B3 Ranch Book

THE 1950’S

Chapter 1 - the 1950’s !

In the fall of 1954, an epic drought gripped Texas. While contemporary Texas is

mired in the same fate over late 2010 and all of 2011, the 1950‘s drought is the one in which all other droughts are measured. !

Historically, the 1950’s were a time that pushed many in the agriculture industry out

of business. In Texas, nearly two-thirds of people who worked in agriculture were pushed into other lines of work during the decade that spanned the drought from 1947-1957. For a young couple from Oklahoma, the promise of building a Texas ranch proved to be an opportunity that no drought could suppress. The challenge, however did come with some trepidation. !

LOOKING BACK

While Bill was in the Army and stationed as a First Lieutenant in Korea, he’d given

his dad Rusty Bradley power of attorney and instructed him to buy a ranch for him if he found a cheap one. Bill came from a ranching background and was eager to get started on his own once his stint in the Army was complete. He’d just finished his degree in ani-

In the midst of an epic drought, the Bradley 3 Ranch was formed.

mal husbandry from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) and was looking

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The purebred herd was formed.

and his grandparents owed a small ranch in Dickens County. Therefore, Bill wanted to be

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Life and ranching was tough during the first few years.

the third generation of the Bradley clan to own a ranch.

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towards the future. Bill’s parents were already in the ranching business south of Electra

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During his service in Korea, he was engaged to a fellow alumni and graduate of the

Oklahoma A&M school of agriculture - Minnie Lou Ottinger of Hydro, Oklahoma. !

By the time Minnie Lou graduated from Oklahoma A&M, she was already making

history in her small Oklahoma town where she graduated with distinction from Hydro High School was a member of the state championship girls’ basketball team in 1948. After

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high school she became the first female student to major in animal husbandry at the

long, ten mile drive from the highway was the longest that she’d ever driven and she

university was the first female to ever make the collegiate livestock judging team.

wasn’t enthused with what she’d seen so far.

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Meanwhile, Rusty took Bill seriously and found a worn out ranch in Childress

“I came from Oklahoma farm country with a county road at every section line.

County.

After six miles [down the dirt road] there was a lane on the left leading to a ranch

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The previous owner had leased the land to some unscrupulous people that

headquarters, known then as B.P. Smith Land and Cattle Company,” she explains.

stocked the ranch at a rate of 100 yearlings per section. In 1952, after they group had

“We crossed a cattle guard and kept going west. Then we crossed a long wooden

overgrazed the place, they pulled off and told the owner that they didn’t want it any

bridge across a creek and kept going across two more cattle guards but there were

longer. Since no appreciable rain fell, by 1956 the owner had no income from the

no fences on either side of the road.”

land and was forced to sell to pay his mortgage.

! !

“After another four miles, a driveway turn off to the right and down the lane was

While Bill was in

an old box type two story house with rotten wooden pillars holding up the porch roof.

Korea, Minnie Lou had

The floor of the porch was wooden and was buckled and falling in and there was not

graduated and was work-

a sprig of grass or a tree on the place.”

ing for the Texas Angus

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Association out of Fort

white stucco but the blowing sand had turned it red.

Worth and at Rusty’s invi-

!

tation, took some time

be in poor shape. The original ranch country, 3400 acres in size, was bare except for

away from work to head

dense mesquite, the windmills were all inoperable and the fences were in poor

northwest and see the

shape.

ranch that he’d found.

!

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andering Jonah Creek that feeds the Red River to the south), Rusty got down on his

“The first time I ever

“I was more or less speechless,” she says flatly. The house was suppose to be

When Minnie Lou and Rusty toured the ranch beyond the house, they found it to

On the west side of the ranch, in the North Jonah pasture (named after the me-

came to the ranch was in

knees opened up his pocket knife and began digging. Soon the elder Bradley found

the fall of 1954,” says

some roots and looked up and said the words that sealed the deal for Minnie Lou,

Minnie Lou. The drought

Bill, and the ultimate legacy of the Bradley 3 Ranch in Childress County.

was crushing Texas and

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“The roots are alive,” he proclaimed. “I believe that this is a good buy.”

everything was dry, in-

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Before they left the ranch, Rusty’s wife asked the ranch owner Ed Silk if they

cluding the Red River

could tour the house. Rusty was against the idea because he thought the best thing

which runs nearby. “I

to do with the house is to lay dynamite to the place.

was north of Childress

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and saw that the Red

ranch house built in 1907.

