Lawsuit pits Fort Hood cattle ranchers against each other

An attempt to round up cattle at Fort Hood unleashed a legal dispute among the cattle ranchers whose families originally inhabited the area. Five members of the Central Texas Cattlemen’s Association filed a lawsuit Feb. 5 in Coryell County District Court against the group, claiming their rights to keep cattle at Fort Hood were wrongfully terminated. The men are seeking up to $200,000 and want their shares returned. While the lawsuit involves a temporary cattle pen built in December and removed three days later, the history of the people and families involved stems from the creation of Fort Hood in 1942...The history of these families began in 1942 when the U.S. War Department announced the acquisition of about 108,000 acres in rural Bell and Coryell counties to build what was then known as Camp Hood, and later Fort Hood. Ranchers and families displaced by the Army post were granted permission to continue to graze their cattle on the land for a nominal grazing fee. A decade later, the displaced ranchers and other local ranchers formed the association, a nonprofit corporation, in an effort to organize the grazing ranchers, to better manage authorized grazing and to deter unauthorized grazing on the military installation. Since June 2009, membership is for “those persons, and their heirs, who were displaced or otherwise adversely affected, by the taking of land to form Fort Hood Military Reservation.” Members were issued shares by the association, each of which entitled them to graze a certain number of cattle on Fort Hood, which now is more than 200,000 acres. The association pursued and eventually entered into a lease agreement with the Army for the grazing of cattle that is renewed every five years. The current lease will expire within the next few months, according to the lawsuit. A renewal is in the process of approval with the Army. There are 1,240 authorized shares issued to about 80 members, the lawsuit stated. Each share allows for 1.6 animals to graze on post...more