Oklahoma Journeys

Week of March 14, 2009

101 Ranch Auction and Interruption1932

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Empires are crumbling this week on OOklahoma Journeys...the 101 Ranch was an Oklahoma institution, one of the most well known businesses of its kind in the world. It was a combination of bonanza farming, a dude ranch, a working ranch, a tourist trap, and a wild-west show. In the late 1920s tragedy struck the family-run business, and the ranch went into an irreversible decline. The 101 Ranch this week on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.

From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.

The Miller family of Winfield, Kansas, have long connections to ranching and farming in south central Kansas. In 1892, the family moved operations to a site south of Ponca City. As the ranching and farming operation encountered success and grew the business, the business came to include the town of Bliss, now Marland, Oklahoma, and the 101 Ranch, so named some say because it held 101 thousand acres and became an umbrella name for at least five different businesses. Run by the three Miller brothers - George, Zack and Joe - the ranch encompassed a refinery, a globe-trotting wild-west show, a dude ranch, a real working ranch, and tens of thousands of acres of farmland. The ranch was completely self-sufficient, it pumped and refined its own oil and used 101 brand gasoline, canvas and other material used at the ranch was made using cotton grown on the ranch, all the food eaten on the ranch was grown, raised and processed on the grounds, and all souvenirs sold by the 101 were made on the ranch from material from the ranch.

At its height the ranch employed over three-thousand people and printed its own newspaper. Movie stars, politicians and other well-knowns used the ranch as a place to rest and relax or hide away from the public eye. Almost all of the early day western movie idols were at one time or another employed at the ranch and some of the first westerns filmed at the ranch. How strange then that such an empire could and did fall so fast. In 1927 the oldest brother Joe died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The loss of Joe hurt the ranch operations but Zack and George continued on. In 1929 brother George died in an automobile accident. Left alone Zack, now mentally and physically ailing, couldn’t manage the ranch on his own. Descending into severe debt the conditions at the ranch worsened with the onset of the Great Depression. By 1930 the ranch was three-quarters of a million dollars in debt, and in 1932, lawyers headed to the ranch to take control of the premises.

It was in this week of 1932 that the frail and elderly Zack Miller halted the auction of his possession with a shotgun. Firing the gun at the feet of lawyers, Zack holed up in his family’s mansion and refused to allow the sale of his personal possessions. News of the event made headlines around the country. Later in the day police escorted Zack off the property, and eventually he went to live with his sister in Texas.

The 101 Ranch is just one of the many exciting facets of Oklahoma history waiting to be explored at the Oklahoma History Center, where you can see an exhibit on the wild west shows including artifacts from the 101 Ranch. The History Center is located on NE 23rd Street just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to the collecting, preserving, and sharing our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.