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land. It Is a beautiful ranch, lying along Carter Creek in the shadow of the towering mountain that bears the name of its founder. Carter has gone, long since deceased; but the wild, beetling and precipitous cliffs of the mountain that hears his name, remains to ever keep his name associated with the country he helped to reclaim. His brandwas the bug, and he had about five thousand head of cattle in this brand.This ranch is now owned by Colonel William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill, the famous Wild West Showman, he having purchased It quite a number of years ago.In 1880, Captain Belknap, an Englishman and an old sea captain, established his ranch on the creek that hears his name, which creek is a tributary to the south fork of the Stinking Water, This ranch was situated some twenty-five miles southwest from where Cody now stands. The Captain also had another ranch some ten miles above this ranch op Belknap Creek. 'Jfits latter ranch is now also owned by Colonel Cody and is known as his TE” much. Captalu Belknap’s brand was BN.” His first foreman was Pete McCullough, for whom the McCullough Peaks were named. These peaks are on the Stinking Water jfver (now Shoshone) some seven miles east of the town of Cody. McCullough came into the Basin in 1880, Captain Belknap after ranching a number of ylt;yars closed out his business and returned to England.Angus J, McDonald, president of the First National Bank of Mcetee-tse. came into the Basin in 1880 and located the quarter circle Y ranch on Gooseberry Creek, some twenty miles in a southerly direction from the town of Meeteetse. ile came from Lander, where he had been previously engaged in the cow business.Mr. McDonald had a partner in hose days in the person of P. p. Dickinson, who lived in Lander.Mr. McDonald lives in Meeteetse and has lived there for a number of years. He is one of the prominent citizens of the Basin, and is the leading citizen of his town. The people honored him by electing him to the legislature some years since. He was also one of the first county commissioners of Big Horn county. An extensive fortune was accumulated by him while engaged in the cow business, At one time it was estimated that twenty thousand,, head of cattle were on the range ip^his brand. There are other businesg'enterprises that he is now engagtuy iu, prominent among which are banking and mercantile pursuits. /Mr. McDonald is a kind hearted, whole-souled gentleman, filled with the generous spirit of the “old days.”The first man to invade the virgin range of the Tensleep was W. P. Noble, of Lander. He established the “WP” rtfnch there in 1880. This ranch is now known as the Bay State Ranch. His first foreman was a man by the name of “Shorty” Vance. He brought in from the Lander country that year twenty thousand head of cat tie. He maintained his residence in Lander, living there for many years after establishing his Tensleep ranch. He now lives in Salt Lake, Utah. He is a man of large financial interests, being the senior partner in the banking firm of Noble Lane, of Lander. This is one of the oldUme andreliable banking houses of Wyoming. He is also the senior member of Hie firm of Noble Bragg of Nowood. This firm is engaged quite exten-tenatvoly In the sheep business in the Basin country. Fred Bragg, junior member of the firm, is the resident partner and has active charge and management of the firm's vast I business, Mr. Noble is also engug*1 ed in the banking business in Salt j Lake City. He remained hi the cat-1 tie business in Lhe Tensleep country , for a number of years, finally cks-I ins oat his business iu that industry in that community, and devotes his energies so iar as the live stock j industry is concerned, to the sheep I Industry.j Mr. Noble, accompanied by his ' partner, Mr. llragg, made the town I of Basin a visit last summer (1910) j and expressed his surprise and asion-1 ishmeut at the marvelous and won-j delful development of the Basin conn | try. A country he had not seen for over a quarter of a century. “Your | growth, said he, Is almost beyond belief and comprehension, :vl; hough I see It with my own eyes.At one time, in the early eighties, he had nearly fifty thousand head of 1 eattle ranging in the Basin. His brand was “WP.” Mr. Noble is a man of culture, refinement and learning. notwithstanding that he came | into Wyoming nearly half a centu-| ry ago as a “bull whacker.In the year 1S80 “Pete Stagner j came into the Basin from the Lander country. He located on what 1b now known as tiie Stagner flat. This is a bend in the Big Horn river just to the soutii of the red rock formation, of which the town of Thermopolis lies south. He lived in this bend until the early nineties. He also had i a place on Die river above Thermopolis. The place that is known ae the Stagner flat is now owned by Andrew Workman.Stagner had an Indian wife and reared quite a large family. He was well known throughout northern Wyoming. He brought , about ten thousand head of cattle with him into the Basin and was engaged iu that business. His brand was the single ' S. Some of his children live now in the Big Wind river country and j are engaged in ranching and the Industry,j Stagner mountain-is named in honoi of the elder Stagner. He is now lead having died in Idaho some few years ago. It is said that he met with financial reverses during his later life and died practically penniless.Kirby creek, a tributary of the Big Horn river, in the southern part of Big Horn county, derives Its name from its first settler, J. R. Kirby, a cow rancher who located near the mouth of this creek in 1880, We are :.ot able to obtain much information concerning him. He was an Englishman by . birth. His brand was 4J,’ and he owned about seven thousand head of cattle. He ranched there for a number of years, later selling out to the Embar people. What