River was completely dry and the surface was white with salt.” She admits that the

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Fortunately, ‘Mama Rusty’ disagreed and they stopped to take a look at the old

The place was in bad shape with gaps in the walls and snakes under the floors.

But the house wasn’t falling in and could be rebuilt.

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!

“I began to wonder just how much faith I could have in my future in-laws,” says

help and between the three of them, they finished the kitchen before the wedding

Minnie Lou. “One said the roots were alive in what looked like a dead pasture and

date.

the other saying the old house had hope.”

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plate and picnic box and slept on the floor. However, the house was clean. Before

Sometime after Thanksgiving Rusty signed the papers on the drought stricken

The house didn’t have a stove or refrigerator so the pair initially lived with a hot

and overstocked ranch and in early 1955, the Bradley Ranch was in operation on the

the pair moved in, Minnie Lou remembers that Bill’s mother set off some insect

original 3,431.5 acres. The purchase price? $77,208.75 or $22.50 per acre.

bombs that they set off in each room. Fifty-six years later there has never been a

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The ranch closed on January 1, 1955.!

roach enter the ranch house doors.

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On Valentine’s Day 1955, Bill returned home from Korea and three weeks later,

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“We have often wondered what the ingredients might have been,” says Minnie

he and Minnie Lou married and went to the ranch that night. Nineteen-fifty-five

Lou.

proved to be the worst drought in Texas history and with barely over 10 inches of rain

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that year, the pair had to wait until 1956 until there was enough grass to stock the

kitchen stove, refrigerator and a couch,” she says. “So kin folks cleaned out their old

ranch.

furniture to help us out and we spent the rest of the spring in completing the down-

!

Nonetheless, the initial land purchase marked the first piece of ground that

stairs. Rusty came up in June and ask us to make delivery on a set of steers in Dick-

would grow into one of Texas’ legendary ranches of the last century. When the third

ens County and he would stay, watch the ranch and build us new doors between the

ranch in the Bradley family was created, it was also the third generation of Bradley’s

rooms. When we got back we had barn doors complete with black bolts and a differ-

to own and operate a ranch at one time in the state of Texas. Believing it would be

ent latch on each.”

hard to change the flat top figure three, Bill believed it would only be fitting to honor

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his parents and grand parents who had made it possible for the third generation to

project on the list. However, the weather was still a barrier.

ranch by using the as the brand for the third generation to ranch.

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only 10.55 inches of rainfall for the entire year - about a foot of rain less than the nor-

Bring the Ranch Back to Life

mal rainfall amounts.

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In the spring of 1955 the drought still gripped the ranch and sand blew so badly

“Bill and I knew it was going to take all the money we had saved to buy our

With the house now livable, ranch improvements and expansion was the next

While 1955 was dry, 1956 was the driest on record for Childress County with

With a new ranch, however, the Bradley’s knew they had to make the place

that Minnie Lou could not see the cattle guard only about one hundred yards away at

work. The strategy involved stocking smartly and adding more land to the ranch.

the end of the lane. Things would get worse...

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chased 5,760 acres from I. C. Little Cattle Company from Dallas, Texas. Mr. Little had

After the Fort Worth Stock Show, Minnie Lou left the Texas Angus Association

The second land acquisition came on December 1955 when the ranch pur-

and headed out to her new home on the ranch to make it livable with the help of Bill’s

gone broke and had to sell and the Bradley’s were willing buyers. Included in the pur-

mother.

chase was one eight section pasture that joined the Silk country on the north and the

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ninth section joined the ranch up on the south side. The purchase price of the new

“With only a rough board covered in newspaper and wild paper walls, the old

house was pretty breezy,” remembers Minnie Lou. “Mrs. Bradley suggested we

country was $22.50 per acre but a cash transaction didn’t ensue. Instead, Rusty and

cover the downstairs with knotty pine wood.” Before they married, Bill came up to

Jack Bradley made a land swamp by trading ranch land they owned in Dickens County, Texas.

