Thursday, November 1, 2012

Early Days - The N-N Ranch

In 1886 the N-N Ranch leased 100,000 acres to run 6000 cattle and 200 horses in the area now known as RM of Waverley. They established a "headquarters" on the Six Mile Creek on the current home quarter of the Triple Z Ranch. The following is a history of the N Bar N Ranch.

Established in 1886 by brothers William F. Niedringhaus and Frederick G. Niedringhaus. The Niedringhaus family immigrated to St. Louis from Germany in the 1850's and made a fortune inventing and manufacturing enameled kitchenware they called Graniteware. The brothers then founded the Granite City Steel Company in Illinois and used part of their fortunes to get into the cattle business.

Frederick G & William F. Niedringhaus
 The N-N Ranch grazed the majority of their cattle on free grazing land in Northwest Texas and also had a northern range based out of Wolf Creek, Montana.When the government reorganized the Texas land the ranch was forced to trail all of their cattle north to Montana. From 1892-1893 they moved 65,000 head of cattle from Texas to Wolf Creek, marking one of the last big cattle drive out of Texas. They would divide the herds into 2500 head and ten cowboys would go with each group.

The N-N Ranch was one of the ranches where famous artist Charles Marion Russell lived while launching his career. The Niedringhaus family were huge supporters of his paintings and promoted them often, they were also the owners of the largest collection ever of Charles Marion Russell artwork and donated many to museums and individuals across the country.

A sampling of some of Charles Marion Russell's paintings:

A Serious Predicament - Charles Marion Russell - www.charlesmarionrussell.org
"A Serious Predicament"
Worked Over - Charles Marion Russell - www.charlesmarionrussell.org
"Worked Over"
Wagons - Charles Marion Russell - www.charlesmarionrussell.org
"Wagons"

Resources:
Texas State Historical Association
Wikipedia - Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell The Complete Works 
Six Miles of Local History 

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