[10] Later Comstock built a large frame house in the center of Spade operations. Comstock, Jameson, and Triplett surrendered in late November and Richards arrived in Omaha on December 7, 1910. One additional house was built as a home for Spade foreman, Mike Peterson. Ted Turner is the largest private landowner in Nebraska, owning about 2.2 million acres with over 500,000 acres in Nebraska alone. Ranching activities occurred year round. 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. [22], 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". 1903), Ranch Secretary at Ellsworth Office (ca. 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. They called the lake Bean Soup Lake, four miles (6 km) east of what would later become the headquarters of the Spade Ranch. Affidavits were taken from 600 witnesses, subpoenas were issued for 165 witnesses, and 132 people offered evidence in trail. The Spade Ranch is a large cattle ranch located in the Sandhills of western Nebraska between the towns of Gordon and Ellsworth. Although some ranches around the Spade are no longer working cattle ranches, the Spade Ranch continues to operate as a beef cattle ranch. United States Secret Service men spent 13 months investigating and getting evidence. An expedition was organized, with ranch foreman Billy Irwin in charge, to venture into the Sandhills and round-up the scattered cattle. ... "This is just an early trophy-hunting permit ... get the biggest buck, the biggest rack," Groene said. The 10 biggest landowners in the United States collectively own more than 13 million acres across the country — that’s more than 0.5% of America. Bixby Black Angus cattle are nationally recognized for both their quality and genetics. "[21] The fences they had "nothing to do with" may refer to those on a common boundary with other ranches or on widow claims. Although ranching operations have changed considerably since the early days of Richards and Comstock, cowboys and ranch hands are still employed by the Bixby's. The Spade Ranch continues to operate today in the traditional western fashion. He has sold off some of his land in recent years, including a barrier island in South Carolina purchased for a state park and 43,000 acres in Oklahoma sold to the Osage Indian Tribe. The ranch survived until the depression of 1922-1923, during which time the mortgages on the land were foreclosed. Bixby and Sons. 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 as part of Nebraska's large beef industry. They had sold most of their cattle beforehand at good prices then with livestock prices at a low in 1923–24 they bought back in but lacked hay and range. [14], In 1901, Richards had 400 sections of land surveyed north of Ellsworth and placed a four-wire fence around the 250,000 acres (100,000 ha). The top 100 landowners of America, who collectively own about the same amount of acreage as the state of Connecticut. LC copy in two sections, top section split along fold. The Spade lost 10,000 head of those cattle. Before his imprisonment, Richards had been ill and no longer directly managed the 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. Despite Comstock's advice to the contrary, Mrs. Richards kept control of the ranch.[27]. The tech billionaire owns 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in Arkansas, and 20,588 acres in Nebraska. Initially, fences created corrals at the ranch headquarters. Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Additionally, he has a stake in 25,750 acres of transitional land on the west side of Phoenix, Ariz., which is being developed as a new suburb. By this time, the holdings of the Spade Ranch had been reduced to about 60,000 acres (24,000 ha). He was active in Alliance and other rodeos during the years. In 1947 Lawrence purchased the Spade's first airplane, a Piper J-3 Cub, but found the plane to small and gave it to his boys. 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. World’s biggest philanthropist Bill Gates and one of the world’s richest has earned a new title: he is the biggest landowner in the U.S. We are removing the fences as rapidly as we can, but such as may remain, we have nothing to do with. Nebraska Fence Laws and Responsibility of Landowners. He owns around 2500 horses and cattle altogether. He seldom fired anyone and selected his help carefully. “People are not enthused about it being owned by a quasi-public entity. A beef ranching operation in the Nebraska Sandhills, the Spade Ranch, encompasses land in both Sheridan and Cherry Counties. With the purchase, that ranch now encompasses 141,149 acres, and his seven holdings in Nebraska total 506,935 acres, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Harris of Chadron were named directors. Mr. Bixby took over the ranch in the early 1930s and now he, his sons and grandsons operate approximately 40 square miles of old Spade range. In 1909 Bartlett Richards bought 20,000 head of cattle delivered from Mexico. Nobody knows that,” Ducey said. In 1908 his father James Bixby, an eastern professor, bought a homestead relinquishment four miles East of the Spade Ranch headquarters next to Bean Soup Lake after James had taken a teaching position for Bartlett Richards and William Comstock. The hotel built across the street from the store, provided free accommodations for the Spade Ranch cowboys. According to some notable online sources, he makes around $32 million a year. The ranches nationwide raise between 45,000 and 50,000 bison, supplying the 45 Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants operated by Turner. Aircraft proved to be vital during the ‘49 Blizzard and for daily life on secluded Sandhill ranches. 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. H.L. The amount is 6,000,000 pounds. Here the United States has immense properties that are not improving, which we [cattlemen] have grown up with and have improved, and we ask you that while you have no better use for this land, that you will lease it to us at a reasonable rental, and that the moment you have any better use for it, for irrigation, for mineral entires, for storage reservoirs, for agricultural purposes, for forest reserves, for anything else which may come up and be the sense of Congress that it wants, that land shall be lifted out of the lease, and no recompense shall be made to the former leaseholder. 