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The third ranch expansion came in late 1956 when two sections were bought

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About that time the famed Mill Iron Ranches were slowing down their operations

from a pair of sisters for the sum of $25 per acre. Bill and Minnie Lou had purchased

and they maintained all their equipment in a shop in Estelline. The Mill Iron owned

the initial 3,431 acres and the remaining land was acquired by Rusty and Jack Brad-

several old World War II jeeps and pickups and were selling them so the ranch

ley with Bill and Minnie Lou to run all the country as one ranch.

bought one of each.

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The jeep became the Bradley 3 Ranch windmilling rig.

Most of the windmill towers were wooden and some were pretty rickety. However,

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Even with the new windmilling rig it was still too light when the pulleys were

the ranch needed operable mills so the pair developed ways to contend with limited

hooked to the jeep in order to pull pipe. Often the weight of the pipe was so great the

help and learned to improvise windmill repair.

jeep would leave the ground.

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While the acreage expanded, the infrastructure was in dire need of upgrading.

After acquiring the eight sections under one fence, it was apparent that the new

One day in west Salt Creek Bills folks came out for a visit and realized that the

country not only needed more water (one windmill on west end and one on the south

young couple was facing a daunting task in trying to repair the windmills by them-

end) but also needed working pens.

selves. Bill would hook up the elevators to the pulleys and hitch to the front of the

!

jeep. When he yelled the signal, Minnie would put the Jeep in reverse to lift the pipe.

“Bill and I decided to build a set of pens on the west side of the eight sections,

not for sure why we selected that rise in the country except it was clear and we did

The pipe, however, didn't budge and the jeep was lifted from the ground by the

not have to remove brush,” says Minnie Lou. However, the place they selected was

weight.

one of the most rocky sections on the ranch and digging post holes was an epic

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chore.

Lou’s views of the top of the windmill tower as she could only see straight out of the

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front of the jeep. The windmill repairs were going nowhere.

The pen’s posts consisted of gypsum encrusted windmill piper recycled from the

The tarp that was fashioned to the top of the jeep for shade blocked Minnie

ranch and sawed to length with a hack saw. Even though the rock was a deterrent,

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the pair was determined to put the pens where they thought it would suit them best.

the other side for weight,” she says. “Bill was under the tower and gave the instruc-

Stubbornly, they spent the entire day on one hole before finally breaking the only pick-

tions when Bill yelled that he was ready, I was to give the old jeep hell.”

axe they had.

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laws had left the jeep and was high-tailing across the pasture with Bill right behind

The next day, Bill used an old auto axle he found in a junk pile on the ranch and

“The solution was for Rusty to get on one side of the jeep and Mrs. Bradley on

“I gassed the jeep on the signal and before I knew what was happening, both in-

used a sledgehammer to chisel away the rock with the axle. The pair continued on

them. Me and the jeep were being showered with timbers while dangling off the

the chore day after day until all the pipe holes were dug. Then, using bull wire

ground half way up the falling tower. The jeep landed back on the ground right side

stretched between the posts, the pen was complete. Fifty-six years later those pens

up.”

are still in use with only the crowding pen being replaced. !

At first Bill and Minnie Lou only had a little half ton, two wheel drive pickup for

Stocking Against The Grain

town and ranch use but the truck always needed a new clutch. Their farmer neigh-

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Success in the cattle business wasn’t always an inevitable conclusion for the

bors, the Helm brothers to the west, were good mechanics and would replace the

Bradley 3 Ranch. At first they had trouble with the neighbors cattle.

clutch on a regular basis.

!

The rancher on the land north of salt Creek and ran Brahman steers from South

Texas that “hurdled a five wire fence easier than a buck deer.” Every Sunday Bill’s

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mother and dad would drive up from their ranch with two good horses and Monday

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through Wednesday Bill and Rusty would head and trip steers so they could return

wouldn’t drink the ranch’s gypsum laced water and just licked around on thinking they

the cattle to their own country.

had found a liquid salt block. After shrinking for about a week, the cows decided that

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the water was as good as it was going to get and started to drink from the windmills.

