Ruger Ranch

The property we bought was part of what used to be the Single-Six Ranch, a 9,000-acre ranch owned by William B. Ruger, Sr. who was a firearms designer and co-founder of firearms company Sturns, Ruger and Co. The Single-Six was the single action revolver Ruger introduced in 1953.

Sturns, Ruger bought the ranch in 1986. It was used a private retreat. Ruger's son, William B. Ruger, Jr. sold the ranch in 2003 for $5.9 million a little more than a year after his father's death. The money was used to expand production capacity for the company's Newport, N.H., manufacturing facility. It also allowed the company to show a profit in an otherwise flat year.

Arizona Land and Ranches bought the property and subdivided it into 36-acre ranchettes. The ranch headquarters were located on the part of the property that is now known as Ruger Meadows. Our property is located in phase 3, about four miles north of Peeple's Valley, half-way between Wickenburg and Prescott. It's exactly two hours from our Mesa home.

To get there, you must pass through Wickenburg and head up 89 through Congress, over a cut into Yarnell (home of the legendary Cornerstone Bakery), and past a number of ranches owned by a rancher named Rex Maughn. Maughn owns South Fork in Dallas, as well as 28 Arizona ranches. Some of the ranches in the vicinity of Ruger Ranch include East Fork,  West Fork and North Fork.

Maughn made  his fortune in aloe vera. He started as a direct marketer, then got into growing and distribution. He currently owns the largest aloe vera plantation in the world, located in the Dominican Republic. The benefit to us is that he's got more money than he can spend, so his ranches are beautiful, with fat Angus cattle and sprinklered fields. They make for a lovely drive. So does a thoroughbred farm, with green pastures, acres of white fences and tall cottonwood trees that turn golden in the fall.

Phase 3 of Ruger Ranch is accessed by a dirt road surrounded by high-desert landscape. At first, it's flat and open, but then begins to climb into the Weaver Mountains. By the time you get to our parcel, the land is full of granite boulders as big as luxury cars. The ground is thick with pinyon pine, manzanilla and scrub oak. A lone alligator juniper stands in the center of a meadow at the edge of our property.

There is a ruined tin barn that has been preserved as a "ranch relic," and across the road is a windmill and a stock pond. Also across the road, the remains of an old mica mine scar the hillside. These have all become landmarks we give to various contractors. Arizona Land and Ranches tells us our property used to be referred to as the Scott place, and that's all the direction we have to give to some of the longtime locals. An excavator we talked to told us he had camped in our meadow with the mountain lion posse. He said he thought it was the prettiest spot on the whole ranch.

The ranch is still grazed. We signed a grazing lease with the rancher, Steve Hampton, which allowed us to get an agricultural exemption from the county tax assessor's office. It's not uncommon to find cows resting in the shade of our juniper or clustered near the windmill.