ABOUT US
History Location Management
Thank you for taking the time to visit our vision for The Mare Pasture, a sustainable, planned, agrarian integrated community located in Southeastern Arizona. Being a part of The Mare Pasture community not only provides the advantages of a sustainable community complete with schools and local business, it also incorporates community gardens, grass-fed beef pastures, integrated orchards as well as breath-taking views of the surrounding native rangeland.
This page will provide a short history of the area and the Riggs family; an interactive map with The Mare Pasture location; information about nearby attractions; and a brief biography of John Riggs, Arizona architect, and manager of Mare Pasture Development, LLC.
HISTORY
Riggs Settlement
Red Wing Ranch
The Mare Pasture
The Mare Pasture consists of 1,088 acres and is a part of the much larger Red Wing Ranch, which is itself a 10,000 acre part in the history of the Riggs Family and Southern Arizona ranching.
Like many settlers in that area and time, families were often spread out over several ranches covering many thousands of acres. Brannick and Mary Riggs’ home became known as the Riggs Home Ranch. The ranch has a colorful history—one week they may have barricaded the windows and doors against Indian raids, and the next week dressed in their finery to entertain guests. The home ranch and the satellite ranches owned by Brannick and Mary’s offspring provided fruit from the orchards, beef, dairy cattle, fine horses, turkeys, local honey, eggs and dairy products to nearby town settlements and Fort Bowie. From their mountain holdings in the Chiricahua Mountains, they logged and freighted timber to mining communities as far away as 110 miles to Clifton, Arizona as well as Tombstone, Dos Cabezas, and Pearce.
BRANNICK RIGGS
Over a Century of Riggs Ranching History
The Riggs Family celebrated their centennial in 1979, and now has an Arizona ranching heritage that is over 137 years old. From a few covered wagons and a small herd of dairy cattle, Brannick and Mary Riggs with their children created a ranching empire that at one time included the largest single block of patented land in Arizona, known as the Riggs Settlement. They formed the successful Riggs Cattle Company, founded the Riggs Bank in Willcox and Bowie, and started a school at the Riggs Home Ranch. The ranches of Brannick and Mary's descendants were almost entirely self-sustaining, providing everything from blacksmithing to bees.
Riggs descendants went on to become ranchers, bankers, lawyers, architects and political leaders. Ranching is still important in the family and many of the original ranches in the Sulphur Springs Valley of southeastern Arizona and in the southwestern area of New Mexico are still owned and operated by descendants of Brannick and Mary Riggs.
Red Wing Ranch and The Mare Pasture are a part of this long history of food production, sustainability, and living in concert with the land.
The Mare Pasture and Red Wing Ranch Today
When fully developed, The Mare Pasture will preserve over 75 percent of its 1,088 acres, providing space for homes designed to exist in harmony with grass-fed beef, an equestrian center, and rescue operation, vineyard, and winery, orchards, edible landscaping, and community gardens and barns.
“Random unplanned building destroys plant life, wildlife, quality of life, and the visual aesthetic of the land,” says John Riggs. “I am visualizing a community that preserves both the life within and around it.”
The Mare Pasture will include natural wildlife corridors and avian preserves. The result is a beautiful agri-community plan that incorporates a low carbon footprint, alternative energy sources, community food production, walking paths, and a focus on LEED guidelines for design and development.
Part of John’s vision is to share the experience through Agritourism and education. Visitors will be able to pick their own fruit and nuts, tend the vineyard, participate in wine tastings, learn sustainable gardening or hydroponic growing techniques, or saddle up and work cattle from horseback.
History of The Mare Pasture Planning
A history of the planning process including initial planning by the Tejido Group at the College of Architecture, University of Arizona will be added soon.
The Mare Pasture
Located in Northern Cochise County in the Southern Corner of the
State of Arizona
The Mare Pasture is located approximately 15 miles southeast of Willcox, Arizona and 92 miles east of Tucson, Arizona. Take Interstate 10 east from Tucson to Willcox (82 miles), then east on Arizona State Highway 186 from Willcox to Mare Pasture Trail (the planned access road) to The Mare Pasture (13.5 miles), then south on Mare Pasture Trail from Highway 186 to The Mare Pasture (1.5 miles).
Tucson International Airport is serviced by 5 airlines, and the Cochise County Airport in Willcox accepts private chartered flights as well a general aviation. Bus and door-to-door shuttle services are also available between Tucson and Willcox.