‘Mama Rusty,’ as Bill’s mother was known, and Minnie Lou would ride up on the

She says that once they got the cattle home, they found out that the cows

high points in the cedar breaks to locate the steers. Then Mama Rusty would get the

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pickup and trailer as near to the tied down steers while Minnie Lou removed the pig-

from the Smithdale railroad pens just east of the ranch. Gene Pickard, order buyer

gin’ string so the steers could get on his feet to be pulled into the 16 foot open

from Albany, Texas bought them to go to a farm feedlot in Iowa. As long as the Brad-

topped, bumper pull trailer. They would pack at east five steers in at a time to keep

ley 3 Ranch was in the commercial business, Pickard continued to buy their cattle.

them from jumping out on their ride back home. While the work was hard, the Brad-

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ley’s were able to train some good horses from their experience.

mercial cattle as they grew into a purebred herd.

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Aside from the neighbors, cattle, the first set of cattle that they brought onto the

That first calf crop brought $.20 per pound ($80.00 per head) and were shipped

However, about the same time, the Bradley 3 Ranch began phasing out the com-

“Those first commercial cows had been bred to Angus bulls,” explains Minnie

ranch were fraught with problems as well.

Lou. “We had learned in school about a new term called ‘hybrid vigor’ to take advan-

!

In the fall of 1956, branding started on 300 head of wild Hereford yearlings.

tage of the hybrid vigor Bill and I decided our future was in to breeding the three way

Right after branding, the rain began to fall again and soon, Bill and Minnie Lou discov-

cross.” Hybrid vigor is a concept that assumes that the offspring of two purebreds will

ered that each of the yearlings had a case of screw worms. For the remainder of the

outperform its parents - a valuable concept in breeding schemes in the modern cattle

fall, they had to rope, tie, and doctor each of the animals for a month before moving

industry.

them off to the Salt Creek Country.

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Oklahoma where they selected five bulls with the intention to take the Angus/

When the cattle were finally moved onto new pastures, the became hot on the

So the young ranching couple went to the Turner Hereford Ranch in Sulphur,

trip. Once they reached the top of the bluffs along Salt Creek, the yearlings would

Hereford cross heifers and breed them to a solid red Shorthorn bull. In turn, believing

jump into the water below. In doing so, they became buried up to their bellies in the

they could produce black and red polled cattle. What they didn’t figure was just how

quicksand. So it was Minnie Lou’s horse George, who pulled out the calves before

large a herd you’d need to make that scenario work from year to year. Therefore,

they died.

they decided to simply stick with the purebred herd since they figured that West

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Texas needed ‘Ranch Raised Angus Bulls.’

In the spring of 1957, the yearlings were placed in the first large-scale commer-

cial feedlot constructed in Texas - the Lueter Lot 150 miles away in Lubbock. After

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they were shipped to Gooch Packers in Abilene, Texas, the fledgling ranch knew that

years.

this cattle raising model wasn’t for them as they lost money on the deal.

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Springs, Texas where the owner was hauling water and feed to the herd. Bill put in a

Since the elder Bradley’s financed the cattle operation, they wanted out of the

That slogan has remained on all the Bradley 3 Ranch advertising throughout the In the late summer of 1957 the Bradley’s bought a group of cows from Sulfur

yearling business. Therefore, Bill and Minnie Lou decided to switch to a cow-calf

bid for the cattle at $150 per head for 103 cows. In the transaction, he also got three

herd and decided to start a commercial Angus cow herd.

bulls and about 65 calves in the deal.

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The first cattle were purchased from a ranch near Levelland where, according to

Minnie Lou, “good water flowed from new irrigation wells in that area.”

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“As I settled up with him he said the cows were registered and pitched me a ci-

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For the most part the ranch kept the top end of the heifers each year and cut the

gar box full of registration papers and said if I could mate them up he would sign

low end cows. They also used bulls that were raised on the ranch and never selling

transfer of ownership,” remembers Bill.

the top three or four bulls.

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When the cows were delivered to the ranch, they were given the chance to fill

In the early years the ranch also had a dwarf problem. To remedy the genetic

up on grass and water before the Bradley’s took to the task of trying to match cows

shortcoming, any cow that had a dwarf calf was branded with an ‘X’ in front of her

with calves and then matching the cows to the paperwork. When the task was com-

herd number and she was put in the dwarf producing herd. Any new bull brought in

plete, about 65 cows were identified through their paper registration using the ear tat-

for service had to get by these 20 cows without producing a dwarf. After these old

toos, neck chains and checking teeth to age the cows.

cows began to die out Bill and Minnie Lou made it a practice of mating any bull they

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raised to all of his half sisters to bring out any genetic weakness in the line of cattle.

