Ketch Ranch House (Oklahoma)

Ketch Ranch House
Alternative names	Circle K Ranch (1929) Monte Vista Ranch (1932)
General information
Type	Bungalow
Architectural style	American Craftsman American foursquare
Location	Comanche County, Oklahoma Fort Sill Military Reservation
Address	Running Deer Camp Road
Town or city	Medicine Park, Oklahoma
Country	United States of America
Coordinates	34°42′18″N98°34′22″W / 34.7048714°N 98.5728528°W / 34.7048714; -98.5728528
Groundbreaking	May 1923
Completed	1924
Cost	$4500.00
Owner	Ada May Ketch Frank Levant Ketch
Height
Roof	Shingle
Technical details
Material	Cobblestone
Floor count	One
Floor area	2,146 square feet (199.4 m2)
Grounds	5,145 acres (2,082 ha)
Known for	Cobblestone architecture
Other information
Number of rooms	Six

Ketch Ranch House or Ketch Ranch was private property located in the Wichita Mountains of Southwestern Oklahoma. ^[1] During the early 1920s, the forest reserve residence was established as a working ranch and vacation home for Ada May Ketch and Frank Levant Ketch who served as mayor of Ringling, Oklahoma. ^[2]

The Wichita Mountains ranch offered a barn, guest house, smokehouse, springhouse, root cellar, and the vital rural house structure located near Blue Beaver Valley Road. ^[3] The nature reserve residence provided outdoor experiences with hiking, horseback riding, boating, and fishing at Ketch Lake which was close proximity being 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Ketch Ranch House. ^[4]

Ada May Ketch purchased the Wichita Mountain acreage on May 8, 1923, from S.P. Thornhill through the property holdings of First National Bank of Lawton. The Ketch Ranch was developed during the economic prosperity years of the Roaring Twenties which simultaneously encompassed the creation of Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas's River Rock Resort better known as Medicine Park, Oklahoma. ^{[5] [6]}

By 1932, the Ketch Ranch estate was affected by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In 1934, the estate was sold on a joint extension agreement to the Monte Vista Ranch enterprise whereas the Ketch family retained the Wichita Mountains reserve residence.

On January 10, 1941, the United States government acquired the Monte Vista Ranch property through the provisions of Declaration of Taking Act and United States Constitution Fifth Amendment. The United States congressional legislation authorized the land expansion of the Fort Sill Military Reservation while protecting the United States national security given the ascension of the Axis powers of 1930s and the commencement of World War II.

Case Law and Jake L. Hamon, Sr. Estate

See also: Teapot Dome scandal

Frank Ketch served as the business administrator for the Jake L. Hamon Sr. estate. ^[7] Jake Hamon Sr. was a prominent committee member of the Republican Party where Warren Harding had appealed for Mr. Hamon to accompany his presidential cabinet as the next United States Secretary of the Interior. ^[8]

Mr. Hamon governed a diverse portfolio of holdings and ownership in oil and gas lease properties geographically apportioned in South Central Oklahoma. The petroleum assets were devised in the crude oil fields of Healdton, Oklahoma and Hewitt, Oklahoma. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

By 1920, Jake L. Hamon Properties invested in the Breckenridge oilfields of Stephens County geographically apportioned in North Texas decisively exemplary of the 1920s Texas oil boom and interwar period. ^{[12] [13] [14]}

During 1921, the Jake L. Hamon investments were appraised at three million U.S. dollars considering a brief eight-year period of time after discovering a prosperous 1914 blowout in the Healdton oilfield. ^[15]

Judicial Proceedings of Jake L. Hamon, Sr. Estate

Text of Hamon v. State, 67 Okla. 128, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1917) is available from:  Justia    Casetext   Text of Oklahoma v. Texas, 259 U.S. 565, (United States Supreme Court 1922) is available from:  CourtListener    Justia    Casemine   Text of Hamon v. Keyes, 99 Okla. 19, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1924) is available from:  Justia    Casetext   Text of Ketch v. Weaver Bros, 261 S.W. 380, (Texas Appeals 1924) is available from:  CourtListener    Casetext    Casemine   Text of Ketch v. Cox, 105 Okla. 283, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1925) is available from:  CourtListener    Justia    Casemine   Text of Apple v. Given, 117 Okla. 79, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1925) is available from:  CourtListener    Justia    Casemine   Text of Apple v. Hert, 122 Okla. 153, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1927) is available from:  Justia   Text of Apple v. McCain, 127 Okla. 147, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1927) is available from:  Justia   Text of Ketch v. Smith, 131 Okla. 263, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 1928) is available from:  Justia

