The Brand of Ranger Creek Ranch

The Brand of Ranger Creek Ranch

Brands are registered with state or county government agencies for the purpose of identifying the ownership of animals. In the early days of the open range livestock industry many ranchers got started by rounding up and branding wild free-range cattle also known as mavericks. Brands may be used for generations without modification. This is the case of many long-standing Texas brands such as the used by Ranger Creek Ranch. Other well-known Texas brands that have spanned generations include the brand of the 6666 (four sixes) ranch and the world famous Running W from the King Ranch.

Brands are sometimes difficult to decipher, and brand reading is a fading art. Many symbols may be read several ways, depending on the region of the country where they are used and also depending upon the creativity of the brand developer. Letters and numbers in a brand may be easily discernable or the may be lazy, open, running, flying, leaning, hanging, backward or reversed. The bars may be over, under, between or on either side of the numbers or letters. It is most important that brands be unique and difficult to alter with something as simple as the addition of a few marks to resemble a different brand.

Ranger Creek Ranch uses the brand (Z bar). Zellie Scott, who was the father of Gaylon Scott and the grandfather of Ranell Scott Walker, first registered the Z bar in the early 1900's in Knox County, Texas. Zellie Scott passed on in 1926 when Gaylon was a mere 22 months in age. The family has carried the brand since its registration in honor of Zellie Scott and you can still see cattle on parts of the ranch with the historic brand.

A lot has been written about the tenacity and independence of Texans. The Scott family is a true and living example of such independence and tenacity. Ranell Scott raises and works her own cattle The ranch is rough country and the terrain dictates that the cattle be worked by cowboys and in this case cowgirls aboard horses.

Ranger Creek Ranch: 940-888-2478

E-mail:ranger@rangercreekranch.com