By David Dary

For The Transcript

The 101 Ranch is legendary, almost bigger than life. Nevertheless, it was real. Take away its romance and color and it is the story of enterprise, imagination and hard work of George Washington Miller and his three sons.

Miller was born near Danville, Kentucky on Feb. 22, 1842. He married Mollie Carson of Louisville, Kentucky, early in 1866.

About 1868 Miller moved his family west to Newfonia, Missouri. One year later they moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, close to the border of northwestern Indian Territory.

Miller was 28 in 1871 when he established a ranch near modern Miami, Oklahoma. He acquired about 400 Texas longhorns and hired a few cowboys to watch the animals. He built his cattle business by making cattle buying trips to Texas. He then trailed them

north to his ranch before shipping them to market.

Miller adopted the 101 brand in the early 1870s. Tradition says he borrowed the 101 brand from the name of a saloon in San Antonio, Texas. On buying trails south, his

cowboys often drank too much in the saloon. Miller decided that if the cowboys had to see 101 on the rumps of the cattle being trailed north, they would be reminded of their excesses.

About 1878 Miller leased Indian land on the Salt Fork River near modern Ponca City. In 1881, Miller bought a house in Winfield, Kansas, north across the border of Indian Territory. Winfield had schools, churches and things not found in Indian Territory where whites could not settle.

By the late 1890s, Miller’s operation was called the 101 Ranch. It grew and prospered. Then George W. Miller died at the age of 61 on April 25, 1903. His three sons took the reins of the 101 Ranch

Thirty-five year-old Joseph, 25-year-old Zachary, and 22 year-old George each had their own area of expertise. Joe Miller, the oldest, was an expert in grains and plants.

Zack Miller, the middle son, was a cattleman, and George, the youngest, was a whiz at finance.

The Miller brothers made the 101 Ranch perhaps the largest farm and ranch operation in America. It attracted countless visitors and much attention.

In its heyday the 101 Ranch had 15 departments, each with its own manager. The ranch raised beef and dairy cattle, grew wheat and corn and raised Arabian horses, polo ponies, hogs, geese, chickens, turkeys and other animals. Eventually the ranch had its own meat packing plant, a tannery, saddle making shop, creamery, ice plant, post office, school, laundry, saloon, phone system, ranch store, cafe and bank.

The ranch even issued its own currency called Miller Script. It could be spent at the ranch store and was generally accepted within a hundred mile radius of the ranch.

While Joe and George concentrated on running the farm and ranch, Zack sought to capitalize on the public’s fascination with the Old West. He held annual rodeos featuring riding, roping, Indian dancers, trick roping, riding and shooting, and bull dogging.

Bill Picket, the founder of modern bull-dogging, got his start on the 101 Ranch. Picket bull-dogged steers with his teeth. Jumping from his horse, he would sink his tenth into the steer’s lip reportedly dropping the animal every time.

The Millers hosted conventions of many national organizations at their ranch. In the 1920s one group was the National Editorial Association. According to most accounts, visitors arrived in 30 regular and special trains. Perhaps 60,000 people were fascinated by the entertainment.

The Miller brothers started the 101 Ranch Wild West Show. It annually toured from spring to fall throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The show traveled in its own trains with freight cars and Pullmans. The show went to England in 1915.

The 101 Ranch cowboys were the stars of the show. Several of them became Western film stars including Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, Buck Jones and Ken Maynard.

When the Salt Folk River flooded in 1923, ranch crops were destroyed, livestock drowned and buildings and equipment were damaged. The financial loss was at least $250,000.

The 101 Ranch survived, but by the late 1920s public interest in wild west shows, began to fade with the arrival of radio and motion pictures.

In 1927, Joe Miller died. Two years later George died in an automobile accident. The ranch began to decline.

Zack Miller, the surviving brother, tried to keep the ranch profitable, but legal and financial problems developed even before the depression 1930s arrived. He sought to raise money with the 101 Ranch Wild West, but it closed in 1939 after the New York

World’s Fair.

Zack Miller was broke. He had no choice but to dispose of the ranch assets to pay bills. In 1941 the Federal Farm Security Administration bought the ranch land and divided it

into 34 farms. Miller managed to buy the 101 Ranch Store and operated it until 1937 when he moved to Texas. He died there in 1952.

Today the 101 Ranch is only a memory. The large white house that was a ranch landmark is gone. Crumbling foundations are all that remain south of Ponca City of the once fabulous empire. But George W. Miller and his sons left an enduring legacy that is a

colorful page in Oklahoma history.