The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-06-10
WESTERN COWBOYS
At OKLA. ROUNDUP
Congregating for Big Meet
on July 4ERecords to
Be Smashed.

|
sentatives OF a hundred clans Of the
cattle ranges of Oklahoma. Texas,
| Kansas, New Mexico. and Arizona will
assemble here Oh July for the first
really great reunion of cowboys ever
held in the new state.
The event will continue three days,
| and some of the most noted of outlaw
bronchos and ferocious long horns of
the plains country will furnish amuse-
| ment and pedmit contests for new rec
ords in riding and roping. Railroads
| will be asked to furnish reduced rates
from Fl. Worth. Amarillo. Wichita. Fl.
Smith and other points in adjoining
states. The awards will aggregate
several thousand dollars
Willard Holcomb, of Oda. Okla. who
last year made a record of seventeen
seconds at roring and tying a steer, is
to be one of the leading contestants.
HQlcomb is typical representative
OF the cowboys OF former Indian terri
tory. and comes from the region once
made famous by the Rolf and Froman
ranches.
Holcomb remains typical of his race
| which is fast passing into memory.
He and his pioneer neighbors cling to
| the term ranch in speaking of their
homesteads and small agricultural and
grazing plantations. There are more
| ranches" that are farms in Pontonoc
county. OF which Ada is the county
seat, than in any other county of the
state.
Famous Cowboys to Compete
Elliott Carroll, of Monument, N. NJ,
worlds championship record for rop-
ing and tying steer, and J. E. Ware,
Of New Mexico. who also claims high
honors, are to attend the reunion. This
alone will result in bringing several
hundred cowboys from those territor-
les. Carroll's latest record was made
in Oklahoma City, when he lassoed a
steer from an automobile and stopped
the car and tied the animal in a few
seconds more than his record time of
| sixteen seconds.
Some of the great Texas ranches to
be represented are the Fights, the
Sixty-nines, the Circles, the Matadors.
and the Burnetts. The last named
probably should rank first at this
time. The Burnett ranches cover
much smaller areas than formerly, but
they have retained their identity and
are still operated by Burke Burnett, of
FIT. Worth, one of the pioneers of the
| range, and probably the wealthiest
cattel dealer in Texas.
Burnett was one of the lessees of
the Kiowa and Comancne Indian coun-
| try of southwest Oklahoma before
that country was opened to settlement
ten years ago. He made the first
lease with the late Quenah Parker,
chief of the Comanche Indians, more
| than thirty years ago, the instrument
being signed near Red river, under
what has become an historic tree,
with Richard Sanders, police officer
of Lawton, as the witness.
Burnett and his associates came in
possession of more than three million
acres of grazing land which they
fenced and controlled for a minimum
rent. He was the leader of the oppo-
sition made by the cattleme1t, for
several years prior to the opening of
the Indian country, to the passage of
a bill by congress providing for the
allotting and homesteading of the
lands. Burnett will be invited to act
as judge in some of the important
events.
More Nations" to Seek Records.
An interesting aggregation of cow
boys will come from the former Creek
and Cherokee nations Of Indian terri
tory. Many of them are of Indian ex-
traction and some are typical Of the
class that operated in those nations
before the Indians received their al
lotments and the farmers made their
advent
Creeks and Cherokees for years have
been the cowboys of the Usage nation
| which adjoined the Creek nation on
the west. In recent years frequent
riding and roping contests have been
held by representatives of these three
nations at Bart1esville. Tulsa and 9TH
er places, and the Osages have made
the better records. Chickasha's invi-
tation will ask that the cowboys of
these nations come here to finally set
tie the championship.
The southern part of the old Chicka-
sha nation will be represented by
cowboys of the new era. During the
last fifteen years hundreds of thous-
ands of acres of unallotted lands in
this nation have been leased by cat
tlemen.
OF historic interest will be the rep
resentation from the Washington
ranch of Marietta, formerly one of the
principal ranches of the Chickashaw
nation. The ranch was established
by the leasing of Indian lands some
thing less than half century ago
by William and Jerry Washington.
The Johnsons, of Chickasha, bank
ers, land owners and Indians. few
years ago were prominent among the
|ranchmen of the territory. They will
take part in the preparation of plans
for the reunion.