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All She Wrote: This ranch comes with long legacy
By Sherry Robinson
New Mexico News Services
A chunk of heaven and history is for sale.
You'd look a long time before finding a place with deeper roots in New Mexico than the legendary Bell Ranch.
Directions: Drive into the northeastern caprock country. Pass Roy. Keep going until you think you've reached the end of the earth. You're almost there. The Bell is so big and so remote it has its own zip code.
Named for a dome-shaped mound in the Canadian breaks of northeastern New Mexico, the Bell is Marlboro Country. Literally. Marlboro's advertising people came here to shoot commercials. So did Levi, Skoal, Copenhagen and Stetson.
When a ranch like this turns over, the impact on neighbors, surrounding counties, the cattle industry and even the state is so profound, it's hard to grasp. It's like selling off a county.
Once the home of Apaches, Comanches and Kiowas, the ranch began in 1824. Mexico had won its independence from Spain just a few years earlier, and the new government awarded a 655,000-acre grant to Pablo Montoya, a former army captain and Santa Fe alcalde. After the United States claimed New Mexico, Montoya's heirs lost the land to the sharp-tongued attorney hired to confirm their land claim - a scene repeated often in northern New Mexico in those days.
Under a series of private owners the ranch grew, gaining its name in 1889 from a Canadian land promoter. By 1946 the Bell embraced 719,000 acres with 22,000 head of cattle and 1,000 horses. The owners broke it into six ranches and sold them; the headquarters parcel continued as a downsized Bell Ranch. In 1970, Lane Industries, of Chicago, bought the Bell and added some of the former acreage, raising the total to 250,000. William N. Lane's stated goal was to maintain it as a working ranch.
As early as 1874 the Bell managers began improving its herd and through the years established a reputation for the newest breeds and the latest management techniques and marketing strategies. It continues today with the RedBell, a composite of Herefords and exotic breeds that thrives in this climate.
It was my great privilege to visit the Bell in 1991. The cowboys that day were busy vaccinating yearlings, and the Bell's respected manager Rusty Tinnin and his wife Bennie graciously showed me around. Bennie, in fact, was so kind I felt like an old friend, even though she was then showing from one to 86 visitors at a time through the 28-room hacienda at least once a week. The Tinnins understood their role as both ranch managers and keepers of the flame. I was sorry to learn of Rusty Tinnin's death last year, after managing the Bell for 20 years.
The high point of the day was lunch in the cookhouse with actual cowboys - the equivalent of dining with movie stars, to this city slicker. Other ranchers might complain they can't find a good cowboy any more, but the Bell has a waiting list. "The Bell's got a good reputation," Tinnin said. "They treat their people well." And it's a point of Western pride to be able to say, "I worked for the Bell."
Tinnin got plenty of dreamers who wanted to cowboy on the Bell, but he favored local people. "To them, it's their profession. They take pride in it just like a CPA takes pride in his work," he said.
Recently, Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced a resolution to make July 22 "National Day of the American Cowboy." At the Bell, every day is the Day of the American Cowboy.
The Lane family has been a responsible and caring steward of the Bell Ranch since 1970. It's dizzying to contemplate who might buy the Bell and what they might do with it. Reportedly, the Lanes are looking for buyers who will continue the operation. I hope they look long and hard at prospective buyers and don't just sell to the highest bidder.
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Its sad to see this place come up for sale, everyone around is hoping that the Lane family will sell it to someone that wants a working ranch rather than a trophy that will sit unused and empty or worse yet try to subdivide it into ranchetts.
By Sherry Robinson
New Mexico News Services
A chunk of heaven and history is for sale.
You'd look a long time before finding a place with deeper roots in New Mexico than the legendary Bell Ranch.
Directions: Drive into the northeastern caprock country. Pass Roy. Keep going until you think you've reached the end of the earth. You're almost there. The Bell is so big and so remote it has its own zip code.
Named for a dome-shaped mound in the Canadian breaks of northeastern New Mexico, the Bell is Marlboro Country. Literally. Marlboro's advertising people came here to shoot commercials. So did Levi, Skoal, Copenhagen and Stetson.
When a ranch like this turns over, the impact on neighbors, surrounding counties, the cattle industry and even the state is so profound, it's hard to grasp. It's like selling off a county.
Once the home of Apaches, Comanches and Kiowas, the ranch began in 1824. Mexico had won its independence from Spain just a few years earlier, and the new government awarded a 655,000-acre grant to Pablo Montoya, a former army captain and Santa Fe alcalde. After the United States claimed New Mexico, Montoya's heirs lost the land to the sharp-tongued attorney hired to confirm their land claim - a scene repeated often in northern New Mexico in those days.
Under a series of private owners the ranch grew, gaining its name in 1889 from a Canadian land promoter. By 1946 the Bell embraced 719,000 acres with 22,000 head of cattle and 1,000 horses. The owners broke it into six ranches and sold them; the headquarters parcel continued as a downsized Bell Ranch. In 1970, Lane Industries, of Chicago, bought the Bell and added some of the former acreage, raising the total to 250,000. William N. Lane's stated goal was to maintain it as a working ranch.
As early as 1874 the Bell managers began improving its herd and through the years established a reputation for the newest breeds and the latest management techniques and marketing strategies. It continues today with the RedBell, a composite of Herefords and exotic breeds that thrives in this climate.
It was my great privilege to visit the Bell in 1991. The cowboys that day were busy vaccinating yearlings, and the Bell's respected manager Rusty Tinnin and his wife Bennie graciously showed me around. Bennie, in fact, was so kind I felt like an old friend, even though she was then showing from one to 86 visitors at a time through the 28-room hacienda at least once a week. The Tinnins understood their role as both ranch managers and keepers of the flame. I was sorry to learn of Rusty Tinnin's death last year, after managing the Bell for 20 years.
The high point of the day was lunch in the cookhouse with actual cowboys - the equivalent of dining with movie stars, to this city slicker. Other ranchers might complain they can't find a good cowboy any more, but the Bell has a waiting list. "The Bell's got a good reputation," Tinnin said. "They treat their people well." And it's a point of Western pride to be able to say, "I worked for the Bell."
Tinnin got plenty of dreamers who wanted to cowboy on the Bell, but he favored local people. "To them, it's their profession. They take pride in it just like a CPA takes pride in his work," he said.
Recently, Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced a resolution to make July 22 "National Day of the American Cowboy." At the Bell, every day is the Day of the American Cowboy.
The Lane family has been a responsible and caring steward of the Bell Ranch since 1970. It's dizzying to contemplate who might buy the Bell and what they might do with it. Reportedly, the Lanes are looking for buyers who will continue the operation. I hope they look long and hard at prospective buyers and don't just sell to the highest bidder.
************************************************************
Its sad to see this place come up for sale, everyone around is hoping that the Lane family will sell it to someone that wants a working ranch rather than a trophy that will sit unused and empty or worse yet try to subdivide it into ranchetts.
