Enjoy our tribute to RRMT, Inc.’s Proud Past & Promising Future…
Late 1950s
(Pre-RRMT, Inc.), The owners were approached by the producers of the Rifleman TV Show in regards to allowing their ranch to be the filming site of several of the Rifleman Episodes. At this time, the Rifleman Show had already started filming episodes (in studio in California as well as various other U.S.A. ranch locations) with some of them already being aired on TV. In those days, not much was discussed over the phone (you’re talking about the days when a handshake meant everything), but rather when Hollywood came calling, they contacted the owners and said no worries, let me send someone out there to Texas to discuss it over with you and you can give us a guided tour of your property and what it has to offer. The owners reluctantly agreed but went on with it. A couple weeks later, doorbell rang, and not only had Hollywood sent someone, standing at the door was Rifleman’s Johnny Crawford (who played Mark McCain, son of Chuck Connors’ character Lucas McCain on the show). Even after a tour of the ranch and Crawford’s plea at letting Hollywood film on location at the ranch, the family’s descendants were set in their ways…that would be just too much publicity…we don’t want our family land to become center stage and part of the limelight. It’s our secret & we’re not ready to share it with the world…or just yet as time would tell. Hindsight’s 20/20, who knows if it was a good decision or not to pass up on the Rifleman TV show opportunity. All we do know is that the Rifleman show was short-lived…only airing for a short time on television from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963.
August 1972
(Formation of RRMT, Inc.), It was beginning to be the “in thing”…Harley Davidsons, biker clubs, and the beginning of young individuals seeking an outlet to off-road. When some local guys decided to take up the new sport, they found that the closest place to ride in those days was Flying ‘P’ in Weatherford, Texas. Desperately searching for a closer place to ride, they contacted a local farming and ranching land owner. By this time, the family land had already been passed down to the next generation of owners. A young man and his wife give the thumbs up and say “let’s go for it.” The beginning of something great…even though at that time, they probably didn’t realize the true mark it would make in the recreational niche.
February 20, 1982
(Death of founding RRMT, Inc. patriarch owner), One early Saturday morning in February, doing what he loved, Prentis “Van” Harris took off in his airplane high above the family ranch and park to look things over. The plane didn’t make it very far and a short distance later crashed to the ground behind the family home killing the 33 year-old man instantly. He left behind a loving widow and 13 month-old daughter to further the dream him and his wife started together only ten years earlier. Since then, the airstrip & runways have all been covered up and the only reminder of the hobby this man & his father loved so greatly is the airplane hangar at the park which now sets empty.
August 1992
Over the next ten years, life for this family wasn’t easy…raising a young child and working another job, the young widow stepped out of the park arena and let her father-in-law, Prentis Harris (father of Van), run the park on a full-time basis. Many early riders to the park will remember this fellow as a good ‘ole man, always trying to get a laugh out of you by trying to either give you or sell you a watermelon. Driving an El Camino and always having a crew of dogs following him, he was one-of-a-kind. He was the integral face of the park & an avid airplane pilot until his sudden death from acute leukemia in August 1992. In his younger days he was a daredevil in his own right because many a days he could be found trying to show off in his airplane by flying it under the Red River Bridge trestles in Gainesville.
