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That spirit runs through the history of this ranch. The Street family, who founded Wildcatter Ranch, were part of the area’s oil history, as were the Graham brothers, who founded the town just two miles down the road in 1872. Cattle and oil grew up side by side here, built by people willing to take a chance on land and see what it could become.
That’s the spirit behind our name Wildcatter.
A wildcatter is Texas’ version of a 49er: an oil prospector willing to drill into untested ground with no guarantee of what’s underneath. The word comes from the early days of oil drilling, when chasing a new well meant taking a big gamble on what might be below the surface.
In Young County, that gamble paid off in a big way. On July 4, 1920, the oil well McCluskey #1 came in at 6,800 barrels a day, paying for itself eight times over in its first eight months. Wells like the Sinclair Moren, just across the creek from where Wildcatter Ranch sits today, would go on to produce three million barrels before it was capped.
Before it was ranch land, this was Texas frontier. Fort Belknap was established nearby in 1851, the Brazos River Indian Reservation sat just across the river, and the Goodnight-Loving Trail brought cattlemen through the region as the West’s cattle industry took off. In 1877, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association was founded under an oak tree in Graham.
And then there were the outlaws. The infamous Marlow Brothers were hunted, jailed, and ambushed right here in Graham, just down the road from where Wildcatter Ranch sits today, adding one more wild chapter to a place that’s already seen its share of Texas history.
Today, spread across 1,500 acres, our ranch sits atop a plateau overlooking the Brazos River, home to private hiking trails, incredible river views, and a breath of fresh air under the open Texan sky. That charm that carries through our history has certainly never left. It’s untamed enough to still feel like frontier country, but cultivated enough to explore comfortably.That’s nature exactly as Texas intended.
In 2024, Kalli and George Doubleday became the new owners of Wildcatter Ranch, bringing the property into a new generation of family ownership. For Kalli, it was a return home to Graham, where her family has deep roots. For both of them, Wildcatter is a chance to build on the ranch’s history while creating something of their own.
Read our full storyPeople come here from Dallas, Germany, Australia, and everywhere in between. They ride the horses, see the longhorns, hear the stories, and leave with the same feeling: they saw Texas. The real thing. And that’s something worth seeing for yourself.
Wildcatter isn’t run by a revolving door of seasonal ranch hands. Our team is made up of full-time, non-seasonal staff who live here, know this place, and love Texas.
Come See Texas The Wildcatter Way
