KENTON—Things have changed a little since Jane and Bob Apple launched the Hitching Post Bed & Breakfast in 1996. The plan was to give people an opportunity to experience an authentic working ranch.
Advertisements for the ranch that is four miles east of Kenton invited aspiring cowboys and cowgirls to come ride horses, watch cattle drives and rodeos, and even help with chores. A day might also include riding the stagecoach, touring dinosaur tracks and rock monuments, hiking the highest point in the state at Black Mesa, and hunting.
Guests could opt to stay overnight in several lodging choices, from the main ranch house, nearby log cabin, and mobile homes on the ranch to quaint cottages and guest houses in and around Kenton.
While the ranch is still a working ranch today, the Apples, now in their early 80s, have slowed down a bit and scaled back their offerings for guests.
“We plan to keep running it until we can’t,” Jane said during an interview this past June.
Spanning three centuries
Operating in the farthest northwest corner of Oklahoma, Hitching Post Lodging has seen folks from around the world come and go for nearly 30 years.
The property itself is believed to have been a witness to explorers, cattlemen, robbers, astronomers, and tourists as far back as the early 1800s.
Jane’s grandfather Henry C. Labrier drove cattle to the ranch from Lubbock, Texas, to Kenton in 1886.
“This was the 101 Ranch back then,” Jane explained, referencing to Confederate Army veteran Col. George Washington Miller, father of the Miller brothers Joe, George Jr., and Zack, who founded the 101 Ranch near modern-day Ponca City known for its 101 Ranch Wild West Show.
According to Jane, the Millers owned the property outside of Kenton in No Man’s Land before nearly going broke. They allegedly shifted their focus from cattle ranching to showmanship when relocating to the famous present-day site in the former Cherokee Outlet.
Other historical documents recount that Col. Miller simply bought the 101 brand from the existing 101 Ranch Company managed by the syndicate Doss, Taylor & Horn Company Ltd. already operating near Kenton.
That cattle company organized in 1881 from three previously existing Texas brands: The original 101 brand owned by Sam Doss (in 1874); the VI brand owned by Dan Taylor (1877); and a third unidentified brand. The headquarters moved in 1891 near to Amarillo, Texas, and two years later began disposing its cattle, at which time Col. Miller purchased the remnant of the herd and the 101 brand.
Either way, cowboys in the Kenton area including Jane’s grandfather all worked at Kenton’s 101 Ranch at one point or another, according to Cimarron Heritage Center in Boise City, as most considered it a badge of honor to be “a 101 man.”
Henry Labrier was a bronc buster for the 101, Jane said, marrying his wife (her grandmother) Johanna and making his home north of the Black Mesa summit. They raised five boys—among which was Jane’s dad Ross and his youngest brother Shirley—plus one girl among the mountains, cactus, and sagebrush of Cimarron County.
Former cowboy Calvin Clelland purchased the ranch when the cattle company relocated in 1891 and expanded the ranch over the next decade. But before Oklahoma gained statehood, Clelland sold out and moved to California.
Between 1906 and 1944, the 101 Ranch east of Kenton changed hands several times and was part and parceled for nearly 40 years. That was until brothers Ross and Shirley Labrier acquired what was left of the ranch.
“Dad started putting it back together,” Jane said, by buying back smaller ranches in an effort to restore the 101 Ranch to its former glory.
Ross’ wife Ina Kay left her teaching job in Colorado to marry him, raise their only child (Jane), and build a life in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Their first home in Moses, N.M., just over the state line was a dugout, meaning there was no electricity, no water, and no paved road; however, that was no problem, she told the Daily Oklahoman in October 1991.
Her pioneer spirit and renowned cooking skills resounded with everyone in the Kenton community until her death at the age of 104 in August 2017.
Living in the Panhandle
Jane attended school in Kenton until it closed, then Goodson Memorial School just over the border in New Mexico, before finally busing to Boise City starting her sophomore year. She started college at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, where she met Bob.
Bob quit college after one semester when his father passed away and returned to the family homestead, which was north of Perryton, Texas, and south of what is known as Bryan’s Corner, Balko’s busy crossroads of U.S. 83 and U.S. 412 in Beaver County.
