Come away with me to see some country.

[Liberty Belle]

Jump in my pickup and take a trip to our summer pasture with me. It will only take about three hours for the over forty mile round trip. That's if we don't find anything wrong or have vehicle trouble.

This sign cautions you to slow down before you wind up shooting off the bank into the dry dam on Skull Creek, the first of several dry creeks I cross getting to our summer pasture.

The second dry creek, Brush Creek.

The road I follow runs parallel to the South Grand River. This is the bend by what we call "the bushes".

This wagon is at the Hackamore Ranch and was driven in the centennial wagon train in 1989 by one of my heroes, Guy Doll, a decorated WWII veteran who fought in the South Pacific. Slim Buttes to the south.

The horse is standing in the round corral built inside the rock corral I showed you in another post. That is the Slim Buttes off to the south of the Grand River. We have now driven eight miles from the main road. There are no other ranches or neighbors along the entire twenty plus miles I'll travel today.

Storms clouds building over Horse Creek, the next dry creek west of the Hackamore Ranch.

The historic Tom Ashcroft/Claude Olson Ranch off in the distance. We are now a little over twelve miles along our route and just about to turn north. That is the Short Pines and the Crow Buttes you see in the distance. We have opened and closed four gates so far.

We have just turned north. This is Soda Creek and if this creek isn't dry, you will not drive across it. The walk to the nearest neighbor from here is a six mile jaunt back to the Hackamore. You only make the mistake of trying to drive across in the mud once.

I'll end here and pick up the trail later on this afternoon. There's a lot to see yet. Hope you enjoy the ride.

 

[alabama]

I want to ride with you next time you go.

 

[Anonymous]

I want to ride with you next time you go.

Be careful Alabama, if you hang around me or LB on a car trip you stand being converted into a Republican if you are not already one.lol.
:wink:

 

[Anonymous]

It must have been good timing, but I was listening to "I'd like to be in Texas for the Roundup in the Spring", when the picture of the wagon loaded up. Mood Music.

I remember Guy's paint team well that he pulled that wagon with. They were flashy horses.

One correction LB, the picture that is looking down in our direction has the North E6 Buttes in it, not the Crow Buttes. They would be further to the left of Lone Mountain, which is just on the left edge of your picture. They are all great pictures BTW.

Did you know that there is a second set of E6 buttes just east of our east boundry?

Oh, and do you have a faster internet connection than I do for loading these pictures? Mine is very slow.

 

[koj]

Jake have you been to the E-6 to east? Probably have. But if you ever climb up to the top on the west side, there is an old sandstone rock that Myron carved in years ago. There is also a giant cross on the north butte that must have been put in by the Crow or Sioux. Your brother, myself, and our cousin spent a lot of time up there (I won't mention what we did :wink: )

 

[Faster horses]

Wonderful pictures, LB. Thanks for the ride!!!!

 

[Turkey Track Bar]

LB:

I agree with FH--thanks for the ride, posting pictures with the next views, and I too would love a real tour of the area---

I hope some of your trees survived--

TTB

 

[Liberty Belle]

jake: One correction LB, the picture that is looking down in our direction has the North E6 Buttes in it, not the Crow Buttes. They would be further to the left of Lone Mountain, which is just on the left edge of your picture. They are all great pictures BTW.

Dang, jake... you're right! The little picture I was looking at this morning didn't show up as good as it does on here.

koj: Jake have you been to the E-6 to east? Probably have. But if you ever climb up to the top on the west side, there is an old sandstone rock that Myron carved in years ago. There is also a giant cross on the north butte that must have been put in by the Crow or Sioux.

The other set of E6 Buttes are not too far south and west of us. I've never gotten around to climbing them, but do you boys know that on one of them is a grave of an early days cowboy who died of "lead poisoning"? At least that is what Ken Haarldsen, who was raised on what we know as the Lane Ranch (Ludlow Grazing Association), said his father told him. He can't remember which butte though.

Koj, did you see anything up there that looked like it could be a grave? Maybe where that cross was? A cross seems like an odd thing for early day Indians to be putting there, so that could have been done by early day cowboys for one of their own. Wish Myron was around to ask… WO would have known the whole story. Too bad I wasn't interested in that sort of thing while he was still with us.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Jump in for the rest of the trip. Only three more gates to go and we'll get there soon if we don't kill too much time shooting prairie dogs and picking lava rock for my flower beds.