constituted his ranch in the early days of the B«sta Is now owned by Charley Anderson, one of the early county commissioners of Big Horn couiiily.From all accounts mid information obtainable, Kirby prospered in the cuttle business, but left the country upon selling to the Embar company, and none of tho old -timers seem to know anything about whore be went, wlmt became of him. or whether he is living or dead.In 1881 John Luman, whose name is a household word hi tho Basin country, trailed from Idaho some six thousand head of cattle. Locating that whiter on the Big Horn river at i point now culled the Willows. This Is about ten miles above the present town of Worland, but on the west aide of the river. The next year. D*-, In' located his ranch on Paint Hock, where he hua resided ever since. He has been engaged In the cattle business ail these years and is a result has grown exceedingly ■'eal’.hy. He is regarded as one of lie real ivtaithy men of the Basin, in later years he has branched out .n other bus'ness enterprises, but ’•he primary basis of his wealth is Ills (attle interests. He has been ex-ensivcly engaged In mining in the Copper mountain region, until recently, being one of the large owners of the Williams-Lumnn mine, a topper proposition. This mining pro-posICon was sold some time since and U is generally understood that Mr. human received for his interests a princely sum. He is also engaged in tl:c banking business, being one of Hie large stockholders in the Basin State Bank, of which institution he U an officer.Mr. Luman's ranch is located on the Pnhit ltock, one of the finest mountain vtreams in the whole Basin country, some six miles above the town of Hyattville. In the days when the range was unhampered by tlie littie men it was estimated that Luman had at least thirty thousand cattle upon the range. His brand was, the moccasin. He has reduced his herds quite considerably In the last few years.George W. Baxter In 1881 located the “LU” cattle ranch on Grass tneek. That year he trailed in about twenty thousand head of cattle from Texas. His company was known as the LU company, that also was their brand. This ranch Is now owned by the “LU” Sheep company. It is situated about twenty-five miles south of where the town of Meeteetse now stands.In 1881 John W. Chapman trailed in i'tiin Oregon about two thousand bead of horses and located a ranch on the Pat O'Hara. This ranch is situated some eighteen mites north and west of the town of Cody. Chapman went into the cattle business after arriving and did exceedingly well. He built up one of the most extensive ranches in the country. The house upon this ranch is a fine two itrwy atone structure, with all modem conveniences. His brand was the two quarter circle. In 1903 Allison Bent, of Sioux City, Iowa, purchased this ranch from Chapman at 1 a handsome figure. They dissolved I partnership to 1907, Bent retiring; j he is now in Chicago. Allison continued business, selling off his cuttlo i'ud going into tliu sheep business. Allison is now dead, dying last spring at his old home In Sioux City.wheio he wcnrT^iu enfeebled condition a few wcults prior to his demise; ho was a man of about seventy years. Chapman lives in Red Lodge, where he is engaged in the bauktog and dve stoek business. He Is well aud favorably known to all the old timers. Up until 19Uu, when he removedlo Red Lodge, he was one of the fi- fj'jiiuiiolal pillars of the Basin, He still has some investments iu this country.Beckwith Quinn, 'owners of tho Jhleld much4s now owned hy Frauk the upper Nuwood, above Mahoguuy buttes, established their ranch in 1881. This was a large outfit and #as backed financially by eastern cap Mullets. Their brand was the shield. The hard winter of 1886, that coat he cattlemen ail over the west thousands upon thousands of cattle, hit them hard and their loss was something appalling. They claimed to have had fifty thousand head iu tho fall of 1886, the spring of 1887 found [hym with less than fen thousand eattle. (jVhat was in those days tho Shield ranch Is now ownde by Frauk Brower muL occupied by him as a sheep ranclij The outfit trailed back to the southern part of the state in 1890.Booth, Crawford Crocker wero large owners of cattle and established their Two Bar ranch on Box Elder creek, a tributary of the Nowood, in 1881. Henry Helm, a round-up cool of those days, now owns and lives upon the ranch formerly owned by this company. These men were Interested to the cattle business In Utota county, then territory of Wyoming, and extended'their business .0 the Basin in the year above mentioned. They ranged twenty thousand head of cattle here in those days Their brand was “two-bar.” The partners fell to quarreling which ruin ed their business. A. D. Hoskins, at present a state senator from Uinta county, was the last foreman of the two bar to this country. He traded t out of the Basin In 1891. taking the outfit to Bear river, Uinta countyIn 1899 Crocker was arrested to Uinta county charged with murdertof-Booth, after a long drawn out legal battle he finally defeated the charge,1881 found Frank S Ainsworth iu the Basin, where he lias since resided. He lives in the upper Nowood country. He was in Basin city for thw*-. first time during the last. wee. Whit1! here he related to some of his friends tha tthe last time he was down to this part of the Basto ho had gone from the upper country to the lower Sttukingwater and that there were at least two hundred head of buffalo grazing along the Big Horn valley,Ainsworth was not an extensive cattle owner to those days. He Is now engaged In the sheep business, is a man of a family and -lives on Crooked creek, a tributary to the Nowood.(Continued next week.)V 9
Newspaper Details
Basin Republican
Basin, Wyoming, US
Fri, Dec 16, 1910
Page 8
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USA 05 Feb 2025
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