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Ranch in Texas, US From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The U Lazy S Ranch, formerly known as the Square and Compass Ranch, was a ranch in Garza County, Texas, United States.
The ranch was established as the Square and Compass Ranch in 1884.[1][2]
By 1901, when it was acquired by John Bunyan Slaughter, the ranch spanned 99,188 acres.[2][3] Slaughter also purchased 5,000 cattle and brought 6,000 head of cattle he already owned.[3] Additionally, he changed the name to his cattle brand, 'U Lazy S', which he had registered during the American Civil War.[4] He built a ranchhouse in 1902 and acquired more acres, owning up to 126,227 acres a few years later.[2][4] In 1906, he sold 50,000 acres to C. W. Post, who founded the new town of Post, Texas.[3][4]
After Slaughter's death in 1928, the ranch was inherited by his son, John B. Slaughter Jr., who was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University.[5] According to historian William Curry Holden, "By 1936, 8,000 Hereford cattle grazed 100,000 acres of U Lazy S land."[4] The ranchhouse, a designated Texas landmark, burned down on January 13, 1936.[6][7][8]
The ranch was inherited by his nephew, John F. Lott and his niece, Mary Belle Lott Macy, in 1940.[4] Lott split some of the acreage into farms.[4] In 1949, Lott started flying an airplane to drive the cattle and spray herbicide.[4]
In the 1950s, the land was faced with a draught.[9] By 1954, Lott planted 1,400 acres of guar to improve the land.[10] He was also the first Texas rancher to use a roto-pitter to break up the rangeland.[11] Two years later, in 1956, Lott's range improvement program had worked.[9]
In 1965, Macy split her section of the ranch and renamed it the Running M Ranch.[4] Meanwhile, the U Lazy S Ranch was managed by Lott's son, Jack Lott.[4] By 1966, the ranch spanned 90,000 acres.[3]
In October 1968, Lott and his wife hosted François Tombalbaye, the President of Chad, on his official visit to Texas.[12] A year later, in 1969, they donated US$10,000, plus a carriage house from the ranch to the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas.[3][13] In 1973, a fundraiser for the public library in Post, Texas was held on the ranch.[14]
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