Ben Snipes, Cattle King

Hi, Kit Morgan here. Today I want to talk about the inspiration for one of my characters from my Prairie Bride and Prairie Groom Series. If you've read my books then you're familiar with Horatio Jones, the owner of the Big J Ranch and Sadie Joneses father. She marries Harrison Cooke in His Prairie Princess (Prairie Brides Book 1) and receives as a wedding gift from her father of a thousand head of cattle, plunging the newlyweds into the cattle business. In the Prairie Bride and Prairie Groom series, Horatio is a cattle baron and owns one of the biggest if not the biggest cattle operation in the Oregon territory. When Sheriff Hughes, the law in Clear Creek, finds out who Sadie's father is, he happily declares that being the daughter of a man like Horatio makes her like royalty! Thus the title of the book. Well, back in the old West, there really was such a man. 

His name was Ben Snipes and he was known as the Cattle King. His rangeland was located in the Washington territory which bordered the Cascade Mountains on the West, extended east to and beyond, the Columbia River, and north to Canada and south to Oregon. Ben Snipes drove thousands of cattle to the mining markets of the Fraser River and the Cariboo in British Columbia.

During his life which ended in 1906, Snipes knew both failure and success. He is believed to have grown his cattle herd to over 35,000 head, all grazing on his vast holdings. Several times severe winters claimed thousands of his cattle, a calamity shared by Northwest cattleman in the early days.

 Such losses barely dampened Snipes enthusiasm though. Within days of such a disaster, he was refinancing and eyeing perspective herds to build again. His story is paralleled by few men who started with nothing and "drove" their way to the top. Ben Snipes' success was so great you can find books written about him on Amazon and other retailers.

If you'd like to check out the Prairie Bride and Prarie Groom Series, you can find them on my Amazon Page   To find out about new releases, sign up for my newsletter here.

Until next time, Happy Reading!
Kit