Gallery

• Ketch Ranch House ~ Fort Sill Military Reservation
• 
  Cobblestone columns at driveway entrance
• 
  Cobblestone retaining wall at driveway entrance
• 
  Cobblestone architecture detail of Ketch Ranch House
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior structure near Medicine Park
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior structure near Medicine Park
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior structure near Medicine Park
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior structure near Medicine Park
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior structure near Medicine Park
• 
  Ketch Ranch House exterior of front porch structure
• 
  Ketch Ranch House interior of kitchen area
• 
  Ketch Ranch House interior of bedroom area

Native American culture of Wichita Mountains

The Ketch Ranch estate was established approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) to 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Craterville Park, Oklahoma. ^[16] Craterville Park was established after the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache land openings coinciding with Oklahoma statehood as confirmed on November 16, 1907. ^{[17] [18] [19] [20]}

1894 Indian Territories & Oklahoma Map

In 1907, cowboy naturalist Frank Rush, a native of Blackburn, Oklahoma, served as the superintendent of the Wichita Forest and Game Reserve. ^{[21] [22]} Mr. Rush attained local and statewide recognition for the railway transport facilitation and safeguard of the near extinct American bison during October of 1907. ^{[23] [24] [25]}

The Plains bison herd was granted to the state of Oklahoma by the Bronx Zoological Gardens and New York Zoological Society. ^[26] The bison re-establishment substantiated the ecological principles of conservation in the United States while supporting habitat conservation within the nature reserve. The buffalo grazing grounds have a proximity to the Holy City of the Wichitas Historic District built by the Works Progress Administration from 1934 to 1936. ^{[27] [28] [29]}

The American bison collection was a species reintroduction to the native lands of the southwest Indian Territory within the Wichita National Forest federal lands during the fourth quarter of the 1907 calendar year. ^{[30] [31]}

In 1924, the Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa vowed to a pledge known as the Craterville Park Covenant with Wichita National Forest Preserve curator Frank Rush. ^[32] The Wichita Mountains mixed grass prairie served for the local tribal pow wow events during the Craterville Park Indian Fair from 1924 to 1933. ^{[33] [34]}

The Craterville Park Covenant

The object of this Fair will be to create self-confidence and to encourage leadership by the Indian for his people, to better his position, and to take his place on terms of equality with other races in the competitive pursuits of every day life, and a desire to accomplish the most possible for himself and his people. ^{[35] [36]}

— May 25, 1924 ~ Craterville Park at Wichita Mountains ^[37]

At the transition of the twentieth century, the Quanah Parker Star House was located south of the Quanah Mountain summit or Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. ^{[38] [39]} The Comanche Chief Star House was situated west of Craterville Park and Oklahoma State Highway 115 approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Cache, Oklahoma or U.S. Route 62 in Oklahoma. ^{[40] [41] [42]}

The Southern Plains villagers immeasurable presence cultivated a historical perspective of the tribal culture and tribal sovereignty for the last of the 19th century Plains Indians tribal chiefs. ^[43] During the final decade of the nineteenth century, the Southwest Oklahoma native tribes began embracing the ceremonial practices of the Native American Church while residing in the Great Plains of Southwestern Oklahoma and the Wichita Mountains. ^{[44] [45] [46]}

Locale of Quanah Parker Star House and Craterville Park, Oklahoma
Quanah Parker Star House on Fort Sill West Range (1890) Craterville Park, Oklahoma on Fort Sill West Range

See also

• Blockhouse on Signal Mountain
• Depression of 1920-21
• Dust Bowl
• Southwestern Power Administration
• The Plow That Broke the Plains
• The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
• Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

