OklahomaHorses Magazine July 2023

July / August 2023 • OklahomaHorses 27 house and surrounding land, known as Dog Iron Ranch, have gone full circle, from Cherokee tribal land to the Rogers family to ownership by the state and now back to the Cherokees. The Cherokee Nation purchased the birthplace ranch from Oklahoma Historical Society on June 12, 2023, and the ranch is headed into the next phase of its colorful history. Learning the Ropes William Penn Adair Rogers, known as Will, was born on November 4, 1879, on the Rogers ranch in the Cooweescoowee District of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. He was the youngest of eight children of Clement Vann Rogers (1839– 1911) and Mary America Schrimsher Rogers (1839–1890), both of whom were from prominent mixed-blood Cherokee families. Clem Rogers was a statesman and judge who ran a ranching operation on 60,000 acres of tribal land. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Rogers County was named for him. The Rogers home was built in the mid-1870s in the Greek Revival style of architecture popular throughout the South but rare in Indian Territory. It was nicknamed the White House on the Verdigris. Will Rogers learned cowboying from ranch hands, including roping from Cherokee freedman Dan Walker. From 1899 to 1902, after Clem Rogers had moved to Claremore, Will Rogers ran the ranch himself. He named it Dog Iron Ranch after his livestock brand because it resembled andirons (also called dog irons or fire dogs), which held logs in fireplaces. But things were changing for the Cherokees and other tribes and for the Rogers family. Preceding statehood in 1907, tribal land was broken up into allotments assigned to individual tribal members, and the Rogers ranch shrank to 140 acres. The Rogers family purchased surrounding land and eventually owned 2,000 acres. In the meantime, Will Rogers had begun to spread his wings. He appeared in the Mulhall Rodeo in 1899 and later tried ranching in Argentina. Starting in South Africa and then Australia as a trick roper, he eventually lassoed a career as a vaudeville performer known as the Cherokee Kid. That spurred an act in the Ziegfeld Follies, which led to movie contracts. In the 1920s, Rogers became a humorous social commentator through his newspaper column, magazine articles, books, radio appearances, and lecture tours. He traveled around the world three times, made 50 silent films and 21 talkies, and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated columns that reached 40 million newspaper readers. By the mid-1930s, he was hugely popular for his political wit and was the highest- paid Hollywood film star. And back home, he was known as Oklahoma’s favorite son. All that came to a tragic end when Rogers and pioneer Oklahoma aviator Wiley Post crashed their small plane near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935. A nationwide outpouring of shock and grief followed. The first of many memorials for Rogers is a simple and unique one at the intersection of Cooweescoowee Avenue and U. S. 169 in Oologah — a small stone monument and a replica of the White House on the Verdigris. Countless tourists have stopped there to take pictures since the late 1930s. Keeping Up Tradition After Rogers’ death, the Rogers family gave the ranch to the state. In 1960, the house was moved about a mile west to avoid being inundated by the construction of Oologah Lake. In 2016, in a mutual agreement between the Will Rogers Memorial Commission and Oklahoma Historical Society, the Oklahoma legislature and Governor Mary Fallin placed the Will Rogers (1879–1935) is dressed for the Ziegfeld Follies in 1905. Photo courtesy of Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore. This reproduction branding iron shows the brand used on livestock on Dog Iron Ranch. The design, which resembles the andirons (also called dog irons or fire dogs) used to hold logs in fireplaces, gave the ranch its name whenWill Rogers operated the ranch from 1899 to 1902. Photo courtesy of Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore.