The Hellen family of Hebbronville, Texas, is on a mission to
sell La Mota Ranch-but only its history and nature, not the
real estate. After all, the family took root here in the
1890s, when a sickly young man with only one leg moved from
Washington, D.C., seeking health in a hot, dry climate.
Charles Waugh Hellen trapped mustangs that ran wild along
the Mexican border, bred the mares to blooded jacks and sold
the mules to settlers. When the wild horses were no more, he
branched into the cattle business, where his family remained
for most of the twentieth century and into this one. Now
they've sold the cows, gotten into stockers and made more
dramatic changes in their business plan.
The family is selling the ranch experience to tourists by
the busload.
From fall into spring, "winter Texans" escape the cold winds
of the Midwestern U.S. and Canada and flock to the Rio
Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border, where it's Bermuda
shorts and bicycles for them nearly every day. Some will
ride tour buses about 90 miles up into the brush country
from McAllen to see the Hellen family's brushy,
wildlife-laden ranch-a world totally unlike what they have
back home. And there is plenty to see and hear.
One morning each week, Charles W. "Bill" Hellen meets one to
three tour buses at the front gate of his family's ranch
south of Hebbronville and rides with them down ranch trails
to the old headquarters. His family and ranch employees wait
for them there, where they have built extra rest-room
facilities. The group meets in an open-air gathering spot
with a thatched roof that keeps out the sun and rain.
There's a campfire going with a big pot of coffee to greet
them.
"Good roads, campfire coffee and plenty of bathrooms are
essential for what we do," says Bill, who retired from the
car business and joined the family ranch 10 years ago.
When everyone is comfortable, Bill's sister, Charlotte
Powell, leads a discussion about the history of this place,
which was originally state school land surrounded by Spanish
land grants. Their nephew, Charley Hellen III, demonstrates
vaquero horsemanship skills with the ranch remuda.
Then as visitors tour the brush pastures in a converted
school bus, Bill tells them how sport hunting for wild quail
and trophy white-tailed deer began contributing to ranch
income a decade ago. He brings them up to date on nature and
heritage tourism, which he considers the area's new wave.
"You are directly contributing to keeping us from having to
fragment this old ranch," he tells his guests as they peer
out bus windows for a look at rare birds and big deer.
Here the tourists see an amazing variety of wildlife at home
in the sub-tropical brush. There are also Longhorn steers,
an antique windmill and several other sights of a working
Western ranch.
The group then gathers around a campfire. The cook ("the
most important guy on the ranch," says Bill) serves them a
typical south Texas cowboy lunch of carne guisada, rice,
beans and pan de campo. It's all topped off with brownies
made by Bill's mother, Billie. Then the visitors are on the
bus and heading for their winter homes.
Total family involvement makes this enterprise work. So do
contributions from talented friends, such as local experts
who give talks on the healing powers of medicinal plants
used by Native Americans. The Hellens have teamed up with a
tour operator in McAllen, because handling one guest or
family at a time wouldn't be feasible. They also put on
field days for special-interest groups such as birders and
botanists.
It's a big production that isn't about getting rich quick.
The family receives a little under half of the $55 to $59
fee per guest that the tour operator charges. Yet Bill
Hellen considers it worth the trouble.
"My dad ranched about 500 mother cows, and he didn't want
any hunters or strangers on the place," Bill says. "Today it
takes 500 cows at a bare minimum to make a living in the
cattle business, so we have to do something different."