Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls - Texas Parks & Wildlife ...

A History of the Pedernales Falls Area, 1850–1970
Figure 12. This photograph
of J.B. Wenmohs accompanied
his biographical sketch
published in The Historical
Encyclopedia of Texas.
That year Wenmohs leased his Pedernales ranch to Emory Stribling and two
brothers, Fred and Gus Ulrich, whose family lived just east of the present park
boundary. Together the three men planned to graze goats on Wenmohs’ land,
and between 1919 and 1920 Stribling and the Ulrich brothers built a “goat proof ”
fence through the property to enclose the lower 3,000 acres for their goats. At
the same time, they used net wire to reinforce the existing cattle fences along the
western and southern boundaries of the ranch, and did the same for the fencing
that already enclosed the property north of the Pedernales. The entire ranch was
then “goat and sheep proof.” From 1919 to June 1922, the Ulrich brothers lived
in the house on the northwest part of the ranch, raising goats and maybe also
some sheep. 68
Stribling and the Ulrichs dropped their lease in 1922, and Wenmohs returned
to grazing cattle, and now also goats and sheep, on the property. After about 1926,
the ranch was occupied and operated by two of Wenmohs’ sons, Victor and Max.
In 1931, the second year of the Great Depression, Max Wenmohs took over the
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