Samuel Burk Burnett
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of Missouri, Samuel Burk Burnett came to Texas with his family soon after the Civil War. He married Ruth Loyd of Fort Worth in 1870, and in partnership with her father, Martin B. Loyd, established the famous Four Sixes (6666) Ranch in 1875. Burnett became one of the most influential ranchers in the state and a major business leader in Fort Worth. Burnett's second wife was Mary Couts Barradel of Weatherford. U.S. resident Theodore Roosevelt is said to have named the town of Burkburnett after a wolf-hunting trip with Burnett in 1905.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Samuel Burk Burnett came to Texas from Missouri just after the Civil War and, partnering with his father-in-law, founded the famous Four Sixes (6666) Ranch in 1875. He grew into one of the state's most powerful cattlemen and a leading force in Fort Worth business. By tradition, the town of Burkburnett was named at the suggestion of President Theodore Roosevelt after a 1905 wolf hunt with Burnett.
Why it matters
Burnett's story epitomizes the great age of the Texas cattle empire, when open-range ranching built fortunes, shaped cities, and reached all the way to the White House.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Samuel Burk Burnett's family came to Texas soon after the Civil War, the state was entering the great age of the cattle kingdom. Texas held enormous numbers of longhorns, and the growing cities of the North and East were hungry for beef. Over the following years, cowboys drove herds up long trails to the railheads in Kansas, and the men who managed land, cattle and credit well built fortunes.
The cattle business also ran into the difficult history of the southern plains. After the Red River War of the mid-1870s, the Comanche and Kiowa were confined to reservations in Indian Territory, and ranchers moved onto vast stretches of North Texas grassland. Some cattlemen, Burnett among them, later leased reservation grazing lands across the Red River, which tied the ranching economy directly to federal Indian policy.
By the early twentieth century, Fort Worth had become a major cattle and meatpacking center. Railroads and barbed wire had ended the era of long trail drives, but ranching remained one of the most powerful forces in Texas economic and political life.
People & events
Burnett came to Texas as a young man from Missouri and married Ruth Loyd of Fort Worth in 1870. Together with her father, Martin B. Loyd, he founded the Four Sixes (6666) Ranch in 1875. A popular legend says Burnett won the ranch, or chose its brand, with a poker hand of four sixes. Historians generally doubt the tale, and a more ordinary explanation is that the brand came with cattle he bought. The legend is part of the ranch's lore, but it should be enjoyed as lore.
Burnett grew into one of the most influential ranchers in Texas and a major business leader in Fort Worth. His Four Sixes became one of the best-known ranch names in the American West. Later in life he married a second time, to Mary Couts Barradel of Weatherford.
Then comes the story that put his name on the map. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, a lifelong lover of the West and of hunting, joined Burnett on a wolf-hunting trip on the southern plains. According to tradition, Roosevelt suggested naming a young town in Wichita County for his host, which is how Burkburnett got its name. The marker carefully says Roosevelt is "said to have" named it, so it is best understood as a well-loved local tradition rather than a documented certainty.
Its place in the American story
Burnett's life follows the full arc of the Texas cattle empire, from post-Civil War beginnings through the open range to a settled, highly organized ranching industry run by powerful families. The Four Sixes, founded in 1875, became a working symbol of that tradition.
His story also shows how closely western ranching was tied to national power. A president of the United States came to the southern plains to hunt with cattlemen, and the friendships that trip reflected linked ranch country to Washington. Roosevelt's love of the strenuous western life shaped his public image and his interest in conservation.
The town that bears Burnett's name went on to its own place in history. A few years after Burnett's death, an oil strike near Burkburnett set off a famous boom. The two chapters together, cattle and then oil, show how Texas wealth was reshaped in the early twentieth century.
If you visit
Burkburnett sits just south of the Red River, near the Oklahoma line. It is a natural place to think about the big-sky ranch country that Burnett knew and the wolf hunt that, by tradition, gave the town its name. Take a moment at the marker to imagine that 1905 gathering of cattlemen and a sitting president out on the plains.
The town is only a short drive from Wichita Falls, so it fits easily into a North Texas road trip. Look around for signs of both of its eras: the ranching heritage behind its name and the oil boom that came later.
If the Four Sixes story catches your imagination, you can extend a trip west into the rolling rangeland where the ranch's legacy is still strongly felt. Along the way you will see how cattle and grass continue to shape this part of Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Samuel Burk Burnett
- · Ruth Loyd
- · Theodore Roosevelt
Themes & tags
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