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Spade Ranch (Nebraska)
Encyclopedia
The Spade Ranch is a large cattle ranch
located in the Sandhills
of western Nebraska
between the towns of Gordon
and Ellsworth
. Founded in 1888 by Bartlett Richards
, the ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1980.
A beef ranching operation in the Nebraska Sandhills, the Spade Ranch, encompasses land in both Sheridan
and Cherry
Counties. Founders Bartlett Richards and William Comstock successfully managed the ranch into the early twentieth century. At its peak size in 1905 with open-range grazing and ready markets for cattle, the Spade, encompassed over 500000 acres (202,343 ha) with a herd of 60,000 cattle. Under the direction of the Bixby Family, associates of Richards and Comstock since 1908 and owners of the ranch since 1923, the Spade Ranch has continued to produce quality beef cattle and quarter horses for more than a century.
The Spade Ranch is named for the cattle brand that founders Bartlett Richards and William Comstock used to mark their cattle. The brand resembles an Ace of Spades
on playing cards. The Spade brand is still in use as the ranch brand today.
Nebraska's early beef cattle industry first developed between the Platte Rivers and along the valleys of the Republican River
and South Loup River. H.L. Newman a wealthy St. Louis banker and stock-raiser and brother E.S. Newman established headquarters in 1878 at the mouth of the Antelope Creek, 12 miles (19.3 km) south-east of the present town of Gordon, Nebraska
and range along the Niobrara River
covered an area of 30 by 65 miles (104.6 km) with 15,000 head of cattle. John Bratt, the Keystone Cattle Company, and the Bosler Brothers had penetrated along the south rim of the Sandhills, but it wasn't until the spring of 1879 that the economic importance of the Sandhills were discovered. That year storm-driven cattle from the Newman Ranch disappeared South into the Sandhills area previously avoided by cattlemen. An expedition was organized, with ranch foreman Billy Irwin in change, to venture into the Sandhills and round-up the scattered cattle. During the roundup of those cattle other wild cattle were found, the wild cattle had grown fat even though untended during several winters. On the fourth week out and running low on provisions, the Newman cowboys camped along a lake where all they had to eat was bean soup. They called the lake Bean Soup Lake, four miles (6 km) east of what would later become the headquarters of the Spade Ranch. One of the Newman cowboys on the 1879 round-up, was later Omaha
mayor James Dahlman
.
Word of the Newman Ranch's successful roundup of 1879 spread and rangeland along the Niobrara filled as fast as cattlemen could move in stock and erect shacks and corrals, but no ranch headquarters had as yet located within the Sandhills themselves. Bennett Irwin, one of the cattlemen on the 1879 roundup into the Sandhills, had as early as 1884 began to file on land in a large valley to the west of Bean Soup Lake called the Home Valley. The Home Valley is at the beginning of a series of large valleys capable of producing many thousands of tons of hay
, making it an ideal location for settlement and development of a ranch.
On August 10, 1888, Bartlett Richards
bought Bennett Irwin's filing near Bean Soup Lake in Sheridan County. The Log House from the Newman Ranch was disassembled and moved to its new location in the Home Valley, making it the first building erected at the newly formed Spade Ranch. During the 1890s, Richards developed his almost 800 square miles (2,072 km²) in Sheridan and Cherry Counties into manageable units. Ranching activities occurred year round. Following the breeding schedule, spring was calving and round up. Summer activities included harvesting hay to use for cattle feed in the fall and winter. Additional laborers were often hired to help with this task. During the fall fireguards were plowed to prevent fires from spreading, as the pastures had dried by the summer and cattle were shipped by railroad to markets in Omaha
and Chicago. Year round activities included providing beef for the Indian agencies and building fences. Initially, fences created corrals at the ranch headquarters. By the early 1890s, fencing of grazing areas increased. The number of widespread roundups in the area may have increased the desire to fence in areas.
The Spade Ranch was one of the larger operations near the Pine Ridge Agency
and supplied beef to the Dakota reservation. The Chadron Advocate reported in 1891," Bartlett Richards has received the beef contract at Pine Ridge Agency for the ensuing year. The amount is 6,000,000 pounds. This will require 6,000 head of cattle." The Spade continued a contract with the Pine Ridge Agency until 1896. Even through the agency provided good business, most of the steady business came from shipping cattle to packers or feeders in the corn belt.
In December 1895, the Richard and Cairnes partnership was formed with assets totaling $475,000.00 ( $12,087,227.00 current). Richards and Cairnes, Inc., included Richards as president, John Cairnes of Boston as vice president, and Jarvis Richards, secretary and treasurer. John Cairnes only attended one board meeting and in 1899 sold his stock to Richards and resigned. William Comstock took Cairnes' place on the board, and they remained partners until Richards' death in 1911.
As early as the 1880s, Richards established the Spade Ranch's cattle shipping point in Ellsworth, southwest of the Spade Ranch. In 1898, Richards and Cairnes, Inc., built a store, hotel, and stockyards in the small community. The store served as office headquarters for the Spade Ranch and included a general store and post office. The hotel built across the street from the store, provided free accommodations for the Spade Ranch cowboys.
In May 1899, the two companies (Richards and Cairnes, Inc., and Richards and Comstock) merged to form the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company. Bartlett Richards, William Comstock, Jarvis Richards, DeForest Richards, and E.C. Harris of Chadron
were named directors. At the time of the merger, the company range included 16,000 head of cattle. Bankers authorized loans of $150,000.00 ($3,817,019.11 current) to purchase additional cattle.
