Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter

8. "Well, I guess we'll have to buy this damn ranch!"

On an early spring day in 1972, Claytie and Modesta drove from Fort Stockton to look at a Davis Mountain ranch north of Alpine . They had visited the area previously, and Claytie knew the Willie Henderson Ranch was under grass lease to one of the Southwest ’s most exceptional cattlemen, Ted Gray of Alpine. Gray had given them permission to take another look as potential buyers. They drove along the top of Black Canyon and stopped to gaze at the dazzling panoramic view below. Spotting a windmill rising from the starkly beautiful ranchland, Modesta’s eyes began to tear. Claytie spotted the teardrops and said with a sigh and a smile, “Well, I guess we’ll have to buy this damn ranch!” With Ted Gray’s assistance and cooperation, they did, agreeing to pay it out in monthly payments over ten years. “We had the ranch under contract almost a year before we actually took possession, and that allowed Modesta and me to spend a lot of time roaming around and camping on it, hiking over it, riding over it, and spending a great deal of time with Ted,” Claytie said. “He was one of the best cowmen and cowboys that I had ever known, and he taught me the workings of the ranch and how he operated it.” For both Claytie and Modesta, ranching was a joyful endeavor, one they had dreamed about. “When we were dating, we always hoped that we could make enough money so that we could buy a ranch,” Modesta said. “Well, finally we made enough money to Well, I guess we’ll have to buy this damn ranch!” 8 “ Claytie’s mentor, cattleman Ted Gray O I L - P A T C H D R E A M S 105 make a down payment. For us, ranching is one of the basics of life. It’s the love of land, sky, and animals. Once you’ve had a taste of it, it’s awfully hard not to go back to it.” Not all of Claytie’s attempts at improvement succeeded, but most of his grassland and water-spreading systems and storage innovations did. Some of his pioneering water developments could be traced to the techniques learned when he built the Coyanosa and Belding pipelines and irrigated his dad’s Fort Stockton farm. “To me, there’s true joy and happiness in stopping erosion and improving the productive capacity of the land. Growing up on my dad’s ranch, with its poor land, always left me wanting something better. I do love the oil business, but I also love the land and seeing what I can do to make it better. This ranch and the friends and acquaintances that grew from it have been one of the great joys and a source of happiness to Modesta and me and our families.” Modesta and Claytie on the Alpine Ranch 106 P A R T T W O In an interview with Texas Business magazine, Claytie said that having embraced many phases of the highly chancy petroleum industry , he felt an investment in land was more secure. “After being in oil so long, I had enough assets to buy a ranch. When you’re an oilman [and facing depletion of your oil reserves], you ultimately want to own something that’s permanent. We all know that someday the wells will run dry, which makes you somewhat insecure. Conversely, the ownership of land is something solid and permanent. Because of my agricultural roots, I was dying to own my own ranch.” Soon after he acquired the ranch—the first of more than a dozen he would eventually own—Claytie added two new companies to his burgeoning oil and gas operations. With Clajon Gas the evergrowing and flowing flagship of the financial fleet, Claytie formed Williams Partnership in 1975 and Williams Exploration in 1976. But, Range improvements at Alpine Ranch, 1978: Claytie loves his grasses! O I L - P A T C H D R E A M S 107 with Happy Cove Ranch in the mix, he also flirted with serious involvement in the ranching and cattle business. Williams Ranches, a cow-calf operation launched in 1975, preceded Williams Brangus, a Texas-registered purebred cattle operation that would establish him as a major player in something other than energy. The goat-raising, insurance-peddling...