Hight, Leslie 2004-12-13
Leslie Hight talks about his early life on the farm and his outdoor adventures when he was young. Then he talks about old friends. Lastly he discusses his career working as a ranch manager and his employees, as well as skills he learned from work.
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Leslie Hight
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: December 13, 2004
Location:
Interviewer: Homer Beck
Length: 02:05:01
Abstract
Background information; Location of the interview; Road condition; Lived here since 1956; Driving experience; Worked as a ranch manager; Location of son’s residence; Had three boys and three girls; How he met his wife; Born October 23, 1911; Kimball County; Father worked as a rancher; Had eight siblings; Father’s and Mother’s names and places they lived; Grew up ranching and preferred cows; Life on the ranch; Change of wildlife on the ranch; Bad drought in 1917; Slaughtering the livestock by themselves; Cooking the meat; Ways to prepare and store the meat; Dad hunted turkey and deer; Aggressive pigs; Pig hunt; No mountain lions; Price of livestock; Bobcats and other wildlife; Selling beavers; Never saw bears; Type of deer around the area; Problems with eagles; Mexican Eagle; Attacks on deer and rabbits; Coke Stevenson; Keller Grant who lived in Junction; Coke Stevenson’s second wife; Grandfather’s lease with Coke Stevenson; Father taught school for five years; School in Menard County; Life out in the country; Indian artifacts; Rock climbing; Weather in the summer; Arrowheads; Mammoth tooth; Location of the Mammoth tooth; Buffalo ancestors; Hail storm and horseback riding; Ways to hide from hail storm; Outdoor skills inherited; Sixty foot deep water; Concentration of mind; Work on the farm; Different people’s different abilities; Never took time off; Accuracy of well depth; Windmills; Everybody is born with a gift; Irrigation issue; Depth of the well and tank; Fifty foot well went dry in 1965; Price to rent the land; Water problem with bigger population; Type of grass that is growing on the land; Number of cows verses the area of land; Connection between soil, rainfall and grass; Ranch manager career; Introduced by O. C. Sikes; Cowboy work; Names of the ranches; Started working at a ranch when 16; Difference from western hill country to New Mexico; Predators of cows on the ranch; No sign of mountain lions; Type of cows in Texas and New Mexico; Other exotic breeds; Bird problems; Lean beef and premium; Started mixing cattle in 1980s; Ways to tie the horses; Carried kids working; Spent many nights out; Had 18 horses; When the ranch was fenced off; Santa Fe Trail; Lost cattle to bad weather; A severe storm that caused 60 head lost; Cowboys hired to work at the ranch; No rascals hired; One of the best men he ever had; Character needed to learn and excel in work; Cattle that fight with people; Problematic bulls; Later years on the ranch; Broke one leg; Took x-rays; Problem with the back; Delay of diagnosis; Arthritis in the back; Cowboys from New Mexico; Cowboys occasionally worked on windmills; Reason why cowboys do not want to work on windmills; Cowboy’s fear of height; Windmill locked down.
Access Information
Original Recording Format:
Recording Format Notes:
Transcript: No transcript available
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