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Ranch Names

I'd say most places are named after the owner's name or their brand, some for a landmark, creek or lake near by, such as Deer Creek, Fawn Lake or Green Valley.

Our ranch does business same as my handle, JF Ranch. It refers to our brand which is J over F (or J F stacked). I'd love to have J F connected or side by side, but they were both taken many years before I aquired our current brand. Those letters are my initials and also my Father's and Grandfather's initials.

In conversation among locals here, ranches are referred to by the past owner's last name not the current owner, even though he may have a specific name for it. Some even go back to the second or third past owner's name. I've always found that interesting. I think it's done out of respect for the previous owner.
 
We do not really advertise a name we are pretty small and starting out. But one day we will be Hidden Creek Farms. Got the name for obvious reason. We have a couple creeks that flow through some wooded areas that you do not readily see on the property. Thought it sounded like a good name. If not that I just recently discovered that people in the area call that creek Brush Creek so maybe I should go Brush Creek Farms.
 
Ours is Double D Ranch,for Denny & Debbie that way we can use the same iron on the same calf.My friends always joke that it stands for Dumber than Dogsh!t, if I had to make a new name it would be Broke SL Ranch, because most of the time were Broke as He!!,or maybe Lazy S Ranch
 
Ours is Circle P for obvious reasons, our last name starts with a P. We also registered Rockin P but haven't ever used it. Thought maybe one of the kids would want it. So far they like the Circle P...so maybe it'll stay that when it's their turn.
 
We call our place the Spearhead Ranch, because of our brand. It looks like an arrow pointing to the left, but is "disconnected" so it doesn't blotch. Maybe a "lazy V bar" would describe it better.

This is one of the older brands in the area, dating back to at least 1898. At that time the Cherry County court house burned down, so all previous records were lost. Originally it was owned by the Goodfellow family. My father-in-law was married to Ralph Goodfellow's daughter, until she died of cancer in the early 1960's. They had no children. He later married a widow with four children, Peach Blossom being one of the daughters.

Peach Blossom and I were married in 1979. At that time I was using the same brand as my dad, which was a Rafter M. He branded on the left hip, and I used the brand on the left rib. We were putting new siding on the old barn on the ranch where we lived, and had scaffolding set up on the east side of this barn. The structure was 66' x 62' x 30 feet high at the peak of the roof. I decided to put a brand on the tin while the scaffolding was in place.

At noon that day, I called up my father-in-law. I told him that his Spearhead brand was worth more to me that day than it ever would be in the future, and made him a five hundred dollar offer for the brand. I said if I didn't buy the Spearhead that day, that the Rafter M would be going up on the side of the barn. Whichever brand went up on the barn would be the one we would use from then on. He said he would think about it. I said, "Don't think too long."

He called up a few minutes later and invited us over for supper so we could visit about it. Sounded good to us. We did, and at the supper table he said, "If I was going to sell that brand, I wouldn't take a nickel less than $2500, but I'm going to give it to you. The only stipulation is that it has to be in both of your names." Well, that was fine with us, and we have used the Spearhead brand ever since.

The big arrow brand did go up on the side of the barn. The brand itself measured 23 feet long by 16 feet high so it showed up pretty good. We traded that ranch for the one that we now live on, but the brand is still on the side of the old barn and is visible from the highway in one spot.
 
Around this country most places are called by the last name of the people that own them. Though most of the ranches now have a bunch of smaller homesteads in them aquired over the years. So our ranch has different locations on it which we use for giving directions, like the old Flick place, Whitmore draw, Eddy place, Gage place, Owl bottom, Blackbear, etc. I always call our place "Little Sahara", we don't get much rain out here.

To the south of us along the Cheyenne River is a place with a spring on it that years ago people always hauled water from. It was called the Circle P springs. It was also where everyone went to get sand for mixing cement when building. My grandfather worked down there along the river when it was part of the Diamond A ranch a loooong time ago.
 
Our palce is called the JOD ranch named after the guy who started it up in the 1880's. We bought it in 1993 and we just kept the name as everyone in the area knows it.

We use two brands, JOD on cows and bulls and a two character brand on the calves. We rarely keep calves for replacement as the bulls are limousin and they make poor breeding stock.
 
A bit off topic but we name every deer stand-some are pretty cool-Misty's Hill-an old pony named Misty buried there-The Swimming Hole-a know it all from New Jersey fell in the river there-Squirrel Canyon-deep dark hole in the pine that never fails-The Hell Hole-this one is aptly named it is a 1 1/2 hour quad ride to get to it over beaver dams and such fun-but it got it's named because a hunter from PA. had to give a local guy who was lost directions to get out of there. His quote 'I'm never coming back to this @#$%^&&*& Hell Hole lol. Another landmark is Nellie's Hill- a hill that the old moose skidding horse used to pull trucks up. My neighbors owned her before the zen of horse training we see today but she'd drag a bull moose out of the bush then jump up in the back of the truck with him for the ride home.
 
We don't really have a name for our place, but I always thought Brokeass Cracker Farms would be appropriate.

Our brand is registered under Wright Farms, the brand being WV which stands for Wright of Vanscoy. Not too original, damn right boring actually!
 
Mine is Flying P Cattle Co- my brand. I got it cause dad toldme I better growwings andflyoutta yhe house when im out of highschool, thought itwasneat lol.

Dad's is Pappenfoot Farms- Our last name.
 
Tonight mr. nr and I went to a talk about our local history: the 1800's early farmers and their mixture of mills that ground flint and bark and apples depnding on the season, and mined clay for pottery. Probably about 80 folks attended which was a good number for the topic. What was interesting was realizing where all our road names originated and now we're able to relate them to historical people. The most interesting road, Cornerketch Road, was not named after a farmer but was where you "Ketched the train"! :D
 

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