William Comstock stayed in the home valley of the Spade Ranch headquarters, which is approximately 25 miles (40.2 km) north of Ellsworth. Comstock had a sod house
at the headquarters, another soddie as a ranch office, a good-sized bunkhouse, the log cookhouse (the log building moved from the Newman Ranch), a barn, feed yards, large corrals for working with cattle, breaking horses, branding, and dipping cattle, a blacksmith shop, a machine shop and the ranch store. The ranch store featured staple groceries, clothing, supplies, and a place to pick up mail carried from the Ellsworth post office. Later Comstock built a large frame house in the center of Spade operations. One additional house was built as a home for Spade foreman, Mike Peterson. Peterson worked for the Spade for several years, but rather than work for a wage, he received both land and stock.
By January 1899, telephone lines were constructed from Gordon to Ellsworth, and lines were proposed to extend to Rushville
, Hay Springs
, and Chadron under the new "Ranch Telephone Company". The Ranch Telephone Company was incorporated with Richards as president. Telephone lines connected the cattle-shipping points on the Burlington Railroad—Ellsworth, Lakeside
, and Bingham
—with Comstock's headquarters at the ranch.
Richards moved his headquarters from Chadron to Ellsworth in 1901 to be closer to the ranch. He completed his brick house in Ellsworth in the summer of 1902. The Richards family had a winter residence built in Coronado, California
, that same year.
Richards began to concentrate on upgrading the breeding operation. He experimented with grain feeds to take care of calves and other special feeding problems, and he put windmills for adequate water. Richards and Comstock were the first cattlemen in the area to use chloro-naptholeum, a livestock dip that removed lice, mange, Texas itch, and other external parasites. The Spade Ranch was the agent for this patented product west of the Mississippi River. In 1903, the Spade's Hereford
cattle won the Grand Prize at the American Royal Stock Show
in Kansas City, Missouri
for the best of any breed in both yearling and calf competition.
of land surveyed north of Ellsworth and placed a four-wire fence around the 250000 acres (101,171.5 ha). This area included government-owned land with 30 reservoirs, each of which had two or three windmills and water tanks for the stock. The fencing of pastures was necessary to prevent scattering of cattle and preserve breeding. To protect grazing lands from settlers, some ranches, such as the Spade, filed 160 acres (64.7 ha) homesteads where they had built fences. For example, the Spade Ranch paid Civil War veterans, their widows, and others to make the land claims and then transfer the leases to the ranch. This method allowed ranches to protect ranges and buy time in hope that a leasing law would be passed. The first batch of Civil War widows filed for the Spade Ranch in July 1902 and, within a month, enough widow claims had been added to cover the western side of Richard's southern pasture.
Richards testified in favor of the Bowersock Bill, making the following plea:
Congress hesitated to pass a leasing act, and the United States Department of the Interior
was determined to remove the fences. By November 1902, the Rushville Standard reported that Bartlett Richards had been ordered to remove his fences in Sheridan and Cherry Counties. The fenced enclosed about 60 civil township
s, which would be enough to support 960 families at two sections per family. The Secretary of the Interior, Ethan A. Hitchcock
, following the Roosevelt
administration's direction, set out to enforce the 1885 Van Wyck Law, which forbade the fencing of public lands.
In 1905, Richards and Comstock were indicted and brought to trial for the illegal fencing of 212000 acres (85,793.4 ha) of government land. They first entered a plea of not guilty, but quickly reconsidered and plead guilty to "asserting ownership and exclusive occupancy of government lands". Attorney Richard S. Hall told the court as the plea was entered for his clients:"It is our intention to comply with the law. We are removing the fences as rapidly as we can, but such as may remain, we have nothing to do with. Wherever the government shows us we have an unlawful fence, we will remove it." The fences they had "nothing to do with" may refer to those on a common boundary with other ranches or on widow claims.
On November 13, 1905, Richards and Comstock were sentenced to the custody of a United States Marshal for six hours and a fine of $300 and half of court costs. The modest sentence may have reflected a finding that they did not intimidate settlers and that their employees were at work removing the fences. Controversially, newspaper accounts charged that Richards and Comstock took part in a victory celebration instead of serving time. The Secretary of the Interior was upset about the news and fired District Attorney Baxter and Marshal Thomas L. Mathews, the officer in charge of Richards and Comstock's six hour sentence. In reality, during their sentence, Richards and Comstock returned to the hotel to pack, write letters, shop, eat dinner, and arrive at the train station for the 11 p.m. train to Ellsworth.
In August 1906, new changes were brought against all Spade officials for "conspiracy to defraud the government of the title and use of public lands, subornation of perjury, and conspiracy to suborn perjury". The case was called to trial on November 12, 1906, in the Federal District Court in Omaha
before Judge William H. Munger. Richards and Comstock did not testify. United States Secret Service
men spent 13 months investigating and getting evidence. Affidavits were taken from 600 witnesses, subpoenas were issued for 165 witnesses, and 132 people offered evidence in trail.
On December 20, 1906, the jury delivered a guilty verdict on 35 of the 38 counts. A motion for a new trial was overruled and the sentence to Bartlett Richards and William Comstock was $1,500 fines and eight months in prison. Richards and Comstock appealed the verdict and were released on a $5,000 bond. The appellate court affirmed the guilty verdict on December 3, 1909. On October 17, 1910, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of Richards, Comstock, and their associates, and ordered them to pay the fines and prepare to serve their sentences beginning on December 7.
Comstock, Jameson, and Triplett surrendered in late November and Richards arrived in Omaha on December 7, 1910. All four were transferred to the Adams County
jail in Hastings
to serve their sentences. Again the press covered the story of their imprisonment with false accounts. It was reported that Richards and Comstock were receiving special treatment but, in reality, the two were in the same surroundings as other prisoners and were granted very few privileges.
