Cattle Baron's Cadillac
By Shad Sullivan
Back in the day, it was an honor to be considered a cattleman. And, although the American people loved the romance of the west and the rugged individualism that the cowboy portrayed there was something special about the man who was known as the “cattle baron.” He was an intriguing man. A man whose presence often demanded respect when he walked into a room, and yet, showed great humility among his peers. He was set apart from the common and heroic cowboy in that he was what my dad called a “whole picture” businessman. He saw the whole picture, understood the cattle business from end to end and knew how to make the cattle work for him financially. He also knew how to make them work for the land and vice versa. In my country he was always near the epicenter of his business whether it be in the corrals or in the office. Although in the southern plains he may not be located on the ranch directly. Most of these men were men of class and stature and they were clean cut. Often decked out in starched white shirts and khaki jeans, normally wearing a silver-belly hat, French-toed boots and always holding a hand-rolled cigarette or cigar. Every one I ever knew rode with the cowboys, told stories of the past and silently sat evaluating his surroundings when amongst a crowd. Likely they were not the best cowboys…..but they were cowboys indeed.
My dad was a common cowboy that learned the business from men like these. And over the years he became one of them by taking advantage of their experience and knowledge and they, in turn, learned to trust my dad. I can remember several men fitting the description of cattle baron that my dad held on a pedestal. One of those men I named my son after, Beatty. Another of those men was a tall, blonde headed man that was refined and handsome. And as a little boy I always thought he belonged on the cover of a cattlemen’s magazine. My dad had lost his father at an early age and this gentleman saw the spark in my dad’s eye, so to speak, and took him under his wing. Not as a hired cowboy, but as a student. Back in the day, when cattle actually made money……and lost money, in a supply and demand driven market this fella had amassed a fortune in cattle by being smart and hitting some “good licks” as my dad called them.
I never remember him not being a part of my dad’s life, so I suppose he had been around forever. At least from my youthful perspective. Even as a tiny boy my dad would take me with them all over buying and selling cattle. On the western slope of Colorado, off the Navajo reservation, in north Texas and I ALWAYS remember sitting at Winter Livestock beside my dad and this old gentleman. I look back now and realize I only thought he was old. I am older now that he was then. Perspective.
I remember one day when my dad and I were sitting in the sale barn in La Junta and this old gentleman came in and got my dad to give him a ride to the Chevy house so he could pick up his new car. We dropped him off and headed north toward home after he told my dad, “I’ll meet you at the sale barn in the morning.” The next day we were headed to Syracuse to the sale and when we pulled up my dad said, “looky there Shad, Lewis got him a brand-new Cadillac.”
That Cadillac was gold in color and GOLD to my young eyes. I had never seen anything like it. Clean, shiny and full of chrome! A far cry from what I was used to riding in. I remember my dad sitting me on his lap in the front seat of that car and I looked up to find a sun-roof you could see through. The leather was plush and that great big old hood ornament…I couldn’t keep my eyes off it while he drove 80 miles an hour down the road talking cattle with my dad. I was proud of that car and I asked my dad when we could get one just like it. He laughed and he said, “when you make it in the cattle business son.” And I never forgot it.
Fast-forward forty years and the landscape was a bit different. Although, my dad had “made it” in the cattle business he had taken some pretty big hits through the years that ground him down a bit. The eighties were terrible, a pot-load of cattle stolen in east Texas, some tough markets, a few droughts and a monumental land-grab all added to the “romance” of building a cattle operation. Admittedly, there were some pretty fantastic years that made the perseverance worth the fight and, as my mother would say, “ it averaged the years out.”
As time passed things changed. Us kids grew up and went to college and started our lives. Two of us returned to the operation and worked hard alongside my dad until he died and then just two of us remained. Me and the matriarch. No doubt, we all have stories in our mind about our youth. Some we remember and some we forget, but nothing could erase that old Cadillac from my mind. I always told my dad that when I made it I was going to buy one exactly like it. And I did.
In 2013 I had taken my mom to Colorado Springs to the knee doctor and I was driving down a side street off Academy Blvd. She was telling me I was lost, as usual, and she was madder than a hornet. All of a sudden it caught my eye! Sitting on the curb in front of a modest home with a for sale sign in the front window, beckoning me to “give her a look.” I slammed on the brakes of that old ranch pickup and flipped a U KNOW WHAT in the street and to my eyes appeared “the cattle barons Cadillac!” The same year, the same model, the same chrome only in red……but it was GOLD to me. It was that widowed woman’s lucky day and an even better day for me.
I had a lot of help getting started over the years. Although, my dad never helped me monetarily or backed me financially his reputation certainly did. My sister and I started from the ground up with our operation and she remained with me for 10 years. A man named Brent loaned us his equipment to build our facility in Texas. A cattleman named Marvin was the first man to lease us a ranch, because he trusted my sister and I. A buyer in Mississippi named Danny developed a friendship with me and he is a trusted part of our operation today, as is the first man to ever buy my cattle off the ranch, Kenny Bracelin. Brad Oakes, my banker and dear friend, took a chance on me because he said he “trusted me and where was I going anyway?” He and I have traveled the world together. My wife Thea has become not only a confidant, but a financial wizard I thankfully added to the mix. And, of course, the matriarch...as my dad would say, “where would we be without her?”
But none of this would have been possible without that cattle baron and his Cadillac. For some unknown reason a seed was planted that day that sprouted and grew until “I made it.”
I set out to make this story funny, because my wife hates that Cadillac sitting in the garage. We argue over it being in the way, not getting used (except around the block once in a while) and her inability to get to the freezer because of it. But, maybe she doesn’t understand that in these times of corruption, of false economics and trials around every corner, each morning I walk into the garage and I look at that car I see me and my dad talking cattle with a real cattle baron. And I see the seed that reminds me that “I made it.” No matter what, I made it. And you can too……