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By Georgie Wood
(ggannwood@yahoo.com)
Philip DeNormandie, whose “DeNormandie Companies” was categorized under Real Estate Developer, had his main home in Massachusetts with his wife, Tina, and two young sons, Philip and Jack, so he had to have hired help to care for his cattle on his 1989-acquired Trails End Ranch that was headquartered just downstream of the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness (ACW). Although Philip said in October of 2000 that he was looking for a new ranch manager, he later said that he and others would be trailing his cattle on December 4, 2000 to his San Pedro River Property – the old Cooks Lake property. Although his property was listed for sale by January of 2001, it was announced at an October of 2003 meeting of the Aravaipa Property Owners Association (APOA) that an agreement had been reached that others would be running their own cattle on Philip’s leased land, and the others hoped to also buy Philip’s “Whitaker” property. That sale was not to be because Langdon Hill of Tucson announced two years later at an October 2005 APOA meeting that he was going to buy Phillip’s Aravaipa Creek property and the Whitaker. Langdon Hill called his new property “Painted Cave Cattle Company” and would advertise his local 100% Grass Fed Beef.
Dr. James T. “Jim” O’Neil had been known for his efforts and accomplishments in Pinal County development, among which had been Central Arizona College (CAC) in Coolidge. His wife, Mary, had died in 1992, and as a memorial to her, a tuition scholarship of $100 was funded by the APOA for a student at the Aravaipa Campus of CAC, with the first year of the award being at the end of the 1993-1994 academic year. Jim O’Neal had been ill for sometime before his death in Casa Grande in 1996, after which the APOA Scholarship was then also in his name, and was for the sum of $200. The O’Neil property on Aravaipa Creek was sold in 1995 to Phil Hedrick, an ASU Professor, and Cathy Gorman who began to raise Navajo-Churro sheep on their well-fenced creek property that they named “Canyon Wren Ranch”.
On March 28, 1999, the APOA had a farewell party at the Luebbermanns’ property for Jep and Peggy White who had sold the 43 acre creekside part of their Blue Smoke Ranch to Bill and Debra Bernstein of Glendale, Arizona, and the Whites moved to property they had bought off of Ice House Canyon Road at Globe. During an October 3, 1999 meeting of the APOA a wonderful barbecue meal was provided by the Bernsteins at their new property. The Bernsteins planted small citrus trees in the field, and they partially dismantled the house on the property, hoping to renovate it while living in their motor home while there, but it was said that there was some permit problem with Pinal County. After a for sale sign was on their property in September of 2000, it wasn’t too long before the new owners were Mike and Sue Kuzmick and Tom and Betty Wagner. Lots of work was done on the large barn on the property to make it into nice living quarters on their “Bright Hawk Ranch”.
According to his representative, Bonnie Lloyd, in May of 2002 David Rychener, PhD of Tucson, had been a potential buyer of Philip DeNormandie’s Trails End Ranch, with plans for a contemplative retreat and healing center, but not for a drug treatment center. Plans changed, and after obtaining the Luebbermanns’ property in October of 2002, that property became a retreat center for guests who were interested in a quiet get-away for reflection, healing, and spiritual renewal. In 2005, the Jep Whites’ “Basin” property became part of that property that was called “Aravaipa Canyon Ranch”.
Interesting information and pictures can be found online by searching Painted Cave Cattle Company and Aravaipa Canyon Ranch.
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