Full Circle: Love, Legacy, and Longhorns at Possum Kingdom’s Harrell Ranch

Decades after building their dream by hand, Patsy Harrell keeps her husband’s spirit—and his legendary Texas Longhorn bloodline—alive at the ranch they called home

Story by Mary Hill | Photos by Matthew Renfro

The Texas longhorn is a symbol of independence, resilience and toughness, but it also embodies a gentle and affectionate nature that has much in common with those who raise this distinctive cattle breed. A recent visit to the Full Circle H Ranch in PK’s Sportsman’s World provided an understanding of how that can happen.

It was in 1979 when the land settled by the Henry Belding family in the 1850s was subdivided into residential and ranch lots to form what now is known as Sportsman’s World. That same year, Don and Patsy Harrell bought their ranch property in Sportsman’s World. It later became known as the Full Circle H Ranch, where Don Harrell made his dream of raising and showing Texas longhorns a reality.

 With the help of family, friends and neighbors, Patsy Harrell has continued to honor her husband’s legacy after his death in April 2000.

Don Harrell and his parents had deep ties to the PK community. In 1937, his father, Arthur Harrell, went to work for the Brazos River Authority on Possum Kingdom Lake’s Morris Sheppard Dam. During the dam’s construction from 1938 to 1941, workers lived in makeshift camps of tents and small shacks. Arthur Harrell and his wife, Arlye, lived in one of the tents, and they were there when their son was born in January 1939. His bassinet in the tent was the bottom drawer of a dresser, according to Patsy Harrell.

In 1946 the couple upgraded their housing by buying a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barrack and used it to build their home in Graham, Texas, where they raised their son.

Patsy Harrell, meanwhile, was born in 1942 and grew up in Fort Worth. She also spent part of her childhood in Kerrville, Texas, and that’s where, without anyone’s knowledge, she rode horses bareback and with no bridle. She attended R.L Paschal High School in Fort Worth and graduated in 1960. A decade later, she met Don Harrell while tending bar at a steakhouse in Euless, Texas, and Patsy Harrell can still vividly recall the day her husband-to-be came to the steakhouse for dinner.

“It was his green eyes and long eyelashes that did it,” she said.

They married a year and a half later, in 1973, and began their life on their PK ranch in 1979. At that time there were very few homeowners in the community, she said, and she fondly remembers riding her horse from her stable down the Belding Ranch road on their property and all the way to Texas State Highway 16 without seeing a single fence.

Building their ranch from the ground up tested the Harrells’ resolve in many ways, she said. Since there was no local water supply, the couple hauled water for the ranch from Arlington, Texas.

“Don was big on doing everything himself,” Patsy Harrell said. “He dug holes in 4 inches of dirt and 40 feet of rock, so it took a while to build the fence and then the house.”

The design of the house was developed with Don Harrell’s passion in mind: a trophy room built to house the life-sized displays chronicling his hunts from around the world, including Afghanistan, Mongolia, Russia and Spain.

Patsy Harrell recalled the day when a concrete truck was coming to pour the slab for their house, and she pointed out the fact that a trophy display of 12 of the world’s known sheep species – known as a “super slam” – was not going to fit into the space allowed. Ranch workers swiftly adjusted the form, making it 5 feet wider just as the concrete arrived.

A massive live oak tree near the house serves as a living memory for Patsy Harrell, reminding her of why she and her husband chose the site for their house. The tree, rooted in Texas soil, has resiliently endured countless storms, fires and droughts, and over the years it has served as the final resting place for the family’s pets. She said she values the oak’s calming presence despite its sparse foliage and is committed to keeping it.

Raising and showing Texas longhorns became Don Harrell’s central focus on the ranch, which grew to 145 acres after two separate purchases of adjacent property. Patsy Harrell described her husband’s selective breeding strategy as one aimed at producing larger horns.

“Don’s dream was to have the horn length, tip to tip,” she said.

She credited her husband for his instrumental role in preserving this distinctive Texas breed for subsequent generations. His commitment resulted in the preservation of one of the seven most influential and well-known Texas longhorn bloodlines in the industry, the Butler family bloodline. The bloodline of the Harrells’ herd has become a foundational component of modern Texas longhorn genetics, and Patsy Harrell proudly displayed photos of “PK Show Gun,” a longhorn born in 1988 with a tip-to-tip horn length of 59 inches.

Local resident Scott Herring and his family can vouch for the influence of the Harrells’ longhorn legacy. His family’s entire original herd was purchased from the Harrells in 1998, and some the herd’s descendants, owned by Herring, are still roaming the Full Circle H Ranch. Herring’s daughter, Gabi, and her husband live in Montana, where they are raising a herd that possesses the same original bloodlines. Patsy Harrell said she keeps in touch with Herring’s daughter, and she enjoys getting photos and updates on her many generations of longhorn “grandchildren.”

Telling her husband’s story is Patsy Harrell’s way of protecting what he left behind.

Patsy said she could still hear Don saying “There will be people coming that will never know what we went through.”

Sportsman’s World resident Roy Davis and his family know what the Harrells went through, he shared a special bond with the couple. Patsy Harrell reflected on the longtime friendship between their two families, noting that her husband and Davis were close friends, and she smiled when she talked about Davis’ children, Dustin and Jessa.

“I do not know what I would have done without Jessa,” she said. “She’s better with a chainsaw than most men.”

Since her husband’s death in 2000, Patsy Harrell has built a cabin on the ranch property where she now lives with Zeus, her 123-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback. She described her dog as loyal, sweet, smart and determined to let her know when it is bedtime each night by peeking around the hallway door and staring at her. Many other friends and family members keep in touch with Patsy Harrell, including nephew Joe Flinn and his wife, Sheila, who live near their children and grandchildren in Lubbock, Texas.

Patsy Harrell’s friend Chalease Davis described her as a person with fierce compassion for those things she believes in and one who remains loyal to those she cares about. To that end, the memory of the Harrells’ dear friend Ed Karper, who died in 2023, is evident in Patsy Harrell’s backyard garden, where a white oak tree grows. Karper planted the tree in 2018 from a seed left by a bird, and it now forms the centerpiece for the area.

When asked about her next chapter in life, Patsy Harell’s answer was short and direct: “The way you get through it is by looking straight ahead.”