Going, Going, Gone

From 46 states and several foreign countries, a crowd of 6,000 gathered at Dan Thornton's Colorado ranch last week for the big doings. Dan Thornton was selling one of the best Hereford herds in the world. To get his guests in the proper buying mood, he fed them well, on 1,200 lbs. of beans, 150 lbs. of apple sauce, 100 lbs. of Spanish onions, 50 gallons of pickles, 8,500 buns and 2,400 lbs. of barbecued meat. Between meals, the auction went on for two days. In 20 hours of selling, $729.95 worth of cattle were bought every minute.

This was no more than Dan Thornton had expected. In his seven years in the Gunnison Basin, strapping (6 ft.), 36-year-old Dan Thornton had made it one of the Hereford centers of the U.S. Nearly three years ago, Thornton sold two of his Triumphant Type Hereford bulls, T. T. Regent and T. T. Triumphant 29th, for $50,000 apiece, the highest price ever paid till then for that breed (TIME, Jan. 29, 1945).

Goodbye. Now he was selling out so that he and wife Jessie, his partner and bookkeeper, could go back to Ohio, where Thornton is going to help run the American Steel Package Co. In a way, it was a turnabout. Jessie's father, the late Curtis M. Willock, who founded the company, had lent Thornton $35,000 to start his Hereford herd. Texas-born Thornton, who had grown up on ranches and raised cattle since he was twelve, ran the stake into a big business which cost $100,000 a year to run. He kept a Beechcraft plane and pilot to fly him some 100,000 miles a year, buying, selling and spreading the fame of his Hereford herd.

Good Luck. At his farewell auction, Thornton's bull market did not quite equal the 1945 highs. Highest he got was $36,000, for T. T. Proud Prince. But his T. T. Zato Heiress, three-year-old grand champion of the 1947 Denver show, brought $35,000, the highest price ever paid for a Hereford heifer. And his herd of 416 Herefords brought an average price per lot of $2,305, another alltime Hereford record.

Thornton grew sentimental when the patriarch of his herd, Majestic W. H. R. Triumph Domino 45th, was led into the ring. He bought old Domino ten years ago for $2,700, got $1,000,000 worth of calves from his loins before he was worn out in service. Cried Thornton: "I can't bear to sell him. Dr. Scott, you can have him." The buyers cheered as Dr. E. L. Scott, a retired husbandry teacher who runs a nearby ranch, led old Domino away.

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