5316 CR 3805 , Calvin, OK 74531(Hughes County)

At first glance, this property looks like a nicely maintained and smartly designed cattle ranch. With 350 acres of gently rolling sandy loam pastures with scattered shade trees, it is an idyllic setting for cattle. The fences are good and there are plenty of good cross fences to break the property up into five main pastures and hay meadows. The southeastern pasture is 120 acres, and the southwestern pasture is 115 acres. They both hub off the central hay meadow that is 54 acres and the pasture to the west of it that is 40 acres. From there, you can rotate to the northern 54-acre pasture and on into the 4-acre trap and corral if you are ready to work cattle. The hay meadow is set up for irrigation with a reel type irrigation system and water pump to pull water from the lake. A small 20-acre pasture sits in the far southeast corner of the ranch and can be used to isolate animals or store hay. The soils have been tested, amended with chicken litter two years ago and maintained with applications of urea and weed spray. The results are obvious, a beautiful thick growth of bermuda, common lespedeza and scattered prairie grasses carpet the land. It’s clean and the cattle on the property exhibit great body condition. The animals are fat and happy at Castaway Cattle Ranch. At roughly 3000 square ft, the combination shop and equipment shed gives you plenty of room to maintain and store equipment.

The current residence is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom brick home built in 1980. The tax assessor has it listed at 1648 square feet but somehow it feels larger than that. The exterior of the home needs to have the trim repaired, painted and some of the windows need to be caulked. In short, it looks like the average ranch house from the outside. But once you walk in, it’s a total scene change. The entire interior has undergone a remodel and looks fresh and clean. Although it is not a fancy home, it certainly will be an acceptable place to stay until you decide if you want to build a new home or not. As always, Land Doctors Construction services stands ready to help you design and build a custom home to match the beauty of the land.

Here is where things get interesting. The property has over 27 acres of surface water stored in nine ponds that range from 1 acre to 6.5 acres in size. In addition, there are two areas where chains of ponds are formed where one flows into the next. On the north end of the ranch, a 1-acre pond flows into a 3.5-acre pond that feeds a 6.5-acre lake. In the south, a 1-acre pond, is followed by a 3-acre, 2-acre and 4-acre ponds. A 2.5-acre and 3.5-acre pond round out this impressive collection of impoundments. But there is not a visible creek or other significant drainage that feeds them, so how can this be? Simple, this area is underlain by a shallow aquifer, the ponds are in slight surface depressions and the water level seen in the ponds is the top of the water table. Simply stated, the ponds are a window into the aquifer below. That’s why the water levels change very little even during the dry season. Steady water levels, very good water quality and clarity, plus the structure and vegetation in the ponds equate to a first-class fishery. We have greatly enjoyed fishing in the ponds to get a feel for catch rates. In the mornings and evenings, do not be surprised to get a strike on almost every cast. You do not have to be skilled to catch fish in these ponds. The largemouth bass are plentiful, healthy and aggressive. You will only help improve the size class by catching and keeping some, there are plenty to go around. There are also great crappie and bluegill populations if you had rather eat some panfish. You won’t have to fish very long before you understand where the Castaway part of the ranch name comes from.

The ponds on the southern end of the ranch are surrounded by timber and attract other wildlife such as whitetail deer, wild turkey and waterfowl. The owner got some great video footage of the deer and ducks at the end of last winter to document the wildlife populations. There is also a 36-acre wooded block that would be ideal to manage as either a hunting area or sanctuary for wildlife. If used as a bedding area, food plots could be established along the edges to pull wildlife out into the open.

If you are looking for a convenient, centralized location for family and friends to gather, with wildlife, fishing and ranching opportunities that will make them flock to you, then call Kelly Hurt at 580 421 7512 to schedule a showing today.