168 the previous year. LC Land ownership maps, 417 Includes business directories, advertisements, and statistics. They own at least 433,000 acres of land. Bret, like his father and grandfather before him maintains the Spade's usage of horse and rider. [28][29] The Richards family spent their last summer in Ellsworth in 1923 and the ranch was turned over to the bank. In 1898, Richards and Cairnes, Inc., built a store, hotel, and stockyards in the small community. This will require 6,000 head of cattle. During his imprisonment, there was no direct supervision of the ranch affairs. Even with its new total of 228,000 acres in Nebraska, the church has a way to go before outpacing billionaire Ted Turner, who with 290,000 acres is … [8] At the time of the merger, the company range included 16,000 head of cattle. Beginning in 1924 management of the ranch was given to Lawrence Y. Bixby, cattleman and former employee of the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company. That year storm-driven cattle from the Newman Ranch disappeared South into the Sandhills area previously avoided by cattlemen. But Turner has also won praise for enhancing wildlife habitat and protecting threatened species on his properties and for providing grants for arts councils, libraries and 4-H groups in the Sand Hills. The store served as office headquarters for the Spade Ranch and included a general store and post office. Lawrence served on the executive board of the Nebraska Stock Growers Association, Nebraska Beef Council, the Highway 27 Association, Sheridan County Draft Board and in 1954 was elected President of the Nebraska Flying Farmers and Ranchers Association. The Turner spokesman, Phillip Evans, did not respond to a direct emailed question of whether the land would remain on the tax rolls, and did not respond to later emails seeking clarification. A gift to a wildlife organization? [11] The Ranch Telephone Company was incorporated with Richards as president. Notes in the "Spade Ranch" file, U.S. National Register of Historic Places, History of the National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spade_Ranch_(Nebraska)&oldid=1004885793, Buildings and structures in Cherry County, Nebraska, Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska, Buildings and structures in Sheridan County, Nebraska, Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places in Cherry County, Nebraska, National Register of Historic Places in Sheridan County, Nebraska, Articles using NRISref without a reference number, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 4 February 2021, at 22:16. Land access is one of the biggest challenges facing aspiring and beginning farmers. Here, some of CNN founder Ted Turner's bison graze on his Nebraska ranch. As it turns out, Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, and her family owned 433,000 acres of land in Oklahoma and Kansas, making her the 23rd largest landowner in the United States according to … On May 23, 1927 Lawrence married Miss Eleanor Riordan of York, Ne. The fenced enclosed about 60 civil townships, which would be enough to support 960 families at two sections per family. Historically, the Spade Ranch is an important feature of the landscape of Sheridan County, and it continues to be one today. In 1909 and part of 1910, Bartlett Richards, Sr. was frequently at the ranch. As early as the 1880s, Richards established the Spade Ranch's cattle shipping point in Ellsworth, southwest of the Spade Ranch. This included the 1879 log cookhouse (moved from the Newman Ranch in 1888), 1889 horse barn and the 1889 Richards-Comstock House originally constructed of sod. (AP) — A decade ago, billionaire bison rancher Ted Turner said his appetite for buying more grazing land in Nebraska was likely satisfied. 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. In 1954, Bixby donated $60,000 ($552,863.20 current USD) to help pave Nebraska Highway 27 from Ellsworth to Gordon, which passed by the ranch. 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. 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. Briscoe Family | No. This is a very critical time and the calving herd requires around the clock supervision. The Richards family had a winter residence built in Coronado, California, that same year. The original owners of the ranch, Bartlett Richards and William Comstock, were among the few who proved the Nebraska's Sandhills if handled properly, made good grazing land. In 1924 Edward Brass and E.P. Kime said he asked Turner directly if he ever planned to sell water rights on his Nebraska ranches, which sit on some of the thickest formations of groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer. This area included government-owned land with 30 reservoirs, each of which had two or three windmills and water tanks for the stock. As they freighted past the Spade Ranch Store with milk cow trailing, the Spade Foreman Mike Peterson saw them from the front porch and laughed when he saw the family's piano in the wagon and said “I’ll just give them nesters six months.” Lawrence would later write, “Before the Petersons left a few years later, Mike sold me his homestead for $11 dollars an acre.” They chose the tranquil name of Cloverleaf Ranch for their new homestead but in the first year a rattlesnake bit their dog, James killed a wolf and a neighbor threatened to contest Lawrence's sister Ina's homestead filing unless they gave him a cow, calf and a spool of wire. Telephone lines connected the cattle-shipping points on the Burlington Railroad—Ellsworth, Lakeside, and Bingham—with Comstock's headquarters at the ranch. For some landowners, they simply do not have the next generation available to take over their operation. Although Gates is the largest farmland owner in America, John Malone takes the place of the largest landowner in the country with 890,308 hectares of land. Lawrence Bixby died of heart failure May 26, 1982, an Alliance Times Herald headline read: Lawrence Y. Bixby, 86, a prominent rancher in the Ellsworth area for almost 70 years, died Friday morning at Box Butte General Hospital. The number of employees needed to operate the ranch has significantly decreased over the last few years due to advancements in technology and equipment. John Bratt, the Keystone Cattle Company, and the Bosler Brothers had penetrated along the south rim of the Sandhills, but it was not until the spring of 1879 that the economic importance of the Sandhills were discovered.

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