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Obstinate to the end Mail Tribune photo / Jim Craven The main house at Obstinate J Ranch was built in about 1904 and features a covered porch that stretches around the exterior. The 410-acre ranch, a well-known Rogue River landmark for anglers and rafters, is up for sale at a price of $3.8 million. The 410-acre guest ranch on the Rogue River goes on the market By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune T RAIL - After 43 years operating a guest ranch on the Rogue River, two sisters have put the Obstinate J up for sale. Pat Brooks and Bunny Pearson Johnson are searching for a buyer for the ranch, which offers one of the most pastoral scenes along Highway 62. The 410-acre spread has seven homes, a horse barn, tennis court and swimming pool and nearly a mile of river frontage. Listed at $3.8 million, it's the highest priced Rogue River property on the market. "We've had somebody interested in growing wine grapes here," said Tom Harrison, the Oregon Opportunities broker who is selling the ranch. "It has potential for recreation, for horses, for fly fishing." Poor health, grandchildren moving to the big city and other family changes have caused Brooks and her sister to reluctantly sell the place they have called home since 1958. "It's been a family thing," said Brooks, a native of Long Island, N.Y. "It's hard work, but we enjoy it." The Obstinate J is a working cow ranch. Brooks' son, Fraser, moves a small herd between the ranch and nearby Bureau of Land Management grazing lands. He also grows hay and stores it in the picturesque white barn with a gabled roof next to the highway. Built in the early 1940s for a dairy operation that never got off the ground, the 11,300-square-foot barn has horse stalls below and a hay loft above, with five double doors for loading hay bales. "When my daughter, Martha, was in college, we had her sorority dance up here," Pat Brooks said. The main house was built in about 1904 by pioneers Jasper and Mary Tucker. Several owners and additions later, the three-story, hexagon-shaped home has 3,133 square feet, a dining room that overlooks the Rogue River and a covered porch that stretches around the river-rock exterior. "When my kids were little, they used to ride their bicycles around the porch in the winter," Brooks said. A working ranch for nearly a century, the Obstinate J used to be called Rogue River Ranch when sheepherders Spratt and Kate Wells bought it in 1923. They raised hay and cattle and provided overnight pasture for herds moving to summer range near Union Creek. Their schoolteacher daughter, Annie, married plumber Ray Briggs, who became Shady Cove's first mayor, according to the Upper Rogue Historical Society. But when the sisters and their husbands, Bill Brooks and George Pearson, bought the homestead, they had trouble finding a name and a cattle brand that weren't spoken for. Actress Ginger Rogers already had claimed Rogue River Ranch for her Shady Cove spread. "My father said, 'Why don't you call it Obstinate J?' " Brooks said. "I went to the dictionary and saw that the definition was just right for the four of us." If the family has been stubborn, it's in keeping a ranch running for four decades. "The Brooks family are great people," said neighbor and river guide Vernon Grieve. Many anglers know the Obstinate J as the Pump Hole, one of the best fishing spots on the upper Rogue River, and the thousands of rafters who float by every summer also know it as a river landmark. "I hate to see them sell the place," Grieve said. "You never know what's going to happen when a place goes up for sale, but I hope it stays the same." The ranch likely will change to fit the new owner, said Harrison, the Medford real estate broker. He's advertising the historic ranch in Sonoma, Mendicino, Napa, Santa Barbara and Santa Inez, Calif. regions where agricultural land values are skyrocketing. "When it comes to ranch property, it might sell right away, but it might also take three to five years," he said. In the meantime, the persistent family will keep running the cattle ranch and renting out guest houses to people looking for a peaceful fishing vacation on the river. To find out more, visit http://www.obstinatej.com or www.orop.com. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.