By Mona Lange McCroskey 

David Jenner first became interested in the cattle business when his parents, who lived in a Chicago suburb, bought a farm west of the city. It was a farmer-feeder operation where they raised crops and brought cattle in from the west, fed them and then sold them as fat cattle. As Jenner grew up, he took more and more of an interest in the farm, and he got along well with the farmer who ran the business for his family. 

As a youth, Dave attended Judson School in Phoenix. At that time his cousin, Jo Alexander Bennett, owned the Diamond Two Ranch at Walnut Grove and, of course, he looked her up. Arizona looked good to him, and after attending Princeton and serving in the Navy, he returned and bought the W Diamond Ranch in lower Skull Valley in a sale handled by Bud Webb.

When Jenner acquired the ranch, it consisted of a couple hundred acres of Skull Valley farmland and about two sections of rangeland. It was one of the oldest ranches in the area. In 1954, Dave expanded it, adding the historical homesteads of Jake Miller and Van Dickson. Miller and Van's father, John Dickson, were members of the 1863 Walker Party who discovered gold in the Prescott area. Interestingly, Miller died in 1892, leaving the property to his four sons and their partners, Dixon Fagerberg and Sam Hill, who were prominent Prescott businessmen. Van Dickson, Judge W. E. "Pat" Patterson, and Stewart Hall followed as owners before Jenner acquired it in 1954. 

Jenner is fortunate to have more sub-irrigated land and more patented land than many ranches have. The water table is so high that the roots of the grass are in water, so that it grows even without rain. In the wintertime, the water usually rises and creates several cienegas. 

When Jenner moved onto the ranch, ranch manager Jack Boaz and his family occupied the original house. Dave set up housekeeping in a bachelor pad in the machine shop area that had also been occupied by previous owner Stewart Hall. Jenner took meals with the Boaz family, and he credits Jack with teaching him a lot about ranching. Jack Boaz originally came to Arizona from Kansas and worked for the Hashknife outfit. Through the years, Yavapai County cowmen Jack Harley, Bob Purley and Billy Murphy worked for Jenner as well. 

Dave began by running yearlings, buying calves and grazing them on the range, then fattening them up in his irrigated pastures. As he added more rangeland, he began running both cows and calves, a practice he still implements to this day. 

Several years after his move to Arizona, Dave met Virginia McDonald, a widow. She moved to Hawaii for a few years and when she returned, they married. Dave served on the Skull Valley School Board for ten or twelve years when Virginia's four children were small. He adopted her youngest daughter Callie. 

In 1960, around the time of his marriage, Jenner acquired a neighboring ranch from Dick Denny, who grew up on the Fort Rock Ranch in northern Yavapai County. Denny acquired the ranch in 1948; he called the brand W Triangle and his son Richard used it on the Bar U Bar Ranch to brand his registered quarter horses. In 1960, Watts Collier knocked on Denny's door, asked if the ranch was for sale, and negotiated the sale of two-thirds of it to Jenner. Dave moved his new family into the home on that ranch after it was fixed up by jack-of-all-trades, Fred Patton. Dave and Virginia divorced after twelve years of marriage. 

Dave met his current wife, Kay Tully, in 1954. Trained as an x-ray technician, Kay lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Brawley, California for brief intervals between times in Prescott. Kay was a health seeker from Ireland who shared common friends with Dave: the Hayes and the Rigdens. They have been married now for almost thirty years. Dave and Kay took watercolor classes at Yavapai College from Alice Leffingwell, which led them on watercolor workshops in some remote places in the Caribbean, to England and to France. They have also traveled to Ireland several times where Kay gave Dave the "Cook's tour" and he got acquainted with her family. Dave's favorite wintering place is in the tropics. 

Jenner has served on the southwestern Yavapai County area board of the National Resources Conservation District (NRCD) for some time. It is a U.S. Conservation Service advisory group that provides information to ranchers and farmers and guides them in conservation practices. The group also oversees government-funded ranch improvements such as irrigation systems, among other projects. He was appointed to the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission soon after it was organized in 1968 and served for nearly thirty years. He has also donated a calf every year to the Yavapai County Cattle Growers' calf sale, but now leaves the barbeque and attendant activities to the younger fellows. 

Dave supports Yavapai Regional Medical Center and the Yavapai County Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. He is proud to say he was a "big brother" for almost twenty years. The boys liked the ranch, but Dave found it difficult to keep in touch with them because "their mothers always got married and moved away, or something." Nonetheless he found it an enjoyable and satisfying experience. 

Jenner likes life in Skull Valley where he meets all kinds of people, in contrast to his childhood in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, which was very stratified. The community has changed since his arrival in 1954: then it was on a dirt road, somewhat isolated, but there was a real sense of place. Warren's Store housed the post office and was the central gathering place. "Pee Wee" Heatwole pastored the church and the Skull Valley Skunks softball team was in its heyday. 

Today, the Jenners enjoy traveling around the state, especially to the Indian reservations in northern Arizona. Dave and Kay are living temporarily in a condominium in Prescott now, due to Kay's health. He goes back and forth every day to pick up the mail and look after the ranch. Jenner's adopted daughter Callie and her husband, Armando Hernandez, currently live and raise paint horses on the ranch. Dave will celebrate his eightieth birthday this year - Happy Birthday, Dave! 

The Dave Jenner ranch is this years' featured Yavapai County ranching family. Please join us at Sharlot Hall Museum's 20th Annual Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering, August 16th, 17th and 18th, 2007, on the Museum campus and also at select off-site performance halls. Please call the museum at 445-3122 for more information. 

Our readers' thoughts... 

I was Yavapai County Agricultural Agent from 1951 to 1969. When I left Yavapai County in 1969, the Yavapai Cattle Growers honored me by giving me the title of Honorary Member. An honor first bestowed, as I recall, on another County Agent, E. S. Turville. I was well acquainted with Dave Jenner and worked with him for several years on a Beef Cattle Improvement program. Dave was a very good co-operator. I recall one instance when the U of A was gathering data on the cost of raising calves on different types of ranges in Arizona. Dave provided us with the most accurate records we could acquire on cost of raising calves on irrigated pasture. I really respected Dave and very much apprecited his co-operation.

Alvin Allen
August 12, 2007


Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Van on 'Navajo') Reuse only by permission.
Van Dickson, a former owner of the Jenner Ranch in Skull Valley, seen here on his faithful horse 'Navajo.' 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bura2083p)
Reuse only by permission.
Dave Jenner's ranch, The W Diamond Ranch, in the 1960s.