DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some ranches just sit on the land. Others sink roots so deep the whole county feels it — and the story of the Burnett Horse Ranch in Wichita County is very much the second kind.
It starts, as the best Texas stories tend to, with one man and an idea that kept getting bigger. In the 1870s, Samuel Burk Burnett started the 6666 ranch right here in Wichita County. Four sixes.
You've heard the name. The cattle operations were planted near the center of the county, and for a while, that was enough. Then the 1880s rolled in, and they brought the drought with them.
Now drought has a way of humbling even the most determined rancher, and Burnett was no exception. He and other ranchers had to go looking for grass wherever grass could still be found. That search took them across the Red River into Indian Territory, where they leased thousands of acres of grazing land from the Comanche and Kiowa tribes.
Thousands of acres. That's not a small arrangement — that's survival on a grand scale. And while he was at it, Burnett purchased land along the Red for a horse ranch.
What followed was, by the marker's own account, the greatest period of expansion the 6666 ever saw. Burnett was also working the quality side of the equation, improving his cattle and horses through selective breeding. Building something, deliberately, generation by generation.
Now, things shift. The 6666 headquarters eventually moved to King County, and when it did, Burk's son Tom Burnett didn't follow it out the door. Tom kept ranching right here in Wichita County, holding that ground.
The family did sell the horse ranch, though — in 1906. And then, quieter still, the headquarters house burned in the 1940s. No fanfare.
Just gone. That's how it goes sometimes. The cattle move on, the paperwork transfers, the fire takes what's left — but the story of what Burnett built out here along the Red, well, that one stuck around.
What the marker says
In the 1870s, Samuel Burk Burnett started the 6666 (four sixes) ranch in Wichita County. Cattle operations were near the center of the county. Drought in the 1880s led Burnett and other ranchers to lease thousands of acres of grazing land from the Comanche and Kiowa tribes across the Red River in Indian Territory. Burnett purchased land for a horse ranch along the red. During this time the 6666 saw its greatest period of expansion, and Burnett improved the quality of his cattle and horses through selective breeding. When 6666 headquarters moved to King County, Burk’s son, Tom Burnett, kept ranching in Wichita County. The family sold the horse ranch in 1906, and the headquarters house burned in the 1940s.