If You're Planning to Sell Your Ranch or Farm, the Sooner You Begin to Consider the Tax Consequences, the Better

"When you sell your property through a charitable remainder trust you are essentially giving away the Golden Goose but reserving the right to the Golden Eggs it lays for the rest of your life." - Chris Nolt

For self-sufficient ranchers and farmers, it’s often difficult to accept that when it comes to selling their properties, they require outside help. 

The tax and investment-planning aspects of a rural property sale are so complex that even the best experts in the real estate profession readily acknowledge that optimizing the sale requires a team of specialists.
 
Chris Nolt, the author of Financial Strategies for Selling a Farm or Ranch, provides an excellent overview of the issues involved in completing the successful sale of a ranch or farm, and of the tax traps that many unprepared property sellers fall into.

By Linda Kirkpatrick
​​The history of surveying travels back to early time. The Egyptians recorded plots of land as far back as 3000 B. C. What is astounding to me is that the Great Pyramid is only a few inches out of square. The Bible notes, “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in thine inheritance which thou shalt inherit…”
            Lewis and Clark, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln were all surveyors whose work helped map the early United States. The Spanish were some of the first in Texas.  
            Early Texas surveying was unusual and varied to say the least. The terms, “a cigarette’s length” or “half a day’s walk,” recorded in field notes are somewhat inaccurate.  
            Juan Antonio Padilla, land commissioner of Mexico, had to have a survey recorded before Austin’s colonist could claim their land. 

​Cornelius “Neal” Alexander Roberts married Mary Benton about 1767. I am a descendant of theirs.
The mid- and late-1700s was a dangerous time for habitants in Southwest Virginia, near Chilhowie and the Clinch River.
A mixture of long hunters, British colonists, and American Indians all contended for their piece of the tree-covered mountains and clean water. Constant violence, and successive attacks by Indian hunting and war bands, laid unrest upon the settlers.  

​
Oil & Gas 101: Oil and Gas Basics for the Mineral Owner
Article posted from Mineral Wise
​
In America, we enjoy a broad range of property rights. One such right is mineral ownership under the land we own, assuming someone before us has not severed the mineral estate from the surface estate. A legally binding mineral title opinion is typically the only document that substantiates mineral ownership (at least with regard to earning income from mineral production, which is our focus).

​Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States.  Nestled in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University, are located there. Arkadelphia was incorporated in 1857.
My great, great, great, great grandfather, John Hemphill settled on the place owned by Charles Henderson on Mill Creek not far from Arkadelphia and soon as he discovered salt near Daleville in salt springs. In the year 1811 or thereabouts John Hemphill established a salt works on Saline Bayou of the Ouachita.  This is believed to be the first salt factory established in Arkansas. 

​If you own a ranch in the Texas Hill Country or are considering purchasing one, you need to know about cedar management.
Yes, you read that correctly. Cedar management, not cedar eradication.
Cedar is a nasty species that often exasperates ranchers, as it readily thrives and reproduces, blanketing pastureland and rangeland, and causing the native ecosystem to spin out of balance.
The first instinct of many ranchers is to clearcut the living daylights out of the cedar stands on their properties and be done with the annoying coniferous invaders.
That may, indeed, prove the best solution for you and your ranch. But often it’s not.
The more you know about cedar and cedar management, the more likely you will make the correct choice of how to control cedar on your land

In this part of Texas, in the late 1800’s, times were very hard. And, who are we to judge those who did their very best to keep food on the table when there was no money available. The people and the families of this era survived any way they could. That is just the way things were back then. Still, some of the ways of survival were on the edge of breaking the law, so enter the Texas Rangers, men who did their best to control the lawless ways of some. ​

​Henry Robinson, Settler, Scout and Indian Fighter
By
Linda Kirkpatrick
             
            Henry M. Robinson was born in England in 1811 and it seems that he came to the New World alone.  In October 1834 he married Evaliza Christine “Cherokee” LaGrone.  Their first child, Elizabeth, was born in Alabama. Their second child, John F. was born in 1837 in Sabine County, Texas. Of their nine children, the seventh child Andrew Henry, was born in Uvalde County, Texas November 24, 1850, to be followed by William Harrison and Ann.
            It seems that the family arrived in Texas in time to be part of the Texas Revolution. At the request of Houston, his friend, Henry did his part at Goliad and helped in the evacuation of Texas during the Runaway Scrape. He was rewarded a head right of 1180 acres.
           

​Image courtesy of Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum ©2003. Photo by Mike Cox

​Christmas Soiree on the Nueces
By  Linda Kirkpatrick

               It was back in 1888 in the town of Vance, Texas; the Taylor family was putting the finishing touches on the Christmas soiree that would be held at their house. These “get-togethers” were common practice and served as an important role of socialization for folks in those remote areas of Texas.        
         At this same time the lawmen of the area were planning their own little get-together. Sheriff Ira Wheat, of Leakey, Texas, got word that two brothers were heading to the Christmas soiree on the Nueces. He sent word to his deputy, Will Terry, in Vance, Texas that the brothers were headed that way and they were wanted……dead or alive. Terry then gathered Texas Ranger Captain John Hughes, Captain Ira Aten and Ranger Bass Outlaw. He assigned a local posse that included Paul Jones, Dan Crier, Jim Rhodes, Henry Wells and about twelve or fifteen other men to serve as back up to the Rangers.