The Spade Ranch is a large cattle ranch located in the Sandhills of western Nebraska between the towns of Gordon and Ellsworth. Established in 1888 by Bartlett Richards, the ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Spade Ranch, is a historic cattle ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills, spanning portions of Sheridan and Cherry Counties. Established in 1888 by Bartlett Richards and developed in partnership with William G. Comstock and other associates, it became one of the largest ranching enterprises in the United States of America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Richards and Comstock played an important role in the development of cattle ranching in Nebraska. Under their management, the Spade grew into a vast and highly organized operation supported by fencing, wells, windmills, trails, and telephone lines, helping demonstrate that the Sandhills could sustain large-scale grazing and improved cattle production. By 1905, with open-range grazing and strong cattle markets, the Spade encompassed more than 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) and, at its peak, supported a herd of 60,000 cattle.
The ranch’s early history was also marked by controversy. In 1906, Richards and Comstock were tried on charges connected to fraudulent public-land entries tied to the ranch’s fenced range. They were convicted, and the legal battles, imprisonment, Richards’s death in 1911, and Comstock’s death in 1916 all contributed to the decline of the original enterprise. By 1923, the ranch’s mortgages had been foreclosed.
The Bixby family became central to the ranch’s later history after the collapse of the original holdings. Lawrence Bixby, whose family had been connected with the ranch since the early 1900s, gradually assembled significant portions of the former Spade lands, including the headquarters in Home Valley and the extensive hay meadows that were among the most valuable parts of the ranch. He restored the property to profitable operation, and the ranch has thereafter remained in Bixby family operation as a working cattle ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills.
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.
History
Foundation and growth
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, south-east of the present town of Gordon, Nebraska, and range along the Niobrara River covered an area of 30 by 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 was not 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 charge, 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 (6km) 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.McIntosh 1996, p. 205
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 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.Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 147
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."Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 68 The Spade continued a contract with the Pine Ridge Agency until 1896. Even though the agency provided good business, most of the steady business came from shipping cattle to packers or feeders in the corn belt.Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 71
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.Richards, Jr. 1980, pp. 74, 78
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.Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 97 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.Beel 1985, p. 10
William Comstock stayed in the home valley of the Spade Ranch headquarters, which is approximately 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.Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 82 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".Rushville Standard, 1899-01-20. 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.Richards, Jr. 1980, p. 93 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 in windmills for adequate water.Sandoz, Mari. Notes in the "Spade Ranch" file, Mari Sandoz Collection, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Archives. 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.Richards, Jr. 1980, pp. 73, 118
War widow claims In 1901, Richards had 400 sections of land surveyed north of Ellsworth and placed a four-wire fence around the . This area included government-owned land with 30 reservoirs, each of which had two or three windmills and water tanks for the stock.Yost 1966, p. 207 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 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.McIntosh 1996, p. 208
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:Richards, Jr. 1980, pp. 104–106