Cowboying the Old Fashioned Way for a Good Cause

Rocker b cowboys ear tag cows as they are held in a working chute.

The ranch, one of the largest single chunks of ranch land under one fence in the state, is owned and operated by the nonprofit Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas. Sen. William A. Blakley donated the ranch and its interests to the hospital many years ago and since then the ranch has contributed greatly to the operating budget of the hospital. Rocker b also stands as a preserve of the best of ranching and cowboy culture.

In April, RRL editor Gary Cutrer and I were invited to visit the Rocker b where we were treated like VIPs and given the grand tour by ranch manager Dennis Webb. We saw a real working ranch where, as only a handful of other ranches in Texas, they still do a lot of things the old fashioned cowboy way.

I should start describing the Rocker b with a little about its history. Most of the following was paraphrased from a book titled “A Place of Miracles: The Legacy of the Rocker b,” by Sam E. Hilburn. Mr. Hilburn plays an important role in the relationship of Rocker b and the Scottish Rite Hospital. A retired geologist and oil business entrepreneur who attended Tarleton State Univ., Texas A&M and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, Mr. Hilburn served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the hospital and often visited Rocker b Ranch by the invitation of Sen. Blakley.

Ranch History

A good sized group of native Pronghorn Antelope can be seen on the Rocker b.

The history of the Rocker b is a story of real cowboys working cattle on the same dry wind blown land that Goodnight and Loving once crossed.  It started when the Sawyer Cattle Company began buying various parcels of land between 1887 and 1906, mostly in Irion, Reagan, Sterling and Glasscock counties. Some of that land was purchased from S. S. Sterrett and George Sherwood in 1871.  It consisted of 8,000 acres, a working ranch and 10,000 head of cattle branded with the Bar S with a ladder on the hip.  The Sawyer Cattle Company, new owners of the land and cattle, kept the Bar S brand, but dropped the ladder. That’s how the Bar S ranch came to be. And it would stay that way until April 30, 1954 when Senator Blakley would purchase the ranch and change the brand to the Rocker b.