By Linda Luddington
Tall, stately cottonwoods along Kirkland Creek shade the Rigden Ranch headquarters from the hot Arizona sun. Built by hearty settlers over 120 years ago, the rambling old ranch house beckons visitors inside. Walls of every room are covered with oils and watercolors painted by the Rigden family; most furniture surfaces hold Rigden sculpture. In this ubiquitous Western art is the story of the history and essence of the Rigdens and their ranch, the featured family ranch of the 2001 Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering.
The story begins with Charles Rigden, born near London, England, in 1866. Charles immigrated to America with his father and brother and spent his youth near Ft. Collins, Colorado. The Rigdens moved to Arizona Territory in the 1880s.
Charlie saved his farming and cowboying wages and, with his partner Jack Lawler, purchased the 8,000-acre Gaines Ranch in the Kirkland Valley in 1902. Part of the ranch property holds titles dating to May 15, 1876, and once belonged to Virgil Earp.
Charlie Rigden bought 400 Texas Hereford heifers for $8.00 a head. It was open range country, so in 1910, the saddle "riggin'" was modified with flat brass rings allowing cowboys to rope and hold cattle to brand each rancher's stock, and to sort the steers for selling to feed lot buyers. Cattle also had to be doctored for the pervasive screw-worm. To work the cattle the cowboys rounded up a herd of perhaps as many as 300 head, held them in an outer bunch, and roped individual animals to brand or doctor.
Charlie Rigden had met a talented, young schoolteacher, Ada Eldred, who had come from Michigan in 1905, looking for adventure and renewed health. They were married in 1907. Ada had soon planted a flower garden near the ranch house, providing brilliant color most months of the year. She helped organize the Kirkland Women's Club. The Rigdens often attended the country dances held in the 1915, hall, the most important taking place on New Year's Eve. Ranch families brought food to share, put the youngest children to bed in the back room, and danced to the mouth harp, fiddle, banjo, and piano until dawn.
Besides becoming an accomplished ranch wife and mother of Betty and Tom, Ada painted watercolors of the ranch life she observed around her. One of her noteworthy watercolors, still part of the Rigden family collection, is of Kirkland Peak near the ranch headquarters.
Charlie and Ada's son Tom was born in 1911, at the ranch house he still calls home these ninety years later. Dr. Looney came by train from Prescott to assist the birth, stayed three days, and charged $75.00. Tom considers that quite a bargain.
Ada taught Tom at home until he was ready for the second grade. That fall the seven year old and his sister Betty rode their horses, "Chapo" and "Snowball," the three miles up Kirkland Creek to the one room schoolhouse made of the native tufa rock, actually tuff, tufa is a local name for this stone.
Tom remembers the first airplane to fly over Kirkland and he recollects a train wreck near Kirkland, which happened only minutes after his father had departed the train. The freight included melons, which were strewn along the tracks after the crash. Tom remembers how delicious those melons were. But his favorite memory is of meeting his hero, Tom Mix, at a July 4th celebration in Prescott. The famous cowboy actor even shook the six-year-old's hand. Tom says he didn't wash that hand for a month.
Ranch life revolved around the cowboys who worked for Tom's father. Some worked for years on the ranch; others stayed only weeks before drifting on. Tom admired them and credits Teofilo Contreras as being his best teacher and most memorable person of his childhood. When Tom was six Contreras taught him how to, "make my horse do what I wanted it to." The old cowboy would have been much amused when, years later, his pupil found himself chased up a tree by a mean cow he had roped and doctored. After untying the enraged animal, Tom turned to mount his horse, which suddenly shied from the charging, spike-horned cow and galloped away. A half hour later the cow gave up; Tom climbed down the tree; and the horse was found some two miles down the trail.
After graduating from the University of Arizona with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Range Ecology, Tom worked for the Soil Conservation Service as Range Examiner on the Navajo Reservation. Under the Horse Reduction Program, he and fifteen Indian riders gathered over 12,000 head of wild horses and 3,000 wild cattle which had overrun the range.
While home in Kirkland for a few days, Tom substituted for his sister Betty, teaching at the one room Peeples Valley School. On a very cold day, Tom went outside to get a bucket of coal to fire up the stove. The older girls played a prank, locking their handsome young teacher out of the schoolhouse. The ringleader was Margaret Hayes, the future Mrs. Tom Rigden. Tom has always teased that he married her just to get even. That marriage has lasted over sixty-two years. Betty later married and moved to Stamford, Connecticut, where she still lives.
The Rigden and Hayes families had been neighbors since 1912, when Charlie Rigden had suggested Roy Hayes buy what was to become the Hayes Ranch of the Arizona Calf Sale fame. For several years Tom worked for his father-in-law, as well as helping on the adjacent Rigden Ranch. After Charlie died, Tom and Margaret raised their three children, Charlie, Cynthia, and Anna Mary, in the old ranch house by Kirkland Creek.
Ada Rigden encouraged her daughter-in-law to paint. Margaret was a ranch girl who had lived her entire life observing the sunlight cast shadows on the mountains, the cattle grazing among the cactus and pinon, and the seasons bringing subtle changes to the range.
Ada and Margaret provided the creative genes and the encouraging environment for the toddler Cynthia to try her first experiments with drawing. Cynthia enrolled at Arizona State University with a double major in Art and Agriculture. When Tom lost his eyesight to diabetes, his daughter returned to manage the Rigden Ranch and to pursue her art. She had discovered a passion for sculpture at the university. Combining her love of ranch life with her art was natural. She performs ranch duties part of each day. The remaining hours are spent in her studio, only a few feet from the old ranch house, forming exquisite wax figures of animals later transformed into exceptional bronzes at a Prescott foundry.
The Rigden Herefords have been replaced with Texas Longhorns, Cynthia's favorite breed. She prefers the magnificent steers as models for her sculpture; groups of curious calves, cow-calf combinations, and horses in all configurations are common subjects. Hers are realistic renderings of the animals she respects and admires too much to romanticize. The eye of an experienced rancher is unmistakable in her art.
Whether riding fence and checking water tanks and driving cattle on weekends with nephews Tommy Rigden and Rigden Glaab, or preparing a sculpture for the foundry, this well-established and highly respected Western artist follows her rich family tradition. The rambling old ranch house, home to a long line of skilled cowboys and talented artists, proudly awaits the next generation of Rigdens.
The Ridgen family will be honored with a story telling session at 1:00 pm this coming Saturday during the 14th annual Cowboy Poets Gathering at the Sharlot Hall Museum. The gathering goes on Friday and Saturday. More details can be obtained at the Museum, or call 445-3122, or visit www.sharlothallmuseum.org.
Linda Luddington is volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum who specializes in assisting with the Cowboy Poets Gathering each year.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (ridgen collection item 18). Reuse only by permission.
Betty and Tom Rigden look on as their father, Charles works a hay wagon in the Kirland Valley area in around 1915. The Rigdens have owned land in this area since 1902. The family, which will be featured at the Cowboy Poets Gathering this year, has achieved acclaim as a ranching family with many talented artists.