January 2008
Once Upon A Wish
by Karen Boehler
For most of her adult life, Linda Brown was a ranch wife. She helped her husband, Dewey, operate ranches in California, Nevada, Arizona, and just east of Bingham off N.M. 380.
She raised two sons, Scot and Jim, and worked at the Carrizozo Public Schools as an administrative assistant and business manager. But her dream was to own a bed and breakfast, and in 2002, fate stepped in to make that dream a reality.
Just a bit west of the Mendiburu (Bursum) Ranch where Linda and her family lived since 1979 was the Fite Ranch, where William and Evelyn Fite had lived for 64 years.
William died in 1987, but Evelyn kept raising cattle until 2001, when the main ranch house burned. It was at that point, Linda said, that Evelyn decided she needed to sell the ranch.
Evelyn knew the Browns, and a deal was made for them to buy the ranch and the Fite brand, so Dewey could run his own ranch and Linda could have her B&B. “When we bought the ranch in 2002, I decided to make a bed and breakfast out of it, because I’ve wanted one for 20 some years. It wasn’t going to be easy. When the Browns took over, the ranch house was nothing but a burnt out shell. Although Dewey began working with the cattle—the Mendiburu Ranch had been sold to White Sands Missile Range and was no longer a working ranch—Linda was still working in Carrizozo.
So from March through December 2002, the family, including Jim, who moved home after graduating from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX, continued to live on the Mendiburu Ranch and work their day jobs while rebuilding the Fite ranch house. The family moved in just after Christmas 2002.
Linda, had then taken a job with the Socorro Public Schools, and began the process of turning the ranch house, which once was part of old mining quarters in the ghost town of Tokay, into a bed and breakfast. “We’ve heard several stories, but the latest that we’ve heard, it was a bordello,” Linda says. Initially, there were 16 small rooms for the “girls,” but Evelyn had transformed those 16 rooms into four four-room apartments.
The ranch is located off the beaten path nine miles east of San Antonio near not only Tokay, but Carthage and Farley, all ghost towns. Linda says that’s part of the attraction for guests. “I think just being out, away from town, away from city lights,” she says.
“One comment that I get is that they love looking at the stars. Because there’s so many. They go out and they just look up and there they are. They don’t have to squint or any of that kind of stuff.”
Linda no longer has to squint to find the money she needs to keep the B&B in business. She’s drawn guests from all over the United States and overseas, was mentioned in The Washington Post, retired from the Socorro Schools in 2005, and has made more money every year on her labor of love. “It’s a lot of work,” Linda says. “But I’m my own boss. Nobody tells me what to do. And I have no one else to blame but myself.”
For more information on the Fite Ranch B&B, contact Linda Brown, P.O. Box 205, San Antonio, NM 87832; 575-838-0958; fiteranch@fiteranchbedandbreakfast.com
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