The Lone Pine was established a hundred years before Rebecca's birth by her maternal great-grandfather, who won the original 200 acres in a poker game. Not a single child born to the family since has been brought into this world off the family lands — though a few didn't make it to the main house before being welcomed into the wide world. Rebecca among them. She is gleefully proud to answer the question "Were you born in a barn?" with a "Why, yes I was."
The ranch has passed down to the eldest with no thought to gender. Rebecca currently holds title, though she has left it in the capable hands of her stepfather. Eric has implemented certain protections around Cimarron, and specifically around the Lone Pine.
The Details
The Lone Pine Horse Ranch is located 24 miles north of Silver City. This 700 acre ranch lies at the foot of the Broken Bow Mountain Range. Silver City supports a population of 5,000 people and is rich in small town atmosphere, mining history, railroad history, ranching history, and the Explorers Trail. The tiny towns of Morganville and Melrose, lie just a couple of miles east of the ranch providing great food, shops, fly fishing, and friendly people. The valley is surrounded with beautiful mountain ranges including the Blackhawk, Sweetwaters, Diamond, Broken Bow and Tobacco Root Ranges.
The Lone Pine Horse Ranch consists of 700 acres in a contiguous block at the foot of the beautiful Broken Bow Mountains. Numerous acres are irrigated, two pivots in good working order irrigate two of the hayfields and historically there have been other acreage under hand-line or wheel-line. The rest of the ranch consists of native pasture in grasses and sage brush. A large spring is located just behind the house.
The main residence is a beautiful 4,000 square foot home. Three bedrooms and four bathrooms with a large covered veranda on the front and back. Next to the main residence is a small log guest cabin - which is where Eric stayed when visiting. Wyatt's cabin is among the dozen other cabins used by the permanent help and their families and is located behind the main house, not far from the bunk house used by the seasonal hands. Below these is a heated smithy for repairs with a separate section for shoeing horses. There are several large barns and corrals located around the main property with stables and small cabins scattered across the more distant reaches.
The Red River and numerous access points are within walking distance of the property. Within an hour or two are numerous other blue ribbon rivers that provide fishing and water for irrigation. In the forest east of the main house there are numerous lakes and streams teeming with small trout. The Lone Pine sustains a healthy population of both local species of deer, and mountain forests behind the ranch have a nice population of elk which frequent the ranch. As the winter comes, the animals find the irrigated hay fields too good to resist. The area surrounding the ranch is rich in mining and ranching history.
The number of horses supported by the ranch ranges from fifty to as many as four hundred head, depending on the time of year. Wild horses are rounded up and brought in for breaking and branding, and a large percentage are then driven to auction. The ranch also sustains a smallish herd of cattle ( 60 head +/-) for food and leather, and various other goods - nothing is wasted.
