Guthrie, Texas

The Four Sixes (6666) brand was established by Samuel Burk Burnett in the early 1870s. Although legend persists that Burnett's brand was devised to honor a winning poker hand of four sixes that he once held, sources indicate that Burnett, after successfully completing his first drive to Kansas as trail boss for his father's herd in 1867, saved his earnings and in 1871 used them to buy 100 cattle bearing the Four Sixes brand from Frank Crowley in Denton County. Burnett's brother Bruce used the brand in reverse (9999) for his ranching operation, which he moved to Knox County in 1889. In 1874 Burnett moved his cattle to the region of the Wichita River, bought land, and established his ranch headquarters near the site of present Wichita Falls. Due to the drought of 1881 Burnett was forced to drive his cattle to the Red River to survive. He subsequently leased 300,000 acres of Comanche-Kiowa reservation land. In 1893 he began the process of purchasing the Old Eight Ranch, 140,000 acres and 1,500 head of stock, from the Louisville Land and Cattle Company of Kentucky. The purchase was finalized in 1900, and Burnett moved his 6666 Ranch headquarters to King County. By 1900, when the government opened the Kiowa-Comanche reservation for settlement and ordered the cattlemen to vacate their leases, Burnett obtained from President Theodore Roosevelt a two-year extension to enable him and his fellow cattlemen to move out and dispose of their herds in an orderly fashion. In 1902 Burnett bought 107,520 acres in Carson and Hutchinson counties from the British-owned White Deer Lands ( see FRANCKLYN LAND AND CATTLE COMPANY ) for $2.65 per acre. This choice Panhandle range, which had previously been leased to Al Popham and J. L. Harrison, was located along Dixon Creek and contained abundant water. It became known as the Burnett-Dixon Creek-6666 Ranch. Over the next few years Burnett acquired sufficient adjoining range land to constitute an operation totaling almost a third of a million acres. On his Four Six ranges Burnett began improving his cattle by careful culling of cows and importation of purebred Hereford and Durham bulls. The resultant offspring soon became consistent winners as feeder cattle in livestock shows nationwide. The Dixon Creek Division, sometimes known as the Stocker Ranch, was set up to receive calves produced on the other Burnett properties. Gradually, the Four Sixes became a strictly Hereford operation, and Burnett's cattle were among the first to be spayed to better fatten them prior to slaughter. The Four Sixes acquired its first cow horses from Burnett's father-in-law, Col. M. B. Lloyd of Fort Worth; since then all horses on the ranch have been branded with the letter L on the left shoulder. Burnett's purebred quarter horses likewise became well known throughout the Southwest. Outstanding Four Six employees during its early years, some of whom had worked for the Eight Ranch before Burnett bought it, included John Humphreys, Jim Gibson, Sid Williams, Charlie Hart, Joe Crystal, and Oak (Coley) Owens. Bud Arnett was retained as the first foreman. The Four Sixes brand was used on the Burnett properties in Wichita County, headquartered at Iowa Park, until 1910, when Burnett leased them to his son Thomas L. Burnett , who subsequently adopted Colonel Lloyd's Triangle brand as his own. Although Burk Burnett at first utilized the Old Eight Camp as his headquarters in King County, he later moved it west to the county seat of Guthrie and in 1917 built his magnificent $100,000 stone ranch house on a hill overlooking the town. Barns, corrals, a bunkhouse, and other outbuildings were erected around it. In 1918 a severe Panhandle blizzard wiped out 2,000 cattle on the Dixon Creek Division, but the losses were practically forgotten in 1921, when the first seven of Carson County's oil and gas wells, including Eugene S. Blasdel 's Gulf No. 1 and No. 2, were drilled on the ranch. After Burnett's death in 1922 the Four Sixes was inherited b

In 1868, Samuel “Burk” Burnett (1849-1922) purchased 100 head of cattle branded with the “6666” (Four Sixes) mark from Frank Crowley of Denton and established a ranch in Wichita County. In 1893, Burnett began moving his operations further west. After buying the 141,000-acre “8” ranch in southeast King County from the Louisville Land and Cattle Company, he began moving cattle here in 1900. He registered his “6666” brand in the King County Courthouse in 1903 and sited the ranch headquarters in the town of Guthrie. 
 In 1917, Burnett began construction on a distinctive ranch house headquarters. He started his cattle empire through the importation of purebred Hereford and Durham bulls. The resulting offspring soon became consistent winners as feeder cattle in livestock shows nationwide. The 6666 Ranch quarter horses also became renown throughout the southwest. 
 Buildings on the ranch for cowboys and cattle included barns, corrals, bunkhouses and line camp quarters. The most operationally significant were the main residence (or headquarters) and the supply house in Guthrie, which served as a store, bank and social gathering point. Burnett dug water wells and installed windmills to provide water for livestock on the rangeland. 
 Fine cattle and champion horses still graze the lands of the 6666 Ranch and King County. The 6666 Ranch, which encompasses 275,000 acres, represents both the past and present. The foresight of Burk Burnett and the management and support of descendants secured the ranch’s place in the ranching history of the state and nation.