In June 1911 Richards was allowed to go to the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota
, for gallstone surgery and returning to the Hastings jail on August 10. Richards had long-standing intestinal troubles and never fully recovered from surgery. Bartlett Richards died while incarcerated at Hastings, Nebraska
in the early morning hours of September 4, 1911 before his wife could arrive by train from the family home in Coronado, California
. When Will Comstock first heard the news of the partner's death, he is reported to have said, "May the angles guide you into Paradise, and may the martyrs come to meet you." The next day William Comstock was released and his sentence commuted by order of President William Taft so as to attend the funeral of his business partner in San Diego.
The trials and appeals had caused financial strain on the ranch and holdings of the Nebraska Land Company. Before his imprisonment, Richards had been ill and no longer directly managed the ranch. During his imprisonment, there was no direct supervision of the ranch affairs. Following Richards' death, Comstock took control of the Spade Ranch and the Comstock and Richards families shared quarters at the Ellsworth house in the summers. In 1912, Comstock closed the C Bar and Overton Ranches, reducing the official land holding of the Spade Ranch. William Comstock died of cancer in the fall of 1916. Despite Comstock's advice to the contrary, Mrs. Richards kept control of the ranch.
It was difficult to maintain the ranch, because the era of free range was over. By 1916, Kinkaiders
had claimed the land in the middle of the Spade range. Range land, once free, now had to be leased or bought from the homesteaders. The Nebraska Land and Feeding Company borrowed $200,000 ($3,893,991.77 current) from the New York Trust Company through a first mortgage on the Spade Land. The ranch survived until the depression of 1922-1923, during which time the mortgages on the land were foreclosed. By this time, the holdings of the Spade Ranch had been reduced to about 60000 acres (24,281.2 ha). The Richards family spent their last summer in Ellsworth in 1923 and the ranch was turned over to the bank.
Lawrence had first arrived at the Spade Ranch in 1909 at the age of thirteen and grew up observing and working for its owners. In 1908 Bixby's father James, an eastern professor who had moved west for a position at the Spade School, filed on and moved to a section of land four miles (6 km) east of the Spade Ranch Headquarters. In 1909 the rest of the Bixby family followed. Bixby's mother Jennie worked as a ranch cook at the Spade Headquarters Cookhouse. Lawrence along with brother's Onie and Winfred worked for area ranches and the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company from 1909 until the ranch's foreclosure. Brass and Meyers arranged with Lawrence to buy the hay and have him care for and feed their cattle which were branded with Sandhills Land and Cattle Company's Sugar Bowl brand. Early on, Brass assisted Bixby with a $2000.00
($24,031.37 current) down payment on a loan to buy 2,000 acres (810 ha) of the Spade land. Beginning in 1925, Bixby slowly began to obtain sections of the old Spade Ranch range by hard work and perseverance, aided by bankers willing to take a chance. Around 1926, Brass and Meyers suggested Bixby move to the ranch headquarters in the Spade home valley. Brass died in 1929, leaving Meyers in full control of the Sandhills corporation. With Bixby running 12,000 head of Meyers hereford cattle, 3000 head of his own hereford's and a large draft and quarter remuda the ranch prospered but during the depression of the 1930s, Meyers reduced the company's total number of cattle and Bixby's 13-year relationship with the Sandhills Corporation ended in 1937. By 1940 Bixby had been able to regain 40 square miles (100 km2) of original Spade Ranch range, including the home valley headquarters.
Bixby continued to purchase land and operation eventually amassed much of the holdings that had comprised Richard's and Comstock's Spade Ranch. During his ownership Bixby planted thousands of trees in the home valley around the Spade Ranch and installed airstrips for the ranch airplanes. In addition to reviving the Spade Ranch, Lawrence Bixby also returned the Richards Home in Ellsworth, Nebraska to noteworthy status. Since the time of the Richards ownership, the house had been divided into apartments and was in disrepair. In 1953-1954, Lawrence and wife Eleanor moved to the Ellsworth house after it was rehabilitated. In 1965 the ranch headquarters included the large 1889 Comstock-Bixby house where Lawrence's son Jim and family lived, another residents built in 1952 for Lawrence's other son Larry and family, three large bunkhouses, the 1879 log cookhouse, a clubhouse with bar known as the cabin, large 1889 horse barn, cattle dipping vat, livestock scales, feed yards, large corrals for working with cattle and breaking horses, calving barns, 1895 blacksmith shop, cattle feed storage facilities, a machine shop and a large three aircraft hangar. Starting in the early 1950s Lawrence served as a high ranking officer in the Nebraska Stock Growers Association, the Nebraska Beef Council and as president of the Nebraska Flying Farmers and Ranchers Association. In the 1954, Bixby donated $60,000 ($473,460.44 current USD) to help pave Nebraska Highway 27 from Ellsworth to Gordon, which passed by the ranch.
Lawrence Bixby admired Bartlett Richards as a man and as a cattleman. "The homesteaders would have starved to death without Richards," he said. " He loaned them milk cows, gave them horses and let them charge at the Spade Ranch Store. Even after the Kinkaid Act people couldn't exist by trying to farm or raise cattle on 640 acres (260 ha). They left and Richards bought their land at fair prices. Through Bixby's efforts, Bartlett Richards was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1970. In 1981 Bixby himself was named a patron member of the Hall and his photograph was etched on a silver plaque in the Founders Hall section. In 1980, the original headquarters and Ranch had listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
State Historical Preservation Officer Marvin F. Kivett explained:
Lawrence Bixby died of heart failure May 26, 1982, an Alliance Times Herald headline read:
Following Lawrence Bixby's death in 1982 ranch operations were passed to son James D. Bixby. Jim who had won notoriety in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Calf Roping
circuit retained a very large quarterhorse remuda
and maintained the Spade's tradition of using only horse and cowboy for daily ranch operations. During his ownership Bixby transitioned the cow herd from Hereford to Angus
Cattle due to changing market demands. Jim was very active on and off the ranch until his death from cancer in 1990.
