Wrathall Ranches

WRATHALL RANCHES NEAR GRANTSVILLE, UTAH

Author: James L. Wrathall II Date: Jan. 10, 2002

I have been instructed to write as much as I can remember about the four ranches my great-grandfather James Wrathall (1828 - 1896) owned, and about the one ranch which either my grandfather James L. Wrathall (1860 -1932) or my father Paul E. Wrathall (1887-1964) leased.
They are:

The Box Elder ranch
The Lakeside ranch
The Fishing Creek ranch
The Little Mountain ranch
The Stockton ranch

In all cases except #5, I believe that my great-grandfather was the original owner, and that my grandfather either inherited them from his father or bought them from his siblings. This may not be the case in #3, because this ranch is more useful for cattle than for sheep, and my great grandfather was a sheep man, while my grandfather was a cattleman. The Stockton ranch was leased in the late 1920's or early 1930's for only a few years, and I will discuss it later.

1. The Box Elder ranch was located about 6 miles south of Grantsville in the mouth of Box Elder canyon, in the Stansbury mountains. At this point, the canyon was about 200 yards wide, and the area which was flat enough to be irrigated was about 1/2 mile long. The upper half was an alfalfa field, and the rest was the farm house, the barn, granaries, corrals other out-buildings, an apple orchard and a kitchen garden. No one lived there except in the summers in the 1920's and 1930's, but I think it was lived in year-round from about 1870 until then. I say this because I was told that when my grandfather learned that his mother Mary Leishman Wrathall (1822-1871) was ill , he walked and ran all the way from the ranch to Grantsville to be at her bedside.

The Box Elder creek arose from some springs near the south side of the canyon, about 1/2 mile above the ranch house. It ran along the south side of the canyon until it reached the barn, and then was diverted so that it ran down the center where it was used to irrigate the orchard and the garden. Near the farm house it formed a wash which was about 30 feet deep and 100 yards long. My father told me that this wash was the result of a terrific thunderstorm in about 1900.

On the north side of the canyon the foothills rose immediately into rocky, scrub-covered land, which was useless for anything except grazing. I don't know where the property lines were, but the fence ran along the edge of the flat part of the canyon. On the south side the land was quite different. The canyon walls were 20 to 30 feet high, and on top the land was rolling, but reasonably level, and was used to grow wheat. Below the ranch yard the canyon widened, and this area was also used for wheat. There were about 500 to 600 acres there and on the plateau to the south which my grandfather owned.

To the west of the ranch were the Stansbury mountains, and my grandfather had grazing rights there. The area was 10 to 20 square miles and supported several hundred head of cattle and 20 to 30 horses in the summer. I don't remember associating this ranch with sheep. Each spring we drove the livestock up the canyon and each fall we rounded them up and drove them to Fishing Creek for the winter. In the 1940s I bought 160 acres of the land east of the ranch from my aunt Myrtle Wrathall (1885 - 1975). I sold 80 acres in the 1960s, and I sold the rest in the 1970s.

I should explain how the wheat was grown in this area. In some areas of the Great Basin enough rain and snow fell to support a crop of wheat. Box Elder was one of these places, and an area of 2000 to 3000 acres south of the creek was level enough to be cultivated, but because of the shortage of rain only one crop every other year was possible. The wheat was planted in the fall, and if the rains came it would sprout and set its roots before the snow fell. During the winter all of the above ground vegetation died back, and if there had been enough snow the crop sprouted in the early spring and was ready to be harvested by July. After the harvest or early the next spring the land was plowed, and then harrowed several times during the summer, and then replanted in the fall.

I will note that in the very best years the yield from this land was rarely as much as 30 bushels per acre, and averaged 15 to 20 bushels; compare this to irrigated land in Grantsville, which yielded 60 to 80 bushels. My uncle Morris Wrathall (1902 -1977) inherited the ranch from his father James L. Wrathall, and sold it in about 1940.

2. The Lakeside ranch was located about 30 miles north-west of Grantsville. The ranch house and associated outhouses and corrals were in the mouth of the Monarch canyon in the Lakeside range, which was about a mile or so west of the Great Salt Lake.
I have no idea of how much land was involved. It was founded by my great-grandfather as a sheep ranch, and since the land was very poor and arid, I expect that he owned or controlled several thousand acres in the area.

My personal knowledge of the ranch comes from the late 1920s through the 1930s, when my grandfather owned or controlled it as a cattle ranch. I visited the ranch several times a year with my father who was managing it for his father, and after his fathe's death in 1932, for the estate. By the early 1930s, when I was old enough, I spent many miserable hours and days driving cattle between Grantsville and Lakeside. It was a 15 or 16 hour trip each way, and when you sit in a saddle for that long, and when it is hot, dry and dusty, you begin to have some doubts about whether you want to grow up to be a rancher. I had no knowledge of the Wrathall pass or the Wrathall well which were only a few miles north of the ranch house, nobody ever mentioned them. The ranch got its water from a well drilled by the Monarch Mining Co. which was near the ranch house.
The land between the mountains and the lake was flat and alkaline and about the only vegetation it supported were two shrubs and a little grass in the spring. The shrubs were greasewood and shad scale. The former was a bush four or five feet tall, and the latter a ground- hugging plant that seldom grew more than six inches high, but spread out to cover several square feet. The area supported many small mammals and reptiles, including a profusion of rattle-snakes.

