With the extreme cold outdoors, we hope everyone is safely tucked indoors. Or if you must venture out, that you are as well equipped for the cold as Mr. John Sparks seemed to be.
Sparks was born in Mississippi in 1843. Rumor has it that he joined the Texas Rangers in 1861 to avoid being drafted into the Confederate Army. After the war ended, Sparks saw opportunity in the cattle business and drove several herds North out of Texas. In 1873, he purchased his own herd and trailed them to Chugwater, Wyoming, where he established a ranch. In 1874, he sold the outfit to the Swan Land & Cattle Company. Sparks had learned how to cash in on the cattle boom and over the next several years, he established and quickly sold several more ranches on the North Platte River, raking in the profits as he went.
In 1881, he partnered with John Tinnin in establishing the Alamo Ranch in Elko, Nevada, where he continued to prosper. Sparks is credited with promoting the use of Hereford cattle in Nevada and claimed that nearly all of his cattle that survived the state's catastrophic winter of 1889-90 were at least part Hereford.
Sparks became one of the most influential businessmen in Nevada and leveraged this into a short political career. He was elected governor in 1902 and again in 1906. Unfortunately, he died in 1908, only halfway through his second term.
This photo is a part of the Van Tassell Collection, which came to us from Louisa (Swan) Van Tassell. Louisa's father, Alex Swan, and her uncles purchased that first ranch from Sparks at Chugwater. Louisa's husband, R.S. Van Tassell, was also a Wyoming cattle baron before the disastrous winter of 1886-87.
Great stuff from the Wyoming State Archives. Great coat too.
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