TRACKS 0109 - Perlitz Ranch

TEXASDEERASSOCIATION.COM
VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1
A CENTURY OF
HISTORY
THE PERLITZ
RANCH
ROLE
&
RESPONSIBILITY
OF TAHC
TB
HOT TOPIC
AT USAH
CONFERENCE
DINO
DEER
PREHISTORIC
TO THE PRESENT
GOOD DEER
HABITAT
POSITIVELY AFFECTS
WILDLIFE
TDA
REACHING OUT
TO MORE
THAN STUDENTS
SAFE AND SECURE
BORDERS
It takes some imagination, but if you put your mind to it stop
for a moment and forget about our modern world of today.
Think back to 1918 and the beginning of the oil boom in East
Texas. Although automobiles were increasingly becoming
commonplace, the main source of travel and transport power
was still by train, horseback, mule teams and wagons. Life in the
Lone Star’s oil patch was performed by such methods. Two
brothers partnered in a teamsters business, supplying mule
teams to haul pipe for early day refineries and pipelines.
Jump up six years to 1924. Hunting was mostly done as a
means of putting food on the table. Hunting was also a sport for
some. Times were changing, with people looking for places to
relax while at the same time looking for investment
opportunities. It was five years before the beginning of the Great
Depression Era.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 86
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TRACKS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009
Jessie W. Stuart bought the ranch in 1924. He is the grandfather to Lea
Griffin Perlitz. Great grandfather to Jimmy Perlitz.
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85
Spanning close to 100 years, the Stuart Griffin Perlitz Ranch is a diverse
ranching and hunting operation that today includes white-tailed deer breeding.
FROM PAGE 84
Imagine, too, a man with 100 mule teams
working in East Texas and Beaumont, purchasing
land in Zavala County simply for the purpose of
deer hunting. Was Jesse Weed Stuart crazy or
intuitive? Thus began a diverse ranching and
hunting operation edging close to 100 years
spanning four generations that today includes
white-tailed deer breeding.
To go hunting 84 years ago, Stuart had to load
mules and wagons on a train bound from
Beaumont to Uvalde. Once there, the teams
hauled friends and supplies two days to the ranch
he had purchased. A hunt is speculated to have
lasted perhaps two weeks at a time. Return to
Beaumont was the same as the arrival had
occurred, simply reversed.
According to the ranch’s current owners Jim
and Lea Perlitz (Lea is Stuart’s granddaughter),
the excuse for the property, as well as the hunting
trips, was for the men “to get away from the
women” in their lives. However, once a house was
built on the ranch around 1928, women began
making the trip, too, despite having no indoor
plumbing or electricity. Cattle ranching became a
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mainstay of the ranch with hunting running a
close second.
In 1933 at the age of 54, Jesse Stuart passed
away leaving his wife Bessie to run the ranch from
their East Texas home. She was a strong woman.
The ranch had been leased for farming and
ranching for many years. Once, Bessie learned a
tenant was not holding up his end of the contract
because he was sub-leasing the ranch to someone
else. She immediately traveled from Beaumont to
Eagle Pass where she met the man in person to
inform him he was being booted off her land!
During the drought of record in the 1950s
there were no cattle on the Stuart Ranch. When
the rains finally came, Bessie Stuart interviewed
several men before choosing Errol Jonsson of
Crystal City to run cattle on the Stuart Ranch.
Jonsson, now 87, continues to ranch today. His
cattle ran on the Zavala County property from
1957 until Stuart’s great-grandson Jimmy Perlitz
began his own cow/calf operation on the ranch
in 1990.
“Mrs. Stuart was a very kind lady. It was tough
to get started back in ’57,” said Jonsson in a
CONTINUED ON PAGE 90
TRACKS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009
Jesse W. Stuart had to lead mules and wagons to lay pipelines.
FROM PAGE 86
telephone interview. “She let me have the place for
a very reasonable amount, but I put my own
money and hard work into making it a good
working ranch. When I first got it there were no
unloading or loading facilities, no chutes to work
the cows, no good roads, not much fencing. We
had to build it all.”
Jonsson stated he tried to farm some of the land
for a few years. With a chuckle he added, “But that
wasn’t a profitable venture so I gave it up. But I
spent over 30 years on that land and ran lots of
cows on it.” He managed and took care of the
ranch as if it were his own. At one point some of
the acreage actually was because Jonsson
purchased land from other heirs but eventually
sold most of it back to the family.
“I don’t know why she picked me. Maybe it was
because we had a mutual friend. I worked with
Mrs. Stuart, then her daughter Helen Griffin and
now her granddaughter and husband, Lea and Jim
Perlitz. They have all been wonderful ladies, good
people. I’m glad to see the ranch is still in the
family,” Jonsson said. “It’s really something that it’s
now a deer hunting and deer breeding ranch.”
