Kimberlin on the Brazos Ranch

Story and Photos by Michael Pearce

 The Brazos River cuts a serpentine course through PK country, passing some of the most historic ranches in Texas. Some are still operated by heirs of the special people who settled the wild region 170 years ago. All have great history.
 But probably no ranch can match the historical significance of a ranch headquartered just a mile east of the lake’s Morris Sheppard Dam.
 Because of the extremely rugged landscape along that section of the Brazos, it’s where the most iconic of Texas livestock industries was born – the cattle drive – on what was then the Loving Ranch.
 It’s now known as the Kimberlin on the Brazos Ranch, and it also played significant role in the most epic western book and movie of all time – Lonesome Dove.
“Ironically Oliver Loving picked this place for his ranch, in 1855, because it was so rugged, with the bluffs and the river,†said John Kimberlin, owner of the ranch that’s been in his family since 1941. “There were many other ranchers around who settled on better grazing lands. Loving wanted this place because with the river and those bluffs, all it took was a few rock fences and he had a great place to hold wild longhorns.â€
 Kimberlin elaborated, saying in the 1850s that the region along the Brazos was “the edge of civilization.†Loving came to capture feral longhorn cattle that roamed wild in the region. Once captured, however, there were few options for selling locally. Loving knew he could get five to ten times as much for cattle in distant cities.
 There is historical marker, placed at a scenic overlook on Highway 16, that gives a commanding view of the Kimberlin on the Brazos Ranch. It says Loving’s first attempts at driving herds of cattle to better markets were to Louisiana.
His first major cattle drive northward, through what was then known as “Indian Territory†was to Illinois in 1858. Loving and other ranchers found a steady market selling beef to the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Kimberlin said many were paid in Confederate war bonds, which became worthless when the war ended in 1865.
In 1866 the cattle drive industry took a huge jump forward when Loving struck up a partnership with Charles Goodnight, another local rancher. Both ranchers looking for a way to get cattle to profitable markets to the northwest, like Denver.
Together, with a crew of 18 cowboys, they headed west with around 2,000 Texas cattle. They turned north in what was then the New Mexico territory and got the cattle to Denver on what became known as the famous Goodnight-Loving Trail.
 Fans of Texas history quickly recognized that Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove characters, Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae were modeled after some of the events of Goodnight and Loving.
Goodnight had been a Texas Ranger who had seen considerable action. The book and movie carry several other similarities with the real-life cattlemen.
 Like the fictional McCrae fought off local tribesmen in Montana, Loving was mortally wounded in a battle with Comanches along the Pecos River in New Mexico. The cowboy with Loving floated down a river, barefoot and barely clothed, and endured days amid a harsh environment as he searched for help. McMurtry’s fictionalized version had the character, Pea Eye, doing the same for McCrae.
 As Call did for McCrae in the Lonesome Dove saga, Goodnight kept a promise to Loving and took his remains hundreds of miles back to Texas for burial. His grave is in a Weatherford cemetery.
Goodnight continued to prosper after Loving’s death. Accomplishments included more cattle drives, pioneering ranching in the Texas Panhandle, protecting bison herds to help keep the species from extinction, and, though he could not read or write, helping to fund and start a college in Armstrong County.
 It’s reported he carried a photograph of Loving for many years and had a framed picture of the man on his desk.
 On the modern-day Kimberlin on the Brazos Ranch, there is little physical evidence to represent the property’s historical importance. Kimberlin recently showed a guest the remnants of a stone foundation of a house built for one of Loving’s daughters, as well as the occasional long-abandoned stone fence.
 Kimberlin said he’d consider rebuilding Loving’s initial homestead if reliable details as per design and location could be found. It wouldn’t be the first time his family has recreated a famous setting.
 Though the movie script says Woodrow Call and the rest of the Hat Creek Cattle Company eventually settled in Montana, building a large log house and corrals, those scenes were actually filmed in northern New Mexico, ironically on a small ranch owned by Kimberlin’s family.
 After filming was done, the Kimberlin’s had a sturdy version of the shoddily built movie set rebuilt on their land. It’s still standing and maintained as a way of honoring where the legendary movie came to an end.
“If we had any claim to fame, it would be that
in Texas we own the actual historical beginning of the Lonesome Dove story,†said Kimberlin, “and, in the mountains of northern New Mexico, the ranch where it fictionally concluded.”