In this, the last segment of the Dave Farr ranching oral history, Farr describes some of the pictures in the family’s photo album.
“These were taken in the early '50's, a lot of 'em,” Farr said. “And you've heard of Harvey Caplin? He was a professional photographer, and he come out, got on a horse, and went with us three or four days and took a lot of good pictures.”
Farr then explained why the quality of the photographs were less than optimum.
“And it was at the beginning of color film. The only place you could get it developed was New York City. And so Karen and I went by and picked out all the good pictures,” he said. “Harvey shipped 'em to New York to be duplicated, and they were all lost in the mail. So, there went all our good pictures and then we had to go back and pick out these second rate ones. Now I guess you can get color film developed anywhere.”
This is the corner, it was a north east corner. Big building. Did a lot of business with the ranchers. Mercantile, Groceries....this is still standing, I believe.
My mother's family owned that hotel and she worked there as the waitress and making up beds and everything. And I think I've told Mark that we'd go to Magdalena and rent a room and my mother would be there, demanding “no rooms over the saloon.” [laughing] Because she'd seen too many pistol shots through the roof of their saloon. And I don’t think it’s of any importance, see they were all German, and the hotel was named Swastika. And then WW II, or WW I started, and they changed the name real quick. Well that’s the two names it had. And they all spoke German among the family at home. So that was the reason they originally used that name, before it was a bad thing, which it really was during the world wars. And you know the Indians used the swastika on their blankets but it was usually made backwards from the way the Germans printed it. My mother and father were married in 1923, and so she was part of the family that run the hotel, so she worked there, ....and then over at the old bank.
Isn't this right near the new gas station?
Well, I'll have to look when I go by. I haven't paid any attention. It's on that south side of the main highway, and it would either…that new gas station would be on down west, or right across the street, you know....to the east. It's in that location.
On the back they say July 1937. They're stamped. So that's when the film was processed.
That building was standing and in use, until not too many years ago.
And it burned?
I think so. Roy Vinyard had a big manufacturing plant in there. Do you 'member Roy? Roy drove the truck, and then he hired a lot of people and they just made, halters, you know out of nylon, rayon, for horses and shipped them all over the world. Made 'em right in that building.
It just…the only connection is that building, that's the last time it was in use.
Can you draw your brands on a piece of paper?
That's on the left hip, and left shoulder. And just in recent years, due to cross breedin'. But those are the main two. (circled)
Were they used according to family member, or are they from different time periods?
No, this is a company brand. I changed to this, 'cause little less burnin'. This we adopted for cross breeds – to keep the blood pure. And then we changed to this to meet requirements of the packers....'cause they don't want brands on the part of the hide that makes choice leather.
Oh, okay. And then, and what about this one?
That's just an old brand, I can remember seein’ one cow with that on, when I was little. Too big, too much burnin', so they quit it. They're supposed to pay ya more for a, hide without brand, you know. You're allowed to draw down on the thigh, and we sell cattle direct to the packer. And I think one time we got a little bonus for going to all that work, for gettin' that different brand. Then, I forgot to add one brand that was my mother’s brand. I don’t know if you want it or not. We sold the brand. It was very simple. It was on the left neck. It was a bar, and back toward the animal’s tail was a slash running from the upper right down to the lower left. A bar slash.
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