The Spade has been operated by Jim's son Bret Y. Bixby, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Steer Roper
, since 1990. Bret, like his father and grandfather before him maintains the Spade's usage of horse and rider.
The Spade Ranch continues to operate today in the traditional western fashion. Most of the original buildings in the Home Valley of the Spade are extant and functioning in their original capacity. Although ranching operations have changed considerably since the early days of Richards and Comstock, cowboy
s and ranch hands are still employed by the Bixby's and daily ranch operations are achieved on horseback. During the summer months of July and August hay
is harvested out the large meadows to be used to feed cattle during winter. Calving season begins in February and tapers off by early April. Large roundups are carried out in the spring and fall to ready cattle for market and branding
. Branding at the Spade is a large yearly event, cattle are roped from horseback, wrestled by hand and branded with the Spade brand. The Branding is traditionally concluded with a large western dinner. Cattle are no longer shipped to market by train, but rather by cattle truck. Aircraft are used to locate cattle in large pastures, spot downed fences, for quick trips into nearby towns and for ranch business abroad. Bixby Black Angus cattle are nationally recognized for both their quality and genetics. The Bixby Family works closely with the Nebraska State Historical Society
and Chadron State College
in the preservation and research of the Sandhills region of Nebraska.
Although some ranches around the Spade are no longer working cattle ranches, the Spade Ranch continues to operate as a beef cattle ranch. Richards and Comstocks' legacy was carried on by Lawrence Bixby, whose legacy is carried on by his descendants. Historically, the Spade Ranch is an important feature of the landscape of Sheridan County, and it continues to be one today.
Lawrence Bixby: Preserver of the Old Spade Ranch written by Ruth Van Ackeren and Robert M. Howard, follows the story of Lawrence Bixby who picked up the pieces of the crumbling Spade Empire to form a second ranching dynasty that forged a path through twentieth century ranching by raising market topping Hereford cattle, award winning Percheron and Belgian Workhorses and producing revered prize winning Calf Roping Quarterhorses, while doing all possible to protect and preserve the ranch he called home.
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
located in the Sandhills
Sand Hills (Nebraska)
The Sand Hills, often written Sandhills, is a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state...
of western Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
between the towns of Gordon
Gordon, Nebraska
Gordon is a city in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,612 at the 2010 census.- Geography :Gordon is located at ....
and Ellsworth
Ellsworth, Nebraska
Ellsworth is an unincorporated community in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the community had a population of 32. Ellsworth was established in the late nineteenth century as a company town for the Spade Ranch and a shipping point for cattle on the Chicago,...
. Founded in 1888 by Bartlett Richards
Bartlett Richards
Bartlett Richards was born January 6, 1862, in Weathersfield, Vermont, the son of a Congregational church pastor. At the age of ten, after his father died, Richards was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts...
, the ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1980.
A beef ranching operation in the Nebraska Sandhills, the Spade Ranch, encompasses land in both Sheridan
Sheridan County, Nebraska
-History:Sheridan County was formed in 1885. It was named after General Philip H. Sheridan.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 6,198 people, 2,549 households, and 1,728 families residing in the county. The population density was 2 people per square mile . There were 3,013 housing...
and Cherry
Cherry County, Nebraska
Cherry County is unusual in being split between two time zones, Mountain Time and Central Time. The lines between the two runs roughly north to south along the eastern third of the county. Cherry County is also the location of the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, the Fort Niobrara National...
Counties. Founders Bartlett Richards and William Comstock successfully managed the ranch into the early twentieth century. At its peak size in 1905 with open-range grazing and ready markets for cattle, the Spade, encompassed over 500000 acres (202,343 ha) with a herd of 60,000 cattle. Under the direction of the Bixby Family, associates of Richards and Comstock since 1908 and owners of the ranch since 1923, the Spade Ranch has continued to produce quality beef cattle and quarter horses for more than a century.
The Spade Ranch is named for the cattle brand that founders Bartlett Richards and William Comstock used to mark their cattle. The brand resembles an Ace of Spades
Ace of Spades
At least in English-speaking countries, the ace of spades is traditionally seen as the highest card in the deck of playing cards, although the actual value of the card varies from game to game...
on playing cards. The Spade brand is still in use as the ranch brand today.
Foundation and Growth
Republican River
The Republican River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, flowing through the U.S. states of Nebraska and Kansas.-Geography:...
and South Loup River. H.L. Newman a wealthy St. Louis banker and stock-raiser and brother E.S. Newman established headquarters in 1878 at the mouth of the Antelope Creek, 12 miles (19.3 km) south-east of the present town of Gordon, Nebraska
Gordon, Nebraska
Gordon is a city in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,612 at the 2010 census.- Geography :Gordon is located at ....
and range along the Niobrara River
Niobrara River
The Niobrara River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, running through the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska. The river drains one of the most arid sections of the Great Plains, and has a low flow for a river of its length...
covered an area of 30 by 65 miles (104.6 km) with 15,000 head of cattle. John Bratt, the Keystone Cattle Company, and the Bosler Brothers had penetrated along the south rim of the Sandhills, but it wasn't until the spring of 1879 that the economic importance of the Sandhills were discovered. That year storm-driven cattle from the Newman Ranch disappeared South into the Sandhills area previously avoided by cattlemen. An expedition was organized, with ranch foreman Billy Irwin in change, to venture into the Sandhills and round-up the scattered cattle. During the roundup of those cattle other wild cattle were found, the wild cattle had grown fat even though untended during several winters. On the fourth week out and running low on provisions, the Newman cowboys camped along a lake where all they had to eat was bean soup. They called the lake Bean Soup Lake, four miles (6 km) east of what would later become the headquarters of the Spade Ranch. One of the Newman cowboys on the 1879 round-up, was later Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
mayor James Dahlman
James Dahlman
James Charles Dahlman , also known as Jim Dahlman, Cowboy Jim and Mayor Jim, was elected to eight terms as mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, serving the city for 20 years over a 23-year-period. A German-American and an agnostic, Dahlman grew up in a ranching area and started working as a Texas cowboy...
