JACK KINNEY
One of Arizona’s Famous Cattle Ranch Operators
From the Western Livestock Journal, July 1943
By FRANK M. KING

THIS is to be a story of a great cattleman and trail driver, who built himself up from a ridin cowboy to one of the biggest pnd most successful cattle ranch operators in the country, and he is none other than my old friend Jack C. Kinney of Red Rock, Ariz., with his present headquarters ranch eight miles west, at Sasco.
Jack Kinney, while considered a later day trail driver, made three trips out of Texas with trail herds up the long trail to the great northwest, before Montana claimed him. When Jack was 14 years old he hired out to Henry S. Boice, father of Henry 0. Boice, and his brothers Frank and Charley, who own the Empire and Arivaca cattle ranches in Southern Arizona, with many thousands of cattle packing the “CCC. iron.
The senior Boice drove many herds of cattle up the long trail, and Jack Kinney got his first experience with a Boice herd. After making three trips up the trail, he used to be sent from Montana down to the Platte River to gather strays and throw them in with some trail herd going north. In that way he came to know the X.I.T., the Hashknife, the Turkey Track and the brands and personnel of a heap of other outfits bound for Montana, Wyoming and other north
west points. -.
After getting into the cattle business on his own, and later adding banking to his operations in Montana, and making a fortune many years ago, he took part in politics and was elected to the Montana legislature. The folks liked him so well that they elected him to the Montana. state senate two terms after he had left the state, and located in Arizona on the Mexican border. He returned to serve his sentence, but asked them to stop electing him on account he was a citizen of Arizona. He decided NOT to mix in politics in Arizona, but the voters of Pima County commandeered him, and elected him supervisor of that county, when the county was so badly in the red that nobody would buy their warrants. Jack put the county on a business basis and in less than two years he had the county on a cash basis, with money in the bank to pay as you go. He cut out all non-essentials and let out all favorite, useless political appointees, then he refused to run any more.

When Mr. Kinney came to Arizona from Montana in 1913, he bought the La Osa Cattle & Loan Company from Coberly, and all the Coberly holdings, which included the ranches, La Osa. Buenos Aires, on the border and the Secondina, Pozo Nuevo, and Palo Alto, which ranches covered a heap of Pima County along the Mexican border. They were fine ranches and took care of over 20,000 head of cattle at that time. Later he bought the Las Moras ranch which had been run by Col. W. S. Sturges for many years. Sturges sold the ranch to Roy Gilmer of Tipton, Calif. Roy shipped out several thousand head of cattle and sold the ranch to Mr. Kinney. I bought the brand and remnant of cattle and bosses. I sold the cattle to Mr. Kinney as they were gathered and I disposed of the hosses, about 500 head, in various ways.
Mr. Kinney later changed the name of his company from La Osa Cattle & Loan Co. to La Osa Livestock Co., of which Jack C. Kinney is president and his son J. L. Kinney, is the general manager. They sold Buenos Aires, La Osa and Secondino to Fred Gill & Sons, along with about 5000 head of cattle that were on the ranges. Fred Gill is the twin brother of Will Gill. The Gills are about the largest cattle operators on the Pacific Coast. They have many ranch and feeding operations in California. Mr. Kinney sold Las Moras ranch to the late Joe Ronstadt and his son, Carlos, now operates the property in connection with the original Ronstadt holdings adjoining. Palo Alto and Pow Nuevo ranches were sold to the late Gen. L. H. Manning and his son, Howell, operates the property along with the Manning ranches east of La Osa on the Santa Cruz River.
The Kinneys immediately after selling their cattle ranches along the Mexican border, leased the old Aguirre ranch 40 miles west of Tucson, near Red Rock, for two years from the old Consolidated National Bank, which is now the Valley National Bank. The bank acquired this ranch from Ygnacio Aguirre, who had homesteaded it over 60 years ago. Ygnacio, Jr., and his brother, Epifanio (Pinto) Aguirre, ran the outfit after the old man died. He and his brother, Pedro, made their money freighting in early days from Missouri over the old Santa Fe trail into New Mexico and Arizona.
