The History of the Four Sixes Ranch
Written prior to the passing of Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion Courtesy of Burnett Oill, Inc.
It would be impossible to tell the history of Burnett Oil Co., Inc., without recounting its relationship to the Four Sixes Ranch and Burnett Ranches, LLC. Together, these businesses and the family that founded them form the basis of one of the most fascinating stories in Texas history.
Burnett Oil Co., Inc., an experienced and well-regarded operator in the Permian and other basins, is privately owned and operated by Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion. Burnett Oil Co, Inc., operates producing properties in Southeast New
Dynasty: The Ranch was founded by Samuel Burk Burnett left, in 1870. He went on to be one of the richest cattlemen in Texas. 56
Mexico (Loco Hills region in Eddy County), West Texas (Sand Hills region of Crane County), on the Triangle and 6666 Headquarters Ranches, the Fort Worth Basin, the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, the Appalachian Basin in Southwest Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and has ongoing exploration efforts in several other states. Anne W. Marion, great-grand daughter of Samuel “Burk” Burnett, often called “Little Anne”, formed Burnett Oil Co., Inc. in 1980, and became Chairman of the company. The properties of Windfohr Oil were a part of the foundation of the new company. These oil fields, in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, were originally assembled and drilled by Robert F. Windfohr, a Burnett family member by marriage to Anne Marion’s mother, Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy. However, the roots of the Burnett family interests in oil and gas began with the assembly of the Burnett Ranches by Samuel “Burk” Burnett. At age 10, in 1858, Burnett moved with his family to Denton County, Texas when conditions forced his parents—Jeremiah and Mary Turner Burnett—to leave Missouri. Although an experienced farmer, Jeremiah became involved in the cattle
business, and Burk learned about cattle from a young age. People grew up quickly in those days, so by age nineteen Burk had gone into business for himself. He started by rounding up wild longhorn cattle in South Texas and driving them north to sell. Then, in 1868, he purchased 100 head branded with “6666” from Frank Crowley of Denton. Title to the
cattle included ownership of the brand, and Burnett realized the open-six design would be easy to fashion into irons, and the brand would be difficult to alter by cattle thieves. Thus was born an iconic brand that would come to represent much more than ownership of cattle. At age twenty, Burk married Ruth B. Loyd, daughter of Martin B. Loyd, founder of the First National Bank of Fort Worth. Five years later, Burk survived the panic of 1873 by holding through the winter more than 1,100 steers he had driven to market in Wichita, Kansas. The next year, with the panic over, he sold the cattle for a $10,000
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profit, an amount equivalent to more than $200,000 in 2013. Following this experience, Burk became one of the first ranchers in Texas to buy steers and graze them for market. During the next winter, he bought 1,300 cattle in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and drove them north up the Chisholm Trail to the open range grazing lands near the Little Wichita River. He quickly came to understand the importance of having control over the lands on which cattle fed, and with that in mind, Burk began buying property. He later built his first headquarters near what would become Wichita Falls. A drought in the 1880s forced Burnett to search for grass to sustain his cattle, and when he discovered that Kiowa and Comanche tribal lands north of the Red River had not suffered from drought, he negotiated the lease of Indian lands. He made a deal with legendary Comanche Chief Quanah Parker (18451911) for access to 300,000 acres of grassland and, in the process, gained the friendship of the Comanche leader. Burk ran 10,000 head of cattle on the land until the end of the lease in the early 1900s. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the end of the open range became apparent. The only protection the cowman had was to purchase private land on which to graze his cattle. What would eventually become Burnett Ranches, LLC, began around 1900 with the purchase of the 8 Ranch near Guthrie in King County and the Dixon Creek Ranch near Panhandle. The 8 Ranch became the nucleus of the present-day Four Sixes Ranch. These two ranches, along with later ad-
