Ranch – RDZ Photography

Oracle, Arizona – August 2022 – Moorish Oasis in the Arizona Desert

In the early part of the 20th century many wealthy people from ‘back east’ made their way to Arizona to live in the dry desert for their health. A man from Chicago named Neil Kannally was one of those people, who came west to recover from TB.

Kannally originally bought a 180 acre homestead, but over the years increased his ownership to 50,000 acres. The homestead came with a small home that Kannally added onto, as well as adding other small cottages.

Eventually in the late 1920s he had a 2600 square foot home built in a Moorish/Mediterranean style.

In addition to the main building, there were a number of small cottages that served as bedrooms, in the same architectural look.

Not what you would expect out in the middle of the desert, it served the family until the 1970s, when the last of the family passed away. Today 4000 of those original acres serves as Oracle State Park, and the home is the centerpiece.

The courtyard and buildings serve as an oasis in the desert as well as the visitor center for the park.

Much of Oracle State Park serves as a nature preserve, providing a safe haven for local wildlife as well as transitory birds. It is a peaceful place to visit, although I would recommend waiting until the weather cools off a bit in October and through the winter.

Sonoita, Arizona – August 2022 – Empire Ranch

Architecture, History, Nature

In the high grasslands of Southern Arizona lies the Empire Ranch. This ranch at it’s largest covered 180 square miles, larger than the city of Philadelphia. While there are still some cattle still on the land, it is mostly a nature preserve.

Located between the Whetstone Mountains and the Santa Rita Mountains, the land lies at 5000′ in elevation, providing enough rain for the grassy fields to support the cattle.

In addition the Cienega Creek runs through the ranch, providing nearly year round water.

It is not normally this green, Southern Arizona has had an active monsoon season, and everything now is very green.

The original homestead is maintained by a non profit group called the Empire Ranch Foundation. Among other things they maintain the house, and additional buildings.

The home, as well as most of the buildings, is built out of adobe and wood. Many have had a skim of stucco added later.

Inside the ranch house, and attached other buildings, there is a collection of items from when the ranch was active including a butter churn, cowboy spurs and other items.

This view shows evidence of the original adobe walls.

With the green grass, and the old outbuildings, it felt as though you were in the midwest, as long as you ignored the 7000′ to 9000′ mountains in the distance.

This structure is known as the saddle drying barn.

One final look at another of the old adobe buildings before we head off to the next adventure….

Moss Point, Mississippi – May 2019 – Gulf Coast Gator Ranch

Nature, Sciences, Transportation, Water Features

The Gulf Coast Gator Ranch is located in the swamps of southern Mississippi, near the town of Moss Point. They specialize in raising alligators for commercial use, but they also retrieve ‘nuisance’ alligators from golf courses, etc.

Their ranch is surrounded by a levee and fence to keep the wild alligators away from their alligators. Because their gators get lots to eat they grow to impressive sizes.

They lurk about in the ponds and nearby grasses.

You can buy ‘gator chow’ and throw them over the fence to the gators.

They are everywhere!

Some just hang out on land enjoying the warm Mississippi sun.

Our host, and boat captain – Captain ‘Frog’ – brought out a baby alligator for us to hold.

It was time for part 2 of our morning – an airboat ride!

Just outside their ranch we found this guy keeping an eye on us.

Fortunately he was just hanging around for a snack as well – marshmallows.

As we headed out into the swamp we passed by even more gators.

The black waters of the bayous were beautiful. Captain Frog was very knowledgeable about the plants and flowers of the swamp, and the traditional uses, as he grew up in the swamps of Louisiana. He had the perfect Louisiana accent to go with it.