Sundown Ranches, Aripine Arizona

Sundown Ranches
Aripine Arizona
A visual history of the Sundown Ranch, a working cattle unit and Boys’ Ranch owned and operated by the Turley family in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, as well as pictures, letters and memoirs of the Fred & Wilma Turley Family.

A beginning…

In 1908, Theodore and Mary Turley decided to take up a homestead on the Decker Wash, about 23 miles southwest of Snowflake. They named it Sundown Ranch because “all work was to be over by sundown.”

Twelve years later, Theodore and his five sons, Ormus, Barr, Fred, Harvey and Harry formed a cooperative cattle company, which lasted until the economic collapse of 1921.

Hard times followed, but the Fred Turley family didn’t give up. Says Wilma Turley, “We wanted to stay on the Ranch and desired a rich, full life for ourselves and children. We decided to develop a ranch for boys…”

In the summer of 1927, the Sundown Ranch opened with 17 boys. Though most came from well-to-do families from Chicago, New York or other large cities, they soon learned how to ride and care for a horse and rope a calf. And thus began an adventure that would last seventeen years and touch the lives of over 400 boys.

Filled with pictures of the Sundown Ranch, the boys who came, and the family that taught them the joy of life, as well as a short written history taken from the memoirs of Wilma Fillerup Turley.