Peeler Ranch History
Early Texas Statehood & Civil War Reconstruction
1846-1848
Justin’s great, great, great, great grandfather is recorded to have fought in the Texas war with Mexico which occurred from 1846-1848.
1866
Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove their herd of 2000 Texas Longhorns up what became the Goodnight-Loving Trail. Goodnight established his ranch in south eastern Colorado at the head of the Apishapa Canyon. Julie and Justin own a large part of this ranch, Goodnight's first Colorado ranch, where you can today still see the Goodnight Cattle Pens, a Goodnight homestead, and the Goodnight Cemetery. Presumably, this Peeler Ranch was the cattle drive stopping point in the movie "Lonesome Dove".
There are accounts of Goodnight’s cattle drives of Texas Longhorns crossing the Hog’s Back in southern Colorado on the way to his Apishapa Canyon ranch. This trail would have required Goodnight to cross another of Julie and Justin's Colorado ranches, their Model Ranch.
1876
Julie’s family settled in Texas years before they registered their first cattle brand in 1876. Julie’s family still has the same brand registered, 142 years later. This is the first publicly recorded date her family “stamped” their ranching heritage.
1877
Justin’s great, great grandfather,Tom, was a TSCRA brand inspector in and after 1877. Tom was involved with cattle drives, trail driving and checking brands on cattle headed up the trails. Tom was influential in saving the Texas Longhorn breed by convincing one of his sons, Graves, that Texas Longhorns were "good cattle to own."
1882
The first recorded, public records showing a Peeler ranching in Atascosa County, Texas is 1882. The Peeler 7PL cattle brand was recorded in 1882 along with a deed to the first Peeler ranch lands in Atascosa County by Tom Peeler, Justin’s great, great grandfather. Today Justin has this brand registered in Atascosa County, Texas. It is used on Justin and Julie’s original, registered, foundation herd of Peeler Texas Longhorns founded by Graves Peeler.
1884
Tom and Alice Peeler had their first child, Alonzo in 1884. Among seven eventual kids, Alonzo had a younger brother, Graves, whom is well known for being a Texas Ranger and a TSCRA Brand Inspector circa 1926 and for helping save the Texas Longhorn breed from extinction due partly to the influx of English breed cattle. Graves also played in the first football game between Texas Agriculture and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University of the famous SEC) against Texas university (quite ironically having a neutered longhorn as their mascot.)
Alonzo, Sr. and Graves ended up living and ranching in southern Atascosa County, Texas and adjacent, northern McMullen County.
1897
Tom Peeler was shot to death in 1897 by a hired gun (outlaw) stemming from Tom’s law enforcement days where he caught and testified against members of a prominent family stealing cattle. The family hired the gunman to kill Tom.
Being a young Texas lawman, Graves is reported to have heard from an Arizona lawman of the hired gunman's hideout location in Arizona. Graves apparently disappeared from Texas for several weeks. A while after Grave's return, report funneled to Texas that the outlaw had been found shot dead in his Arizona cabin located far up a remote canyon. Apparently, Graves was never questioned.
Dust Bowl, Great Depression, WWII, and Industrial Agriculture
1904
Alonzo M. Peeler continued Peeler family ranching as "he started ranching on his own at the age of twenty."
1965
The first recorded buck enrolled in the Boone & Crockett record books is taken off the A.M.Peeler Ranch.
1981
While having fun on a three-wheeler, Justin has one of his crashes. This leaves Justin with only 9 1/2 fingers. Justin’s finger never grows back?!
1987
The late, great Dr. Paul Wilson, Justin’s high school government teacher and favorite high school hunting buddy, gave Justin a copy of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac with a sincere message written by Paul to Justin. Dr. Wilson's gift and the lessons within A Sand County Almanac helped build Justin’s vision of holistic management in nature. Dr. Wilson was a great teacher and man.
1992
Justin graduates from Texas A&M University with a degree in biomedical science. Realizing he is not and has not been committed to becoming a medical doctor, he heads to southwest Alaska to work at a fly fishing lodge for the summer fly-fishing season.
1992-1993
During the winter months, Justin travels to the island of Bocas del Toro on Panama’s Caribbean coast to explore starting a flyfishing lodge for bonefish, tarpon, snook and/or permit. Local politics and the lack of vast shallow water flats made this expedition a failed business idea.
1994
Justin returns to Alaska, however in the southeastern part, and works another season at another sport fishing lodge.
In late summer after spending a month fly fishing in Washington, Oregon and Guatemala, Justin started a commercial hunting lodge, Macho Creek Lodge, on the AM Peeler Ranch.
1995
Justin inherits part and acquires entirety of the legendary Grave's Peeler foundation herd of Texas Longhorns.
