Two-Buckle Ranch Headquarters, Kentucky Cattle Raising Company

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Two-Buckle Ranch Headquarters out in Crosby County. Now, before we get into the cattle and the cross-breeding and the dipping vats, let me set the scene. The year is 1884.

Silver Falls, Texas. A group of distillers from Louisville, Kentucky, had put their money together two years prior to form the Kentucky Cattle Raising Company, and they decided that what they really needed, what would round out their portfolio nicely, was a hundred and forty-five thousand, two hundred and forty acres of West Texas ranchland. You heard that right.

Not a modest little spread. A hundred and forty-five thousand, two hundred and forty acres. They hired a man named Claude Tilford to manage the whole operation.

Now that is a job. That is a job with some scope to it. Tilford had the cattle to tend, grain and hay crops to grow, and a breeding program that wasn't just throwing animals together and hoping for the best.

The Two-Buckle ran a deliberate operation: cross-breeding, separation of breeding stock. These Louisville distillers may have been far from the plains, but they were running a serious ranch. Then comes 1901, and the C.B.

Livestock Company arrives on the scene. They bought ninety thousand acres of that land and folded the established headquarters right into their own work, using it for what they called their dash-N ranching and plains land development operations. The headquarters that Tilford and the Kentucky company had built near Silver Falls kept right on working.

By 1912, a dipping vat had been built, and this wasn't just for the C.B. operation. All area cattlemen used it to combat Texas cattle fever. That vat was a community resource, a gathering point for ranchers across the region who had the same enemy and found a shared solution.

In 1915, the C.B. Livestock Company broke up. And here's where the story shifts from the drama of big cattle empires to something quieter and maybe more lasting.

Succeeding owners kept coming. And they didn't tear down what was there. They added to it.

Through the nineteen-twenties, a barn went up. A garage. A concrete storage tank.

A dam across the White River. Layer by layer, generation by generation, the original headquarters site was preserved and built upon. Over the years, this land became home for a number of families, all of them weaving themselves into Crosby County's ranching heritage.

The Kentucky distillers are long gone. Claude Tilford's name has mostly faded from the conversation. But that headquarters, built near Silver Falls in 1884, is still there, still standing as what the marker calls a historic member of this early West Texas industry.

Some things, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

Headquarters for the Two Buckle Ranch was built near this site, at Silver Falls in 1884 by the Kentucky Cattle Raising Company, which had been founded two years earlier by a group of Louisville, Kentucky distillers. Claude Tilford was hired by the company to manage the 145, 240-acre ranch. A variety of grain and hay crops were grown. The ranch's cattle operation featured cross breeding and separation of breeding stock. In 1901 the C.B. Livestock Company bought 90,000 acres of the land and used the established headquarters for its -N- Ranching and plains land development operations. A dipping vat was built in 1912 and was used by all area cattlemen to combat Texas cattle fever. Since the 1915 breakup of the C.B. Livestock Company, succeeding owners have continued to add to and preserve the original headquarters site. A barn, garage, concrete storage tank, as well as a dam across White River were added during the 1920s. Over the years, this land has been home for a number of families who have contributed to Crosby County's ranching heritage. The Two Buckle Ranch Headquarters is a historic member of this early West Texas Industry. 1984