.
Word of the Newman Ranch's successful roundup of 1879 spread and rangeland along the Niobrara filled as fast as cattlemen could move in stock and erect shacks and corrals, but no ranch headquarters had as yet located within the Sandhills themselves. Bennett Irwin, one of the cattlemen on the 1879 roundup into the Sandhills, had as early as 1884 began to file on land in a large valley to the west of Bean Soup Lake called the Home Valley. The Home Valley is at the beginning of a series of large valleys capable of producing many thousands of tons of hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
, making it an ideal location for settlement and development of a ranch.
On August 10, 1888, Bartlett Richards
Bartlett Richards
Bartlett Richards was born January 6, 1862, in Weathersfield, Vermont, the son of a Congregational church pastor. At the age of ten, after his father died, Richards was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts...
bought Bennett Irwin's filing near Bean Soup Lake in Sheridan County. The Log House from the Newman Ranch was disassembled and moved to its new location in the Home Valley, making it the first building erected at the newly formed Spade Ranch. During the 1890s, Richards developed his almost 800 square miles (2,072 km²) in Sheridan and Cherry Counties into manageable units. Ranching activities occurred year round. Following the breeding schedule, spring was calving and round up. Summer activities included harvesting hay to use for cattle feed in the fall and winter. Additional laborers were often hired to help with this task. During the fall fireguards were plowed to prevent fires from spreading, as the pastures had dried by the summer and cattle were shipped by railroad to markets in Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
and Chicago. Year round activities included providing beef for the Indian agencies and building fences. Initially, fences created corrals at the ranch headquarters. By the early 1890s, fencing of grazing areas increased. The number of widespread roundups in the area may have increased the desire to fence in areas.
The Spade Ranch was one of the larger operations near the Pine Ridge Agency
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was established in 1889 in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border...
and supplied beef to the Dakota reservation. The Chadron Advocate reported in 1891," Bartlett Richards has received the beef contract at Pine Ridge Agency for the ensuing year. The amount is 6,000,000 pounds. This will require 6,000 head of cattle." The Spade continued a contract with the Pine Ridge Agency until 1896. Even through the agency provided good business, most of the steady business came from shipping cattle to packers or feeders in the corn belt.
In December 1895, the Richard and Cairnes partnership was formed with assets totaling $475,000.00 ( $12,087,227.00 current). Richards and Cairnes, Inc., included Richards as president, John Cairnes of Boston as vice president, and Jarvis Richards, secretary and treasurer. John Cairnes only attended one board meeting and in 1899 sold his stock to Richards and resigned. William Comstock took Cairnes' place on the board, and they remained partners until Richards' death in 1911.
In May 1899, the two companies (Richards and Cairnes, Inc., and Richards and Comstock) merged to form the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company. Bartlett Richards, William Comstock, Jarvis Richards, DeForest Richards, and E.C. Harris of Chadron
Chadron, Nebraska
Chadron is a city in Dawes County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 5,851 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Dawes County. Chadron is the home of Chadron State College....
were named directors. At the time of the merger, the company range included 16,000 head of cattle. Bankers authorized loans of $150,000.00 ($3,817,019.11 current) to purchase additional cattle.
William Comstock stayed in the home valley of the Spade Ranch headquarters, which is approximately 25 miles (40.2 km) north of Ellsworth. Comstock had a sod house
Sod house
The sod house or "soddy" was a corollary to the log cabin during frontier settlement of Canada and the United States. The prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone; however, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant...
at the headquarters, another soddie as a ranch office, a good-sized bunkhouse, the log cookhouse (the log building moved from the Newman Ranch), a barn, feed yards, large corrals for working with cattle, breaking horses, branding, and dipping cattle, a blacksmith shop, a machine shop and the ranch store. The ranch store featured staple groceries, clothing, supplies, and a place to pick up mail carried from the Ellsworth post office. Later Comstock built a large frame house in the center of Spade operations. One additional house was built as a home for Spade foreman, Mike Peterson. Peterson worked for the Spade for several years, but rather than work for a wage, he received both land and stock.
By January 1899, telephone lines were constructed from Gordon to Ellsworth, and lines were proposed to extend to Rushville
Rushville, Nebraska
Rushville is a city in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 890 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Sheridan County.-Geography:Rushville is located at ....
, Hay Springs
Hay Springs, Nebraska
Hay Springs is a village in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 652 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hay Springs is located at ....
, and Chadron under the new "Ranch Telephone Company". The Ranch Telephone Company was incorporated with Richards as president. Telephone lines connected the cattle-shipping points on the Burlington Railroad—Ellsworth, Lakeside
Lakeside, Nebraska
Lakeside is an unincorporated community in southern Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. It lies along Nebraska Highways 2 and 250 south of the city of Rushville, the county seat of Sheridan County. Its elevation is 3,881 feet . Although Lakeside is unincorporated, it has a post...
, and Bingham
Bingham, Nebraska
Bingham is an unincorporated community in southeastern Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. It lies along Nebraska Highway 2 south-southeast of the city of Rushville, the county seat of Sheridan County. Its elevation is 3,894 feet . Although Bingham is unincorporated, it has a post...
—with Comstock's headquarters at the ranch.
