At the end of the southern Sierras in northeastern Kern County, California lies the little mountain valley of Walker Basin. At this remote location, 4th, 5th and 6th generation Rankins continue to operate their historic 31,000 acre cattle and guest ranch.
The Quarter Circle U Rankin Ranch was founded by Walker Rankin in 1863. Walker was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1832. His boyhood and youth were spent on his father’s farm, and he attended public school until he was fourteen. The lure of the West would soon change his life forever. In 1854, at the age of twenty-two, Walker left home and headed to California making his journey by way of Panama and sailing into San Francisco. He was fairly successful in the gold fields of northern California, and eventually settled in Walker Basin where he became a cattle rancher.
Walker Rankin married Lavinia Estelle Lightner in 1868. Her family had traveled to California by covered wagon from Missouri in 1849, and her father, Abiah Lightner, was successful at gold mining in nearby Keysville before settling in Walker Basin in 1858. Walker and Lavinia Rankin had six sons and one daughter – Charles, Warren, Lee, Edward “Ned”, Jessee, Walker Jr., and Alice. Walker is credited with importing the first purebred Hereford cattle to this area. In the 1870s Rankin Ranch became a stage stop for the overland mail route. Travelers stopped at the ranch on their way to Havilah (the Kern County Seat at that time), Keysville, and Kernville. The old barn still stands today and is used for hay storage. Walker was a very successful businessman and lived a full life passing away at age 86. After his death, Lavinia continued to run the cattle ranch. Their son, Lee, and his wife, Julia, and their two sons, Leroy and Billy moved to the Basin ranch to help out. Eleven years later, Lee and Julia were both killed in an automobile accident on December 24, 1929. Their entire family was devastated, especially their young sons. A friend wrote of Julia, “Words cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler, stronger womanly woman.” Leroy and Billy lived with their grandmother, Lavinia, and completed high school in Bakersfield at Kern County Union High School (now Bakersfield High) before going on to college. After a couple of years away from the ranch, they returned home and formed a partnership – Rankin Brother Cattle Company. In 1936, Leroy married Helen Cross whose ancestors also were California pioneers arriving as early as 1846. Leroy and Helen raised their three children Julia, Patty and Bill on the family ranch in Walker Basin.
Leroy was very involved in the Kern County Cattlemen’s Association (his father, Lee, had been a charter member of both the California and Kern County organizations) and Leroy served as president of the California Cattlemen’s Association in 1947 when the organization celebrated its 100th anniversary in Bakersfield. Helen was a charter member of the Kern County Cowbelles, and served as president in 1950, and was honored to be named Kern County Cowbelle of the Year in 1988. Helen would have been very proud of her daughter-in-law, Glenda, for being named 2008 Kern County CattleWoman of the Year.
In 1948, the family matriarch, Lavinia Rankin, celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends. She was a remarkable woman. She had arrived in California before it became a state in 1850, and she watched the changes that took place from the days of covered wagons and the “gold rush” period to the invention of the automobile and the airplane. She actually owned one of the first automobiles in Kern County. Lavinia’s memoirs were recorded when she was 90 years old, and these stories have been printed in several Kern County history publications.
In 1954, after the death of third generation, Leroy Rankin, at the young age of forty-two, Helen had a big decision to make. Should she keep the ranch, or sell it. Of course the latter was the easier option and what friends advised her to do, but she decided to continue her husband’s lifetime work. She would have to learn the cattle business. Until that time, she had taken care of their children and managed the house, as women of the 50s did. She had ridden with Leroy and helped at brandings, but knew little about the day-to-day operation of the cattle ranch. By 1965, Helen was doing quite well, but she realized in order to have a better cash flow with the “ups and downs” of the cattle business she needed to diversify to fully utilize her asset – “the land.” After much thought, she decided to open a guest ranch operation. She and Leroy had always entertained large groups of friends, and this would increase the ranch income and allow future generations the opportunity to continue to ranch. Helen was a forerunner in the field of Agri-Tourism. She was featured in the Sacramento Bee in as a leader in the field of diversifying an agriculture entity.
Helen was delighted when the next generation decided to continue the family ranching tradition. Her son, Bill, returned from college after graduating with a degree in Agriculture Business from the University of California at Davis in 1969. In 1971 Bill married Glenda Hill who had worked at the guest ranch during the summers for four years. Although Glenda didn’t grow up on a ranch, she realized the hard work associated with both the cattle and guest ranch. Bill and Glenda raised their four children (Jason, Rebecca, Sarah and Amanda) to respect the land and the hard work of the generations that came before them. Their children all graduated from college and now live on the ranch, and are involved in the agriculture industry.
Jason Rankin and his wife, Taira, and Sarah Rankin Wilder and her husband, Clint manage the cattle, farming and hay businesses, and the guest ranch operation. Rebecca (Rankin) Been teaches first grade and makes a point of incorporating agriculture into her curriculum, and is head of the Kern County Teacher’s Ag Seminar held in Bakersfield. She and her husband, Allen, who is an agronomist, publish a local monthly newspaper – the Fence Post – which focuses on the history of Kern County. Amanda Rankin served as the National Beef Ambassador during 2007. After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis she worked for Farm Credit West. All of the Rankin girls are involved in the Kern County CattleWomen’s Association in beef promotion and the Beef Ambassador Program.
Helen Rankin lived to see both her ranch and her family doing well, and it pleased her that the Rankin ranching tradition of more than a century would continue. She was 89 years old when she passed away in 2003. Today, Bill and Glenda Rankin and their children, and their grandchildren (sixth generation Walker, Cody and Wyatt Rankin, Zachary Been, and Emma Mae Wilder) all live on the ranch, and run both the cattle and guest ranch businesses, and they continue to diversify.
The Rankins will tell you…”It is truly a privilege to inherit the stewardship of the land, but along with this opportunity comes a great responsibility, and a lot of hard work.” Six generations have gratefully accepted this challenge since 1863.