Along Highway 21, west of Crockett, lies a genuine Texas treasure one might not expect traveling the long stretch of ranchland from Crockett to Madisonville. Once crossing the Trinity River on Highway 21, travelers are in for a treat, as an old cotton gin transformed into a quaint, welcoming pecan retail store in the middle of nowhere emerges. With an ambience of true southern Texas charm, Rattlesnake Ranch Pecan Company store and gift shop takes its customers back to the days of southern hospitality, trains, and a side of tasty Texas pecans – any way you like them.

The store is an experience in itself. The aroma of hot, fresh brewed coffee fills the air, free samples of all things pecan (including coffee) are ready for tasting, and a toy train track runs along the bottom of wooden shelves that line the walls. Outside the store, visitors can even get a glimpse of old luxury passenger train cars, including a former Silver Hyacinth sleeper car and Seaboard luxury dining car. Although the inside of the cars are not currently used or able to be toured, they make an interesting novelty for customers.

While the pecan company has had several owners through the years, Clint and Hannah Craycraft are the current owners and operators of Rattlesnake Ranch Pecan Company. Currently living in Huntsville, they are both Houston County natives, graduates of Texas A&M University in College Station, and grew up in local family-owned businesses themselves.

“Growing up in families that owned businesses, we found many aspects of owning and operating a business of our own together appealing,” said Hannah. “We began researching different opportunities and decided to pursue the pecan business, which was located in the town we both grew up in.” 

After getting married in 2017, they bought the business that same year and now work with their desks five feet apart, except when Hannah is busy taking care of their three-month-old son Cal.

“We intentionally create a customer experience,” said Clint. “We like our customers to come in and stay a while. Texans really like their pecans, and they also love to tell stories about sitting around and shelling pecans. We really enjoy meeting and getting to know our customers. We come to think of them as friends and family.”

When asked about some of his most notable encounters at the store, he smiled as he talks about the dad of Texas A&M University quarterback Haynes King. They were on their way to the football game and stopped in the store.“We meet a lot of cool people, and there is a lot of out-of-town and out-of-state traffic from people travelling,” said Clint.  He also recalled meeting a foreign exchange student from Indonesia, who came to the store and had never seen a pecan before.

From basic raw pecans (native and papershell) to deep dark chocolate covered pecans, the pecan possibilities are endless. They offer a variety of flavored pecans and other pecan inspired goodies such as: pecan butter, pecan coffee, pecan syrup, candied pecans, pecan pralines, and (of course) traditional made-from-scratch southern pecan pies with their own custom-branded wooden box for shipping. “It’s a well-known place in East Texas. I’ve given out the pecans as gifts in college and have been given them as a gift as well,” said Clint.

So what makes their pecan products so special? Clint says they make sure only the best pecans are sold to their customers. “We harvest pecans from the ranch when we can, but we also source out part of our pecans from different places to make sure we have the freshest pecans for our customers,” explained Clint. “There have been times I have sent back trailer loads of pecans because they weren’t up to our standards.”  Clint says to ensure that high level of quality, he samples the products before they ever go to the customers. “Quality makes us different – you can’t beat it.”

While pecan lovers will have an abundance of products to choose from, the store has other unique items. Mason jars are filled with southern sliced peaches, sliced green tomatoes, quail eggs, sauerkraut, jelly and preserve varieties, salsa, Bloody Mary mix, vodka rib glaze sauce, and Chow Chow to name a few. There is also an array of gourmet coffees and teas, Splendid Iris jewelry, Myra Bag purses, Thyines lotions and spray, and even some gift ideas for little ones.

Hannah takes care of most of the store’s marketing and customer service, while Clint takes care of daily operations and making sure they have the best pecans to sell in the store and ship out to customers. “Hannah loves to help people and take care of them. She really enjoys the customer service side of it,” said Clint.

Along with the storefront, ecommerce is a large portion of their operation. On average, the company ships out 400 packages of pecans a day from its 10,000 square foot warehouses across the highway. While their busy season runs through the months of November and December, Clint says they are constantly shipping out corporate gifts (including custom tins with corporate logos or custom branded pie boxes), wholesale orders, and packaging products for various fundraisers. They’ve shipped all over the United States and internationally to France, Mexico, Canada, and Guam. An ecommerce customer Clint proudly mentions is Texas songwriter Robert Earl King, who sent the company a handwritten thank you note and gift box after ordering their pecans.

While Rattlesnake Ranch Pecan Company may be found along a desolate stretch of Hwy. 21, for those travelling, it is a sweet surprise of nostalgia–with rockers sitting outside welcoming visitors to sit and stay a while. It is a haven for lovers of the Texas pecan no matter where they live. It is a place where heritage, food, and friendship come together.

You can visit them at 19354 state Highway 21 west in Crockett or visit them online at www.rattlesnakeranchpecans.com. Their hours are seasonal, so call 1-888-PECAN7J or check their Google listing for current hours.

Rattlesnake Ranch 

The Rattlesnake Ranch Pecan Company store and gift shop is surrounded on both sides by the ranches that gave it the name Rattlesnake. While the Craycrafts own and operate the pecan company, the ranches are owned by Randy Parten, formerly of Madisonville, and other Parten family members, along with nonfamily individuals.  The Seven J/Rattlesnake Ranches encompass 20,000 acres of rich farmland and ranchland in the Trinity River Valley. 

Randy Parten currently calls the original ranch, Seven J, his home. His father, J. R. Parten, a native of Madisonville, bought the first 11,000-acre parcel of Seven J in 1948 while exploring for oil and gas. He later bought the adjoining Rattlesnake Pasture (now known as Rattlesnake Ranch) in 1959, which now encompasses about 9,000 acres.  Both ranches produce oil and gas as well as pecans, cotton and grain, and Brangus cattle owned by SRR Ranches. Both the store and the Seven J headquarters are located 19 miles southwest of Crockett on Texas Highway 21, the original El Camino Real.

Most of Rattlesnake’s trees are native pecans, some of which existed when Davy Crockett and others made their trip to San Antonio to fight at the Alamo in 1836.  Seven J’s hybrid orchard was first planted in 1992 to add hybrid pecans to list of products with 5 varieties:  Pawnee, Kiowa, Choctaw, Desirable and Cheyenne. Parten said these varieties grow best in East Texas and are grafted onto native pecan rootstock to produce larger and more desirable pecans.

While the hybrids provide the beautiful nuts seen on a fresh baked pecan pie, the small native pecans contain a higher oil content (and some believe better flavor).  The pecans are harvested mechanically from October until January.  Parten said Rattlesnake and Seven J added the pecan store in an abandoned cotton gin on the property in 1995 to allow customers to get the best and freshest pecans available.