By Anita Nordbrock

There is a large tract of land on Arizona maps about 45 miles northwest of Prescott and 35 miles southwest of Seligman named the Luis Maria Baca Grant Float No 5. In 1821, as a reward for his services to the Spanish Crown, Don Luis Maria de Baca was granted 500,000 acres of prime grassland near Los Alamos, New Mexico. By the mid-1800s, Mexican settlers had moved onto the de Baca land. In 1856, the heirs of Don Luis laid claim to their rights to that original land grant. Rather than kicking off the settlers on the de Baca New Mexico land, the United States government agreed to a "land swap" and offered the heirs five other tracts of land of 100,000 acres each. One of those "floats" is the Luis Maria Baca Float No. 5.

In 1880, Edward B. Perrin purchased the land selling it in 1936 to the Greene Cattle Company which had been formed in 1901 by Colonel (self-appointed) William Cornell Greene. Greene’s vast holdings were mostly south of the border in Mexico and the Baca Float was Greene’s newest north of the border expansion. He had died in 1911, leaving his holdings to his wife who later married Charles Wiswall, Greene’s company manager. On purchase of the Baca Float in 1936, Wiswall sent Robert L. Sharp, Greene’s son-in-law, to check on the ranch and also look over the 157,000 acre Mahon Ranch adjoining the de Baca Float for possible purchase.

In ‘Bob Sharp’s Cattle Country: Rawhide Ranching on Both Sides of the Border,’ Sharp told that Jim Bennett, an old-time cowboy, took him to the top of nearby Mount Hope. "At noon the following day, I sat motionless in wonder on the top of Mount Hope. There, spread out before me, under a cloudless sea-blue sky, was a tremendous span of bright, clean serene rangeland-one that was still pure. Slowly twisting in my saddle, I marveled at the panorama of unspoiled, majestic wilderness whose conglomeration of mountains and hills dispersed a feeling of powerful strength of character. It seemingly breathed out a message, ‘Leave me as I am.’ I was spellbound and humble." When Sharp looked down from Mount Hope, he saw a land of magnificent pine, fir, oak, juniper, mountain mahogany and a host of deciduous native trees as well as the home of mountain lions, bears, deer, turkey and rabbits.

Sharp managed both ranches, all 257,000 acres, as the O RO Ranch or the "ROs." The ranch is approximately 400 square miles of rough, rocky country ranging from 4,000-7,500 feet in elevation. In addition to headquarters, the ranch is divided into five year-round cow camps: Triangle N, Francis Creek, Sandstone, Bear Creek and Mahon (the most remote camp.)

In 1951, Colonel Greene’s youngest son, Charles Harrison Greene, took over management of the ranch until it was sold in 1973 to the JJJ Corporation headed by John N. Irwin II. Upon his death in 2000, the ranch passed to son John N. Irwin III and daughter Jane Irwin Droppa, whose great-grandfather was an early Arizona territorial governor (1890-92). Since 1993, Wayne Word has been the ranch manager and now serves also as the company president who oversees every aspect of the ranch.

Kathy McCraine wrote in ‘Western Horseman’s Legendary Ranches,’ "At 257,000 acres, the O RO Ranch….is certainly one of the largest, roughest, and most remote ranches in the state. [T]he Droppa and Irwin families have no intention of changing anything. Hopefully the ROs always will be home for men who still know the ways of a cow and a horse and don’t mind putting in a hard day’s work close to the land that is pure and unaltered by civilization."

The O RO continues to round up cattle on horseback and "rolls the wagon" for its spring and fall gathers which last from two to three months although the wagon today is an old WW II, 6×6 army truck equipped with a chuckbox. Because of the ranch’s demanding rough and rocky terrain, all of the horses used are ranch raised so that they have good feet and good withers. The ranch also sells horses. The Droppas and the Irwins are folks who appreciate what they have – a legendary ranch with cowboys who are still horseback men with horseback ways, doing whatever the day brings.

This year, honoring ranching and the cowboy, the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering is August 14 and 15, at the Yavapai College campus. More information at www.azcowboypoets.org or call 928-772-0301.

More about the Baca Float can be read in the October 24, 2000 article of Days Past.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Courtesy JJJ Corp.) Reuse only bypermission.

Doing things the old fashioned way, the O RO chuckwagon camped at West Split.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(courtest photo) Reuse only bypermission.

Eldon Mills, ranch foreman, 1964.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(map by Tom Jonas, 2006) Reuse only by permission.

Map showing general location of the O RO ranch (Baca Float #5) along the route of the old Hardyville Wagon Road from Prescott to Camp Mohave along the Colorado River.