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Yolo Ranch
Yavapai County, Arizona

“It looks the way a ranch should, at least according to the movies-with a sprawling fenced meadow,
horses lolling in the grass, two wagon wheels hanging on the ranch gate leading
to the main house and outbuildings.”
– Arizona Highways, September 2004

Picture

[1] Owner's residence at the Headquarters	[2] The barn & shop at the headquarters	[3] The guest duplex at the Headquarters with the Colt and Winchester suites
[4]The honeymoon cabin at the Headquarters	[5] View overlooking the Casita and the meadows at the Headquarters	[6] Open meadow at the Headquarters
[7] One of the spring fed ponds at the Headquarters	[8] Five sections deeded land located between the Headquarters and Strotjost Cow Camp	[9] the main residence at Strotjost Cow Camp
[10] Sorting calves at Strotjost	[11] Ranch remuda	[12] Lang Tank
[13] Barney Well Cow Camp residence	[14] Barney Well Pasture	[15] Cattle at a dirt tank in Bozarth Pasture
[16] Bozarth Pasture	[17] Beautiful ranch country	[18] The Headquarters with Camp Wood Mountainin the background
[19] View of the central part of the ranch from Windy Ridge	[20] Southern end of the Headquarters deeded land on Boulder Creek	[21] Historic Yolo Brand

Location & Maps

Please click on any of the maps for a larger view

Location Map	Topography Map	Aerial Map

The Yolo Ranch is located approximately 44 miles (33 air miles) northwest of Prescott, Arizona.  Access from Prescott, the Yavapai County seat, is about 22 miles on paved Williamson Valley Road and 22 miles on gravel County Road 68 (aka FR 21).

Acreage

Deeded acres	12,767.02	11.5%	19.95 sections
State Lease acres	77,543.63	69.9%	121.16 sections
Forest Service acres	18,315.00	16.5%	28.62 sections
BLM acres	2,352.55	2.1%	3.68 sections
TOTAL ACRES	110,978.20	100.0%	173.41 sections

Carrying Capacity
The total year round carrying capacity as represented by the owner is 1,598 head.  In addition to the Headquarters, the ranch has three (3) cow camps, each being responsible for their own piece of country.

General Description
The historic Yolo Ranch encompasses over 110,000 acres of high-country land in Arizona.  Its Headquarters is located in a large and scenic mountain meadow surrounded by mature Ponderosa pines sited at a perfect 5,858 foot elevation.  The Yolo combines majestic mountains and astonishing canyons, grassy sub-irrigated meadows and rolling mesa pastures, dramatic rocky hillsides and boulder-protected swimming holes all in one place.  Located in Yavapai County, cattle bearing the Yolo brand continue to graze the ranch much as they have since Tip Wilder established the classic Yolo brand in 1885.  With four cattle camps managing over 1,500 head of cattle, the ranch covers some of the most beautiful and varied country in the state.  It is truly one of the finest and most enjoyable ranches in Arizona.

History
The Yolo Ranch is steeped in history and western tradition that is disappearing from today’s modern and fast paced culture.  The earliest signs of settlement on the ranch date to 1025-1200 A.D. from ancient Indian ruins scattered throughout the ranch.  In 1875 Tip Wilder from Yolo County, CA established the ranch and in 1885 he registered the Yolo Brand, the ranch celebrated its Centennial in 1985.  Other owners include Lon Harmon, the mayor of Phoenix in 1923 and Arizona pioneer rancher, who owned the ranch for over 30 years.  The Bar 37 guest ranch was established on land homesteaded by Ned Andrews.  Located two miles from the Yolo Headquarters, and well-known throughout Arizona, it was designed as a small Western town, complete with a saloon, barber shop, and jail.  Andrews was also a prolific writer, including the book "Jerky" in 1936.  John T. deBlois Wack owned the ranch in the 1930s and 40s.  Wack is the son of the founding editor of Field and Stream Magazine.  He was also president of the Santa Barbara Polo Club in 1936 and owned other properties such as the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.  In 1967 Western Horseman wrote about roundup at the Yolo, saying it had a reputation for “the best cowboys in the country” working on 110,000 acres stretching from pine trees to saguaro cactus.  The article also said the Yolo was a “last frontier in the old style of cowboying.”  In 1987 Gail Steiger made the documentary film “Ranch Album” on the Yolo Ranch.  The film was released as a national PBS special, it was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle, TV Guide called it “cinematically brilliant and wonderfully constructed” and the Wall Street Journal said it was “a gorgeous film.”

Range Description
The deeded land totals 12,767.02 acres and is in 15 non-contiguous tracts throughout the ranch that range in size from 40 acres to 6,722.17 acres.  The Headquarters consist of 495 acres of deeded land which is part of a forest inholding.  It adjoins the Yolo North grazing allotment on the Prescott National Forest on the west, south and east sides, a neighboring ranch private parcel borders the north side.

The forest allotment that surrounds the Headquarters on the east end varies from open meadow flats and basins to steeper areas in the Connell Mountains.  The north end of the forest allotment consists of ponderosa pine forest and meadows; while the south end has more pinon pine, juniper and cedar trees, turbinella oak and mountain mahogony.  Boulder Creek originates near the Headquarters in Connell Gulch, providing the spring fed ponds and allows for sub-irrigated meadows during wet years.  The ranch has approximately eight miles of Boulder Creek running through the deeded land on the ranch.

The Yolo Ranch has a very wide range of vegetation that ranges from large towering ponderosa pines at the Headquarters on the northeast end to saguaro and prickly pear cacti grasslands on the southwest end near Burro Creek.  The majority of the ranch (about 2/3rds) consists of level to rolling mesa country on several large mesas.  Elevation of the mesa country is mainly between 4,000’ to 5,500’.  The mesas are mostly open grassland with intermixed pinon pine and juniper trees.  Typical perennial grasses are tobosa and blue gramma as the main species, intermixed with Indian ricegrass, threeawns and side oats grama.  At the lower elevations are annuals such as afilarea and Indian wheat.

Portions of the southeast, south, southwest and west ends are steeper and have more canyon country.  Most of the creeks and canyons run in deep, steep sided canyons that form natural barriers.  Burro Creek forms a dramatic western boundary of the ranch with about a 1,000’ cliff from Bozarth Mesa to the creek bottom.  The steeper country is below 4,000’ in various canyons throughout the ranch.  Also in the southeast end of the ranch, known as Scott’s Basin, the elevation ranges from 3,000’ to 6,100’.  The steeper canyon country gets into browse and chaparral, with pinon pine and juniper in higher elevations.

Burro Creek that forms the Western boundary at the ranch

The spring fed pond at the Headquarters that the owner's residence overlooks

Water
In total, the ranch has 68 springs, 51 dirt tanks/ponds, 15 wells and has seasonal live water from numerous creeks and canyons.  The ranch also has 14 drinkers and nine storage tanks off of the mine’s Francis Creek pipeline, which the mine maintains.  All of the ranch’s water rights/claims/filings are registered with the Arizona Department of Water Resources.  There are many pre-statehood certificated water rights in the owner’s name.  The water rights were professionally completed by an attorney who specializes in water law.  For domestic water, the Headquarters, Barney Well and Strotjost Camps have domestic wells.  Bozarth Camp utilizes water from the mine pipeline.

Improvements
The ranch is highly improved with a beautifully improved Headquarters in a picturesque setting in a meadow surrounded by ponderosa pine forest.  The ranch also has three fully improved cow camps and one cabin at the Bar 37, a private inholding surrounded by Forest land.

HEADQUARTERS - All improvements have been extremely well maintained and signify a rustic building style with shake cedar shingle roofing.  ·