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

Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls
While they owned the ranch, the Wheatleys’ conservationist ideas shaped the
way they managed the area. One of their first decisions was to limit hunting and
fishing on the Circle Bar. There were almost no deer on the property in 1937.
According to Harriet, they owned the place for months before they saw their
first deer there. Almost immediately after buying the property, they entirely cut
off deer hunting for about three years, and deer began to reappear. 83 Thereafter
hunting on the property was restricted to only a few close friends and relatives.
Though fish in the Pedernales were “plentiful” in 1937, the Wheatleys also closed
their property to the fishing parties that before had driven their cars and trucks
across the Hackenberg crossing. While a few Boy Scout and church groups were
later sometimes allowed onto the Circle Bar, hunting continued to be restricted
as long as the Wheatley’s owned the property. Perhaps partly because of this, and
partly because of their rather patrician attitudes, the Wheatleys never established
close relations with their neighbors. “We left them alone, and they left us alone,” a
former neighbor remembered. “They were well-liked in their class,” their son-inlaw
recalled, “but they didn’t have much use for people below them.” 84
Figure 25. Deer proliferated on the
Circle Bar after the Wheatleys limited
hunting on the property; many of them
were quite tame. This photo was taken
sometime in the late 1950s. Photo
courtesy of Sherill East, Diana L.
Cooper, and Candace K. Sandefur.
Figure 26. Harriet Wheatley feeds one
of the deer outside her home. Photo
courtesy of Sherill East, Diana L.
Cooper, and Candace K. Sandefur.
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