Beaver Creek Farm LLC
Flint Hills Grass-Fed Beef
Call us: 620-705-8885
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The History of Beaver Creek Farm
We are fourth generation ranchers in the Flint Hills of Cowley County, Kansas. My Great Grandfather moved here around 1885 with his family from Illinois. He settled in Grant Township in the Southeast part of the county. Both he and my maternal Great Grandfather participated in the Cherokee Strip Land Rush. Although both gave up their claims they continued to ranch in the Grant Township area. There they settled down to raising cattle on their homesteads with their families.
My grandfather, Edwin Foltz was cattleman and a cowboy. His skills with horse training was renowned in the area. He was a horse trader as well and always had a string of horses and mules.
He bought 120 acres where the current ranch headquarters is now and increased his holdings from there. As a boy and young man I watched him build a herd of cows from Hereford stock. His knowledge of cattle and how to get the most from breeding was fascinating. I spent a lot of summers working for and learning from him. The day after Thanksgiving was always busy. That’s when we worked cattle, branding, dehorning, vaccinating and castrating.
My dad left the farm after high school. He served in the Army Air Corp in World War II. He had a love of airplanes and worked for Cessna Aircraft where he met my mom. He retired form Boeing Airplane Company. He invested in more property in Cowley County, when he died his holdings along with my grandfather’s was considerable.
The land brought him back home after retirement, where he added on to my grandfather’s house and lived out the rest of his life with my stepmother. He never ran cattle but became a conservator of the land. Clearing invasive trees and brush, his pastures were well cared for. He was truly a Grass Farmer, before the term became popular and was the recipient of a Conservation Award.
I was raised in Wichita, Kansas while my dad was employed at Boeing. The farm always had a big draw for me and my dream was to be there some day.
My wife and partner Shirley was also raised in Wichita, her roots are in Arkansas and we still have ties there. We attended church together and later married.
I also retired from Boeing as an engineering manager. It was an early retirement directly related to the ‘911’ event. That paved the way for us to make the move to Cowley County. We puchased some land and started our cattle operation. We inherited the house and adjoining property. The house now has had three generations of Foltz’s living in it. This is the base and headquarters for the Beaver Creek Farm operation, just one half mile from Beaver Creek in Southeastern Cowley County.
A conservationist with the National Resource Conservation Service told us about raising grass-fed beef and that’s what got us started. Grass-fed appealed to us on several different levels. One is that this is not new, it’s the way my Grandfather and Great Grandfather raised cattle. We have a cow-calf herd of Angus and Hereford cattle and enjoy the life of raising cattle naturally. We direct sell our beef to customers at home, at farmers markets by the cut and by bulk quarters, halves and whole beef packages. We recently began placing our meat products in stores.
We hope you enjoy our web site.
Gary and Shirley Foltz
