$45.00 CAD
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Real photo postcard of Native American boys in traditional clothing, preparing for performance at 101 Ranch near Fairfax Oklahoma. The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show. Tribes represented include Ponca, Cheyenne, Dakota, and Osage.
In background, grandstand with ‘101’ sign at top.
Written on negative at bottom ‘25c V INDIAN BOY DANCERS’
Photographer name stamped on back:
VINCE DILLON PHOTOS FAIRFAX OKLA
‘AZO’ photographic paper dates it from 1910-1930.
Unused.
(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a 110,000-acre (45,000 ha) cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893. The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and one of the early focal points of the oil rush in northeastern Oklahoma. It was the largest diversified farm and ranch in America at the time.
WIKIPEDIA
Noble County - 101 Ranch - Vince Dillon, Official 101 Ranch Photographer
As a young man Vince Dillon and his father boarded the first train from Arkansas City, Kansas into the Cherokee Strip. They settled near Ponca City and Vince spent several years at the trading post at White Eagle where he learned the language of the Ponca Indians and became a friend and a white man in whom they trusted.
The Miller Brothers hired Vince to take a group of 138 Ponca Indians to Jamestown, Virginia. This remained as a high spot in his entire life and a large 10 gallon hat with the word Jamestown on the inner band was among his most prized possessions and which he wore to many functions that were held at the ranch in later years.
Vince was a registered pharmacist and for five years he practiced pharmacy at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He then moved to Fairfax, Oklahoma to live with his father and to establish a reputation as a photographer. It was from his father that he acquired the art of the trade and, until his death in 1931, he served as the official photographer for the 101 Ranch.
www.cherokee-strip-museum.org
