Montie Ritchie - Managing The JA Ranch

Managing The JA Ranch

As JA manager, Ritchie revived the ranch during the time of outstanding debts stemming from his grandmother’s death and the onslaught of the Great Depression and the drought of the 1930s. His grandmother's estate placed a large debt load on the ranch. Timothy Dwight Hobart, the outgoing ranch manager, co-executor of Cornelia Adair’s estate, and mayor of Pampa had recommended selling the JA, but Ritchie weathered through, got the JA out of debt, bought out his sister and brother, and set a model for stewardship of the land. By 1945, the JA's operations were confined to 335,000 acres (1,360 km2) in Armstrong (Claude), Briscoe, Donley (Clarendon), and Hall counties (Memphis). At its peak, the ranch had surpassed 1,300,000 acres (5,300 km2). Montie Ritchie sold off parts of the original ranch and purchased another ranch near Larkspur in Douglas County, Colorado, between Colorado Springs and Denver. Shortly before Ritchie’s death, the JA donated the last remaining wild herd of buffalo in the area to the State of Texas.