OUR HISTORY

History of Shippy Ranch

The Block Ranch existed in many forms in Southern New Mexico.  The other ranches included the Bar W Ranch, and business as the El Capitan Land and Cattle Company, Tres Ritos Ranch Company, Three Rivers Land and Livestock Company, Quatros Amigos Cattle Company and Carrizozo Cattle Company.

The Block Ranch, also known as "the Blocks" or "Three Block Ranch", was established after the Civil War but sometime before 1871, when it was sold by John Kirk for $100, two axes, one pit of cabbage, one scythe and sneathe, one bedstead, two sacks full of corn (not shelled), two small sacks of beans, one pitchfork and two hoes.  The property was sold again in 1873.  The defining moment for the ranch was in 1885 when the El Capitan Land and Cattle Company was incorporated by Andrew and Melvin Richardson, John DeLaney and Horace & Charles Thurber.  Andy Richardson came to the area around 1869 and soon became the manager and guided it through its rapid rise. Either the Thurbers or the Richardsons established a store at the ranch headquarters to provide supplies for the Block cowboys and their families. Along with the store there was also a post office designated "Richardson".  This area is still in the middle of the ranch, the store and post office are long gone.  It was Andrew Richardson's horse that Billy the Kid stole after escaping from Lincoln on his way to Ft Sumner.

The Thurbers were bought out by an English consortium and Stephenson Commission Company in Kansas City.  They allowed all the Hispanic sheepherders on the north side the use of the Block Ranch water and springs.

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The El Capitan Land and Cattle Company hired a bookkeeper in the 1880s named W.C. McDonald.  Over the years McDonald gradually bought out all the partners and by 1908 was the sole owner of the Block Ranch. Around 1909, the ranch was sold to William McDonalds Bar W Ranch in Carrizozo for $250,000.  In the years 1908 - 11, the ranch sold half a million dollars' worth of cattle to the Stephensons in Kansas City.  McDonald managed the ranch until his death in 1918. McDonald became the first Governor of the State of New Mexico in 1912.  As McDonald became more involved in politics, he hired a bookkeeper named Truman Spencer.  True to the bookkeeper pattern, Spencer became the owner of the Block Ranch, his method was simple, he ran off with the governor's daughter.  The ranch stayed in the McDonald-Spencer family until it was sold in 1949 to Mr. Wassham who bought it for his son.  Wassham's son was not interested in it and it sold to Toby Foster, an oilman and trader from Lubbock Texas in 1950.  Foster died in 1956 and in 1959 the ranch sold to D.D. Bruton  from Dallas Texas.  With Mr. Bruton's failing health the sold the ranch in 1964 to the Cannings.  Hap Canning bought the ranch in 1964 and owned it until his death in early 2000s.  The ranch was split and sold in 2009, with each part a substantial ranch in its own right.  Robert Shippy purchased the ranch in 2021 and is known as Shippy Ranch.