Lot 24

Start at the northwest end. A red dirt ranch road comes through that corner, wide and graded, curving off to the south and east through cedar that closes in on both shoulders. Face east from there and the ground steps away in low juniper swells until it runs out at a long pale line of Caprock country. That corner is the piece of Tract 24 you'll picture first, and it's a fair introduction to the rest of these 37.08 acres of ranch land for sale at Darden Canyon in Motley County: red sand, dark cedar, and country that keeps going.

Follow the road southeast and the cover tightens. Older two-tracks split off it here and there, faint sandy lanes worn into the caliche and the red dirt, the kind of trails you can brush out with a chainsaw and a morning of work if you want to reach a back corner without walking. Between the cedars the ground opens into bare sand and short grass. Game moves on those openings. You can read the traffic in them.

The south and east sides are where the tract earns its keep. Ground picks up about 72 ft across the place, roughly 2,341 up to 2,413 ft, and it does it gradually rather than in one hard climb, so you can drive most of it. Up on the higher ground the junipers thin just enough for sage and bunchgrass to hold between them. Late in a September afternoon the cedar tops out there go from dark green to gold and the country west of you softens into haze. That's the corner to put a camp on, and it's the corner to sit on when the evening cools.

Every acre of this tract carries brush and scrub, and that's the honest picture: cedar, mesquite, low thorny cover, sand and red clay showing through wherever the ground bares off. A buyer who wants a mowed park will have work ahead. A buyer who wants cover will be glad of it. This cover is why the breaks below the Caprock have the reputation they do for mule deer and aoudad, with whitetail worked into the mix, and thick country like this is exactly where that reputation gets earned. Clear a pad, leave the rest, and the deer keep using the place the way they already do.

• 37.08 surveyed acres in the Caprock breaks of Motley County
• About 72 ft of rise, with the higher ground on the south and east
• Heavy cedar and mesquite cover throughout
• Interior ranch road through the northwest end
• Owner financing with as little as 5% down

This is old Matador country. A Scottish syndicate out of Dundee bought the Matador Ranch in 1882 and grew it into 861,000 acres below the Caprock, headquartered at Ballard Springs about fifteen miles from here, and the outfit is still out there working cattle. Hide dealers out of Dodge City put up Tee Pee City in this same corner of the county in 1875, a trading post rough enough that the Matador told its own cowboys to stay clear of it. You feel some of that history in how empty the horizon still reads from the high side of this tract. Few neighbors. A lot of sky.

On the ownership side we keep it plain. The tract is surveyed before you buy, with deeded access and light restrictions, and the recorded survey and title work govern the boundary and the access, not a fence line or a set of tire tracks. Owner financing is available with as little as 5% down, and we'll walk you through the numbers in person or over the phone without any games.

Come look at it in the cool months, or plan on a late afternoon so you're up on the high side when the light turns. Wear boots and long pants, because the cedar and the mesquite will find you otherwise. We'll drive the road through the northwest end, walk the corners with you, put the survey in your hands, and let you stand out there long enough to hear how quiet it gets.