In those days all registered Angus cow wore a chain around their neck with a

number dangling from the chain. With the abundant mesquite on the ranch, the Brad-

!

“In the early days of our ranch we were selling bulls mainly to ranchers with

ley’s were afraid of cows hanging up so they decided to fire brand them on their hip

Hereford cows to produce the Black Baldy feeder calves,” says Bill, explaining that by

with a number to indicate year of birth and an individual number to identify the cow to

having line bred Angus bulls they got an extra boost of hybrid vigor. “When ranches

her registration papers. Other Angus breeders were indignant about the Bradley’s

began to produce composite cattle, we still had an advantage in vigor rate of gain

disgracing the breed by placing a fire brand number on a registered cow. However,

and carcass traits. In all three things helped us to make a living in the cattle busi-

their practice has proven sound and from that point forward, the ranch continues to

ness.”

use the same practice to identify their cattle. ! !

The calves that belonged to that first group of cows weren’t registered because

Bill and Minnie were unsure of the sire. However, about the same time, they also pur-

The Road to Success

chased ten Angus cows from Gerald Rapp of Estelline, Texas. While they had to pay

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a little more for the Rapp cattle than the ones from Sulphur Springs, the close dis-

herd, the ranch was growing in other ways. In 1958, Bill and Minnie Lou welcomed

tance meant that no shipping costs were involved. Nonetheless, from that bunch of

their son Monte to the ranch in 1958. At six weeks of age, he was already being

cows and three bulls from Orchard Hill Farms in Sulphur Springs, Texas, the Bradley

toted around the ranch so that Bill and Minnie Lou could complete their chores.

3 Ranch herd originated.

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“As time went along we added a few cows or a bull to the herd, most of the time

they would move Monte to the shade under the metal. As they went around the tub

from dispersal sales or at private treaty,” says Bill. “I believed when I could see good

adding sheets, they would keep moving Monte into the shade to keep him out of the

bulls the owners were selling, I would try to buy the dam because they never brought

sun.

near as much money. My theory was, ‘buy the factory and mate to a good bull and

!

you should get a good bull calf in time.’ All the time trying to better the bulls and cull

in floor of pickup and leave out in morning with enough milk and orange juice to keep

the low end cows from the herd.”

him happy until they finished caking the cows. !

With the cattle on their way to becoming one of America’s legendary Angus

Bill and Minnie Lou were building a large tub and as they put in a sheet of metal,

While Minnie Lou was on horseback checking cattle, Bill would fix Monte a bed

Even though the ranch was taking shape and being rebuilt from, literally, the

roots up, life was still tough in one of the most remote parts of Childress County. In

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the late 1950‘s the ranch had no telephone and heading to town was difficult because of the poor condition of the county roads. In the first two years they were on the ranch, they didn’t have television and would set on the upstairs porch and use binoculars to see the drive-in movie theater in Childress. !

For domestic help, Bill and Minnie Lou employed eighteen year old Dorothy

Moore. Dorothy lived at the ranch and helped take care of Monte and the cooking chores. Dorothy stayed at the ranch on and off for six years and took care of Mary Lou when she was born. !

“Coming from Oklahoma I did not know what was meant when told all the water

on ranch was ‘gypy,’ says Minnie Lou, describing the time she rode to the North Jonah pasture to check on yearlings. “The water at the mill looked so inviting. I was thirsty and hot and I thought how good the water would be. Once I swallowed, my mouth puckered and it was like taking a big dose of salt.” About a mile from the house she began to experience stomach cramps and to this day, has never drank from a windmill again. Instead, she started carrying a canteen from ‘the one good water well in Estelline.’ !

Despite the challenges, Bill and Minnie Lou persevered. In doing so they set in

motion, a ranch and a legacy that would change in the modern cattle industry. !

Minnie Lou still vividly remembers studying the ranch abstracts and legal de-

scriptions. In the history of the ranch, she discovered, no one entity had ever owned any of the property over nine years. When her and Bill reached the nine year mark, they celebrated their personal, noteworthy achievement. In December of 2011, the Bradley 3 Ranch turns 56 years old.

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