How Green Was Longreen Valley

“People of all types, of all riding levels and disciplines, could congregate here and feel comfortable here. They wanted to come here and they put in hard work here. It was all about sharing the land. My grandfather was a perfectionist: he didn’t want a weed anywhere! He had a vision of it being a beautiful place, of beautiful trees, of thick green sod” across the rolling pastures. And so it was.

Diane Taylor Newton recounted the legacy of Twin Hill Ranch: its beauty; its history as a working cattle farm; raising hay; a place for foxhunting, for eventing, trail riding, and hunter paces; for training ranch horses and top quality cutting horses; a place teeming with wildlife; and a home called Wildlife Manor. Most of Twin Hill Ranch has been sold and plans made for a town development. Soon a Norfolk Southern Railroad intermodal facility will consume over 500 acres of prime ranchland. Historically, many equestrians have had the opportunity to enjoy and ride across this beautiful ranchland. This is the story of that land.

“My grandfather John Radford, ‘Punk,’ Taylor started buying land here in 1951. The first place he bought was where the ‘Big Lake’ is now and, at the time, it was the largest parcel of land bought in Fayette County. He was from Hardy, Montana and his vision was to have a big cattle ranch.

“He used the land to teach farmers how to reclaim worn out soil. He taught them how to terrace land,” Diane said. “My grandfather taught farmers how to survey the land and about the slope of the land.” To this day, some of the original terracing remains, in the field downhill from “Pump Hill.” He was in the Caterpillar Tractor business and used his equipment to demonstrate terracing the land, showing how to send rainfall runoff into lakes, rather than ditches and streams. Over time, four big lakes were built on the Ranch: Big Lake, Wedding Lake, New Lake, and Musky Lake. “He was one of the first in his area to plant Coastal Bermuda grass. It spreads by runners and has deep roots, which makes the turf real thick and it can withstand drought and cold,” Diane said.

An important attribute of Twin Hill Ranch is that it is a recharge area for the Memphis Sands aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for the mid-south region. “My well is [screened] in the Memphis Sands aquifer,” Diane said. She told of many places throughout the ranch where there are outcroppings of white sand, indicative of the Memphis Sands aquifer. She told of a very deep lake near her house with a white sandy bottom, not clay like all the other lakes on the Ranch, where she “used to swim because the water was always very clear.” The fine, white sand that fills the indoor arena was extracted from the Ranch. The creek bed that divides the east side from the west side of Longreen Valley is white sand, which “ looks like reworked Claiborne sand,” a groundwater geologist said. Claiborne is one of the geologic formations in the Mississippi Embayment aquifer system.

Diane was close to her father Keith Taylor, who was also in the Caterpillar Tractor business. “He loved horses, cattle, ranching, the outdoors; we worked together ranching on horseback, working with Toby and Percy. My dad roped the calves and Toby would throw them down and brand them and give them their shots. In the spring we would work long days for two weeks bringing herds of cattle to Headquarters for vaccinations, pregnancy tests, castrations, delousing, any doctoring they needed. When we finished with one herd, we would take them back to their pasture and bring in another herd. In every herd, there was at least one cow who didn’t want to go in!”

Bobby Brown was the Ranch manager. “He was the leader; he told us what to do and how to do it,” Diane said. She recalled a lot of her friends who came to the Ranch to help work cattle. They may have been expert riders or beginner riders. Either way, “you rode a lot better when you had work to do,” she said. “Working the cattle taught people how to ride better. Harriet [McFadden] had a horse who loved to work cows. Horses are comfortable in wide open spaces and they get good at doing ranch work.”

Her father Keith continued buying land and eventually about 3500 acres made up Twin Hill Ranch. With that much acreage also comes the task of maintaining the land. “We cut hay all summer!” Diane remembered. “High schools and the University of Memphis would send out football players to get in shape throwing hay onto the trailers and into the hay barn.” The fertile Ranch land produced other crops besides prime Bermuda grass hay: a huge field of “sunflowers, 400 head of mama cows, some bulls, and quality Quarter Horses, cutting horses.

Bobby Brown trained many prize-winning cutting horses. And if a horse didn’t make champion at cutting, I taught it how to jump!” she said. Needless to say, Bobby Brown is in the Cutting Horse Hall of Fame. He spent 30 years training and showing horses, mainly with Doc Bar and Zan Par Bar bloodlines. “He’s still doing it,’ she said, even as he turned 78 on August 12th.

Foxhunting is a sport that Diane spent “50 years of my life” doing, from riding in the field to Field Master with Longreen Foxhounds to hunting her own hounds across Twin Hill Ranch with Wildlife Manor Hunt. Opening Meet with the Blessing of the Hounds was a big fall event at the Ranch. There was even a wedding at one Opening Meet.

Eventing came to the mid-south region on Twin Hill Ranch and for 17 years Longreen Horse Trials, along with dressage shows, were hosted on the Ranch. “Paul Popiel, an Olympic cross country course designer from Quebec, designed the cross country course.” The course was built by Popiel, Diane, her dad and ranch help, along with many volunteers. There were complete Beginner Novice, Novice, Training, and Preliminary cross-country courses.

Twin Hill Ranch holds a lot of fine memories for Diane, her husband Ed, and the many riders who traversed the pastures, woods, coops, bridges, trails, and occasionally lakes there. A small portion of it remains Diane’s and Ed’s home, Wildlife Manor, and there is still abundant wildlife, including deer, fox, coyotes, beavers, rabbits, quail, geese, hawks, and too many other kinds of birds to list. For the time being it remains part of the precious recharge area for the finest drinking water aquifer in the nation.

Many major changes will be coming to the Ranch in the coming years. The proposed Norfolk Southern Railroad intermodal facility may become a dominant feature, as it will occupy over 500 acres on the hill above Longreen Valley. A rail spur linking to the main railroad line north of Highway 57 will be built to bring a multitude of trains to the Ranch. A major roadway linking the intermodal to Highway 72 will bring hundreds of semi-trucks a day across the Ranch. The new interstate Highway 385/I-269 will facilitate bringing semi-truck traffic to the intermodal facility and to the nearby Chickasaw Industrial Park Warehouses, which will occupy hundreds of acres of farmland south of Highway 72. Those who have ridden and admired the beauty of Twin Hill Ranch find it hard to imagine what impacts these changes will bring. Future generations may find it hard to envision the bucolic beauty, serenity, and wildlife viewing on land that was once accessible only by horseback or hiking.