Iron Mountain Ranch

In 1881, a retired sea captain by the name of Albion Shepard came to the Big Bend area while working as a surveyor for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. In newspaper and other articles, his last name might be spelled Shepard, Shepherd, Shepperd or some other variation. In this article we will use the spelling Shepard.

Taking a liking to the land, the legend notes, Shepard believed it to look similar to the hills and valley of Marathon, Greece. He acquired a great deal of land, applied for a post office. Shepard named the post office and the land he donated for the town site Marathon. The railroad reached the area around 1884.

Iron Mountain is the name given to a geological feature, an uplift jutting out of the generally sedimentary terrain surrounding it. Shepard gave the name Iron Mountain Ranch to his property, approximately 45,000 acres, and stocked it with sheep that he had shipped to Texas by rail from California. Shepard’s sheep were allowed to graze on the largely unfenced acreage. Newspaper articles in 1889 referred to Shepard as proprietor of the Iron Mountain Ranch and president of the Texas Wool Growers association. In the summer of that year, he was proposing to have the group’s annual meeting in Austin rather than Fort Worth, Dallas or Galveston.

A newspaper article from 1890 depicted the area as “a beautiful spot, unlike any other place on earth.” The mountain was described as being eight hundred feet high and four miles around at the base. Large granite boulders had fallen from it, mingling with the green foliage of the land below.

Shepard had built a two story adobe home on the square in Marathon. The adobe bricks were from the area but the rest of the materials had to come by rail. The structure, fairly recently restored, still stands.

By 1900, Shepard had conveyed his interest to others. Mentioned in the list of owners are the names Wardlaw, Skinner and Bynum. Subsequent owners of the ranch included the families and descendants of J. M. West including the Blakemores. James Marion West was born in Mississippi in 1871 to a farming family and moved with his family to Texas in 1880. West began to earn his own money while still a young teenager by working in a drug store in Groveton. He continued to be industrious and successful in the Houston area in lumber and real estate. After consummating a large real estate transaction with an oil company, his interests expanded to publishing, ranching, oil and gas and other pursuits. West served on a number of boards. He was a board member of Southwestern University, Texas Technological College, the Federal Reserve, Methodist Hospital of Houston, and was steward of St. Paul’s Methodist Church of Houston. West was known to be a philanthropist. He died in 1941 and was survived by his wife of over 40 years, Jessie Gertrude Dudley West, two sons and a daughter. James and his wife Jessie are buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in southeast Houston.

The oldest son of J. M. and Jessie West was the colorful and flamboyant James Marion West, Jr. (1903 – 1957), likely better known as an oilman than a rancher, but still in the chain of ownership of the Iron Mountain Ranch. Jim graduated from old Houston Central High School in 1921, attended Southwestern University in Georgetown and studied law at University of Texas at Austin. He was licensed to practice law and later admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. It is unknown how long or to what extent he practiced law.

The numerous anecdotes about Jim West, Jr. include his nicknames of “Diamond Jim and “Silver Dollar Jim” arising from stories of him wearing a diamond studded Texas Ranger badge and his practice of tipping with silver dollars. He was also said to have owned a fleet of 30 to 40 vehicles, mostly Cadillacs. West preferred a particular shade of blue and at one point, it is said that he had all his cars painted the same color.

He operated various oil and cattle companies including the West Pyle Cattle Company and the West Cattle Company. West was well liked and had many friends among law the enforcement community. He served on the West Foundation, as director of the Texas National Bank and vice chair of the Texas Law Enforcement Foundation. Jim married Alice Robertson Sneed, a widow, in 1927.

Jim suffered from various health ailments and kept a private room maintained by his own people at Houston’s Hermann Hospital,. The room was equipped with his own furniture including an electric stove and refrigerator. It also had curtains that shut out all the light, when needed. It was there that Jim West, Jr. died in 1957. Alice died in 1978. Both are buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.

Marian West, born in 1931, was the daughter of Jim and Alice West. She married William Blanton Blakemore II around 1950. The Blakemores appear to have enjoyed living on the ranch and built a spacious residence there. They were also well known for their philanthropy and civic involvement in the Midland-Odessa area. Marion West Blakemore passed away from a number of illnesses at a Midland hospital in 1974 at the age of 42. Her family arranged for her to be buried on the ranch at an undisclosed location.

William Blanton Blakemore II had attended Georgia Military Academy and Emory University. He had settled in Midland after World War II. As a result of his service during the war as a navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His areas of local interest included supporting the Memorial Hospital, Midland College, Trinity School and other organizations. He and Marion had created a charitable foundation before her death. William also helped to fund and create the Marian Blakemore Planetarium at Midland’s Museum of the Southwest in honor of his late wife. Mr. Blakemore was also a supporter of law enforcement. He served as the Texas Department of Public Safety Commissioner and was named an honorary Texas Ranger in 1997. Company E of the Texas Rangers is said to have held its annual meeting on the Iron Mountain Ranch for a number of years. Company E of the Rangers is headquartered in El Paso, about a four hour drive from Marathon. William Blanton Blakemore II passed away in 1998 after a two year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His burial place is also not disclosed.

The core of the ranch remained in the Blakemore family many years after the deaths of William B. and Marion Blakemore until recently. In 2024 an area real estate company reported the sale of over 30,000 acres of land from the ranch.

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