Texas' Historic Turkey Track Ranch Offered In Q4 2021
The historic Turkey Track Ranch in the Texas Panhandle will be offered for sale in the fall of 2021. The 80,000-acre ranch with 26 miles of Canadian River frontage, owned by the Whittenburg and Coble families for more than 120 years, boasts a rare combination of history, heritage and natural resources.
W.T. (Tom) Coble purchased the original Turkey Track headquarters south of Spearman in 1916 and began using the Turkey Track brand. He continued to expand the Turkey Track Ranch and also purchased farm land in Hockley County. Coble was president of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers from 1934-36, and his grandson, JA Whittenburg III was president from 1976 - 1978.
"It is with careful consideration and great emotion that we announce that, after 120 years of stewardship by our family, we have decided to sell our historic Turkey Track Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. For over a century this American landmark has been an integral element of our heritage. Generations of Cobles and Whittenburgs have created lifetimes of memories on the Turkey Track. Due to our family's increasing numbers and geographical distances, we recognize that it is time to find a new steward for this historic holding,” The Whittenburg and Coble families said in a statement.
Tom Coble was a contemporary of Dan and Tom Waggoner of the Waggoner Ranch, Samuel "Burk" Burnett of the Four Sixes Ranch, and Charles Goodnight of the JA and Goodnight Ranch. Coble recognized the infinite resources of the Southern Great Plains. Like Waggoner, Burnett, and Goodnight, he created a cattle kingdom that was sustained by thousands of acres of grass.
Later, Whittenburg was the larger-than-life Texas Icon and entrepreneurial modern-day rancher who led the management of the Turkey Track for several decades. An early trendsetter of flying between properties and business interests, he operated several significant ranching interests in Texas and New Mexico, along with other business interests which included Aviation, Oil & Gas, Banking, Cattle Feed Yards; he was also a Special Texas Ranger.
“We have enlisted Bernard Uechtritz of the Icon Global Group in Dallas to bring the Turkey Track to market in the latter half of 2021,” the families said in the statement. “The ranch has and will forever hold not only the monuments, memories, and legacies of our now multigenerational families but, significantly, maintains a very important place within the well-chronicled chapters of early Texas and US history; similarly, the ranch and its past stewards hold a prideful and acknowledged position of contributions to the evolution of modern-day ranching and cattle raising industries, as well as the Oil & Gas sectors of our great state."
In 2016 the Turkey Track Ranch was selected as one of six regional honorees of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP). The award recognizes the outstanding stewardship and conservation efforts practiced on the ranch.
The property is also the site of the two famed battles of the Adobe Walls of 1864 and 1874, and this hallowed ground —just north of the Canadian River — is revered by descendants of all combatants. In June of 1924, a six-acre site was given to the Panhandle Plains Historical Society commemorating that month the 50th anniversary of the second battle of the Adobe Walls. In 1941 a monument dedicated to the Native Americans who fought and died in the Battle of 1874 was also erected. Both Monuments stand within the ranch today.
