Down on the Rio Grande ~ THE JOHNSON RANCH
by Glenn Willeford
R
io Grande. The
name itself intrigues.
Actor John Wayne
liked it so much, he did a movie
along the watercourse that
wends through our arid, moun-
tainous Texas and New Mexico
terrain (Rio Grande, 1950). In
the early 1900s, when many
families, both Anglo and
Hispanic, resided in the Big
Bend region, the desert expans-
es seemed sonorous and en -
chanting yet somehow forebod-
ing and surreal. Mystery and
surprise loomed around every
bend.
The “Big Loop” on the Rio,
16 miles downriver from
Castolón, is no exception.
There, in Texas’ Big Bend
National Park, overlooking a
currently desolate stretch of
Mexico, reposes the Johnson
Ranch Site. Now a ruin, it was
once the hub of business activ-
ity and acculturation along that
span of the “Great River.”
Deeded first to the Galves -
ton, Harrisburg and San
Antonio Railroad by the State
of Texas, Section 36 Block 16
(1006.3 acres) was purchased
by Dr. J.A. Hardy of Alpine on
Jan. 3, 1916. In Sept. 1922,
M.L. Hopson obtained the
acreage then leased it under the
condition that a store or “com-
missary” building be erected
“in connection with the can-
delilla wax factory just opposite
...in Mexico.” But, no perma-
nent structures were built until
ownership passed to Ken -
tuckian G.N. Graddy (rhymes
with “laddie”) in 1924.
Graddy soon began to con-
struct an 80-foot-by-40-foot
adobe building on the flat
above the river plain. When
completed, the enormous
structure contained a commis-
sary, or store, at the west end,
three or four rooms along the
north side and a master bed-
room on the east. Between all
these was a 20-foot-by-40-foot
roofed, screened-in porch. The
porch was to become famous
24
Photo courtesy Archives of the Big Bend, Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library,
Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
An aerial shot of the Johnson Ranch along the banks of the Rio Grande.
over the years as a social gath-
ering place.
Mr. Graddy had intended to
raise tobacco on the irrigable
plain below the house. When
that failed due to the perennial
problem of getting a crop from
there to market, he tried water-
melons. He became well
known for loading his new
Buick with melons and driving
along the River Road selling
the delicacies. Finding that ven-
ture unprofitable, the Ken -
tuckian sold out and moved to
El Paso in the summer of 1927.
Elmo and Ada Morris
Johnson of San Antonio and
Sonora took over. Johnson
wished to become a gentleman
cotton farmer. An irrigation
pump was installed beside the
river. All seemed to be going
well when the pink boll worm
showed up in 1928. Johnson
then experimented with diverse
crops including onions, flowers
(for their seeds), various melons
and so forth. He also raised a
15-acre truck garden that may
have been his most profitable
agricultural endeavor, for fami-
lies and miners – especially
miners, who had no time to
garden, had to be fed. And the
distance to those markets was
tenable.
Johnson, striving to survive,
also toyed with tourism. The
Great Depression happened
along late in 1929. He more or
less manipulated the Depression-
era Works Progress Admin -
istration (WPA) into building a
large dormitory-type building
about a quarter-mile upstream,
intending all along to utilize it
for a tourist court. “The WPA
building” didn't work out
either. Guests thought it too
remote and opted to stay at
Johnson’s headquarters.
With the able assistance of
photojournalist W.D. Smithers,
Johnson got the U.S. Army Air
Corps to designate the ranch as
an official landing field.
Johnson, a jack of all trades,
mounted a grader and
scratched out an airstrip. The
airstrip was quickly approved,
and the Army sent in a truck
loaded with folding cots and
mattresses, not to mention a
Signal Corps person and radio.
Both Johnson and Smithers
were hired as official “border
watchers” by the government.
The cots sometimes served
as beds for Army aviators.
Mostly, fee-paying visitors used
them. Johnson’s porch served
its purpose well, and the Rio
Grande provided both fishing
and a fine, willow-sequestered
swimming hole.
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2010
A guest register was kept on
a table within the porch.
Thought not mandatory, sign-
ing-in was encouraged. Today,
maintained in the Archives of
the Big Bend at Sul Ross State
University, the Johnson’s
“Ranch Guest Register” re -
mains one of the best remain-
ing primary-source records of
human activity in the Big Bend.
Mexicans who crossed regu-
larly and attended Johnson’s for
trading purposes included Luis
Alonzo (who also worked for
Johnson), Feliz Aguilar, Manuel
Vizcaino, Mauricio Garcia,
Torobio Castro, A. Acosta,
Severino Acosta, Reyes Acosta,
Ricardo Rodriguez and José
Perches. Hispanics living on the
Texas side, los Iniguez, Baeza
and Holguin, as well as others,
often stopped by. All these con-
tacts contributed to the process
of acculturation along the Rio
Grande border. Even more
important was the school pro-
vided by Johnson. Not all of
the pupils were of Hispanic
descent. Stanley and Wilborn,
sons of apiculturist Edith
Blaine Elliott, attended John -
son Ranch School.
In addition to thousands of
regulars stopping in over the
years, many famous and other-
wise noteworthy individuals
visited the ranch. Most of them
registered. One who did not
was aviatrix Amelia Earhart. In
July 1936, June Elkins, a 10
year old, was at the ranch when
a sleek black biplane set down.
Out of the cockpit stepped
Earhart and a handsome fel-
low, not her husband George
Putnam. Someone snapped a
photograph, now lost. The two
fliers swam in the river and
spent the night on the spacious
porch. A year later, Earhart dis-
appeared over the Pacific while
attempting to reach Howland
Island.
The ranch was taken over
by the national park in 1943,
but between the two world
wars many of the famous and
soon-to-be famous signed its
register.
These included Gen. Jona -
than M. Wainwright, then
commandant at Fort Clark,
Texas, and later a hero at
Corregidor after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. On
Aug. 14, 1945, now liberated
from a Japanese POW camp
after four years, Wainwright
and Gen. Douglas MacArthur
accepted the Japanese surren-
der aboard the battleship
U.S.S. Missouri.
Also at Johnson’s during that
time were Major Nathan F.
Twining, later chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Maj.
J.R. Kane, who received the
Congressional Medal of Honor
for leading the airborne bomb-
ing raid on the Ploesti,
Rumania oilfields in August
1943.
And there were many U.S.
Army fliers in the 30s who
landed at Johnson’s and spent
the night during flights be -
tween San Antonio and El
Paso. One trick they all enjoyed
was flying their DeHavilland
DH-4 biplanes between the
points of Mule Ears Peaks.
Others flew down and out
Santa Elena Canyon. Some of
them, including Lt. (later
USAF Major Gen.) William L.
Kennedy and Lt. (later Col.)
John Egan, annually returned
for hiking excursions until war
broke out on Dec. 7, 1941.
Other important visitors in
the late 30s included sculptor
Gutzon Borglum of Mount
Rushmore fame, novelist John
Dos Passos and his wife and
many more.
One signature from the 30s
is especially fascinating. Of all
people, “John Dillinger, Chica -
go” graces the register. Still
under investigation, it is known
that Dillinger was at large dur-
ing the time of the signature.
When he broke jail at Crown
continued on page 27