ANRS & Rodeo Exes Association Hall of Fame

Jack M. Fletcher - 2011

Jack Fletcher was born in Spur, Texas and spent his young years there as well as in Pecos. He is a WW II veteran having served as a Navy corpsman attached to a Marine unit during the infamous amphibious campaigns in the Pacific. He is also an alumnus of the old Range Animal Science department here at Sul Ross State University (Class of ’49) and a classmate of World Champion Cowboy Harley May. Last but not least, Jack is quite an entrepreneur and an inspiration for all of us.

Jack has won many major awards for soil, water and wildlife conservation. He also was the very first recipient of the University’s SR-Bar Distinguished Alumnus Award (1961).

After graduation, Jack’s first career was with the old Soil Conservation Service (SCS). He started as a Range Conservationist and was eventually named Work Unit Conservationist. Under Jack’s leadership, the unit won every state and regional award offered. After nearly seven years his boss asked him to ease up. It seems that Jack was embarrassing other work units in the region. Jack told him, “That’s easy. I quit!"

Holt Caterpillar heard about it and hired Jack as an agricultural rep and sales promotion manager. It was in that role that Jack was recognized as the Texas businessman for the “most unselfish service to soil and water conservation” by the Soil Conservation Society of America.

C.E. Miller of Tamuin. Mexico was one of Jack’s Holt customers. Miller wanted to clear 50 sections of 82 inch rainfall zone in 9 months! It was land that had been farmed by the Mayan Indians hundreds of years before. Miller wanted to know if Jack could do it. With 3, 125 ton Le Tourneau tree crushers, ten Cat D8's, 4 D6's, 3, 120 foot long anchor chain plows, 6 half tracks and 3,000 Indians to pick roots, Jack set forth. Nine months later they had an army picking cotton. The project was written up in Farm Quarterly in Ohio.

Jack sent that article to Art Linkletter. A few months later Art, Jack Wrather (of Lassie, The Lone Ranger TV show and the Disneyland Hotel fame), Bob Cummings, Ann Margaret, Cliff Robertson and others hired Jack to go to Australia, analyze their investments and recommend a development plan.

This led to the development of the concept for the Australian Land & Cattle Company (ALCCO). After the Linkletter assignment Jack bought Kilto Station and was on his way. By 1967 he had found a corporate partner in Houston and they set forth on an unprecedented venture.

At its zenith, Australian Land & Cattle Company owned 4.3 million (4,269,424 to be exact) acres in the Kimberly Region of Western Australia. It was the largest vertically integrated agricultural entity in Australian history. For 20 years ALCCO put one of every three dollars into circulation in the Kimberley Region (an area about the size of Texas). They counted 100,000 shorthorn-Brahman cattle and 1,500 horses. They had a 100 section irrigated farm, and was building toward a 30,000 head feedlot. ALCCO was the largest employer of Aboriginals in the Kimberley region. Thirty Seven Percent of the Kimberley’s livestock production came from ALCCO ranches, feed yard and abattoir. The Company also had an agency business for Shell, Goodyear and Road train freight for the region.

Jack is also the author of: To Dam or be Damned: The Mighty Fitzroy River. The book is an inspiring case study for young entrepreneurs in that it chronicles the rise and the fall of ALCCO and the reasons for it.

And Jack continues to march. The Fitzroy River (a major drainage basin in the Kimberly Region of Australia) has an average annual water yield very similar to the Rio Grande. One of Jack’s lifelong dreams has been to harness this mighty river so that its destructive power can be diverted to the production of food and fiber and the conservation of soil and water to feed the world’s continuously growing population for years to come. And he just may “get ‘er done.” Never count a man like Jack Fletcher out.

There is one last thing that everyone should know: Three flags flew over ALCCO’s headquarters building: The Australian flag, the Texas flag and the flag of Sul Ross State University.

Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor which can be bestowed on an individual by the ANRS & Rodeo Exes Association. This honor is for ANRS graduates or friends and recognizes those who have represented the Association, the ANRS Department, or Sul Ross State University with distinction through their personal and/or professional achievements which brought honor to our University. Nominations may be submitted by any member at any time. The ANRS & Rodeo Exes Board of Directors will periodically review nominations and determines inductees into the Hall of Fame. Inductions are not necessarily held annually, but rather when a sufficient pool of inductees is obtained. The induction ceremony is at the Annual Reunion held the last weekend of July in Alpine.

Make a nomination for a deserving individual for induction into the ANRS & Rodeo Exes Hall of Fame!

There is certainly room among these fine individuals for additional honorees. Please give some consideration to nominating a deserving individual for induction into the Hall of Fame.