been in the ranching business for only a decade, which in ranching terms was not very long at all. 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. Nobody, including Mr. Kokernot himself, had ever seen all of it. You can look for a schedule from Aaron and me That explained why most ranchers clung so tenaciously to their old and honored traditions to their way of life. specimens, Misc. Im working on my plan for He was a generous benefactor of Sul Ross and provided scholarship money to educate its students. There are three ranches in the area which are open to the public for topaz hunting Seaquist Ranch, Bar M Ranch, and Lindsay Ranch, all of which are fairly close to one another. The present Kokernot inherited his. Hes done some good things, said a cowboy who was hunkered down beside a keg of nails. A steady stream of well-heeled shoppers trooped in and out of Bob Dillards Union Trading Company, men in Stetsons and sometimes elephant hats (the Republican convention was scheduled to start in three days), and women in tight leather cowboy outfits, bursting with prosperity and the evidence of cosmetic surgery. Agates (Rio Grande), Jasper, Agatized wood, Petrified palm wood, Opalized wood, Fossils, Agate (Rio Grande agate), Chalcedony, Jasper, Agate, Agatized wood, Chalcedony, Jasper, Agatized wood. find the good stuff was similar to what we had been practicing on the Despite the absence of cross-fencing, the same 06 cows were found, year after year, in the same 06 pastures. The stadium was later turned over to Alpine Independent School District and Sul Ross University also plays its home games there. One old-line rancher called it brother-in-lawing. cream and blue backgrounds, occasional pieces of red and gold moss, and The McElroy Ranch consists of three sections that were once part of the Kokernot Ranch. He seemed to care passionately. Beautifully landscaped with rock walls and native grass Baines Park is a great place to go for a walk or have your Rocky moment running up the stairs. Many had surface pits that were in a regular pattern, as if But if Williams didnt talk much about the millions hed made in oil, other ranchers were more than happy to. I barely knew how to ride, she recalled. The semen was stored in straws, or ampules, that were frozen in liquid nitrogen until it was time to artificially inseminate some cow. Williams steered his Bronco through another pasture where 1200 head of commercial cattle grazed on new grass. It was six or seven miles back to camp, so we stopped at a tank to water the horses. Here in California theres a mask mandate, and the rate of COVID infection is 25 people per 100k. "Safety is No Accident" by Ilene Olson, Wyoming State Mineral & Gem Society (RMFMS) spring! the Stillwell agate. It was exhilarating, hunting on ground that had I still have agate available from the Singleton Ranch ($125 for an unsorted It twirls up there by itself. The jet-set ranchers, who attended his annual party and auction had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a small share of the semen rights to a single bull. Theyre usually open Thursday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. I stayed in the creek Ramon woke his assistant, a Mexican boy who spoke no English, and as the boy began preparing pancake batter and frying bacon, Ramon raked a piece of firewood across the corrugated tin sides of the shed and hollered, Chuck! Tent flaps opened, and the cowboys began crawling out, boots first. Walker Ranch The way I hear it, Clayton said, the 06 pays its cowboys twenty dollars a day, unless they bring their own camera, in which case they get twenty-five. Singer Charlie Daniels had actually worked an 06 roundup he was a pretty fair hand, they said. By spending $10 an acre on improvements, he said, he could at least double the number of cattle that grazed there. Bailing hay, much less selling it, was as foreign to the 06 operation as selling zebras something else Clayton Williams had done. Cowboys from the 06 had started carrying hacksaws and bolt cutters in their trucks and saddlebags in anticipation of locked gates. Through quite a bit of research and cross-referencing of available literature, I have compiled this list of some prospective locations in Texas which I would recommend to people looking to do some rockhounding. The Dixieland band had started up again, and a group of men in kilts marched down a hill, playing bagpipes. Kris is a year-round hunting and fishing guide. The 06 made a healthy profit during good years and was stable enough to survive bad years. the website www.takeahiketexas.com. He mentioned the Kokernots more than once to me; he was always interested in the big ranching families. The USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) publishes a set of the most commonly used topographic maps of the U.S. called US Topo that are separated into rectangular quadrants that are printed at 22.75"x29" or larger. We turned right into a dirt road, and drove east on dirt roads for about half an hour. offering special deals, and going through my studio to see what else I have to But theres lots of other good agate still people, and theres still no limit to the number than can attend my field Only one bull was available at this auction his name was Bob of Brinks, and a one-tenth share of his semen rights sold for $300,000, making him even more valuable than Rocky Joe 650. to rockhounds across the country via USPS, and every box has gotten there safely. bands, mostly blue, grey, black and white. They currently happen only on Sundays, and are limited to 10 rockhounds The Kokernot 06 Ranch. . His effort failed, but his brazen attempt to impose his will on the local folks stuck in the craws of ranchers like Chris Lacy and his grandfather. field trips again until Fall. We couple of nice red moss pieces, and my trip rock: a long, narrow nodule There was, of course, much to be pessimistic about in this fragile and volatile country. Aaron and James and the other guys that were there Herbert Lee Kokernot, Sr. was born in 1867 to Levi Moses and Sarah Littlefield Kokernot. . To rockhunt or not to rockhunt? There are plume agates, mosses, fortifications, tube agates and some others 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 is not a common thing on the ranches of the West for a city kid to become a bona-fide cowman, but when the gods, and the clouds, align great things can happen. All of us at The Land Report are deeply saddened by the loss of Dan Allen Hughes Sr. (19292016). again to start considering what to give your favorite rockhounds for the through Facebook messenger. O6 is engaged in raising livestock and working quarter horses. King Ranch newspaper clippings. 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