References

1. Ketch Ranch, Oklahoma in Geonames.org (cc-by)
2. "Mayor Frank Ketch Returns to Ringling" [Former Lawton Resident Here as Witness in the District Court Tuesday]. The Chronicles of Oklahoma . Vol. 14, no. 151. Lawton, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. The Lawton News. February 2, 1916.
3. Blue Beaver Creek, Comanche County, Oklahoma in Geonames.org (cc-by)
4. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Ketch Lake
5. McCormick, Peter J. (1997). "River Rock Resort: Medicine Park's Landscape and Wichita Mountain Vernacular Architecture". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . 75 (3 – Fall 1997). Oklahoma Historical Society: 244–261. LCCN   23027299. OCLC   655582328.
6. Lott, David C. (June 14, 2010). Medicine Park: Oklahoma's First Resort. Images of America. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 47–78. ISBN   978-0738577456. OCLC   646185401.
7. "Ketch is Charged Violating Trust" [Administrator of Hamon's Estate Under Fire in Petition]. The Chronicles of Oklahoma . Vol. 20, no. 45. Lawton, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. The Lawton News. July 16, 1922.
8. Floyd, Larry C. (2009). "Jake Hamon: "The Man Who Made Harding President"". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . 87 (3 – Fall 2009). Oklahoma Historical Society: 294–319. LCCN   23027299. OCLC   655582328.
9. "Hamon, Jake L., Ardmore, Oklahoma" [International Petroleum Register; A Yearly Directory of the Active Oil Companies of the World]. HaithTrust Digital Library. New York City: Oil Trade Journal. 1921. p. 313.
10. "Healdton Field". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
11. "Hewitt Field". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
12. "Ketch Denies J.B. French Purchased the Hamon Holdings in North Texas". Oil and Gas News. IX (21). Kansas City, Missouri: Oil and Gas News Publishing Company: 3. July 7, 1921 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
13. "Map of Stephens County: An "Official" Accurate Oil Map up to Date Made and Sold by Orlopp-Orlopp". The Portal to Texas History. University of North Texas. 1920.
14. "JimKurn – The Newest Town in Texas" [Breckenridge American (Breckenridge, Tex), Vol. 1, No. 82, Ed. 1]. The Portal to Texas History. University of North Texas. October 2, 1920.
15. "Hamon's Estate Appraised at $3,143,903". National Petroleum News. XIII (1). Cleveland, Ohio: National Petroleum Publishing Company: 46. February 16, 1921 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
16. Craterville Park, Oklahoma in Geonames.org (cc-by)
17. "Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Opening". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
18. McKinley, William (July 4, 1901). "Proclamation 460 – Opening of Wichita, Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache Indian Lands in Oklahoma". The American Presidency Project. University of California – Santa Barbara.
19. "Delegation of Comanche. Kiowa, and Apache, including Quanah Parker". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
20. "Kiowa and Comanche Documents". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
21. "Photograph of Frank Rush, Superintendent of the Wichita Wildlife Reservation". The Gateway to Oklahoma History. Oklahoma Historical Society.
22. Greer, Frank H. (September 21, 1907). "Buffalo Will Winter in Oklahoma Fields". The Weekly Oklahoma State Capital (Newspaper). Vol. 19, no. 22 (1 ed.). Guthrie, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 2. LCCN   sn86064192. OCLC   13771094.
23. Niblack, Leslie G. (October 5, 1907). "Rush in Charge of Oklahoma Buffalo". The Guthrie Daily Leader (Newspaper). Vol. 29, no. 132 (1 ed.). Guthrie, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 1. LCCN   sn86063952. OCLC   13748544.
24. Falkenbury, M.C. (October 11, 1907). "Bison for Oklahoma". Miami Record-Herald (Newspaper). Vol. 15, no. 47 (1 ed.). Miami, Indian Territory: Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 3. LCCN   sn86064102. OCLC   13686197.
25. Greer, Frank H. (October 12, 1907). "Buffalo Are On The Way". The Weekly Oklahoma State Capital (Newspaper). Vol. 19, no. 25 (1 ed.). Guthrie, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 3. LCCN   sn86064192. OCLC   13771094.
26. "Bison Bellows: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge". National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.
27. O'Dell, Larry. "Holy City of the Wichitas" [Holy City Of The Wichitas Pageant]. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
28. Bentley, Bill F. (January 5, 1969). "Wichita Mountains Easter Pageant Now Four-Hour Production with Cast of 500". The Lawton Constitution, Vol. 20, No. 1, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 5, 1969. Lawton, Oklahoma: The Lawton Constitution. p. 10G.
29. Mullins, William H. "Works Progress Administration". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
30. Niblack, Leslie G. (October 14, 1907). "Buffalo Coming to Oklahoma". The Guthrie Daily Leader (Newspaper). Vol. 29, no. 139 (1 ed.). Guthrie, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. pp. 1, 4. LCCN   sn86063952. OCLC   13748544.
31. Williams, J. Roy; Bixby, T. M. (October 17, 1907). "Buffalo Expected Today Coming By Express". Lawton Constitution-Democrat (Newspaper). Vol. 6, no. 23 (1 ed.). Lawton, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 8. LCCN   sn96087819. OCLC   34790531.
32. "Chief Brave Bear and Frank Rush of Craterville Park, Oklahoma". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
33. "Craterville Park Indian Fair". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
34. "Pow Wows". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
35. "The Craterville Park Covenant". Lawton, Oklahoma: Museum of the Great Plains. Southwest Wilds & Waters. 1924.
36. "Craterville Park Pictorial Biography". Frank Rush Collection ~ Western History Collections. University of Oklahoma.
37. "The Craterville Park Covenant". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
38. Floyd, Larry C. (March 20, 2024). "Quanah Parker's Star House: A Comanche Home Along the White Man's Road". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . 90 (2 - Summer 2012). Oklahoma Historical Society: 132–159. LCCN   23027299. OCLC   655582328.
39. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Quanah Mountain
40. "Home of Quanah Parker near Cache, Okla". Arthur R. Lawrence Collection. Lawton, Oklahoma: Museum of the Great Plains.
41. "Home of Quanah Parker in the Wichita Mountain, The Comanche White House". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
42. Bentley, Bill F. (January 5, 1969). "Story of Quanah Parker One of the Strangest and Most Significant of the Frontier". The Lawton Constitution, Vol. 20, No. 1, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 5, 1969. Lawton, Oklahoma: The Lawton Constitution. p. 18F.
43. America's Great Indian Leaders on YouTube
44. "Indian Religion ~ Peyote Rite". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
45. "Peyote Tradition". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.
46. "Native American Religion ~ Peyote Ceremony". Tulsa, Oklahoma: Gilcrease Museum.