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When Bessie decided to quit managing the
Stuart ranch, she handed the reins over to her son
Pete and daughter Helen, along with son-in-law
Lee Griffin. At only age 42, Pete passed away.
Griffin never hunted, preferring to stroll
around the ranch in his suit, tie and hat. He
enjoyed the outdoors with all its wildlife but quite
simply was not interested in hunting, although he
encouraged others to do so. Griffin was a reader,
would sit with his mother-in-law on the porch
and check her citrus orchard until a hard freeze
wiped out the fruit trees.
There is a great love story immersed in this ranch.
The Griffin’s daughter Lea grew up and went to
school with Jim Perlitz. They were high school
sweethearts. While a senior, Lea made the decision to
become a nun. Upon graduation, she went to a
convent and later became a sixth grade school
teacher. Upon graduation, Jim headed to Texas
A&M University and then joined the Air Force.
However, as the years marched on, Lea began to
think about marriage and motherhood. She felt she
was missing many things in her life. After long
deliberations, and much consideration, Lea left the
convent. Lea’s sister and Jim’s sister had remained
CONTINUED ON PAGE 94
TRACKS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009
Fred scored 196 B&C typical at 5 years old. He was the first brood
buck for the Perlitz Ranch.
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Mid-1920s: Jessie W. Stuart, White, EE Plumly, and R.L. Stuart after a hunt.
FROM PAGE 90
close friends since their school days. One phone call
between them and another to Jim quickly had the
couple reunited.
Ten years after graduating high school, Lea and
Jim rekindled their love and relationship in August
of 1964. “I never stopped thinking about her in all
those 10 years,” said Jim.
The couple married in January of 1965. The first
of their four children arrived in December of that
year. Today, eldest daughter Mary is a newlywed to
Danny Ellenbarger, first son Jimmy is married to
Judy, third in line Stuart is single and the baby of the
family Caliste is married to Deke Burt. Between
them all there are currently 11 grandchildren.
Throughout the years the ranch maintained itself
through the combined efforts of Bessie Stuart, Errol
Jonsson, Helen and Lee Griffin, and on down the
family tree to Lea Perlitz and her family. Lea felt her
husband Jim, with his love of hunting, should take
over managing the entire property. In 1990, the
couple and their family moved to Kerrville from
Beaumont to be closer to the ranch.
At an early age young Jimmy Perlitz professed a
love for the ranch like none before him. He yearned
to be a part of it, expressing an interest in livestock
and wildlife, so much so he pursued degrees in
Agriculture Business at Southwest Texas University
(now Texas State) and Ranch Management at Texas
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Christian University.
After graduation, Jimmy made the ranch his
home. His brother Stuart partnered with him for a
short while before venturing out into the restaurant
business. Stuart now owns the Boerne Grill and The
Daily Grind in Boerne.
With his own cow/calf operation started, Jimmy
began a short-lived hunting lease arrangement.
Several older lease hunters disliked following rules
and guidelines set by a youngster because Jimmy
was barely in his 20s. It created problems and
headaches. Jimmy told his dad if the ranch name
and his last name were the same it might wield him
greater authority.
Thus the Stuart Griffin Ranch evolved into the
Perlitz. Later Jimmy started the commercial hunting
venture. As Bill Jourdan began filming various
hunting shows for television on the acreage, he also
referred to it as the Perlitz Ranch. Others followed
suit. However, the large metal sign on the highway
covers the entire generational family by stating it’s
the entrance into the Stuart Griffin Perlitz Ranch.
After living on the ranch for seven years, Jimmy’s
heart was captured by a lovely lady named Judy
Yates. She was a big city gal not too eager to live way
out in the harsh Brush Country. The couple
compromised by settling in Uvalde. They have
three sons: James, age 10, 8-year-old Yates and 4year-old Zack.
TRACKS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009
A brand new lodge
designed and decorated
by Jimmy and Judy Perlitz
can host 35 people and
offers spacious and
comfortable
accommodations.
Under the careful guidance of Jim Perlitz, the
ranch had been under deer management since the
early ‘70s with the help of Larry Weishuhn. When
Jimmy took over he began a more intense
management program. Better genetics were a must
and some superior bucks and does were brought in
from several South Texas ranches.
It is important to note here that approximately
2,700 acres of the Perlitz is all natural. It’s exactly the
same as it was when purchased in 1924. There is a
wide variety of native brush and grasses that has
never been root plowed, sprayed or disturbed. This
land stewardship is highly commendable in an age
of trying to improve and/or change factors dealing
with Mother Nature and wildlife habitat.
