WRCF Supports Clint Brown – Hard-Headed – American Cowboy Magazine
How one cowboy overcame long odds to hold on to a way of life.
By Bob Welch
Posted at American Cowboy Magazine
It’s springtime in Texas. Branding time. Clint Brown is dragging calves at his ranch headquarters outside of Albany, Texas. His mother is there to witness it. His wife, Dee Dee, watches nervously.
Before building his own personal herd up to around 800 cows scattered on leased ground across the Lone Star State, Brown managed the historic Nail Ranch outside of Albany. He’s been on dozens of winning ranch rodeo teams. For him, dragging a few calves to the fire is akin to the rest of the American population driving to work. It’s second nature.
But just 10 months earlier, his family didn’t know if he’d ever again ride a horse, walk, talk, or even live. The Fort Griffin Fandangle is an Albany tradition. For 75 years, the community has hosted the kind of event you’d only see in Texas. It’s a living history play set on a grassy, one-acre amphitheater using more than 250 citizen/actors to reenact the Texas Frontier story.
As a longtime resident of Albany, Brown was actively involved as a volunteer. In 2014, he was tabbed as one of the flag bearers in the flag parade—a role he’d held previously. The parade calls for riders, carrying flags, to ride at full tilt from opposite sides of the theater in single file lines, crossing behind each oncoming rider.