Bibliography

• Robinson, Gilbert L. (1937). History of the Healdton Oil Field [History of the Healdton Oil Field ~ A Thesis – Approved for the Department of History]. Gateway to Oklahoma History. Norman, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. pp. 1–94. OCLC   26281676.
• Despain, S. Matthew (2000). "For Society's Sake: The Wichita Mountains, Wildlife, and Identity in Oklahoma's Early Environmental History". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . 78 (4 – Winter 2000–01). Oklahoma Historical Society: 388–411. LCCN   23027299. OCLC   655582328.
• Freeman, Elizabeth E. (2009). "Ragtown: Wirt, Oklahoma, and the Healdton Boom". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . 87 (1 – Spring 2009). Oklahoma Historical Society: 34–55. LCCN   23027299. OCLC   655582328.
• Hedglen, Thomas L. "American Indian Exposition". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
• Amin, Julius A. "Jakehamon, TX". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
• Anonymous. "Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge Oilfields". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
• Anderson, H. Allen. "Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
• Anderson, H. Allen. "Wichita Falls, Ranger, and Fort Worth Railroad". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.

Periodical bibliography

• "Says Jake Hamon Told Woman to Flee; Clara Smith's Attorneys Assert She First Heard of Death at El Paso". The New York Times. December 25, 1920.
• "Court Recessed at Noon; Mrs. Jake Hamon to Testify". United States Library of Congress. The Daily Ardmoreite. March 13, 1921.
• "Mrs. Hamon and Ketch on Stand in Murder Case". United States Library of Congress. Grand Forks Herald. March 14, 1921.
• "Ketch Declares Hamon Wanted Clara to Leave" [Business Manager of Hamon Interests Relates Conversations]. The Portal to Texas History. Brownwood Bulletin. March 14, 1921.
• "State to Rest Its Case Today". United States Library of Congress. The Morning Tulsa Daily World. March 14, 1921.
• "Hamon's Widow Testifies at Trial". The New York Times. March 15, 1921.
• "Hamon's Widow Seeks Alimony". The Chronicles of Oklahoma . Vol. 20, no. 210. Lawton, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. The Lawton News. January 28, 1923.

Petroleum industry bibliography

• "Jake Hamon, Oil Man of Oklahoma, Is Shot". National Petroleum News. XII (47). Cleveland, Ohio: National Petroleum Publishing Company: 32. November 24, 1920.
• "Gunshot Wound Proves Fatal to Jake Hamon". National Petroleum News. XII (48). Cleveland, Ohio: National Petroleum Publishing Company: 36. December 1, 1920.

Historical video archive

Early 20th Century Expansion and Oklahoma Dust Bowl of 1930s

Early 20th Century Oil Boom in Oklahoma on YouTube FDR and The Dust Bowl on YouTube The Dust Bowl on YouTube The Story of Oklahoma – Dust, Drifters, and Drought on YouTube U.S. Dust Bowl on YouTube U.S. Dust Bowl on YouTube The Century: America's Time – American Broadcasting Company playlist on YouTube The Dust Bowl – Ken Burns and PBS playlist on YouTube The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power – Daniel Yergin playlist on YouTube

External links

• Media related to Ketch Ranch at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Holy City of the Wichitas Historic District at Wikimedia Commons
• Medicine Park travel guide from Wikivoyage
• "Ketch Ranch House ~ Fort Sill Military Reservation, Building 7775" [Historic American Buildings Survey ~ HABS No. OK-66](PDF). Medicine Park, Comanche County, Oklahoma: United States Library of Congress.
• "Ketch Ranch (Fort Sill Military Reservation, Building 7775)" (PDF). HABS No. OK-66. United States Library of Congress.
• "Ketch Ranch House". Photo, Print, Drawing. United States Library of Congress.
• "Ketch Lake Dam at Fort Sill, Oklahoma Project Profile" (PDF). BASF Master Builders Solutions. 2010.
• "Clara Smith Hamon in Fort Worth, Texas; Ms. Hamon Surrendered to Answer Murder Charges". United States Library of Congress. 1920. LCCN   2001695112.