This collection documents Tinsley’s research on the Hash
Knife Ranch and brand primarily in the northern Arizona and western Texas regions
from the 1870s to the early 1940s. His research consists of photographs,
advertisements, illustration, newspaper articles, book chapters, and deeds which he
accumulated from various institutions across the United States.
Identification:
NAU.MS.9
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives
Department
Northern Arizona University.
Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives Department
P.O. Box 6022
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6022
Phone: 928 523-5551
Fax: 928 523-3770
Email: special.collections@nau.edu
Historical Note
Jim Bob Tinsley was a working cowboy and a performer, collector, and more recently a
preserver of cowboy music. His many works on southern and western subjects include
"He was Singin’ This Song (1981)," "Florida Cow Hunter: The Life and Times of Bone
Mizell (1990)," and "For a Cowboy Has to Sing (1991).”
From 1985 to 1992 he worked on The Hash Knife Brand, which was published in 1993. The
Hash Knife Ranch started in 1874 near Fort Worth, Texas and under the leadership of
James Robertson Couts. It then morphed into a large enterprise that incorporated the
Aztec Land and Cattle Company based in New York City and the Continental Land and
Cattle Company, which banded together several ranches under one brand. They supplied
beef for California and the Southwestern region as well as holding an interest in
stocks. At its largest size, the cattle drive range stretched from Flagstaff,
Arizona in the west to the Little Beaver Creek in Southeastern Montana and to Taylor
County, Texas to the east. The ranch was owned by various investors and cowboys of
the years, yet the most popular owners were the Babbitt brothers (George, Charles,
Edward, William, and David). As of 1941 the Hash Knife Ranch is owned by a sheep
herder, Fred Aja, and only encompasses a small region in northern Arizona.
Tinsley passed away on January 18, 2004.
Scope and Content
This collection documents Tinsley’s research on the Hash Knife Ranch and brand
primarily in the northern Arizona and western Texas regions from the 1870s to the
early 1940s. His research consists of photographs, advertisements, illustration,
newspaper articles, book chapters, and deeds which he accumulated from various
institutions across the United States. The research was complied for the publication
of his book The Hash Knife Brand (1993).
No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner
of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her
transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify
and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its
officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person
asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.
Research is organized by chapter subject found in The Hash Knife Brand (with
the exception of all the files pertaining to specific persons falling under
chapter 1 in alphabetical order by last name). Chapters 2-11 are organized
by general to more specific topic. Inside each file are three groups:
research material, correspondence, and notes made by Tinsley. Each of these
subsections is ordered by date (1856-1992) with undated material falling to
the back of each subsection. Of particular interest is the correspondence
between Tinsley and Stella Hughes (the daughter-in-law of Pat Hughes) in
which she supplies family photographs and history from the family photo
album as well as other correspondence with relatives and researchers of the
Hash Knife Ranch cowboys. Tinsley incorporated his interest in cowboy music
by including numerous songs in his research material; however, only one song
appears in the manuscript.
At the end of the research material is a section pertaining to the process of
publishing the manuscript. This section shows the stages in which the author
acquired copyright permissions and reader reviews as well as various formats
of the finished product.
The images are organized into three groups: book images, similar images, and
unused images. The book images are ordered first by chapter then by page
number of appearance in the book. The twelve similar images are alternate
views points (i.e. close-ups/wide views) of images from the book and are
ordered by the page number of the image to which they relate. Of particular
interest are the 37 images that did not make it into the manuscript. Images
1-21 are ordered by how the general subjects (primarily geographic regions)
to which they pertain appear in the book. Images 22-37 are images that do
not apply to a specific subject in the book and are organized by those with
notations first followed by unlabeled images.
