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Bell Ranch Headquarters
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| Location: | San Miguel County, New Mexico |
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| Nearest city: | Tucumcari, New Mexico |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 70000407[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | 1970-10-06 |
The Bell Ranch originated with two Spanish land grants to Don Pablo Montoya in 1824. Lying along La Cinta Creek near the Canadian River, the historic Bell Ranch is bordered by present day Conchas Lake in San Miguel County, New Mexico about 30 miles (97 km) from Tucumcari. The land originally totaled 656,000 acres (2,655 km²) of rolling grasslands bordered by red rimrocked canyons and flat-topped mountains called mesas. This included the bell-shaped mountain for which the ranch was named that inspired the distinctive bell brand first registered in San Miguel County in 1875 by then-owner Wilson Waddingham. The brand has been in continuous use on the ranch since that time. This beautiful, vast kingdom was offered for sale at $83,000,000 in February 2010 by Bates Sanders Swan Land Company and this firm, in cooperation with Ranch Marketing Associates, closed the Sale of the Bell Ranch on August 17, 2010.[2]
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The Native Americans, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache, hunted the buffalo and ground their corn in well-placed grinding holes where they could scan the horizon for friend and foe. Pictographs carved in the red cliffs indicate the native Americans may well have been living there a long time before the 16th century.
Spanish rule would be followed by the Mexicans and then to be taken in by the United States. Upon acquisition of New Mexico Territory, the U.S. Cavalry established a temporary post at the Bell Ranch Headquarters for a time, using a part of the manager's house as a "map room" and post office while surveying the surrounding area. Charles Goodnight of the Goodnight Cattle trail utilized one of the prominent mesas of the ranch, Gavilan, to navigate on the way to Colorado with his cattle herds.
The ensuing century brought a line of unique pioneering individuals. One interesting example, British born John H. Culley, came as a young man to learn about ranching in northeastern New Mexico. He served as assistant manager in the late 19th century. Educated at Oxford, he eloquently recorded the ranch life in his book Cattle, Horses and Men. He wrote "It is -for I know it- a world where the summers are long and hot and if in winter a flurry of snow comes, it is gone by noon; where things grow readily in the loose red soil and the rim rocks are vermilion. A world where few pines are to seen, but the hill and mesa sides are covered with juniper and the flats with mesquite, and the sunflowers grow higher than a man on horseback in the bottoms."
Later, Albert K. Mitchell, a man of significant distinction was to serve as manager. His long list of accomplishments included President of the American Hereford Cattle Breeders Association, an elected member of the New Mexico State House of Representatives, President of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and a founder of the American Quarter Horse Association. Mitchell, understandably busy with all these responsibilities, utilized a small plane to commute to all his activities. He had built a hangar & runway at the Bell which stands today. He certainly was one of the first to use airplane flight to commute for agricultural pursuits.
In 1947, the ranch went through a significant re-division with the Bell Ranch headquarters, the name, and brand being retained with approximately 130,000 acres (526 km²) near the center of the Montoya grant and five other portions sectioned off. This was purchased by Harriet Keeney of Connecticut and her family. Ranch historians have said that before the '47 re-organization, the Bell Ranch was the largest single ranch in New Mexico and at one time was "the oldest deeded ranch built in a single operation in the entire Southwest."
In more modern times, the Bell Ranch has been known for the quality of beef cattle produced and the pioneering concepts that went into those herds. The concepts of "beef production testing" were laid down at the Bell under the guidance of long time manager George F. Ellis (manager 1946 to 1970). Over time, the purebred Hereford stock were measured and selected to improve desirable inherited traits. The proven performance advances were significant and groundbreaking. Ellis would be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Beef Cattle Industry and honors from a host of other established organizations for his work.
In 1970 ownership of the largest single chunk—so large it has its own Zip Code, 88441—was acquired by William N. Lane II of Chicago, chairman and CEO of publicly traded General Binding Corp., a maker of office supplies and equipment. Further purchases of the original grant land have fleshed out the holding to its present size of 290,100 acres (1,174 km2). Lane himself died in a 1978 car accident on the ranch. The ranch is now owned by a trust for Bill Lane's five children. A non-family member manages the ranch, although one son, Jeff, raised his family on the Bell until August 15, 2007, when he was killed in the crash of the plane that he was piloting on the ranch.
The Bell Ranch stands at 290,100 acres (1,174 km2) of the original 656,000 acres (2,650 km2) of a century and a half ago. The white faced red Hereford cattle of Ellis' tenure are gone. The present day herds feature of a cross consisting of the original Hereford, Red Angus, Gelbvieh, Brahman to create the "Red Bell" herd.
Over the centuries, the Bell Ranch has attracted many notable artists and writers with its beauty and unique qualities. Canadian artist Robert Lougheed visited the ranch numerous times taking inspiration from the horses, people and places to create a body of work recognized by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. In the 1940s, famed photographer Harvey Caplin took images in black and white. Some of these have been used by the Stetson Hat Company for promotion since that time as the quintessential western iconography.
In 1975, a film called Cowboy Heaven was filmed by David Ellis about the true western cowboy featuring the ranch and the then current cowboys of the Bell. The American Quarter Horse Journal has published well illustrated articles about the ranch on several occasions as had the Western Horseman magazine.
George Ellis wrote about his experiences in the book, The Bell Ranch As I Knew It, covering the Bell operations during his tenure. The book itself won the '74 Wrangler Award for Best Western Book of the Year from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He wrote "The Bell is a good ranch - one of the best in the Southwest. Cattle people and college people from all over the world came to visit there." He lists countries represented by these frequent visitors from an impressive five continents. He concludes "The demands and privileges of the Bell touched all our lives - and left them richer."
In addition to the works by Culley and Ellis already mentioned, Martha Downer Ellis, wife of Manager George Ellis, found subject for her historical inquiries and poems in her published books:
On The Ranch
Caught in a dream are we who live here -
Bound by a magic that no man knows.
All the bitter winds of winter,
All the burning winds of June,
Lie clean forgot
When we ride forth on a fair and sunny day.
The 290,100-acre (1,174 km2) Bell Ranch was initially offered at $440 per acre - the price was reduced to $286 per acre on February 19, 2010 dropping the total price to $83,000,000.[2] On August 17, 2010, Liberty Media CEO John Malone purchased the ranch (price and terms of the deal were not released).[3]