Created Aug. 21, 1876, from Bexar County, whose diamond-shaped boundaries extended from the Rio Grande to the Panhandle to El Paso. Named for William King, who died at the Alamo. Chief industry, ranching, is reflected in its famous cattle brands: "6666," "Pitchfork," "SMS," and "Matador". A population of only 173 in 1890 was aided in formal organization by petitions signed by itinerants. Names of favorite horses were also added. Organization came on June 25, 1891. In establishing county seat, cowboys voted for Guthrie, which won over Ashville, choice of the ranchers. (1965)

Guthrie, the county seat of King County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 82 and 83, ninety-six miles east of Lubbock. It was named for W. H. Guthrie of Kentucky, one of the leading stockholders in the Louisville Land and Cattle Company, which acquired land around the Guthrie site in 1883. A. C. Thackitt, who built the first residence at Guthrie, surveyed the townsite in 1891 and led the fight to make Guthrie the county seat. In opposition, the Louisville Land and Cattle Company proposed a site that is called Ashville for the county seat, and a hotly contested race between the two locations ensued. An election held in 1891 declared Guthrie the county seat, with the successful candidates for office being A. C. Thackitt, county judge; Bob Darnell, county clerk; and Ed Herndon, county sheriff. The first school was taught by Max Cypert, the first teacher in King County, in the district courtroom of the newly constructed courthouse. A schoolhouse was built in 1892 by Thackitt and Charlie Bradford, who brought in lumber from Seymour. Three years later a larger school was built, and schoolbooks were obtained from Seymour or Benjamin until after 1897, when John Gibson began keeping a supply of books in his general store at Guthrie. Guthrie opened a post office in 1891, and by 1904 the town had a population of 101, a figure not surpassed until the 1950 census. During the Great Depression the town endured a three-year drought, yet its population remained stable. In 1959 the Dumont school moved to Guthrie, thus completing the consolidation of King County schools. By 1963 Guthrie's population had climbed to 210, but it fell to 125 by 1970. The school, however, during the mid-1970s averaged 106 pupils a year. In the 1970s Guthrie continued to serve as a ranch-supply center, particularly for the large Four Sixes Ranch , which, under the ownership of Samuel Burk Burnett , had purchased the Louisville Land and Cattle Company around 1900. In 1975 ranch headquarters at Guthrie served as the site for the movie Mackintosh and T. J. , starring Roy Rogers. In 1984 Guthrie, with a population of 140 and four businesses, remained the largest town in King County. Its population was 160 in 1990 and again in 2000.

Created in 1876, King County organized in 1891. Its first courthouse, a two-story frame structure, was destroyed in 1905 by a tornado. The next house of justice, built of sandstone, burned in 1914. That same year, the county hired Fort Worth architect Ernest E. Churchill to design a new courts building. The two-story concrete structure served as the courthouse until 1982, when the county converted it to a library and built a new courthouse. The Classical Revival edifice exhibits Prairie-style influences. Today, it remains a testament to the aspirations of early 20th-century King County residents. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962

Dumont, on Farm Road 193 about 100 miles east of Lubbock in the northwestern corner of King County, was named after A. Dumont, the first postmaster at nearby Paducah. The first school at the community held classes in a dugout on the farm of John Parker in 1891. The China Grove School was built in 1893, and the next year a community post office was established with Joel T. Saylers as postmaster. By 1896 Dumont had three churches and a population of fifty. In 1914 the schools of Union Corner, four miles to the north, and China Grove were combined to form the Dumont Independent School District Number 1. This district remained intact until 1959, when the Dumont school was moved to Guthrie. The region produces cotton, grain, and cattle. Ranching predominates, and numerous ranches have been nearby, including the Four Sixes , the SMS , and the Matador . Though at one time Dumont had three grocery stores, three filling stations, a blacksmith shop, a barbershop, and a cotton gin, by 1980 it reported no rated businesses. The community's highest recorded population was 105 in the middle and late 1960s. Its population had fallen to ninety-five by 1980, but at that time Dumont was still the second largest town in King County. In the early 1990s Dumont was in both King and Dickens counties, and its population was reported as eighty-five, served by three businesses. The population and number of businesses remained the same in 2000.