This is all that is left of the original Denzin place. Note the sandstone steps leading to what used to be the front door of the frame house that has fallen down. The lawn was built up and made level by hauling loads of red lava rock from the nearby hillsides. At one time there was evidently a lot of volcanic activity in this area and we have the stone and scoria to prove it. The roofless rock barn I showed you before sits just to the south of the house.

This is the second Denzin place, home of Fred Denzin, who was raised at the first place I showed you. Fred was a wonderful magician and could have made a good living pulling rabbits out of hats in the cities if he had the inclination. He loved his life ranching out here on the bleak South Dakota plains. How many big city folks could live here?

Last of the seven gates that I open and shut on every trip. Only a mile and a half to the well now. That is the Cave Hills you see in the distance

Life blood of the grasslands. Without this well, our summer pasture would be useless to us this year because there is no water in either the dam or the dugouts. The well is also the reason I get to take this trip every other day. If something happens to it, cows will die in a matter of days during the hot summer.

Pet is glad to see me. She came to give me a good licking and I had to back off to get her into focus.

My trusty "steed", Old Purple, and the girls at the salt and mineral tubs that I fill and they empty every two days.

The welcoming committee between the well and the creep feeders.

The rock Johnny (stone Johnny, chimney rock) on the butte southwest of the well.

We're done for this trip. We've just driven twenty miles to check on things and now we'll turn around and go back the way we came, unless it rained while we were here, in which case, we will go out to the north, pass by Two Top Butte, angle east to the old town of Ralph and hit the highway south another eight miles, for a total of almost 29 miles on this longer route

 

[Soapweed]

Nice pictures, Liberty Belle. Thanks for the tour, and thanks for not making me get out and open any gates. :wink:

 

[Nicky]

Great pictures, I love seeing everyone else's pictures! I saw the message title when it was posted and just now found it again to look at the pictures. I couldn't see the last batch though :???: Anyway, thanks for the tour

 

[Liberty Belle]

Nicky - did the last batch of pictures have a little red x on each one? If they did, all you need to do is use your mouse to right click on the x and when Show Picture comes up, left click on that and they should load. Let me know if it works.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

second batch didn't work for me either, no lil red x just the subtitles of pictures you entered.

Photo bucket says it will resize them to 200 kb or somethin like that, but I've found it takes for ever for them to download at that size. I shrink them down to between 30 and 80 kb because the less kb there is the quicker they download into photobucket for me. It doesn't change the quality of the picture for the web, just makes it more user friendly once it's on here. It's kinda technical to learn how to do it, but once you figure out how, it's easy. Most photo programs have an option, "save for web" that's where you can do this reduction.

 

[Nicky]

This time they all loaded but the last one, it did have an x and I got it to load! You learn something everyday!! I always thought the red x meant you couldn't see it Your pickup looks like my nephews Toyota. You definately get your exercise opening gates don't you?

 

[nr]

That was a neat tour, LibertyBelle! Those old homesteads gone to ruin are always interesting and seem to still hold on to their history and mystery.
Where can you hide from an electrical storm?

 

[katrina]

Nice tour LB. Pet has very kind eyes... I love her... And I had to look twice to find your trusty steed purple........ I was looking for a horse and thinking wow what a cool name purple..... :roll: :roll:

 

[Red Robin]

You need to be careful passing by them buttes. I have seen the movie and there is always indians waiting to scalp you on the other side. :shock:

 

[Cal]

Great pictures! Interesting tour! Lordy, I'm having a tough time keeping up with all the posts and great pictures, and I dern near missed this. Thanks LB!

 

[DOC HARRIS]

Nicky - did the last batch of pictures have a little red x on each one? If they did, all you need to do is use your mouse to right click on the x and when Show Picture comes up, left click on that and they should load. Let me know if it works.

Got the red X's, but no show on the pictures. I'll bet the temperature in that country on the 22 of January is about -45 with a slight breeze :shock: :roll:

DOC HARRIS

Oh, There they are! Took about 4 minutes.

 

[TXTibbs]

Dang....dem picture make me home sick!