The Ranch "Family" The "Cat Skinner"

The need for highly diversified skills in agriculture has always been a challenge. Dale "Arkie" Duncan  who had acquired his nickname because he was originally from Arkansas, was a very talented individual. He honed his skills of running a Caterpillar D6 equipped with a carryall scraper and dozer to perfection. He spent more than twenty years on the Plymouth Ranch moving soil to shape the landscape so that irrigated crops could be planted and managed in an efficient manner.
The emphasis in the 1950's and 1960's was to put more tillable and irrigable land into production on a nationwide scale. The USDA Soil Conservation Service (predecessor to NRCS) and associated agencies were encouraging producers to level their fields for irrigation, build and improve irrigation systems, straighten and clean river channels, and fill wetlands. The USDA provided cost share funds as well as technical services to farmers and ranchers to help accomplish these tasks. There were no computers, GPS, lasers, or self guided equipment. It took hours of hand labor to survey and drive stakes in 100ft by 100ft grids across the fields. The elevation at each of the stations (points on the grid) were taken by a surveyor with a transit level. The information was then taken to the office and with much hand calculation the grade sheet was developed. When the grade sheet was completed each of the stakes in the grid had to be marked. The points where soil need to be removed were marked with a red crayon and the points where soil needed to be added where marked with blue crayon. These marks were the guide for the operator of the Caterpillar and scraper.

Arkie would take the "Cut Sheet" as it was called and study it before he started to bring a field to the new grade and slope. He would make a plan in his mind of where the cuts and fills were and how to most efficiently move the material with a minimum of travel time. I loved to ride with him as the clanking of the tracks filled our ears and dust swirled around us. The controls were cable spools that supplied the lifting and lowering functions of the scraper. The operator's eye was what determined the cut or fill setting of the blade on the scraper. This was not an easy task because you had to look behind you 15 to 18 feet to see the scraper blade.  Arkie would allow me to "drive" the Cat by pushing my foot on a break pedal and pulling hard on the friction lever. The two levers over the right shoulder of the operator controlled the cables that ran to the scraper.

Arkie was a very slim small man. He had his room in the Bunkhouse and a place at the dining table at the ranch which were "His".  I remember that some of his family from Arkansas visited him just once while I knew him. He and other single men that spent most of their lives on the ranch were "brothers" in a way. I often still wonder about the loneliness that they must have felt at times. They read books and wrote occasional letters.

Dale "Arkie" Duncan    (1913-1972)