Richards moved his headquarters from Chadron to Ellsworth in 1901 to be closer to the ranch. He completed his brick house in Ellsworth in the summer of 1902. The Richards family had a winter residence built in Coronado, California
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
, that same year.
Richards began to concentrate on upgrading the breeding operation. He experimented with grain feeds to take care of calves and other special feeding problems, and he put windmills for adequate water. Richards and Comstock were the first cattlemen in the area to use chloro-naptholeum, a livestock dip that removed lice, mange, Texas itch, and other external parasites. The Spade Ranch was the agent for this patented product west of the Mississippi River. In 1903, the Spade's Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
cattle won the Grand Prize at the American Royal Stock Show
American Royal
The American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri is a livestock show, horse show and rodeo held each year in October and November at Kemper Arena. The Future Farmers of America was founded during the Royal and Kansas City's professional baseball team the Kansas City Royals derive their name from the...
in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
for the best of any breed in both yearling and calf competition.
War widow claims
In 1901, Richards had 400 sectionsSection (United States land surveying)
In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System , a section is an area nominally one square mile, containing , with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid....
of land surveyed north of Ellsworth and placed a four-wire fence around the 250000 acres (101,171.5 ha). This area included government-owned land with 30 reservoirs, each of which had two or three windmills and water tanks for the stock. The fencing of pastures was necessary to prevent scattering of cattle and preserve breeding. To protect grazing lands from settlers, some ranches, such as the Spade, filed 160 acres (64.7 ha) homesteads where they had built fences. For example, the Spade Ranch paid Civil War veterans, their widows, and others to make the land claims and then transfer the leases to the ranch. This method allowed ranches to protect ranges and buy time in hope that a leasing law would be passed. The first batch of Civil War widows filed for the Spade Ranch in July 1902 and, within a month, enough widow claims had been added to cover the western side of Richard's southern pasture.
Fencing controversy and trials
In general, cattlemen did not feel that fencing was wrong. They believed they were fencing land unsuitable for any other uses, especially farming. Further, they believed a method of leasing land was a way to give value to the government land in the Sandhills and allow fencing to be legal. The House Committee on Public Lands held hearings on leasing and grazing legislation between January and June 1902.Richards testified in favor of the Bowersock Bill, making the following plea:
Congress hesitated to pass a leasing act, and the United States Department of the Interior
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
was determined to remove the fences. By November 1902, the Rushville Standard reported that Bartlett Richards had been ordered to remove his fences in Sheridan and Cherry Counties. The fenced enclosed about 60 civil township
Civil township
A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States, subordinate to, and geographic divisions of, a county. Specific responsibilities and the degree of autonomy vary based on each state. Civil townships are distinct from survey townships, but in states that have both,...
s, which would be enough to support 960 families at two sections per family. The Secretary of the Interior, Ethan A. Hitchcock
Ethan A. Hitchcock (Interior)
Ethan Allen Hitchcock served under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.-Early life:...
, following the Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
administration's direction, set out to enforce the 1885 Van Wyck Law, which forbade the fencing of public lands.
In 1905, Richards and Comstock were indicted and brought to trial for the illegal fencing of 212000 acres (85,793.4 ha) of government land. They first entered a plea of not guilty, but quickly reconsidered and plead guilty to "asserting ownership and exclusive occupancy of government lands". Attorney Richard S. Hall told the court as the plea was entered for his clients:"It is our intention to comply with the law. We are removing the fences as rapidly as we can, but such as may remain, we have nothing to do with. Wherever the government shows us we have an unlawful fence, we will remove it." The fences they had "nothing to do with" may refer to those on a common boundary with other ranches or on widow claims.
On November 13, 1905, Richards and Comstock were sentenced to the custody of a United States Marshal for six hours and a fine of $300 and half of court costs. The modest sentence may have reflected a finding that they did not intimidate settlers and that their employees were at work removing the fences. Controversially, newspaper accounts charged that Richards and Comstock took part in a victory celebration instead of serving time. The Secretary of the Interior was upset about the news and fired District Attorney Baxter and Marshal Thomas L. Mathews, the officer in charge of Richards and Comstock's six hour sentence. In reality, during their sentence, Richards and Comstock returned to the hotel to pack, write letters, shop, eat dinner, and arrive at the train station for the 11 p.m. train to Ellsworth.
In August 1906, new changes were brought against all Spade officials for "conspiracy to defraud the government of the title and use of public lands, subornation of perjury, and conspiracy to suborn perjury". The case was called to trial on November 12, 1906, in the Federal District Court in Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
before Judge William H. Munger. Richards and Comstock did not testify. United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
men spent 13 months investigating and getting evidence. Affidavits were taken from 600 witnesses, subpoenas were issued for 165 witnesses, and 132 people offered evidence in trail.
On December 20, 1906, the jury delivered a guilty verdict on 35 of the 38 counts. A motion for a new trial was overruled and the sentence to Bartlett Richards and William Comstock was $1,500 fines and eight months in prison. Richards and Comstock appealed the verdict and were released on a $5,000 bond. The appellate court affirmed the guilty verdict on December 3, 1909. On October 17, 1910, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of Richards, Comstock, and their associates, and ordered them to pay the fines and prepare to serve their sentences beginning on December 7.
Comstock, Jameson, and Triplett surrendered in late November and Richards arrived in Omaha on December 7, 1910. All four were transferred to the Adams County
Adams County, Nebraska
Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of July 1, 2006, the population estimate was 33,185. Its name is in honor of the second President of the United States, John Adams...
jail in Hastings
Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, United States. It is the principal city of the Hastings, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Adams and Clay counties. The population was 24,907 at the 2010 census...
to serve their sentences. Again the press covered the story of their imprisonment with false accounts. It was reported that Richards and Comstock were receiving special treatment but, in reality, the two were in the same surroundings as other prisoners and were granted very few privileges.
