Dryden – Over the years of showcasing the Lone Star State on The Texas Bucket List, we’ve been accused of spending a little too much time in west Texas. But with views like this, who can blame us? The far reaching horizons, high rising bluffs, and rivers running through the rocky landscape are part of the natural beauty of this area and you can experience all of it at the Chandler Ranch in Dryden. “The minute I cross that Pecos River on I-10, life begins for me,” said Joe Chandler.
Joe knows this neck of the woods well because he grew up out here. “I love the place, just the quietness of it all, the darkness at night, the quietness during the day,” said Joe. “You’re out here in the middle of nowhere. You are literally in the middle of nowhere. So my most favorite thing down here is disconnecting from the outside world.”
Joe wanted to share his little slice of heaven, so he made the ranch a resting place for those seeking a little respite.
“God did his work and the nature is beautiful,” said Joe. “We only add to it and try to accentuate it by making it a comfortable place to stay and then a good place to have a good meal.”
Situated on the Pecos River and Independence Creek, the ranch has been a part of the Chandler family since Joe’s great grandfather Charlie decided to settle here. “Charlie came into this area as a young cowboy in the late 1800s, was working for the large cattle operations and decided that he was going to start buying land and set up a home, and he started buying small pieces of land and just putting them together,” said Joe. “And he amassed about somewhere close to 13,000 acres total.”
The family farmed the land thanks to the abundance of water from the river, the creek, and a spring on the property, but growing crops in the harsh desert environment was tough. “In the early ’50s, there was a terrible drought in the state of Texas, one of the worst ever, and ranching was just devastated,” said Joe. “And so my grandparents decided people liked to come down here and ask if they could go fishing or swimming. And so what they did, they built their house right next to that club room down there, and then they built the pool. They then started building small cabins and people would come and stay. And that is how the guest ranch kind of got born out of really a desperate situation of trying to find something other than the ranching business to make a living in.”
Joe and Mildred Chandler made the Ranch a getaway destination that thrived for decades, with fishing, kayaking, and a pool that’s still one of the main attractions. “Spring-fed Pool, very unique for us,” said Joe. “This obviously was built in the early ’50s, probably late ’40s, early ’50s. It’s been washed away twice. And the springs in the bottom of it still continue to fill it to this day.”
The guest ranch closed in 1991 and it was only used for hunting until Joe felt it was time to bring guests back to the ranch in 2015. “This was an undertaking I just was completely underprepared to do,” said Joe. “And as you get into it, it was kind of like, ‘Now I’m addicted to it. We’re going to see this to the end,’ and we have.”
Although this restoration wasn’t easy, Joe felt as if it was his calling. “I didn’t have to, but it was kind of a rite of passage,” said Joe. “I felt like it was important to heritage. We have been hosting people here on this ranch for 85, 95 years. Why wouldn’t we just continue to do that?”
With updated cabins and Richard cooking up three meals a day you really don’t have to leave during your stay, and that’s a good thing because there is nothing around here. “So everything you see here has been brought into this ranch and built and it didn’t just spring up out of the ground,” said Joe. “Very long dirt road with the nearest Home Depot 120 miles away.”
Down by the water, you can experience one of the prettiest parts of the state. “This is one of the favorite spots on the ranch,” said Joe. “Everybody comes down and sits on that rock and wades in the Pecos River and goes swimming or fishing, and this is a great spot. This is truly at the confluence of the creek and the Pecos are just north of us here. So this water is now starting to get a lot of fresh water in it, so it’s starting to clear up instantly.”
The river brings so much life into the Chandler Ranch. It’s not often in West Texas that you see the color green or massive oak trees growing along the rocky banks of the Pecos, but here they have it. “The water is essentially the only thing that makes this ranch different than any other ranch within hundreds of miles,” said Joe. “And so we really covet that. And I always say the water that runs through this ranch is like blood that runs through my veins. It is everything to us and we protect it as anybody would.”
Keeping his family’s legacy in place is what matters most to Joe. “Holding onto this place has been tough,” said Joe. “100 plus years, it’s hard to find places nowadays that have that heritage because generations change, and people change and they want to move on and do different things. But fortunately, we’ve been able to hold on to this one with everything we’ve got. I’ll go to my grave knowing I’ve done right by everybody here on the ranch.”
That grave happens to be right on the ranch, next to other members of Joe’s family. “This is pretty unique. There is not many ranches I would think that would have a cemetery on them, but this one does. And my great-grandparents aren’t buried here. They’re buried in Sanderson. But right now it’s the second generation. And then my mom will be third and I’ll be fourth. I’ve dug both these graves when they were buried. So it is a rite of passage down here when you’re digging actual graves that you’re putting people in, so it’s an interesting heritage piece, I have to say. So I kind of like it. I don’t know if most people would, but I have a real peace knowing that this is where I’m going to end up.”
Returning the legacy to the Chandler Ranch, one of Joe’s greatest life achievements. “It was important to finish my chapter, my generation to say, ‘What did you do when you got the ranch?’” said Joe. “We rebuilt it.”