The Saddle King's Mor-Do Ranch
Mort and Donna Fleischer's artistic paradise in Rio Verde, Arizona.
By: Candy Moulton 07/01/2008
Buffalo and longhorn cattle are icons of the American West. But then so are boots, saddles, chaps, spurs and guns, and for Mort and Donna Fleischer, that cowboy gear is not only a true art form of the West, but also their passion.
Not every couple exchanges the kind of Christmas presents Mort and Donna share. Several years ago, she gave him a buffalo—Tanka. “The next year for Christmas, he bought me a miniature brahma bull,” Donna says.
Admittedly, Donna is the animal lover in the family, and she liked the idea of raising a buffalo. “I think they’re fascinating,” she says. “We live in a rural area. I figured I’d get it for him; that way he wouldn’t shoot it.” Smart woman.
Several other pets are part of the Fleischer family, including the longhorn steer Earl, named for the man who sold the bovine to Mort, plus Ingrid, a miniature goat, and Tessie, a miniature horse. The couple also raises cutting horses, which Donna has ridden competitively.
But their home near Scottsdale, Arizona, is better known for other collections than for their animals. The Fleischer home features historic saddles—Mort’s pride and joy—100 pairs of chaps and another 100 sets of spurs, bits and other cowboy gear, guns and other weapons, while the walls feature California and Russian Impressionism art.
Mort, whose saddle collection was featured in B. Byron Price’s The Art of the Western Saddle, owns a saddle that was created for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, circa 1864, and another built for Buffalo Bill Cody by Collins and Morrison in Omaha in 1893. He houses them all in the stable.
The saddles “are like a history of the West,” he says. “My wife and I think they are the great true art forms of the American West.” The stable houses a range of saddles dating from an 1840 Texas-style stock saddle and an 1850s-era, California-style saddle to silver-mounted parade saddles. Among the makers: Don King, Jack Kelly, Frank A. Meanea, Visalia Stock Saddle Company, Hamley and Company, Frank H. Coenen and Edward H. Bohlin.
As you walk throughout the Fleischer home, you’ll spot horsehair bridles and ropes plus chaps made by R. T. Frazier, E.L. Gallatin, M.L. Leddy and Miles City Saddlery. The spurs you see range from a pair of wrought-iron Spanish colonial, circa 1650, to those made by inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary, plus those made by 20th-century makers such as G.S. Garcia and J.R. McChesney.
You step through a functioning bank vault door, dating to the early 1900s, to view the Fleischer’s Western memorabilia and gun display. Within you will see the outstanding collection of holsters, spurs, bits and chaps plus antique Winchester rifles, Colt pistols and hunting rifles—an array of weapons in use from the 1850s to the current day.
“I have two rules for collecting,” Mort says. “First rule is you’ve got to really love it. Second rule: Get it at the right part of the cycle.”
Mort began his collection by buying California Impressionism paintings, but when they “started getting pricey,” he switched to Russian Impressionism artwork. Eventually, he began collecting Western memorabilia, including art. Among his art collection is View from Maricopa Point Grand Canyon by Hansen Puthoff, Lion at Lionne, a sculpture by Louis Riche, and In the Orchard, a painting by Joseph Raphael.
All of their collections—from the art and gear to the animals—are housed at Mor-Do Ranch, located in the center of a parcel of about 11,500 acres adjacent to Scottsdale, but in Maricopa County, bounded by the Tonto National Forest and McDowell Mountain Park. The view from their home takes in Four Peaks and the Mazatzal mountain range. While the name of their ranch comes from the first letters of their names—Mort and Donna—Mort readily jokes that it is also because they need “more dough” to keep up the place.
Post A Comment