In June 1911 Richards was allowed to go to the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
in Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, The city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the...
, for gallstone surgery and returning to the Hastings jail on August 10. Richards had long-standing intestinal troubles and never fully recovered from surgery. Bartlett Richards died while incarcerated at Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, United States. It is the principal city of the Hastings, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Adams and Clay counties. The population was 24,907 at the 2010 census...
in the early morning hours of September 4, 1911 before his wife could arrive by train from the family home in Coronado, California
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
. When Will Comstock first heard the news of the partner's death, he is reported to have said, "May the angles guide you into Paradise, and may the martyrs come to meet you." The next day William Comstock was released and his sentence commuted by order of President William Taft so as to attend the funeral of his business partner in San Diego.
The trials and appeals had caused financial strain on the ranch and holdings of the Nebraska Land Company. Before his imprisonment, Richards had been ill and no longer directly managed the ranch. During his imprisonment, there was no direct supervision of the ranch affairs. Following Richards' death, Comstock took control of the Spade Ranch and the Comstock and Richards families shared quarters at the Ellsworth house in the summers. In 1912, Comstock closed the C Bar and Overton Ranches, reducing the official land holding of the Spade Ranch. William Comstock died of cancer in the fall of 1916. Despite Comstock's advice to the contrary, Mrs. Richards kept control of the ranch.
It was difficult to maintain the ranch, because the era of free range was over. By 1916, Kinkaiders
Kinkaid Act
The Kinkaid Act of 1904 is a U.S. statute that amended the 1862 Homestead Act so that one section of a township of undeveloped land could be claimed in 37 northern and western Nebraska counties...
had claimed the land in the middle of the Spade range. Range land, once free, now had to be leased or bought from the homesteaders. The Nebraska Land and Feeding Company borrowed $200,000 ($3,893,991.77 current) from the New York Trust Company through a first mortgage on the Spade Land. The ranch survived until the depression of 1922-1923, during which time the mortgages on the land were foreclosed. By this time, the holdings of the Spade Ranch had been reduced to about 60000 acres (24,281.2 ha). The Richards family spent their last summer in Ellsworth in 1923 and the ranch was turned over to the bank.
Reviving the Spade-The Bixby Acquisition
With the New York Trust Company's takeover of the Spade Ranch following the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company's foreclosure the future of the Spade was in question. In late 1923 Edward M. Brass, and his business partner, Edward P. Meyers, both prominent cattlemen, business men and owners of the Sandhill Land and Cattle Company secured the lease on the Spade Ranch. Brass and Meyers seemed to have uncanny foresight of economic change. Prior to 1922 they had sold most of their cattle at good prices and then leased their ranches out then with cattle prices low in 1923-24, they bought back into the cattle business. Beginning in 1924 management of the ranch was given to Lawrence Y. Bixby, cattleman and former employee of the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company.Lawrence had first arrived at the Spade Ranch in 1909 at the age of thirteen and grew up observing and working for its owners. In 1908 Bixby's father James, an eastern professor who had moved west for a position at the Spade School, filed on and moved to a section of land four miles (6 km) east of the Spade Ranch Headquarters. In 1909 the rest of the Bixby family followed. Bixby's mother Jennie worked as a ranch cook at the Spade Headquarters Cookhouse. Lawrence along with brother's Onie and Winfred worked for area ranches and the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company from 1909 until the ranch's foreclosure. Brass and Meyers arranged with Lawrence to buy the hay and have him care for and feed their cattle which were branded with Sandhills Land and Cattle Company's Sugar Bowl brand. Early on, Brass assisted Bixby with a $2000.00
($24,031.37 current) down payment on a loan to buy 2,000 acres (810 ha) of the Spade land. Beginning in 1925, Bixby slowly began to obtain sections of the old Spade Ranch range by hard work and perseverance, aided by bankers willing to take a chance. Around 1926, Brass and Meyers suggested Bixby move to the ranch headquarters in the Spade home valley. Brass died in 1929, leaving Meyers in full control of the Sandhills corporation. With Bixby running 12,000 head of Meyers hereford cattle, 3000 head of his own hereford's and a large draft and quarter remuda the ranch prospered but during the depression of the 1930s, Meyers reduced the company's total number of cattle and Bixby's 13-year relationship with the Sandhills Corporation ended in 1937. By 1940 Bixby had been able to regain 40 square miles (100 km2) of original Spade Ranch range, including the home valley headquarters.
Bixby continued to purchase land and operation eventually amassed much of the holdings that had comprised Richard's and Comstock's Spade Ranch. During his ownership Bixby planted thousands of trees in the home valley around the Spade Ranch and installed airstrips for the ranch airplanes. In addition to reviving the Spade Ranch, Lawrence Bixby also returned the Richards Home in Ellsworth, Nebraska to noteworthy status. Since the time of the Richards ownership, the house had been divided into apartments and was in disrepair. In 1953-1954, Lawrence and wife Eleanor moved to the Ellsworth house after it was rehabilitated. In 1965 the ranch headquarters included the large 1889 Comstock-Bixby house where Lawrence's son Jim and family lived, another residents built in 1952 for Lawrence's other son Larry and family, three large bunkhouses, the 1879 log cookhouse, a clubhouse with bar known as the cabin, large 1889 horse barn, cattle dipping vat, livestock scales, feed yards, large corrals for working with cattle and breaking horses, calving barns, 1895 blacksmith shop, cattle feed storage facilities, a machine shop and a large three aircraft hangar. Starting in the early 1950s Lawrence served as a high ranking officer in the Nebraska Stock Growers Association, the Nebraska Beef Council and as president of the Nebraska Flying Farmers and Ranchers Association. In the 1954, Bixby donated $60,000 ($473,460.44 current USD) to help pave Nebraska Highway 27 from Ellsworth to Gordon, which passed by the ranch.
