90 Years Ago at the 101 Ranch Terrapin Derby

1929 National Terrapin Derby

            Grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, kept a single page of a magazine article. Flourishing cursive script at the top of the magazine page indicated the page had been taken from Southwest Wilds and Water. It was about the 1929 101 Ranch Terrapin Derby, but further research puzzled me. A couple of sites devoted to Ponca City and Kay County history reported different winners than Grandma’s keepsake magazine page. 

            When I found the saved periodical page, I knew its significance for Grandma and Grandpa were the two photos of Ford Jarrell. Ford Jarrell was the oldest son of Bob and Bina Jarrell. Mother, Bernyce Smith Gates, remembered Ford as a masterful magician and an accomplished dancer. His talents impressed her since Ford was twelve years older than Mother. She was a preschooler at the time.

Photographs from the vintage
magazine. One mystery I did
not solve was the discrepancy in
the name of the winning turtle.
The newspaper article identified
the terrapin as "Bobby Jones"
whereas this above photo gives
its name as "Lilly."

My grandparents were friends and socialized with Bob and Bina when Mother was a young child. I wrote more about this friendship in the blog post of December 20, 2015 entitled Ralston’s Tie with the Founding of Oklahoma Agriculture and Mechanical College. It can be accessed at https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/12/ralstons-tie-with-founding-of-oklahoma.html

                Faced with an obvious discrepancy in facts, I searched and located a digital copy of The Miami Daily News-Record published in Miami, Oklahoma, on September 3, 1929. That date was one day after Labor Day ninety years ago. It detailed the annual Terrapin Derby sponsored each Labor Day by the 101 Ranch situated south of Ponca City, Oklahoma. (Another blog posting about the iconic terrapin race entitled Labor Day at the 101 Ranch and Family Connections can be accessed at https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2017/09/labor-day-at-101-ranch-and-family.html)

                On September 2, 1929, 50 entrants wandered behind the barrier of the “tortoise” race course – a 75-foot distance from the circle’s center to its perimeter. Here is a link to a video of the Labor Day Celebration in 1931 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pae6r6MF0fo). About 3 minutes into the video, one can see how the terrapin race was run.

Labor Day 1929 marked the fifth year for the Miller family, owners of the 101 Ranch to host the event. Sadly, only the younger brother, Zack was still surviving. Both older brothers, Joe and George died in automobile-related accidents. Ironically, the interest of people and the prize money grew each year.

            Then I was met with the discrepancy. Instead of indicating Ford Jarrell won, the news article heartily congratulated two men from Ralston, who shared the ownership of the victorious turtle wearing the number tag of “3912." The triumphant turtle was dubbed “Bobby Jones” in honor of the greatest golfer of the 1920s . The determined reptile veered neither right nor left and crossed the finish line in one minute and ten seconds.

            The article went on to say neither of the men who had each invested $1 each to cover the $2 entry fee were present to collect the accolades and the winning cash. But true to the photographs on the magazine page saved by Grandma, the Miami newspaper reported 17-year-old Ford Jarrell dashed to join in the celebration and collect the $6,580 first place winning. Ford had permission to receive the trophy and the check since he was the son of R. S. “Bob” Jarrell, the Ralston banker friend of my grandparents, who shared ownership of the speedy tortoise with Ward McCague, identified as the Ralston postmaster.

            To give a monetary perspective, I researched the comparisons. The $2 entry fee paid by Bob Jarrell and Ward McCague would be an expense of around $30. The check  for $6,580 that young Ford Jarrell garnered in the winner’s circle would be equivalent to $96,673.28 in 2019!

            Ford’s love of the excitement on Labor Day in 1929, served as a precursor to his future. Some revelations from an interview with him in the Tulsa World in 1985 supported my mother’s early memories. She characterized Ford as a performer. He divulged to his interviewer that he reasoned that he had to run away from home in Ralston to become a circus clown with this statement, “I always knew I wanted to be in show business, and that I couldn’t be in show business in a town of 400.”

            He did a short stint in the circus, earned a degree in English from A & M at Stillwater, danced in movies, and finally taught dance to many aspiring hoofers, even Tulsa Ballet stars, during his later years in Tulsa.

            Ford Jarrell was 85 years old when he granted the interview to Ashley Parrish of the Tulsa World. The kid who ran away from his Ralston home in pursuit of a career in the performing arts lived until age 94. He died in 2007.

            If you get to watch the terrapin derby at the 74^th Labor Day celebration in Ralston this year, remember 90 years ago a Ralston-owned terrapin put the little town on the map and raked in a heap of money.

Sobering Afterthought - Within weeks after the big win for the Jarrells and Mr. McCague in the terrapin derby, the Roaring 20s ending with the Stock Market Crash of October of 1929, ushering in the Great Depression that affected every American for over a decade.