The livestock was very wary of the snakes; horses would shy away from them, cattle and sheep would give them a wide birth, and even dogs would avoid them. One example of this is strikingly illustrated when cattle were driven through this area. We were driving a herd of several hundred head of cows in an area south of the ranch house. There were three riders, one on each side and one behind. The cattle covered an area about the size of a football field, and from the rear , where I was located, it looked like a solid mass of cattle backs. I noticed that a split took place at the front; the animals having crowded together on each side to form an empty space about fifteen feet wide. As the herd moved forward, the front of the split closed so that a circle was formed. This circle slowly moved back through the herd until it became a split again, and as the last of the cows passed it closed. When I got up to it I found two of the biggest rattle-snakes I had ever seen in a greasewood bush and they were rattling like mad.

At about this time my father or grandfather formed an alliance with another cattleman in Grantsville named Alex Johnson, who was the father of my aunt Hazel Wrathall's (1905 -1990) husband Milan Johnson (1903 - 1980). The Johnsons became active in the management of the Lakeside ranch, and I can remember seeing letters, checks and contracts with the heading "WRATHALL & JOHNSON" printed on them. I have no idea of why the alliance was made, nor what they expected to accomplish. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Craner Peak Quadrangle map shows a well about a mile south-east of the ranch house which is identified as the Johnson well. The pump for the well was powered by a gasoline engine and twice a week someone went there, started the engine and filled several troughs. The last time I can remember visiting this ranch was in about 1940. When I came home from the war in 1946 my father was getting out of the cattle business, and I don't know if he still had any interest in it.

3. The Fishing Creek ranch was located about 3 miles north-east of Grantsville and was an area of about 500 acres of alkaline, flat-topped ridges interlaced with what we called "swales". I think the ranch was called Fishing Creek because the creek had many small minnows and chubs and a few large carp in it. The carp were probably planted by the early settlers. The creek arose just east of Grantsville, then flowed due north for a few miles where it spread out into the "swales" mentioned above. These were areas where the water of the creek had washed away the alkaline top soil and deposited more fertile soil from higher in the valley. In these swales a profusion of grasses and forbs grew and they were used as pasture land in the spring. The cows bore their calves there in the early spring, and they stayed there until the calves were old enough to be weaned, at which time they became the cash crop, and the cows were driven to Box Elder or Lakeside for the summer. What usable vegetation was left was harvested and used for cattle and horse feed in the winter.

The harvesting and feeding processes should be described. Until the late 1930s all of the motive power was horses or mules or human. We got the first tractor in 1938. In July the vegetation was mowed, raked into windrows, loaded on wagons, hauled to the nearest hay-stack yard (there were five of them) and stacked using a derrick. Starting In November and continuing until grass began to grow in the spring, the hay was taken from the stacks, hauled to a nearby feeding area and thrown on the ground for the animals to eat. This was done about every three or four days.

There was no ranch house nor any structure of any kind, except corrals and fences. There was a well, but it was quite alkaline, so we nearly always took water with us when we went there. The livestock drank the creek water. In the winter, water collected in a depression of about 10 acres which we called Blue Lakes. It was about 6 inches deep, and when it froze everyone in town was free to skate there. Many of them did, including me.

In about 1940 my father bought some land about 4 or 5 miles north of Grantsville near the derelict town of Burmester. This town had been a railroad station originally, and in the early 1900s a salt plant was built there. Burmester was a thriving town until the
great depression of the 1930s when both the station and the plant were closed. The land was only a few hundred yards from the shore of the Great Salt Lake, so the soil was very alkaline. My father told me that he had bought the land from Tooele County, at a ridiculously low price of less than a dollar an acre, and I suspect that it was land which had been abandoned by one of the companies mentioned above. He said that he thought that the land might be good for growing alfalfa for seed. This seed was very valuable, commanding a price of as much $10 a bushel, whereas wheat brought only $1 a bushel.

I have included this account under the Fishing Creek ranch, because my father's plan was to use some of the water from this creek to irrigate the land. To this end, he dug a ditch from the Blue Lakes in a northwesterly direction to the edge of the right-of-way of what we called the Burmester road, and then due north to the land. I then lost track of the situation until I was discharged from the Army in 1946. When I got home, I found that he had built a dam at the site of the Blue Lakes which increased the amount of water stored there by several orders of magnitude, and that he had improved the ditch to the property near Burmester. Later he told me that the plan to grow alfalfa had been a failure and that he had never harvested a single crop.

