Okie Cowboy - Pawhuska, OK
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 36° 39.807 W 096° 20.465
14S E 737643 N 4060832
The Oklahoma Cowboy, raised our main food source, past and present..
Waymark Code: WM106QH
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 03/09/2019
Views: 2
County of Statue: Osage County
Location of Statue: Main St. (US-60), Louise Snyder Park, next to city hall, Pawhuska
Plaque Text:
"Okie Cowboy"
I spent much of my boyhood with a cowboy,
the genuine article. This bronze sculpture
reminds me of him, a man who had time for
a boy.
By Pawhuska Sculptor
John D. Free
Gift of Strat and Bobbie Tolson,
Lynn (Tolson) Fuente and Lance Tolson
In Memory of -- Ralph and Lee Tolson
2000
"The origins of Oklahoma cattle raising go back to the 1830s when the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) were removed from the southeastern United States and resettled in Indian Territory. In addition to bringing large herds of livestock with them, they also practiced a system of communal land ownership that favored open range grazing. This in turn led to increased herd sizes, because until the California gold rush of the 1850s there was no readily available market for their cattle. As demand grew, so did stock raising, so that by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 the Cherokee Nation alone had nearly a quarter-million head of cattle. Unfortunately, the havoc of the war and the depredations of cattle thieves resulted in an estimated loss of three hundred thousand head among the Five Nations by 1865." ~ Oklahoma Historicaql Society
Short Bio of John D. Free:
Born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, he became a recognized western sculptor and animal painter and from 1972 to 1975, was an elected member of the Cowboy Artists of America.
He was raised on his grandfather's ranch near McAlester, Oklahoma and learned early the life of a cowboy, which he drew and sketched from the time he was young. His heritage is part Osage and Cherokee as well as Caucasian. In college he studied veterinary science and animal husbandry and took a few art courses but was discouraged by the emphasis on abstraction.
He determined to become an artist showing the life of a cowboy and spent four years in private study in Taos, New Mexico. In 1971, he was given a one-man show at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He later opened his own foundry in Pawhuska where he lived most of his life.
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