Texas artist Rogers brings past to present

- Rogers' Tartan of 6666 -

While wandering through my thoughts this morning, I was day-dreaming about a full-length portrait of Jim Vernon in a duster that I saw many years ago hanging on the wall in his Sweetwater home. I couldn't remember if it was done by Mondel Rogers or the late Billy Martin, both being local artists and acquaintances of Mr. Vernon.

I pulled out my worn copy of Rogers' book, Old Ranches of the Texas Plains, to see if the portrait was in there. While perusing the pages, I came across this painting of the Four Sixes barn, titled Tartan of 6666.

The artist's comments on this painting were as such:

   "Part of the renowned Four Sixes headquarters at Guthrie is this red barn. Built about 1917 for Burk Burnett, it has stabled some of the finest horses in the Southwest. Stalls, hayloft, tack room, granary, and shoeing facilities are included, making it a complete unit.

    "The barn seems like a bit of ranch heraldry. Two brands, the 6666 for cattle and the L for horses, appear to make a coat of arms. The sliding metal doors might be two escutcheons And the batten boards, the vertical strips of corrugated sheet metal, and the crisscrossing of many fences, posts, lines, and corrals seemingly combine to interweave a special tartan for the 6666."

Another, nicer copy of this book, with dustjacket, lay on my mother's coffee table for decades. That copy was lost in various moves, but I pounced on this thrift-shop find and hoarded it away in my book collection. 

This 1976 book has an interest not only for current fans of the show Yellowstone, but for those interested in a way of living from a time gone past.