Fort Davis, TX 79734 - Jeff Davis County

Location

Y-6 Ranch is a combination of 7 ranches making up the 113,650 acres including the famous Means Y-6 Ranch which was established in 1894 near Valentine and the Vieja Pass Ranch under the Sierra Vieja Rim owned by legendary Evans Means where Pancho Villa stayed in the early 1900s. The Butterfield Trail crossed over the northern part of the ranch for miles with the Y-6 Hills being a landmark for early travelers between San Antonio and El Paso. Located in Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties this ranch is just 30 minutes from Fort Davis and Marfa. The ranch is a combination of landscapes north and south of Highway 90 including the Valentine Grasslands, Y-6 Hills, Sierra Vieja Mountains, Vieja Canyon, Soldier Mesa, and Wild Horse Draw, creating a vast scenic combination of ranching and recreational habitats centered in a large working ranch neighborhood.

Acreage

113,650

Description

The vast Y-6 Ranch today is divided into three major operations. The original Y-6 ranch north of Highway 90 next to Valentine includes all of the Y-6 Hills centered in the middle of a broad Chihuahuan desert grassland at the foothills of the towering Davis Mountains and has been managed by descendants of the Means family for over 125 years with a focus on livestock production and wildlife. The Chispa Ranch owned at one time by the White family is south of highway 90 and is a combination of broad grasslands climbing up to the top of the Sierra Vieja Mountains and is today operated by the Brite Ranch heirs as a cattle and hunting ranch. The third operation which is below the rim is a combination of several ranches including Evan Means historic Vieja Pass ranch but also Soldier Springs, and Van Horn Creek ranches. This is the most scenic part of the larger ranch and includes live water springs and National Park quality scenery, canyons, bluffs, and exotic geology. Together these 113,650 acres are a landscape onto itself and has some of the best grasslands, mountains, canyonlands, and outright beauty in all Far West Texas.

In order to understand the ranch today one must reach back into its history and to the people who settled this region. The Mean Cash of 1,250 arrowheads was discover on the ranch in 2002 now on display at Sul Ross University and like the Livermore Cache, was constructed by peoples of the Livermore phase, a nomadic culture of hunters and gatherers who inhabited the Davis Mountains area from approximately 800 to 1350 AD. The Means family who came to this grassland west of Marfa in the late 1800s bought the original ranch from Talley who put it on credit at the Mercantile Store in Valentine. Fine cattle and horses are their legacy and a long line of some of the best ranchers in Texas. The Butterfield Trail crossed this ranch going from waterhole to waterhole from San Antonio to El Paso and Poncho Villa tested the US Military before WWI in skirmishes below the rim. The loner and mountaineer Evan Means arrived in 1901 in Valentine at the age of 9 on a wagon and settled Vieja Pass building the original Adobe and rock buildings under the shade today of the Pecans he planted at the spring that runs through the compound.

The three operations all have a diversity of improvements, roads, water systems, history, and management. The following are improvements broken down into the three distinct ranch operations:

68,900 ac Means Y-6 Ranch- this is a combination of the original Y-6 Ranch, a portion of El Muerto Springs Ranch and a series of Irrigated Farms along highway 90.

Headquarters Historic Adobe Home

Second Rock owners home with several courtyards, garage, and attached bunk house, Cantina, Green house, and covered garden.

Tack room, horse stalls, pens, and turn outs.

Large work barn with electricity and concrete floors

Several outbuildings including historic bathhouse and icehouse

Large set of shipping pens at HQ and several working pens scattered around the ranch.

Excellent road system

14 water wells with numerous elevates storage tanks and over 50 water troughs

Several surface water tanks

Older irrigation wells at fallow farms along highway

Numerous pastures and traps all set up for a working cattle operation with average stocking of 550 AUY

Old hunting lodge up in the Hills

10,000 ac Chispa Ranch this diverse ranch fronts on the south side of highway 90 in the Wild Horse Draw valley with wide sweeping tobosa and gramma grasslands transitioning up into scrubland and rising high into and including the Sierra Vieja Mountains.

Headquarters compound with main house under huge shade trees

Airconditioned and heated dog breeding kennel

Large barn with several outbuildings

Bunkhouse with kitchen

Shipping Pens at HQ with two other pasture pens

Four water wells with large storage capacity and over 15 water troughs.

One large seasonal natural lake

Two excellent dirt tanks

Excellent road system

34,750 ac Vieja Pass Ranch this includes Vieja Pass, Soldier Springs, Van Horn Creek, and several other smaller ranches. Below the Rim with Vieja Pass Headquarters and Springs with towering cliffs, mountains, canyons, and rock outcrops. This is some of the most scenic land in Texas and offers excellent recreation and hunting. Waters are working on most of the ranch and there is a cattle operation with an excellent road network.

Vieja Pass Complex of Adobe and Rock homes and rooms with extensive patios under Pecans, Oaks, and Pomegranates.

Vieja Spring once called Bear Spring runs through Vieja Pass Complex

Numerous solar wells and elevated Poly Tanks with pipelines provide extensive watering

Recently maintained internal road system with great access through the ranch

Airstrip in need of repair

Several dirt tanks, springs, and live water creeks

Habitat

This Far West Texas ranch is dominated by Chihuahuan Desert grasslands of Cane Bluestem, Blue Gramma, Green Sprangletop, Tobosa, Black Gramma, and Sideoats Gramma with diverse native trees of Emory Oaks, Gray Oaks, Juniper, Desert Willow, Soapberry, Hackberry, and Mexican Walnut. Numerous large mountains, bluffs, and hills create excellent topography and the views of the mountains are nothing short of breathtaking. Excellent grasses, shrubs, and Chihuahuan Desert cactus and plants provide habitat for native wildlife animals and livestock. This is an excellent cross-section of the various habitat types found in the high, mid, and lower elevation of West Texas, from rock outcrops to montane woodlands, to oak savannahs, to spring cienegas to rolling yucca grasslands, to tobosa flats and to desert canyons and scrublands.

Wildlife

This ranch has some of the best all-around hunting opportunities in the West Texas area as it combines the mountain habitats with the grassland and desert habitats. This is big Mule Deer country confirmed by a 223 gross B&C Mule deer taken in the Y-6 Hills in years past. Abundant mule deer, herds of pronghorn, aoudad, mountain lion, and elk can all be found here. Smaller animal and bird species of the Valentine Grasslands include javelina, fox, ringtail cat, coyote, dove, Gambles quail and many, many large coveys of blue or scaled quail. There are great hunting opportunities throughout the ranch but also excellent recreational wildlife viewing and photography for its non-game species.

Price:

The ranch can be divided and sold into two parts or sold as an entire ranch.

113,650 Acres at $80,701,500

Below the Sierra Vieja Rim 34,750 Ac at $685 per ac or $18,765,000

Above the Sierra Vieja Rim 78,900 Ac at $785 per ac or $61,936,500