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By the time that Montie Ritche returned to  the Texas Panhandle in 1935, Hobart had died. Ritchie took over the ranch and remained there for the rest of his life.<ref name=JA/> The White Deer Land and Cattle Company maintains a museum in Pampa with a history of ranching and land management in the region.

By the time that Montie Ritche returned to  the Texas Panhandle in 1935, Hobart had died. Ritchie took over the ranch and remained there for the rest of his life.<ref name=JA/> The White Deer Land and Cattle Company maintains a museum in Pampa with a history of ranching and land management in the region.

==The Montie Ritchie years==​

==The Montie Ritchie years==

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Montie Ritchie’s brother was Richard Morgan Wadsworth “Dick” Ritchie (1912–1940). Dick was like their father Jack a sportsman but also an [[actor]]. He died from inhaling [[carbon monoxide]], which leaked from a faulty heater on a yacht while he was [[fishing]] in the [[Gulf of Mexico]] near [[Corpus Christi]].<ref name=PPHM/> Montie married the former Julia Elizabeth "Betty" Barrell of Boston,<ref name=PPHM/> who died when their only daughter, Cornelia Wadsworth "Ninia" Ritchie, was a child. Montie then married the former Hildegard “Hildy” Neill (August 23, 1917 – August 1992).​

Montie Ritchie’s brother, Richard Morgan Wadsworth “Dick” Ritchie (1912–1940), was like their father Jack a sportsman but also an [[actor]]. He died from inhaling [[carbon monoxide]], which leaked from a faulty heater on a yacht while he was [[fishing]] in the [[Gulf of Mexico]] near [[Corpus Christi]].<ref name=PPHM/> Montie married the former Julia Elizabeth "Betty" Barrell of Boston,<ref name=PPHM/> who died when their only daughter, Cornelia Wadsworth "Ninia" Ritchie, was a child. Montie then married the former Hildegard “Hildy” Neill (August 23, 1917 &ndash; August 1992).​

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By 1945, after a decade of Montie’s management, JA operations had been reduced to 335,000 acres over Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, and Hall counties. Subsequently, a tract of 130,000 acres was divided into eight leaseholds. The JA obtains its water from the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River and its tributaries, as well as natural lakes, dirt tanks, and fifty-eight wells. The JA had twelve winter camps and five farms on which to grow livestock feed. The winter range in the Palo Duro afforded maximum protection, and the summer range was singularly free from land waste, just as Charles Goodnight had first told John Adair in 1874. Nearly two-thirds of the JA properties was rolling pasture land.<ref name=hbook/>​

By 1945, after a decade of Montie’s management, JA operations had been reduced to 335,000 acres over Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, and Hall counties. Subsequently, a tract of 130,000 acres was divided into eight leaseholds. The JA obtains its water from the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River and its tributaries, as well as natural lakes, dirt tanks, and fifty-eight wells. The JA had twelve winter camps and five farms on which to grow livestock feed. The winter range in the Palo Duro afforded maximum protection, and the summer range was singularly free from land waste, just as Charles Goodnight had first told John Adair in 1874. Nearly two-thirds of the JA properties was rolling pasture land.<ref name=hbook/>​