DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men are born into a legacy and spend their whole lives just trying to live up to it. Tom L.
Burnett knew that feeling well. His father was Burk Burnett, one of the most noted ranchers in all of Texas, the very man for whom the town of Burkburnett, just eighteen miles northeast of here, was named. That is a long shadow to step out of.
But Tom, born in 1871, had a plan. Or maybe the plan had him. He started where any serious cattleman would start: right on his father's own spread, the 6666 Ranch.
Four sixes. If you've heard that name whispered with a kind of reverence around a campfire, well, that's where Tom Burnett learned the trade. And he learned it well.
He went on to own the Triangle Ranch right here in the area, and his range land stretched out into Cottle and Foard counties too. This wasn't a man content to graze just one patch of Texas. Now, cattle and land will build a reputation, but Tom Burnett built something more.
He was a civic leader. A philanthropist. And he had a particular quality that stood out even among men of standing: he was known for his friendliness to Indians, including the famous Chief Quanah Parker himself.
You don't see that noted on just any marker. Then there were the rodeos. Tom Burnett threw his support behind the area rodeos, and the people who knew him gave him a nickname that fit like a good saddle: the Rodeo King.
Not a bad thing to be called in Texas. Not a bad thing at all. Tom Burnett died in 1938, right here, in his residence at this very site.
The son of a legend, and by all accounts, a man who made the name his own.
What the marker says
The son of noted rancher Burk Burnett, for whom the nearby town of Burkburnett (18 miles northeast) was named, Tom L. Burnett (b. 1871) became one of the leading area cattlemen. Trained on his father's 6666 (four sixes) Ranch, Tom later owned the local Triangle Ranch, as well as range land in Cottle and Foard counties. A prominent civic leader and philanthropist, he was known for his friendliness to Indians, including the famous Chief Quanah Parker. His support of area rodeos earned him the nickname, the "Rodeo King". Tom Burnett died in his residence at this site in 1938.