A West Texas Ranching Legacy
The story of the Owens Ranch near Rankin, Texas, is a story deeply rooted in the land, livestock, family, and traditions of West Texas. For generations, the Owens family has made its living beneath the wide-open skies of this country, building a ranching legacy that has endured for well over a century.
The family's West Texas story began in 1889, when Clint Owens and his wife, Ansa Belle Carter Owens, loaded their belongings and supplies into two covered wagons and headed west from Hamilton County in search of open country. They settled near present-day Barnhart and raised ten children. Their sons would eventually establish ranching operations throughout the surrounding West Texas country, including S. M. "Mitch" Owens, who made his home and livelihood in the Rankin area.
Mitch Owens became part of the first generation of the family to establish deep roots around Rankin. Historical accounts describe him as a member of a pioneer West Texas ranching family who ranched in the Rankin area for more than 30 years. His children were raised in a world far removed from modern conveniences, where ranch work and family life were inseparable.
His daughter, Alene Owens Workman, later recalled growing up on the ranch near Rankin. As a young girl, she and her twin brother, Al, explored the ranch's hills and canyons. Education began in a small schoolhouse located right on the ranch, where a governess served as teacher. Later, when the children attended school in Barnhart, weekends and holidays meant returning home to the ranch. Alene remembered that a Saturday-night trip into Rankin required stopping to open and close six gates before they ever reached the highway.
Those stories capture what life on an early West Texas ranch demanded: hard work, independence, horsemanship, livestock knowledge and a willingness to take care of what needed taking care of. Those same values would continue through succeeding generations of the Owens family.
Continuing the Tradition
The Owens family's ranching heritage continued with Tommy Clint Owens and his wife, Edra Ann, who made their home on their ranch near Rankin and raised their children, Shanna and Cody, in the same ranching traditions that had shaped generations before them. Historical accounts of the family describe the Owens operations as true working ranches, with family members continuing to make their livelihoods from the land and livestock.
For Tommy, ranching was not simply an occupation. It was a way of life. The work included long days horseback, gathering and working livestock and handling the countless jobs that come with keeping a West Texas ranch operating. Even modern accounts of livestock gathering in the Rankin area document crews working cattle and goats on the Tommy Owens Ranch, a reminder that this remains working ranch country.
Ranching, Rodeo & the Western Way of Life
The Owens family's contribution to West Texas extends beyond the ranch gate. Ranching naturally led to horses, competition and rodeo, and rodeo became an important part of the family's story.
Across the broader Owens family, generations have been involved in ranching organizations, stock shows, rodeos and agricultural leadership. The family's connection to the western way of life has included service to organizations such as the Texas Sheep & Goat Raisers Association, Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, West Texas Boys Ranch and the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo.
That involvement reflects something larger than competition or agriculture. It represents a commitment to preserving the values upon which West Texas ranching communities were built: family, responsibility, stewardship, hard work and helping your neighbor.
More Than a Ranch
Today, the Owens Ranch represents much more than acreage on a map.
It represents generations of a family that chose to make a life in some of the toughest and most beautiful country in Texas. It represents early mornings and long days, horseback gathers, livestock, droughts and good rains. It represents children growing up learning the value of work and families gathering around the same ranch traditions handed down by those who came before them.
From a family's journey west by covered wagon in 1889, to pioneer ranching around Rankin, to generations who have continued working the land, the Owens story is woven into the history of West Texas itself.
The country has changed. Ranching has changed. Rankin has changed.
But the values behind the Owens Ranch have endured.
Land. Livestock. Family. Tradition.
For generations, those principles have defined the Owens Ranch—and they continue to carry its legacy forward.