4. The Little Mountain ranch was located about 5 miles west-by-northwest of Grantsville. It was a sheep ranch only, and it was located in a small valley between the Stansbury mountains and a hill known as Little Mountain. The source of water was a spring in the mountains west of the ranch, which usually dried up in the fall. There was no ranch house, but there were several sheds and corrals used for containing the sheep while they were sheared and dipped. I should say a few words about the dipping process. It consisted of a trough about 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 10 feet long, with associated fences and chutes so that the sheep could be driven into it one at a time. The trough was filled with an evil-smelling liquid, and its purpose was to destroy any infestation of what we called "sheep" ticks. The sheep were forced to jump in one at a time, swim the length of the trough and then climb out on some steps provided for that purpose.

By the time I became aware of things, the shearers had stopped using hand shears and turned to electric clippers and the whole operation was moved to the farm in Grantsville. After that, the only use of this ranch was to contain the sheep at night while they grazed on the hillsides during the day. My uncle Leslie Wrathall (1882 - 1968) inherited the ranch from his father James L. Wrathall. I was told the ranch consisted of about 1000 acres, and by the early 1940s my father was about out of the sheep business. I can't remember the last time I visited this ranch, but I think that it was in the late 1930s.

5. The Stockton ranch was located in the canyon above Stockton Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. This town is located in the northeast corner of Rush Valley, and is about 15 miles south-east of Grantsville as the crow flies. It was originally a full-fledged ranch, with a large ranch house and many corrals and outbuildings. I think that in the early 1900s it was turned into a supply depot for the many gold and silver mines above it in Stockton canyon, and when the mining boom burst, it was abandoned. The buildings were still there, but they were mostly just skeletons. Sometime in the very late 1920s the above mentioned firm of Wrathall & Johnson leased this ranch for the grazing rights it held. In the spring we rounded up the cattle which were to go there, as did the Johnsons. They were all driven to one of the corrals on Fishing Creek where branding chutes were available.
The cattle all bore the brand of their owner, and the Wrathall brand was

which we called the diamond J. It was used on both cattle and horses. When it was on the right thigh the animal belonged to my father, and if on the left to my grandfather. I don't remember what the Johnson's brand was. But at Fishing Creek they were all branded with an 0 high on the hip above the owners brand. Then they were driven to the Stockton ranch and turned loose to graze. In the fall they were rounded up and returned to Fishing Creek and to their owners. This only happened two or three times, and then it stopped. It may have been that when my grandfather died in 1932 the lease was canceled, or that it wasn't profitable. In any event, I was too little to participate in the cattle drives, and I only remember visiting the ranch twice. However, my sister, Pauline W. Hawker, says she remembers visiting the ranch in the late 1930s, so maybe my memory is faulty.

I am going to try to describe as best as I can from my own knowledge, the financial side of these ranches. This knowledge is limited to the period from 1930 to 1940 because before 1930, I was too young to understand what was going on, and after 1940 I was out of touch.

I suspect that during the "boom years" of the first quarter of the 20th century, none of the things I'm about to describe took place, since there seemed to be enough ready money to go around, the farmers and ranchers had enough cash reserves to see them through the next few years, but after 1929 things changed. Two things combined at this time to make those times really tough for farmers and ranchers. Selling prices of their products, both animal and vegetable hit rock bottom, and the drought, which lasted almost ten years, devastated the crops and the pasturage. The dust storms in Tooele Valley seemed to me to be as bad as those I saw pictures of in the Great Plains.

The earliest evidence I have of the ranch finances is a document dated Nov. 10, 1932, in which my grandfather told the Wasatch Livestock Loan Co. that he had sold 13 cows for $391.35, and that he wanted $262.04 to be applied to the mortgage on these cows, and $129.31 retained by him for family expenses. He also confirmed that after this sale, there were 437 cattle under this mortgage. It was signed with a clear, crisp signature, and I will add that he died on Nov. 29, 1932. Thereafter, until my grandfather's and later my grandmother's Penninah Hunter Wrathall (1862-1937) estates were settled in about 1940 the mortgages were renewed each year by my father as administrator, to provide capital to cover the expenses associated with the operation of the ranches. If, after the estates were closed, my father had any mortgages such as these, I have no knowledge of them.

After the harvest (wool in the spring, lambs in early summer, wheat, if any, in late summer and steers and calves throughout the year), as much of the mortgage as possible was paid off. The labor and the many other expenses associated with the operation of the ranches were also paid. Anything left over was used for living expenses or saved for the next year. All of this produce was sold to wholesalers or brokers, and in the case of the wool, lambs and wheat, they came in large trucks and hauled them away. I have no knowledge of where they were taken. We drove the steers and calves to one of the two nearby railroad stations; Timpie (which was about half way between Grantsville and the Lakeside ranch) or Warner (which was about three miles east of Grantsville). Again I don't know where they went, but I suspect that it was to feed lots to be fattened up and sold to the meat industry.

THE END