Photos Serve as a Reminder of Boundaries Importance by Delbert Trew Brothers John and Owen Prather traveled from Van Zandt County in Texas to the Prather Ranch in New Mexico in 1883 to begin homesteading. There was no surface water on the vast semi-desert grasslands, so the brothers took work teams and fresnos and began damming up the arroyos and watersheds where possible. In good years, larger equipment was used to build larger lakes and finally a water well some 1,015 feet deep was drilled. Eventually, John Prather built his ranch to include 27,000 acres grazing approximately 1,000 cows. In the early 1950s, the U.S. Army began acquiring lands for a test missile range in the area. Most adjoining ranchers, including brother Owen, sold out and moved. John, as he had a good rock home, had lived there 50-plus years and had no intention of moving. Using his barbed wire fences as a defining line - most of the materials used to build these fences he had packed into rough country on his back - John drew a line in the dust with the stock of his .30-30 Winchester rifle then sat back in the shade with his .38 revolver and told the Army to go to hell. Though 82 years old, partly blind, nearly deaf and wearing his old stained felt hat, John stood his ground. For several years, as documented by published materials, all the military brass, its missiles, the U.S. government and its marshals, the Philadelphia lawyers and the laws of the land were defied by a stubborn man with the determination to protect his property. In the end, they took all his land but the 15 acres where he lived and where his wife was buried. The law officers removed his cattle to other lands and sent him a check for $106,000, which he promptly sent back unopened. That money was placed in an escrow account in a bank where it was untouched until John died. John lived to age 91 and was buried in his yard beside his wife with all his family and neighbors attending the funeral. Stories like this are why Americans take such pride in land ownership. It is a unique privilege many in the world don't have.