Burnett Horse Ranch

The Four Sixes got its first cow horses from Burnett's father-in-law, Col. M. B. Lloyd of Fort Worth, and every ranch horse has since carried an L on the left shoulder. Burnett's purebred quarter horses became known across the Southwest. Bud Arnett was the first foreman. Burk's brother Bruce ran the brand in reverse, as 9999, and moved that operation to Knox County in 1889. The Four Sixes brand stayed on the Wichita County properties, headquartered at Iowa Park, until 1910, when Burk leased them to Tom, who took Lloyd's Triangle brand as his own.

What the plaque 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. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 14 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Kell House Museum — 15 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 27 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 31 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Northwest Extension Oilfield — 1.0 mi
• Thrift — 1.0 mi
• Simon Peter Hawkins — 1.6 mi
• First National Bank of Burkburnett — 2.4 mi