Charles Beckendorf Gallery Blog

Ancestors of the Texas longhorn came with Columbus to Santo Domingo on his second voyage in 1493. Within 30 years descendants of these cattle were brought to Mexico, and by the late 1600's the Spanish were establishing missions and ranches in Texas, and they brought their cattle with them. Over the years many cattle escaped the Spanish, many were let go, and when Texas won its battle for independence, Mexican landholders fled leaving more cattle. All these cattle ran loose, and those that survived disease developed immunity to those diseases. Those that survived wild animals became wild themselves, and in time multiplied into...

Aransas Pass has long been known as the "Shrimp Capitol". Hundreds of colorful shrimp boats anchor in picturesque Conn Brown Harbor where " The Blessing of the Fleet", a really colorful affair, takes place every Fourth July. One Sunday morning, thirty years ago, I was here on a small island looking back toward these boats painting a colorful fueling dock which l hoped to sell to a large oil company. Above the moorings across from me a paved road turned sharply up and over a steep hill. About midmorning two men in suits parked a big Cadillac a few yards up this hill, and...

A Texas rancher was asked, "What would you do if someone were to give you several million dollars tax free?" The rancher thought for a moment and answered, "Well l don't rightly know but I guess I'd just keep on ranching till the money ran out." As John Erickson put it: "Maybe people go into the cattle business for sound economic reasons. But what keeps them there is something else. Call it romance, adventure, excitement, whatever. It becomes a way of life, and over the years Texans have been inclined to stay with it long after the bottom line said...

"The scene...is a meadow near Doss, a quiet little village in the hill country. The light on this day filtered through a thin layer of clouds, the kind of gray day that precedes a November 'Norther'. It's so still you can hear the sheep grazing, and the faint voices of people and farm equipment drift across the valley. It's deer season and every now and then the muffled sound of a rifle shot comes from who knows how far away. In a day or so the cold front will sweep through and the bucks should be 'running', and the out...

"The nearly 70,000 acre Chaparrosa Ranch west of LaPryor in South Texas is a good example of staying in ecological balance while operating a commercially successful cattle and farm business that impacts on the natural resource of the land. It’s a big place and they have a lot of cows, and they need cowboys, and cowboys need horses - but they catch, bridle, and saddle their horses a little differently. Instead of roping horses out of a traditional remuda, Chaparrosa horses are trained to back up to a taut rope or fence in their particular pecking order and stand abreast....