Cimarron Cowboy Monument

This huge slab of Oklahoma granite known as the Cowboy’s Memorial is the site of the annual Cimarron Cowboys Association meeting following the chuck wagon feed. It took seven years for the monument to move from thoughts to granite, but in April of 1950, the memorial was dedicated.

The monument is actually a story about the Cimarron cowboy told in pictures. Murals etched into the marker depict the following event in area history:

• The arrival of the vast droves of Texas longhorn cattle,
• The first sod house,
• The dreadful blizzard of 1886 which froze to death thousands of cattle along the Cimarron River,
• The fierce grey wolves which ran in packs to attack cattle,
• The building of the Santa Fe railroad from Waynoka to Woodward,
• Cattle herds being pushed across the flooded Cimarron River near Freedom,
• The Old O-E Headquarters once located three miles southwest of Freedom,
• The modern ranches and improved cattle of today,
• A rodeo scene,
• An Indian stomp dance.

The Memorial also includes names of many area cowboys, the first of whom were nearly all early day cattlemen and cowboys who rode the ranges when there were no fence barriers. The monument is a magnificent portrayal of the early day cowboy and the environment in which he worked and loved so well.