Show Low and You Win the Ranch

Two men owned a hundred thousand acres between them and agreed the land could not feed both families. So in 1876 Corydon Cooley and Marion Clark sat down to a game of Seven-Up to settle who would leave. Needing one point, Clark told his partner to show low and take the ranch; Cooley turned the deuce of clubs and won. The town took its name from the hand. Its main street is still called the Deuce of Clubs, a whole settlement built on a card.

What the plaque says

In 1876, Corydon E. Cooley and Marion Clark, two ranchers who had both laid claim to, and eventually became partners in managing 100,000 acres of land at the northwest edge of the White Mountains determined that the land could not support two families. Neither man was willing to buy the other out., To settle the matter, Cooley and Clark engaged in a friendly game of Seven Up. The game was played at the kitchen table of Cooley's two-story home atop the hill directly south of this monument where a church now stands. As the game neared completion Cooley needed just one point to win. With nothing else to lose, Clark, holding a three, exclaimed "show low and you win the ranch". Cooley drew the Deuce of Clubs.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Show Low — steps away
  The Rim-country town a losing hand of cards named

More markers nearby

• Showlow Valley Settlement — steps away
• Jesse Nathaniel Smith — 18 mi
• The Snowflake Monument — 18 mi