Lawrence Bixby admired Bartlett Richards as a man and as a cattleman. "The homesteaders would have starved to death without Richards," he said. " He loaned them milk cows, gave them horses and let them charge at the Spade Ranch Store. Even after the Kinkaid Act people couldn't exist by trying to farm or raise cattle on 640 acres (260 ha). They left and Richards bought their land at fair prices. Through Bixby's efforts, Bartlett Richards was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1970. In 1981 Bixby himself was named a patron member of the Hall and his photograph was etched on a silver plaque in the Founders Hall section. In 1980, the original headquarters and Ranch had listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
State Historical Preservation Officer Marvin F. Kivett explained:
Lawrence Bixby died of heart failure May 26, 1982, an Alliance Times Herald headline read:
Following Lawrence Bixby's death in 1982 ranch operations were passed to son James D. Bixby. Jim who had won notoriety in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is an organization whose members compete in rodeos throughout North America, primarily in the United States. The PRCA sanctions rodeo venues and events through the PRCA Circuit System. Its championship event is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...
Calf Roping
Calf roping
Calf roping, also known as tie-down roping, is a rodeo event that features a calf and a rider mounted on a horse. The goal of this timed event is for the rider to catch the calf by throwing a loop of rope from a lariat around its neck, dismount from the horse, run to the calf, and restrain it by...
circuit retained a very large quarterhorse remuda
Remuda
A Remuda is a herd of horses from which ranch hands select their mounts. The word is of Spanish derivation, for "change of horses" and is commonly used in the American West. The person in charge of the remuda is generally known as a wrangler.-Necessity:...
and maintained the Spade's tradition of using only horse and cowboy for daily ranch operations. During his ownership Bixby transitioned the cow herd from Hereford to Angus
Angus cattle
Angus cattle are a breed of cattle much used in beef production. They were developed from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland, and are known as Aberdeen Angus in most parts of the world....
Cattle due to changing market demands. Jim was very active on and off the ranch until his death from cancer in 1990.
The Spade has been operated by Jim's son Bret Y. Bixby, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is an organization whose members compete in rodeos throughout North America, primarily in the United States. The PRCA sanctions rodeo venues and events through the PRCA Circuit System. Its championship event is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...
Steer Roper
Steer roping
Steer roping, also known as steer tripping, is a rodeo event that features a steer and one mounted cowboy.The steer roper is behind a taut rope fastened with an easily broken string which is fastened to the rope on the steer. When the roper is ready he calls for the steer and the chute man trips a...
, since 1990. Bret, like his father and grandfather before him maintains the Spade's usage of horse and rider.
The Spade Ranch Today
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
s and ranch hands are still employed by the Bixby's and daily ranch operations are achieved on horseback. During the summer months of July and August hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
is harvested out the large meadows to be used to feed cattle during winter. Calving season begins in February and tapers off by early April. Large roundups are carried out in the spring and fall to ready cattle for market and branding
Livestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...
. Branding at the Spade is a large yearly event, cattle are roped from horseback, wrestled by hand and branded with the Spade brand. The Branding is traditionally concluded with a large western dinner. Cattle are no longer shipped to market by train, but rather by cattle truck. Aircraft are used to locate cattle in large pastures, spot downed fences, for quick trips into nearby towns and for ranch business abroad. Bixby Black Angus cattle are nationally recognized for both their quality and genetics. The Bixby Family works closely with the Nebraska State Historical Society
Nebraska State Historical Society
The Nebraska State Historical Society is a Nebraska state agency, founded in 1878 to "encourage historical research and inquiry, spread historical information .....
and Chadron State College
Chadron State College
Chadron State College is a four-year public college in the Nebraska State College System in Chadron, Nebraska. The college is located in the northern part of the Nebraska Panhandle, in the Pine Ridge area....
in the preservation and research of the Sandhills region of Nebraska.
Although some ranches around the Spade are no longer working cattle ranches, the Spade Ranch continues to operate as a beef cattle ranch. Richards and Comstocks' legacy was carried on by Lawrence Bixby, whose legacy is carried on by his descendants. Historically, the Spade Ranch is an important feature of the landscape of Sheridan County, and it continues to be one today.
Books
Bartlett Richards: Nebraska Sandhills Cattleman written by son Bartlett Richards, Jr. with Ruth Van Ackeren, details the life of Bartlett Richard, Sr. with his personal and business correspondence from his first arriving at Cheyenne, Wyoming in August 1879, his education and apprenticeship with some of the most powerful Havard taught cattle barons of the time, through the rise of his enormous cattle ranching empires in Wyoming and Nebraska, the controversial land trials at the hands of the government and to his unexpected death in 1911.Lawrence Bixby: Preserver of the Old Spade Ranch written by Ruth Van Ackeren and Robert M. Howard, follows the story of Lawrence Bixby who picked up the pieces of the crumbling Spade Empire to form a second ranching dynasty that forged a path through twentieth century ranching by raising market topping Hereford cattle, award winning Percheron and Belgian Workhorses and producing revered prize winning Calf Roping Quarterhorses, while doing all possible to protect and preserve the ranch he called home.
See also
- Range warRange warA range war is a type of conflict that occurs in agrarian or stockrearing societies. Typically fought over water rights or grazing rights to unfenced/unowned land, it could pit competing farmers or ranchers against each other...
- RangelandRangelandRangelands are vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras...
- CowboyCowboyA cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
- Animal husbandryAnimal husbandryAnimal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
- List of Ranches and Stations