After running the ranch for two years under lease from the bank Mr. Kinney bought the property from the bank, later purchasing other holdings adjoining around Sasco, which is headquartcrs for his vast operations, until now he has over 150,000 acres of grazing and farming land. During the operation of the old Silver Bell Mine in the mountains nearby, the company owned a mill site at Sasco, where they operated their smelter and at that time Sasco had about 3000 population. Mr. Kinney bought this mill site, and the town, though the company had moved most of the frame buidings off, but left all the adobe buildings, many of which Mr. Kinney has rehabilitated some of them for use at this, his headquarters ranch, for use of his help. The heavy timbers at the mine and at the smelter, amounting to millions of feet of good lumber was bought with the smelter site, and houses and other improvements on the ranch were made from the lumber sawed from the heavy timbers and used along with other valuable material taken from the old smelter.
This Sasco ranch headquarters has a main street and looks more like a small cow town than a ranch headquarters, but not many ranches have so many acres of fine farming land, making this a combination cattle and farming operation. There are plenty of houses for the cowboys and farm help with their families, and there is a splendid country school building on the place for the numerous children, mostly Mexicans.
Jack Kinney, the big boss, has a neat building with office in front, and the rest of the house has bedrooms, kitchen, etc., for housekeeping. His wife and daughter live in the big house in Tucson, but spend week-ends and vacations with Jack at the ranch. His son, Lester, general manager, has a neat bungalow where he and his pretty little wife, Esther, live with their two daughters, Alice Jane, 14, Gloria, 11, and John C., son, 8. These children are typical ranch kids and all ride like tophand cowboys. The oldest is a girl, 14, and now stays in Tucson, attending high school, but is on the ranch week-ends and vacations. The other girl, Gloria, and the boy attend the Sasco school at the ranch. They all help move cattle and help ship them. Jack, their granddad, banks a heap on them for help.
There are over 6000 acres of fine land subject to intensive cultivation, and everything that will grow in that climate does better than I ever saw it do anywhere else. Crops, such as cotton, grain, alfalfa, corn, barley, oats, fruits and all sorts of vegetables, can’t be beat anywhere. At present there are about 2500 acres in cultivation and irrigated by three big pumping units with wells of a never-failing supply of fine, pure water. There are two big 300-hosspower Diesel Engines that pump 3500 gallons each per minute and also a 100-hosspower electric motor that pumps 1800 gallons per minute. This supply of water irrigates the 2500 acres of winter and summer crops, mostly vegetable, that are handled by vegetable growers who lease 2000 acres for that purpose. While most of this 2000 acres are planted to vegetables, a little is planted to cotton and grain but the big money crop is vegetables. Many acres are planted to tomatoes and the renters have a small canning plant at Red Rock where the tomatoes are canned and shipped to New York. Hundreds of acres are planted to carrots which grow to maturity extra early, It is said that one carrot grower grossed over $3000 an acre from his carrot crop last year. He has about ready to harvest, that I saw the middle of May, 200 acres of them. I also saw Irish potatoes, melons, barley and flax ready to harvest. The soil and climate is such that nearly every conceivable crop can be produced on this rich. deep alluvial soil practically the year round, It has the old-time cowhand bewildered to know what to do with all that the soil will, and does produce.
The cattle range portion of this great ranch has a capacity of 6000 to 7000 head of cattle, but on account of the last two years drouth, Mr. Kinney has had to move off most of his cattle to feed. He is busy most of his time buying cattle in Mexico. He goes into the interior of our sister republic and buys them cheap cattle that he places on several pastures down there where he keeps them till he is ready to import them. On account of the recent Mexican embargo he is not importing many at present and has accumulated about 10,000 head down there now. He is not worried, however, on account it costs him very little to hold them. He has leased an island off the coast of Nyrite that will easily take care of 10,000 head at small cost.
Now, back to his Arizona ranch operations. I haven’t mentioned the Kinney cow hosses, which are the best bred and the best trained cow ponies in Arizona or anywhere else that I have been. Mr. Kinney started out with Quarter hoss stallions and had at one time an Arabian. When the Dick Selman band of registered Morgan hosses was dispersed after his death, Mr. Kinney went to Texas and bought 100 head of the registered mares and seven of the registered stallions. He put them on his Sasco range, and has sold the colts as fast as they come at weaning time, all except what he reserved for his own ranch use. However, his favorite is the Quarter boss and he has one beautiful sorrel quarter hoss stallion that is hard to beat in any man’s state. This little boss, and he ain’t so little when it comes to weight, has everything that I ever saw in a Quarter hoss.
The war has taken nearly all of Mr. Kinney’s top cowhands, but he has his old standby Mexican foreman, who has been with Mr. Kinney for 14 years and he knows every foot of the range. He does a good job and keeps up with his work.