Weiller & Williams Co. Ltd.
THE RANCHES
The ranching era began to expand in 1943 when WWCOLTD together with Ole Olsenberg formed the Kinsella Ranch which was productive for them until its sale to the University of Alberta in 1960 for use as an experimental unit.
That same year, Pete Perrin walked into the office one day and said there was a real opportunity to form a ranch at Beechy, Saskatchewan, from parts of the old Matador Ranch which were up for sale. He asked Lee if he would be interested in a partnership to finance the place. The "Yes" response resulted in the formation of the Perrin Ranching Company and a long association with the Perrin Family. The Perrin Ranch is still in operation.
In 1948, Alex Gillespie, Charlie Aspen, a gentleman called Johnson, Lloyd Tytlandsvik and Henry Wertheimer, together with Lee bought and operated the Q Ranch. Consisting of some 87,000 acres near Wilde Horse, Alberta, the Q was run through WWCOLTD until its sale in 1971.
"Jack Williams on the Q Mare,
daughter of Franks Mistake,
a Lee Wiiliams thoroughbred stake winner. The
mare was born
and raised on the Q Ranch at Wildhorse, Alberta ".
The Pick Ranch, located in Mannville, Alberta, was bought in 1963 as the nucleus for what would later become a much larger ranching spread as more and more small pieces of land were added to bring it up to its present total of 3,600 acres. Since cattle operation were shut down in 1981, it has been under lease from WWCOLTD for grain cultivation.
The most
recent venture into the cattle business was and is in Big Valley, Alberta.
Lee joined with Brian Butterfield and his sons, and Ollie MacDonald (seen at left) to
obtain and run the Bar 3 and Circle 4 Ranches, which have contributed
greatly to the cattle business in Alberta.
WWCOLTD, with Ollie MacDonald as manager, operated a cattle and sheep feedlot on 50th street in Edmonton until 1973. Then, due to the city of Edmonton's building boom, the entire feedlot (including fences, grain elevator, and buildings) was moved to the newly-purchased Lawrence Rye Farm in Namao where it still exists. A cow-calf operation was carried out until 1987, since which time the land has been leased for cultivation.
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