Hello, Virginia.....

My name is Sandy (Maness) Parker, and I met you briefly at the ranch earlier this month. My husband, Lyle, and I had just driven up Whitehorse Creek to the old Maness place.

I'm writing you because I just discovered your website and the pictures of the ranch. The pictures are beautiful....whoever took them did a great job. Whitehorse is one of my favorite places on earth, so these pictures brought back alot of memories. Some of those shots with Steens in the background are stunning.

My family lived up Whitehorse Creek from about 1946 to 1965 and I have so many wonderful childhood memories of the Ranch. Paul Stewart was the owner when we moved out there, and we overlapped a few years with Ted Naftzger. I attended all eight years of school with Mrs. Defenbaugh as our teacher in the little schoolhouse that now sits by the bunkhouse. The original location of the school was over on the lane near where the pump house now sits. At recess, all us kids would run over to the rimrocks to play, and Mrs. Defenbaugh (“Teacher”) would have to honk the car horn to call us in because we were always too far away to hear the bell! We usually had just four kids in the school, but for part of a year we had 7. That was alot in that little school house. I don’t know how we did it all. We even hung a blanket across one end and put on plays for the parents. Some of the other kids in school were Jim and Gary Defenbaugh, Kay Morgan, Virginia Doan, Steve Maness, Todd Morgan, Dudley Bacon.

I recognize where all the pictures on the website were taken. As a kid I explored every inch of the rimrocks from the main ranch to up above Sweeney. In fact, I spent almost all my time up in those rimrocks. My dad, Jim, originally cleared and leveled all the land up Whitehorse canyon and also down on the Willow Creek side. When we moved there, the only hay was wild hay down on Coyote Meadows. My dad also put in the Whitehorse airport and flew many years there.

One of our visits back to the ranch was in 1969 for the Centennial celebration. My folks, my husband, and I flew in from Rio King Ranch, where my dad was manager at the time. It was fun to see all the old-timers. Mom and Dad (Jim and Sally Maness) are now in their 80's and live near us here in Davis, California.

I’m sure I have a much more romantic view of the ranch than you do because you have to work there every day. Whitehorse is such a historical place, though......Fort Smith, the Devine days, etc. Anyway, just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed those pictures. I have watched them over and over.

If you have any questions about the old Whitehorse days, I’d be happy to visit with you. I’ve attached a couple of pictures to show you what the old Maness place looked like back then.

Hope to see you again someday. Sandy Parker

Reproduced with permission of the author - August 2007
Thank you !