Ranch families across western South Dakota own registered brands. And they use these brands to mark their cattle to prove ownership and identify cattle if they wander off.
But for most, a family’s brand is more than a mark of ownership. A family brand has a story – a legacy. It’s often passed down from one generation to the next because for many ranch families, the story behind their cattle brand is entwined with the family’s history.
Great-grandpa’s initials, a wedding date, a business logo from the Old Country – there’s a story behind most of the letters, numbers and shapes registered in South Dakota’s Brand Book.
In this Take A Moment, White Owl rancher, Les Shaw and Belle Fourche rancher, Gary Deering share the stories behind their family brand.
Les Shaw: “Our brand is the Quarter Circle Star. My Great-Grandad, the earliest registration we had was from 1902. A registration card on there. We haven't been able to trace it back further than that. But Great-Grandpa got here in 1896 and I surmise that he was using the brand, but it just wasn't registered. My dad had it, my grandpa had it, and now my brother and I use it. It's on the right rib of the cows and. That's the Shaw Ranch mark.”
“Well typical family history, my great-grandpa came from Ireland and he worked in a shipping factory. He had a warehouse, is what we were told from my grandpa. Not a lot, but Grandpa said that he marked the shipping crates with a star.”
“I'm pretty proud of it. It's pretty neat. It's not the easiest brand in the world to put on. The star could be tricky, it takes it takes some practice. But you get there with it. When it's put on well, on a young animal, when they mature, like a cow, it stands out. It shows from quite a ways.”
Gary Deering: “1911 was a very dry year and it's one of the big, worst droughts we've ever had in South Dakota and in the Midwest. And my Great-Grandpa Frank Wurnig, he was looking for places to take the stock, so he saddled up a horse and started going down the Belle Fourche River. And he ran into some people who had a little land along the Belle Fourche River, which is just south of where I live right now. And he bought that in 1911.”
“Well the F is backwards, and I don't know if he intended to do that or not. To be totally honest with you, I never met my Great-Grandpa Frank. But they tell me he spoke very broken German, so he might have just went in and put a mark down and didn't realize that it's lazy. Lazy, meaning it's tipped on its side, and the F, obviously is as this one would be, if it was standing up, it would be going backwards.
Like I said, when he tipped it on the side, I don’t know if that was what he meant, or maybe he had had some good German beer at the time, and this is how it happened. But nonetheless it's backwards.”
“It’s a W and a Lazy Backwards F. Like I said, my Great-Grandpa Frank Wurnig, hence his name and initials.
I am not real sure when it was first registered. I've seen it the 1937 Brand Book I believe, So, it was registered as far back as then. I assume he's probably used it with his initials, whether it was registered or not. I don't know exactly how far that went back. My Grandfather George Wurnig then took over the ranch in 1944. And then he took the brand with it. And he used that. And now my parents and now I am using it, and my kids are the fifth generation put that brand on.”
This story is part of an SDPB Dakota Life Detours documentary on branding produced by Lura Roti and Tim Davison that you can watch by clicking HERE. Visit sdpb.org to enjoy other stories in this series.
