LIVING HISTORY
The only exterior changes that could be detected were the
tin roofs Travis had added to several of the buildings to keep
them from deteriorating.
During an interview with Travis, and later in an interview
at the ranch with his dad, I happily learn that Travis and his
wife, Colleen, are in the process of restoring the home place.
Talking to Travis, I realize how much he values the historical
nature of the land and the home place.
“The original Cow Creek Ranch … is one of the few pieces
of property that you’ll find in Florida that really sums up the
way Florida was,” Travis says. “It has the big cypress domes,
the pine flatwoods, the oak hammocks also the old tomato
grade pastures and a lot of native pastures and big Bahia
grass pastures as well as palmetto flats.”
The Larsons share the news that they have received a
conservation easement for 3,280 acres of the ranch, on the
Okeechobee County side. “It’s going to stay the same and is
going to look just like this,” says Travis. And it’s likely the
ownership will stay in the same hands. Travis and Colleen
have two children interested in agriculture.
The easement, a legally binding agreement between a landowner
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and the state, protects the land from future commercial
and residential development and keeps it in agricultural
and open space uses, protecting the wildlife habitat. The state
is paying the Larsons $5.92 million for the easement for the
Okeechobee County side of the property. The easement excludes
the 20 acres around the home place. The Larsons also
have applied for a conservation easement on the St. Lucie
County side.
The Larsons are better known for raising dairy cows rather
than beef cattle. Woody Larson’s dad, Louis “Red” Larson,
founded Larson Dairy in 1947. His first farm was west of Fort
Lauderdale and then in the 1950s he expanded operations
to Palm Beach County before making Okeechobee the home
base in 1971.
While Larson Dairy continues to operate as an umbrella company
for various descendants of Red Larson, Woody and his
brother, John, also have separate farms they operate. Woody’s
sons, Travis and Jacob, also have separate dairy farms.
Woody expanded to beef cattle in the 1990s when he converted
his Dixie Ranch in Okeechobee County from raising
dairy heifers to beef cattle. He’s been expanding his beef
operations ever since, seeking out leases and purchasing additional
pasturelands.
Travis also raises beef cattle, in addition to dairy. In 2011,
the father and son were made aware of the lease opportunity
for Cow Creek, then owned by former Riverside Bank
president Vernon Smith and under the threat of foreclosure.
They began leasing 6,800 acres — with about half the acreage
on the Okeechobee side and half on the St. Lucie side — and
continued to lease the ranch under several subsequent owners
until purchasing the property from Sunbreak Farms in
2016 for $22 million.
To swing the deal, the Larsons sold two farms and refinanced
other properties.
And while conservation easements typically involve
property held by families over multiple generations, Woody
says he and Travis purchased the Cow Creek property with
the intention of getting it put under a conservation easement.
Meanwhile, they had to service a huge mortgage for six years.
“It was a real stretch to be able to acquire the property,’’
Woody says. “But we did it with conservation in mind and
wanted to keep it as a ranch.’’
The Larsons acquired the property under the name Cow
Creek Ranch Land, a limited liability corporation. The principals
are Woody and his wife, Grace, and Travis and his wife,
Colleen. Travis runs his cattle at the ranch under the name
Cow Creek Cattle LLC.
Woody has a keen interest in the history of the ranch and
shares his discovery of an early 1950s map of St. Lucie County
showing the main ranch road as the Old Basinger Road,
an indication that the ranch road may have been the main
road between Fort Pierce and Basinger, before state roads 70
or 68 were constructed. If so, the road would have gone right
A view of the Cow Creek home place, heading west, shows various residences and working
structures nearly unchanged after decades.
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Tax records show the Raulerson house at the old Cow Creek
home place was built in 1930.
The horse barn, cow pens and much of the home place at Cow
Creek has been preserved in time over the last half century.