The couple wed in 1963.
Together the Apples along with her parents, Ross and Ina Kay Labrier, continued to add onto the 101 Ranch, which was rebranded as A&L Cattle Co.
Bob eventually took over running the ranch for his father-in-law whose health was failing in the early 1980s. Ross passed in 1983.
“We lived down river [on the ranch], then our son moved there and we moved into the main house with Mom,” Jane said.
Jane’s mom, Ina Kay, lived in the home she once shared with her husband until she was almost deaf and needed more care than Jane could provide, so she spent her final years in an assisted living facility in Guymon.
Five days before she would turn 105, Ina Kay died. Her funeral was actually held on her birthday, Jane recalled.
Passing on the legacy
The Apples have three boys: LeRoss, Leon, and Leston. The oldest lives in the area while the other two live on the ranch. Leston actually lives with his parents in the main house now and has diminished mental capacity due to an accident in infancy, but he enjoys going with dad and being part of the day-to-day ranching.
Both LeRoss and Leon run cattle, Jane said, but Leon is more active within the community, such as spearheading Kenton’s annual live outdoor Easter Pageant near the Black Mesa, previously serving two terms as Cimarron County Sheriff, and currently working as a park ranger at the nearby Black Mesa State Park.
The operations of the former 101 Ranch like working cattle from horseback, roping, and branding have also included running a bed and breakfast since the mid-1990s.
“We started the Hitching Post when our two youngest grandsons were a year old,” Jane said. “We wanted to give people places to stay” when they came to the region either to sightsee all the attractions, participate in the Okie-Tex Star Party at Camp Billy Joe (named for her late cousin Billy Joe Labrier), or fish at Lake Carl Etlingling at Black Mesa State Park.
The ranch once had a couple of trailer homes for rent on the property plus two houses in the tiny community of Kenton. The “big” house in town is called the 101 House and the “little” house in town is called the Log House.
Both trailer homes have since been removed, and the Apples built the Log Cabin in place of one of them next to the main house, which is nicknamed the Rock House.
The main house is a two-story rock house over 100 years old. At one time, Hitching Post rented out some of the rooms and served meals, but Jane said they don’t really do that much anymore except during the Okie-Tex Star Party.
However, the log cabin just a stone’s throw from the main house can sleep up to four and gives a clear view from its front porch of any cattle drives toward the 101 Ranch’s original corral from the 1880s. The sunrises and sunsets are stunning on the southwestern landscape, but it’s the breathtaking astrophotography opportunities of the Milky Way that keeps visitors coming back year after year.
Jane does give private guided tours of the Kenton’s main attractions for an additional fee to those who want it, but Hitchin Post no longer offers the ranch experience anymore due to liability issues. In fact, the 1882 stagecoach used on the Sante Fe Trail was donated to the Kenton Museum (which has been closed this year due a bat problem) and all the pleasure horses that freely roamed the property have died.
And she doesn’t cook for guests like she used to, instead likening the town rentals and cabin to Airbnb’s with full kitchens and self-serve.
Unfortunately, almost all of the other privately owned lodging options in Kenton have dried up as the town has faded into stuff of legends and lore.
The neighboring Hoot Owl Ranch, Jane said, was sold as a private getaway for the owners of No Man’s Land Jerky, which originated in Boise City but is now headquartered in Enid. The beloved owner of Black Mesa Bed and Breakfast died and her husband closed its doors.
The newest property, Mesa Valley Guesthouse, serves as a vacation home rental tucked away at the base of the Black Mesa, which is technically in the Black Mesa Nature Reserve not the Black Mesa State Park. Camp Billy Joe and Black Mesa State Park are both not far from the Hitching Post and offer only camping and RV spaces.
The Apples hope the ranch and its legacy continues for another generation or two. Their sons will take over when Jane and Bob no longer can run it, and Jane thinks at least a couple of their grandsons have expressed interest in returning home too.
“The Lord has blessed this operation through the years,” she said.
Hitching Post Lodge is open year-round. For availability, call (580) 516-1213 or (580) 261-7413. Go to Facebook.com/p/Hitching-Post-Lodging-100084858231475 for updates of what’s happening in the area.