1996
Starting with no inherited land and thick blood/family love, Julie’s family built, grew, still grow, and maintain family partnerships. Julie’s family has a longer history than the Peeler family of ranching in Texas and agriculture business and has very quietly ranched and still ranches a sizable amount of cattle; however, Julie and her family also own and operate diverse assets in timber, farming, phenomenal hunting, wind, water development, oil and gas and other real estate development ventures. Julie works with and maintains her interest in her family’s ranching and real estate ventures.
1996-97
Julie’s two brothers were in The Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets and became the first ever brothers to be elected by the A&M student body and serve at the same time as Yell Leaders at Texas A&M University. They additionally and separately held positions as Red Pot for Bonfire, Ross Volunteers, and Parson’s Mounted Calvary. The wake of their tenure and extracurricular life as girl-chasing, hell-raising cadets and students at Texas A&M University Corp has been referred to as “legendary.”
138 years of ranching... THE BLACK SHEEP rebuilding ranching
2001
Justin "earned" an emotional and financial-whipping with Macho Creek Lodge directly after the 9-11 attack and resulting economic downfall. However, he restructured the lodge business while Julie brought home a stable teacher’s salary. With much mentorship from two mentors, Justin began investing and developing small real estate deals.
2004
One of Macho Creek Lodge's clients takes a massive whitetail buck gross scoring 225 1/8". The buck is the second buck from the A.M.Peeler Ranch registered in the Boone & Crockett record book.
2008
A third Boone & Crockett whitetail buck is harvested at Macho Creek Lodge on the AMPeeler Ranch and which is entered in the Boone & Crockett record book.
2009
On March 1, 2009, after the stock market crashed in September of 2008, the decision was made to close down the commercial hunting part of Macho Creek Lodge which had started in 1994.
THE BLACK SHEEP... After closing the commercial hunting lodge, Justin decided to attempt to redefine and rebuild ranching and to find ways to make TRUE profits from ranching in Texas, something virtually unheard of and mostly unbelievable to conventional, industrial ranchers in Texas. To his childhood family in South Texas, he presented the idea of "holistic management... planned grazing... ecology... grass-fed beef... selling beef directly to customers... financial accountability... communication... collaboration..." To this idea, Justin further became the Peeler-crazy-unreasonable-not-listening-to -'the family'-etc., THE BLACK SHEEP. However, continuing to always read, study and question, Justin further diverged and immersed his time in learning about successful agriculture systems and ranching around the world, especially in non-subsidized countries. He eventually began managing his small, inherited (a little of which he purchased) ranch within a holistic context, a view he had read many years past, yet had unknowingly mostly practiced through all his years of land and natural resource management.
2012
Justin gets another crazy idea after three years having started ranching/grazing in a holistic framework. After making ranch profits in finances, ecology and people on the A.M.Peeler Ranch, Justin believes a ranch can be purchased (albeit in certain areas at certain prices), built, and managed with a holistic mindset, and paid for from the agriculture enterprises. He believed he could build, regenerate and manage a truly sustainable ranch.
2016
Justin creates and sells a real estate deal in order to purchase his and Julie’s first of six mostly contiguous ranches in Colorado. He begins building a ranch and ranching business in the American West in a way which most everyone says, "It can't be done."
2017
Justin becomes the only remaining heir of his generation, the forth generation of the A.M.Peeler Ranch ownership, to continuously maintain ownership, control and management of his part of the A.M.Peeler Ranch. Once apparently 65,000 acres, the A.M.Peeler Ranch has changed to around 23,000 acres.
Julie and Justin help their children become part owners of the A.M.Peeler Ranch.
2018
However, Julie and Justin purchase another Colorado ranch, the largest ever of all Peeler Ranches, modern and historical, in any state, including Texas. The efforts to grow and accumulate biological capital and regenerate soil, ecosystem, finances and social capital... is growing and continues!
Peeler Land & Livestock, LLC is created by Justin to be a replicable, sustainable, model ranching company. It hires its first and lead crew as Manager of Colorado Ranches to help orchestrate and build the idea.
2020
The year of the Chinese virus... and a joke of an election, on both sides.
Albeit not often, Justin purchases and brings to the the AMPeeler Ranch outside (purchased) yearling cattle. Many arriving sick, Justin and crew are out-of-practice and must revisit/relearn how to "take care" of sick cattle...!? They pull out their last purchased bottle of antibiotics (antibiotics being a symptom of a problem, not a cure). The date on the 7/8 full bottle of antibiotics was 2012... untouched, un-needed for eight years!
Regenerating the land, communities/families and profitable ranching business remains the core of Peeler Ranch mission and vision.
Julie and Justin's oldest child chooses to attend Texas A&M University and major in Honors Ag Business.
RANCHING THOUGHTS
THE FUTURE
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
