Newman Portal Search of the Week

A user this week searched for “101 Ranch.” The October 1969 issue of Bunyan’s Chips, journal of the International Order of Wooden Money Collectors, identified a set of wooden nickels featuring the “101 Ranch Rodeo” and commemorating the 75th anniversary of Ponca City, OK.  Elsewhere, in the 1981 TAMS Journal, former ANA Executive Director Ed Rochette placed a want ad for “101 Ranch” scrip. A Johnson and Jensen auction sale catalog, 1980, cataloged a “101 Ranch” medal (lot 71) as follows: 101 Ranch Centennial Medal, 1976: 1 1/2-inch (38.2mm) copper. By Frank Hagel, stc. Obv. Trapper with long rifle. Rev. prospector panning for gold. Struck by Medallic Art Co. (72-45-5).This all tells us there are a number of numismatic objects associated with the “101 Ranch” but still don’t tell us what it is.  That is answered in the Stack’s Bowers catalog of February 2016, lot 35, an 1899 $5 silver certificate, which writes in part, “….These bills circulated in an era when the Wild West was a prevailing theme in entertainment. Throughout America many traveling shows featured cowboys, Indians, horses, cattle, bison hides and other trappings. Perhaps the most successful was the 101 Ranch, headquartered in Bliss, Oklahoma, with a large traveling entourage that played in many towns and cities.” Link to Bunyan’s Chips, October 1969: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/521351?page=87Link to TAMS Journal 1981, no. 6: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/525590?page=24Link to Johnson & Jensen Auction 6: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511036&AuctionId=518012&page=3Link to Stack’s Bowers February 2016 Rarities Sale: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=517088&page=62