Arthur CountyYes, it’s small in population but darn big when it comes to lending a hand. Story and Photographs by Bobbi and Steve Olson |
 |
 |
IN ARTHUR COUNTY, “neighbor” is more than a noun. People “neighbor” by lending a hand and continue “neighboring” as a way of life.
With more than 700 square miles and 444 residents, Arthur County is the least populated and most remote county in Nebraska. Here, people neighbor on one another; being neighborly is a necessity.
In the middle of Arthur County is the county seat and only town, Arthur, population 145. Arthur sits in a towering cottonwood oasis amid a sea of sand hills at the junction of highways 92 and 61 about 35 miles north of Ogallala. Arthur lacks any grand museums, yet the daughters, sons and grandchildren of the early settlers are the living gallery of Arthur County.
In 1874, a fall prairie fire stretched from west of Kearney to Julesburg and from the Platte rivers to the Republican River. After fighting fire for weeks, cattleman John Bratt lost most of his grazing land. Out of desperation to preserve his cattle herd, Bratt headed north. He discovered ideal cattle country – valleys with good grass and water.
Bratt eventually sold his Circle Ranch, and another of the largest ranches in the area soon took its place. In 1876, 16-year-old Harry Haythornthwaite stowed away on a ship at Lancaster, England, that was headed for America. Haythornthwaite was discovered after the boat set sail, and to pay off his passage, he was forced to care for four white-face bulls bound for Galveston, Texas. That proved to be a life-changing opportunity. Upon landfall, he took a job with the bulls’ owner and soon learned the fine art of working as an American cowboy.
Haythornthwaite worked four cattle drives out of Texas, and it was on the fourth that he rode into Ogallala, where he decided to stay. Harry shortened his last name to Haythorn, and then took a wife, Emma. While Haythorn worked as a wagon boss, Emma worked alongside him as a cook for the cowhands. They scraped together money to file on a land grant in Arthur County.
From meager beginnings, the ranch expanded into Haythorn Land and Cattle with two ranches – one in Arthur County and one in Keith County. Today, it is the second largest breeder of quarter horses in the world. Still a family-run operation, the ranch uses traditional forms of ranching – roping, riding, branding and breaking horses in the field (see “Haythorn Ranch,” January/February 2008).
The smell of bacon still drifts from the Haythorn Land and Cattle kitchen. Jody Haythorn cooks breakfast each morning for up to nine or 10 cowboys, including husband on Craig, a fourth-generation Haythorn, and sons Sage and Cord. In her 27 years of married life, Jody hardly can remember a meal, except maybe for a holiday, when it was just her immediate family. “We don’t ever – very, very seldom – sit down and eat as a family,” she said. “Our cowboys are our extended family.”
With everyone seated at a long table in the dining hall, Jody laughed, “It’s like the last supper every night.”
Regan Watson was one of those hungry Haythorn cowhands a few years back. What seems like a lifetime ago, he traded tractors and grease in farm country for cowboy life on the ranch with hopes of one day having his own herd of cattle and spread of open prairie.
His heart is in ranching, but it is a tough line of work to break into. When the butcher shop in Arthur came up for sale, Watson bought the business to stay close to the ranch work he loves. Betsy Penner, his partner, helps Watson in the butcher shop. They average one cow per day, 365 days a year. During their busy season of August to November when they are processing 4-H livestock, they work 12- to 14-hour days.
When not butchering, Watson helps ranchers, which often means showing up with his horse at 5 a.m. to work a few hours before heading into town for a full day at the shop.
Penner also pitches in as a volunteer emergency medical technician (EMT), one of 13 on the rescue squad. It can take Penner and the other volunteers 30 to 45 minutes to get to rescue calls on the far side of the county. Add the same time for a return trip to town and another hour or two if a hospital visit is in order. Being neighborly is both time-consuming and expensive.
Like Watson, hatmaker James Marshall also came to Arthur County to be a cowboy. He managed a ranch for a time and then started a fencing business. When Marshall moved to Arthur 14 years ago, there was a short period where he had to work his way into the tight-knit community. He started by helping ranchers with brandings and moving cattle.
A few years ago, Marshall had a serious run-in with a bull while helping a friend. The bull left him with two broken vertebrae in his back, broken ribs and a punctured lung, and put him in an Omaha hospital for a month. The residual pain from the injury forced Marshall to give up the fencing business and look for a new career.
He saw an opportunity in custom-made hats, so he went to Montana and Idaho to get training. Nebraska Life featured Marshall in the May/June 2004 issue. At the time of that article, Marshall was working on hat #189. Recently, he completed hat #1,062. Marshall still makes top-quality hats from all beaver fur, or a blend with rabbit and other fur. The process of “retraining” the hair until it marries the hat shape takes about a week.
