Wednesday, May 23, 2012

9 Point Myth

Down here in Terlingua it is real common for untrue information to circulate about everything including people. Looks like the same has gone around about 9 Points Ranch because every since I've been here I've heard that it has been owned by Anheuser-Busch for over 100 years. The other day I was talking to one of my friends who has been here for many years and he told me that 9 Points ranch was once called Johnson Ranch. It was owned by president LBJ back when. I started scouring the web and finally found mention of it and a map pinpointing the top of 9 Points Mesa. Of course now there is another LBJ ranch in another part of the state.

BTW for the newbies the blog header picture is of 9 Points Mesa with Black Hill in front of it.

Talking with others the ranch has had many owners since LBJ owned it, but the owner now and the last owner are Anheuser-Busch executives  and the ranch is used for entertaining their guests. Don't worry you'll probably never be one of them.

While searching the topic I ran across this photo of 9 Points Mesa taken in 1899. I'd say it was probably taken from the south side looking back north at the mesa?

I found this photo here http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/search.cgi?search_mode=noPunct;free_form=hill%2C%20r.t.;start=0

There are some pretty cool old pictures there and I searched for an old picture of Cathedral Mountain before the earthquake that shook the top part of it of, but didn't find one. Matter of fact I've done a lot of searching for that and have never found one. Supposedly that mountain used to be the tallest peak in Texas until then, but is now the third tallest after loosing the 300 foot steeple.


36 comments:

  1. Cool - always interesting to learn about where other bloggers are and what their territory looks like :)

    S'funny how "large" Terlingua Ranch acts like a small village where everyone know everything about everybody else - same happens where we are :)

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  2. Dani, as spread out as the Terlingua Ranch is news and other stuff travels fast. I Just wanted to set the record straight on 9 Points.

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  3. Nice history to share with bloggers.

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    1. Sandy, glad you found it interesting. Would be nice to know the time line and rest of the history.

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  4. I wonder what the heck those executives and their friends do up there. I think I probably would really rather not know.

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  5. I hear that at the 5000 ft elevation up there they have grasses and tanks and deer and elk and unicorns and purple flying monkeys. Guess we'll never know?

    Bigfoot

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  6. And bigfoots...

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  7. Replies
    1. Bigfoot, it appears that the story about Cathedral mountain may be a BS story to?

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  8. BF, I'm building a 29,000 foot peak as we type to make this hill the tallest in Texas. I shot all of the unicorns so now all they have is ???

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  9. Sandy, Who knows. I can only imagine, but I'm sure that's they way they like it. Rich boys with their toys.

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  10. Nice. Thanks Tffn! That is awesome, 'specially since our place snuggles up against that Mesa.

    While you were shooting the unicorns, did you get all the pegasuses (or would that be pegasi?)

    ;~)
    Kaj

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    1. Kaj, Hope you'll aren't so close as to catch falling rocks.

      I hear unicorns aren't very tasty. ;)

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  11. Rubye Jack, if you ever find our let me know.

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  12. Check out Santiago Peak, someone said the Hilton family owns it. And Elephant Mountain supposedly houses military aircraft and one end opens up so they can fly in and out.

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  13. Bkid, soon this hill will have septic system that turns in to a trike and will also turn in to a helicopter to spirit me away when all the mountains fall to the ground and the ocean rushes in. Maybe I'll see Paris up on Santiago peak? Then again maybe I'll have some ocean front property here. I might even be able to buy a few cabins for up here and get rich.

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  14. Tffnguy

    its captaincrunch

    You guys are all wrong. On top of that mesa is a secret "Mexican Midget Wrestlers' special forces" training facility.

    They call themselves "The Dwarf Force"

    There missions are to go where no other force like the Navy Seals or Delta Force can go (like into little holes and caves in Afghanistan)

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  15. Goes to show, one can learn something new everyday. I had no idea LBJ had once owned it. Thanks for the history lesson :)

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  16. "the owner now and the last owner are Anheuser-Busch executives and the ranch is used for entertaining their guests. Don't worry you'll probably never be one of them."

    hahahahaha...thanks for the laugh Tffn...you are so right! :D

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  17. I can assure you the Busch guys and gals drink, eat and shot skeet along with a few mis-directed golf balls. And sit in some ice cold conference room deciding how much to spend on the next Super Bowl commercials.

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  18. Thanks for the local history lesson, had no idea who owned that property, now or back then. Very interesting!
    How's that arm coming along?

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  19. CC, you're probably wrong.

    rj, you're probably right.

    MsB, glad you learned something and found the post amusing.

    SUERTE, the arm is ok, but the wrist and hand are still pretty painful, but making some headway the more I use it. I still can't do any work on the cabin, but at least I can use 2 hands to drive with for short distances. If I use my left hand to drive for long it goes to sleep.

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  20. I now own the 9 points ranch

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  21. Sure you do Nick and I just won the largest lottery ever won so I'll own it next.

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  22. Tffnguy

    captaincrunch again.

    People are building drone aircraft in thier garages. I figure that someone with some inginuity in Terlingua can build a drone remote control aircraft with some range and set cam on the drone and have it fly over that mesa (Nine points ranch I think) and put to rest all the rumors once and for all.

    Its not illegal and I dont think their are many poeple their to shoot it down. Better yet, Just go their and ask for a tour.

    What are they gonna do, Say no.

    They may be happy to show off their ranch. If its owned by the Anhieser Busch people you may evan score some free beer too.)

    (I still think that midgets are on that mesa Tffnguy:)

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  23. CC wrote "What are they gonna do, Say no."

    Yep I've asked a number of times. If you don't have $$$$$$$ or are doing work up there forget it!

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  24. BTW I have considered building a drone since I used to build and fly RC planes. Not likely going to happen because of lack of $ though.

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  25. For those of you who don't follow GYPSY JESS' The Shady 80 blog you might check it out at http://theshady80.blogspot.com/2012/05/terlingua-hail-storm.html where you can see a video of the Terlingua hail storm.

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  26. I don't know anything about the ranch nowadays but back in the mid 60's it was owned by Wayne Connally, Governor John Connally's brother. I worked on it when I was younger. Once you get up on the mesa there is good grass and water. We would summer the cattle on top of the mesa and then move them down to the lower elevations in late August/early September. I used to think that the trail coming down off the top of the mesa looked like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon. Moving cattle down that trail 200 at a time with a 1,500 foot sheer drop off was an exercise in horsemanship. We never lost an animal.

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  27. Thanks for the post Anon, Interesting. Perhaps LBJ bought the ranch from Wayne Connally or vice versa? The last two owners have been Anheuser-Busch executivies and one of them still owns it. I know this to be true. Not sure when the first one bought it or from whom though.

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  28. I have been here for about 27 years and I have always been told that Nine Points Ranch got it's name from someone killing a nine point Mule Deer Buck up on top.
    Gean Kearns

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  29. Gean, who knows? I'd heard it got the name because there were nine wells up there. If so that was probably nine holes in the ground that collect and hold rain water???

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  30. I have heard cattle trees and a nice waterfall

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  31. John & Bobby Nau who own Silver Eagle Distributors are the owners.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Nau

    I also found this article:
    http://www.sulross.edu/news/2218/campus-news-january-8-2013

    I came across this blog looking for places to explore in my 4x4.

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  32. I don't think you will be exploring up there unless you have LOTS of $. Most of us have asked and the answer is always NO! (even knowing the ranch manager)

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