Nearby towns and attractions include:
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2.5 miles: Dos Cabezas, AZ
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Build it.
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13 miles: Wings Over Willcox
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15 miles: Willcox, AZ
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15 miles: Willcox Flyer Bike Ride
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17 miles: Level IV Trauma Center Willcox, AZ
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18.5 miles: Fort Bowie National Monument
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25 miles: Chiricahua National Monument
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31 miles: Chiricahua Mountain Wilderness
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39 miles: Amerind Museum
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50 miles: Benson, AZ
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70 miles: Douglas, AZ
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72 miles: Agua Prieta, Mexico
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72 miles: Bisbee, AZ
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72 miles: Bisbee Stair Climb
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74 miles: Tombstone, AZ
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74 miles: Helldorado Days, Tombstone
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86 miles: Sierra Vista, AZ
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92 miles: Tucson Airport
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133 miles: Silver City, NM
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206 miles: Phoenix Airport
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434 miles: Grand Canyon, South Rim
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444 miles: Santa Fe, NM
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472 miles: Grand Canyon Skywalk
IN THE LOWER RIGHTHAND CORNER OF THE MAP BELOW, CLICK THE "-" TO ZOOM OUT AND VIEW A LARGER AREA WITH LOCATION RELATIVE TO TUCSON
THE MARE PASTURE LOCATED IN NORTHERN COCHISE COUNTY, ARIZONA
The Mare Pasture property, located in northern Cochise County in the southeastern corner of the State of Arizona is 1088 acres of privately owned rangeland in the foothills of the Dos Cabezas Mountains with unobstructed views down onto the Sulphur Springs valley and across the valley, east to the Chiricahua Mountains and west to the Dragoon Mountains.
The elevation of The Mare Pasture property ranges from a low of 4570 feet to a high of 4890 feet above sea level. The land generally slopes from the northeastern corner down to the southwestern corner. The property includes several washes with one, the IT Wash, being the major wash running diagonally from the northeast to the southwest. During the monsoon season, the wash will be filled bank to bank with rainwater runoff collected from miles above and northeast of the property.
The vegetation on the property is native grama and Lehmann lovegras, summer poppy, dense areas of mesquite, and scattered yucca. The dense areas of mesquite provide quality habitat for whitetail deer, while javelina, cottontail rabbit, quail, and coyote are common habitants of The Mare Pasture.
Average annual precipitation is fourteen inches including periodic winter snowstorms. Over half of the year's precipitation arrives with the summer storms in July and August producing wild flowers and abundant green native grass.
The warmest month of the year at Dos Cabezas is June with daytime highs in the upper 90s and nighttime lows in the low 60s. December is the coolest month with daytime highs in the low 60s and nighttime lows in the upper 20s.
Management
John B Riggs, AIA
John Riggs brings decades of experience in community planning and development, and also a fierce passion for preserving the beautiful, historic rangelands and ecology of southern Arizona.
JOHN B RIGGS, AIA
John Riggs has over forty years of architectural practice, twenty-five of those years as a founding partner of Architecture One, LTD., one of Arizona's largest architectural firms. His experience spans many types of buildings and development projects including residential, commercial, educational, governmental, and industrial.
John was raised on Red Wing Ranch, one of the Riggs Family ranches in the Sulphur Springs Valley of Cochise County, Arizona. John's passion for his family's ranch land and his background in architecture, planning, construction, and real estate development brings experience and vision to The Mare Pasture, a sustainable community that will set new standards in agrarian community living while preserving open rangeland and fostering natural and organic food production.
John aspires to see the open space and livelihoods that make up the region persist as part of a contemporary movement towards a sustainable future. He has seen first-hand the pressure of population growth in southern Arizona. Decline in the profitability of family ranching, splintering of family ranches as they are passed down through generations, and the impact of wildcat development of ranchettes (hobby ranches) that fragment the wilderness and open space, destroy the viewshed, impact habitat, and stress resources.
The Mare Pasture focuses upon the creation of a sustainable agrarian community as a dynamic cog in the environmental, sociocultural, aesthetic, functional, and economic fabric of its local and regional surroundings. The Mare Pasture will also actively and continually work towards preserving the environment, maintaining and growing a healthy local economy, and providing educational resources.