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Red River Valley Company Photograph Collection

 Collection
Identifier: PICT-000-086

Scope and Content

Collection consists of one album, formerly the property of C.M. O'Donel, of mounted prints related to life on the Bell Ranch. O'Donel managed the ranch from 1898 to 1933. Photographs in the album and loose prints in the folder depict the O'Donel family, ranch personnel, buildings, and livestock. Mounted prints are 26 x 33 cm. and unmounted prints are 25 x 20 cm. or smaller.

Album has identification list.

Dates

  • 1889-1933

Creator

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication of print and photographic material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. For more information see the Photographs and Images Research Guide and contact the Pictorial Archivist.

Biography / History

The Red River Valley Company, formerly the Bell Ranch, was a three quarters-of-a-million-acre ranch lying along the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico. Bell Ranch was originally two Mexican land grants, the Baca Location No. 2 and the vast Pablo Montoya Grant of 1824. After the war with Mexico in 1846-1847, the Pablo Montoya heirs applied for confirmation of their grant. John S. Watts who led the confirmation process took a large part of the grant as his legal fee; he later acquired the adjoining Baca Location No. 2. Watts later sold a major part of this huge property to Wilson Waddingham. Waddingham invested in gold and silver mines in the West as well as land grants in the Southwest. In 1898, E.G. Stoddard, president of the New Haven Bank, founded the Red River Valley Company to buy the Bell Ranch. From then until 1946, this company, headed first by Stoddard and after 1923, by Julius G. Day, survived the ups and downs of the cattle markets of the 1920's and 1930's. Building on former ranch manager, Arthur J. Tisdall's new awareness of modern ranching practice, Bell managers Charles M. O'Donel (1898-1933) and Albert K. Mitchell (1933-1947) saw land and grasses as resources that must be kept in balance with the size and distribution of the herd. In 1947, the Bell Ranch was broken up and sold.

Charles M. O'Donel, ranch manager, was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. Following his education "on the continent," he graduated from Sandhurst Military College, Britian's "West Point." O'Donel resigned a position as captain in the British army to come to the United States with his brother, Manus. They arrived in New Orleans; Charles continued on to Texas, where he started working as a cowboy in 1885. O'Donel arrived at the Bell Ranch on June 2, 1898 as general manager, succeeding Arthur J. Tisdall who had died 2 months earlier. Shortly after O'Donel operated the ranch primarily as a cow and calf ranch, with the priority of continually improving the quality of the herd. For most of his tenure, O'Donel had the opportunity to shape policy and develop his own interests, essentially molding the operations of the Bell Ranch. He is credited with using technology and science to turn the Bell into a forward-looking, well-planned modern cattle operation.

Extent

283 items (1 box) : Album with 261 mounted photographic prints, 22 photographic prints

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Collection consists of one album, formerly the property of C. M. O'Donel, of mounted prints related to life on the Bell Ranch, New Mexico.

Physical Location

B2. Shelved in Big Box Location by Pictorial Number.

Related Archival Material

Felipe Chaves Pictorial Collection Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Contains ranching scences at the Bell Ranch.

Bell Ranch Photograph Collection Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Charles M. O'Donel Papers Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Red River Valley Company Records Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico George F. Ellis Papers Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico

Separated Material

Photographs separated from the Red River Valley Co. Records.
Title
Finding Aid of the Red River Valley Company Photograph Collection, 1889-1933
Status
Completed
Author
Pictorial Collections Staff
Date
© 2007
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is in English

Revision Statements

  • Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451