6666 Supply House

Samuel Burk Burnett bought 100 head of cattle wearing the 6666 brand from Frank Crowley of Denton County; the state marker in Guthrie dates the purchase to 1868, and the Handbook of Texas to 1871, after his first drive to Kansas as his father's trail boss in 1867. The story that the brand honors a winning poker hand of four sixes has never gone away, though the sources say the brand came with the cattle.

Before King County, Burnett ran his herds on the Wichita River and, with the help of the Comanche leader Quanah Parker, leased about 300,000 acres of Kiowa and Comanche land across the Red River at six and a half cents an acre, until the government ordered the cattlemen off as the reservation was opened to settlement. After his death in 1922 the ranch passed to his granddaughter, Anne Burnett Tandy, who became nationally known as a horse breeder and judge; the ranch's people were prime movers in founding the American Quarter Horse Association.

The Supply House in Guthrie was where Burnett kept his office and, usually, slept in a back room, and its original cash register, safe and account books are still on the premises. It was meant to save cowboys and ranch hands an all-day ride for necessities, and it is still the only place in town to buy groceries and hardware. Shelves of 6666 caps, leather goods and ranch beef now draw travelers from as far as Australia, France and South Africa. The ranch itself is private.