Over the years improvements have been made in
the way of roads, water sources and lodging. The
original house is still used, although it has had a few
additions over the years. A brand new lodge
designed and decorated by Jimmy and Judy can host
35 people. The ranch offers spacious and
comfortable accommodations in a pristine setting. A
group of capable, knowledgeable employees assist in
the various aspects of all operations.
Today, the ranch encompasses 9,000 acres in
Zavala County not far from Crystal City. It is
primarily a hunting ranch specializing in whitetailed deer, dove and quail. Feral hogs, javelina and
bobcat may be added to the hunt packages but are
not offered separately. Although cattle still range on
the Perlitz, it has also become a deer breeding
operation.
The breeder pens were started in 1996 to upgrade
and improve the resident deer herd. The Perlitz
originally began with a scientific breeders permit. It
now has a Deer Management Permit (DMP) and
Managed Lands Deer Permit (MLDP). Jimmy’s
program watches a buck until it is 3 years old, at
which time it is sold and then turned into a brood
buck or released on the ranch. It depends on the
buck’s score. Bred does are also available for sale.
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When management practices were first
implemented, the average buck was about 125 B&C
(Boone and Crocket). The scores have slowly moved
up with time and patience. There are no corn feeders
on the ranch, although there are some protein
feeders and supplemental food plots. No hunting is
allowed over the protein feeders or from trucks.
The best buck to date has been 238 B&C, but that
record may be broken at any time. Two of the bucks
hanging in the lodge were taken by Jesse Weed Stuart
in the late-1920s when the ranch was first hunted.
Deer hunting begins the third week of October.
Bucks are harvested first with does taken later. Feral
hogs are controlled through trapping. Water and
feeding stations have been placed throughout the
ranch to enhance the quail population. Spring
turkey hunting has been done on occasion, but only
when turkeys are plentiful.
Jimmy Perlitz must be doing something right
because they have a long list of satisfied clientele.
Usually 80 percent of their hunters are repeats with
about half being from Texas and the rest outside the
state. They often have a waiting list hoping for a lastminute opening. There’s a seniority level in place
that Jimmy believes makes for a good hunter.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 98
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The original house is still used on the ranch, although it
has had a few additions made to it over the years.
FROM PAGE 95
Children start out with a doe as their first deer and
work their way up from there.
An example of satisfied customers comes through
in the form of country comedian Jeff Foxworthy.
First introduced to Jimmy Perlitz as a guest of Bill
Jourdan, Foxworthy returned annually with his own
entourage of hunters for another seven years until
he purchased his own hunting property in Georgia.
“There was never a dull moment when Foxworthy
was hunting,” recalled Jimmy. “I’m assuming the
guys he brought with him is where he gets a lot of his
comedy material. They were all funny.” Jimmy said
many practical jokes were played in the stands and at
the lodge. “We had some adventures.”
Foxworthy called Jimmy Perlitz a while back to
say he’d finally bagged a 170-inch-plus B&C buck on
his own land. Always the humorist, Foxworthy asked
Jimmy, “Do you know how much that buck would
have cost me on your ranch? And do you know how
much it cost me on mine?”
“No,” Jimmy repliled.
Foxworthy retorted, “It would have cost me about
$12,000 on your ranch, but on my own that one
buck rolled me for way more than I ever imagined!”
That is a sentiment often relayed by other hunters
turned landowners.
When asked what challenges he faces, Jimmy
quickly stated, “Keeping the ranch whole, keeping it
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together for my family. So far so good.” As somewhat
of an afterthought, he added with a chuckle, “And
money! Much of the romance is gone when you’re
the one paying the bills!” Many landowners can
most certainly agree with that.
“I’m never satisfied,” Jimmy said, continuing, “I
always want to be better. It’s not just about the kill;
it’s about the hunt experience. I personally don’t
hunt like I used to, but I do enjoy the land and taking
others hunting. My passion now is watching the
antlers grow and the big bucks mature.”
There is a lot of history on a certain 9,000 acres in
Zavala County, much more than can be written here
lies within the family annals. There are so many
interesting stories entwined among the family
lineage of Jesse Weed and Bessie Stuart to hopefully
be passed down among their current great-greatgrandchildren.
It is a credit to the entire family that this land has
been held together for over three quarters of a
century. The 100-year mark is not that far down the
road. With continued hard work, dedication,
planning and persistence that began long ago back
in 1924, the Stuart Griffin Perlitz Ranch will most
likely reach that milestone smoothly with Jimmy
Perlitz holding the reins.
TRACKS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009