The History Of Horseshoe Canyon Ranch by Barry Johnson

Amy and I bought the property In 1994. I was 26 yr old at the time…

…I had decided to make a shift from what I was doing – I was doing financial planning and group insurance for federal and postal employees. I had been doing that for about 3 or 4 years right out of college; and found some success doing it. It allowed me to have a little bit of money in the bank but I was traveling a lot – too much. And when my oldest son, Cameron, was born (he is 21 now), I wasn’t willing to continue to pay that price anymore. That’s when we decided to make that lifestyle switch.…

…so, we had looked for suitable properties to develop for about a year.

We were up in Harrison looking at another piece of property, not too far from here, a larger track about 700 acres. But the access was poor — about 10 miles on a gravel road — and for other reasons, we didn’t’ feel comfortable with purchasing that property.

But, back at the motel that night, we had picked up one of those real-estate guides that you pick up at the super market, and there was a new listing in there. It said something along the lines of:

“Beautiful Horseshoe Canyon – 350 acres, good for cattle, and good for this and that and whatever…”

…we came out that following morning and looked at the property, and knew it was exactly what we were looking for and we offered and accepted that day; and away we went. There was nothing here when we bought it…

…only a single road down to that old chimney, where we parked our trailers out near the front. And the previous owner had a pen there, where he gathered his cows. That was it.

All of the roads and all of the structures; we had to build all of that.

The vision for the layout wasn’t very complicated. We pictured that we needed a barn; an activity center to base the horse operation out of; and a lodge where people can gather and we can feed every body. And we knew we needed cabins.

It was just a matter of walking around with stakes and ribbons and saying, “this would be a good spot,” and we just staked it all out and started building. Most of the cabins were just kinda sketched out in a legal pad.

I had some construction management and finance background that I started in college, so I was comfortable with the construction aspect of the ranch. We did find a home plan for the lodge that we converted and redrew to fit our need for the commercial building that it is.

We always new that the purpose of buying this property was to develop it into a family guest ranch. I wanted it to be similar to my experience out west.

But the most important part was that we wanted to build a dude ranch where families could come, reconnect with each other and reconnect with the outdoors.

We wanted to provide an environment that was conducive to families growing together – that’s what is most important. And the ranch provides that through the horseback riding, river trips, cookouts, the hayrides – the whole western-style experience.

The writer of that real estate listing probably never imagined that this property would turn into The Family Dude Ranch and International Rock Climbing destination that it has become.

I would like to say that it was all a part of my master plan to develop this as a climbing destination, but it wasn’t even on my radar.

I love the western feel that the bluffs give us. It feels like a piece of Colorado or Wyoming – where I worked previously. I thought that this looked like a piece of the west. That was one of the initial draws of the property.

But once we got into the guest ranch operations and started tour riding with people and doing river trips; we were then looking for more activities to do for people – to give people a better experience and added value.

We thought, “ROCKS! Hey, we can rappel.” I had done rappelling with a scouting group. And, we wanted to do it safely, so I made some calls and got geared up. And the beginning of the rock climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch went something like this:

They said, “Do you mind if we climb?”

I said, “Go ahead.”

And then they said, “Wow, this is pretty cool! Do you mind if we bolt a route?”

The big turning point for the climbing, was when we had a few rock climbing get-togethers and rendezvous. Chad Watkins was there and he said, “Wow! I love this place, I’ll work for food, just let me develop.”

I bought bolts, fed Chad, even paid him a little bit. And between Chad and Jason Roy, the bulk of the development happened over a two-year period, They were bolting a route or two a day! We were pouring hardware at them, it seemed like every Monday, they were like, “We need more bolts!” – and I’d order another 100 bolts…and it had started.

And then the climbing on the weekends started to pick up and it has evolved and grown from there.

Going further back into the history of Horseshoe Canyon Ranch; let’s look at the goat cave…

…it is true, there were the Ozark bluff dwelling Indians (that is what they were officially called) living in and around this area. The University of Arkansas, came out and documented the cave and the artwork. They documented 26 different drawing and marks, which they estimate it to be between 800 – 1200 years old.

The previous owner of the ranch, when they were logging, he dropped the skidder blade up near the goat cave and turned up the soil and they pulled something like a 5-gallon bucket full of arrow heads and things out of the ground. Yes, it is kind of sad, but also very interesting too. There were a lot of artifacts in the cave.

There were some metates (me·ta·te) or corn grinders. We have a couple in the lodge that were found.

We found one near the route in the North 40, called Corn Grinder There was a big metate at the base of that route, and climbers were unknowingly using it – stacking rocks on top of it to gain access to that first bolt. So we retrieved it and put it on display in the lodge. That is why that route is called Corn Grinder.

A little more recently in the history of the ranch, around the early 1900’s, it was settled by the Kilgore and Lyons — they were some of the first families in the valley. They didn’t economically survive the great depression; so they sold out and moved to the city — at least the owners of the ranch did. There are still many Kilgores and Lyons in the area. The phonebook is full of them – they were the first ones here.

The community, here in Newton County, interestingly enough, has changed.

When we moved into Newton County, we hired 20 people and that reduced the unemployment in the county by a full percentage point. Newton County is a small, sparsely populated, economically depressed area. In the state, we are in the lowest 10 counties. Newton County is a fairly poor area…if you use the traditional definition of poverty.

But one thing that I have learned here is you are only poor if you think you are poor. The people here are happy and they love their lifestyle. They work hard. They are not driven by the need to have the newest car or all the fancy things. They are content with the simple things in life – like enjoying time with family and friends – and that is one reason we love this area.

And the area has experienced growth, in no small part, due to the economic impact the ranch has had. You know if you have 100 climbers on a weekend, and they all go down to the Subway or the Ozark Café, and then fill their tanks with gas…

…it has helped the community. It has been good for the ranch and good for the community as well.

Another change at the ranch, that we have experienced since we’ve come, has been the growth — the continued, steady growth. We are grateful for the increased branding and the publicity we’ve had from the Dude Ranchers’ Association or the travel articles that are written about us.

And the word of mouth continues to increase from the climbing community from the early Dosage videos and the exposure of the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell Competition.

And finally, and most importantly, it is the stories from the families who have been here. Where at first, they were not sure of what we do or what to expect. Many of them have heard of the ranch and heard that it is a good experience or even a life-changing experience….

…that’s the biggest change – when families experience the ranch and they reconnect with each other and reconnect with the outdoors – that’s why we built Horseshoe Canyon Ranch.

And, that’s it. That’s the history of Horseshoe Canyon Ranch.

Coming up Next:

Why Are There Goats At Horseshoe Canyon Ranch

Meet Barry Johnson: The Warmest Handshake From A Dude Ranch Owner

Tips For The Best Possible Experience At Horseshoe Canyon Ranch

*Photo Credits: Lucas Marshall, Fountain City Studios

Meet more excellent people in THE climbing community when you visit the HCRBeta Interviews Category.

Jason Clements is the founder of and writer for HCRBeta, Hike Climb Relax: How to… Jason has served as the President of the Kansas City Climbing Club where he grew the club from 100 members to 1000 members. He lives in Shawnee, Kansas and also runs the cell phone recycling company, Cells for Cells, which recycles cell phones to raise money for families battling cancer.

You can follow Jason on Facebook or on Twitter @jasonclements.