Our Arklahoma Heritage: Brangus breed was developed in 1950's by Craig County rancher Walter Raymond Pope

Walter Raymond Pope rose from the dusty prairies of Coal County to become one of the founding fathers of the Brangus breed. He turned a remote Craig County ranch into the Home of Brangus Cattle and helped launch a national association that still shapes the industry today.

His story is pure Oklahoma ranching legend: part rodeo cowboy, part college-trained geneticist, and all visionary cattleman who saw the future in a cross no one else was betting on.

Pope was born on October 24, 1917, in Coalgate. It was a small coal-mining town in Coal County. He grew up in the shadow of the Oklahoma oil boom and the rough-and-tumble ranch country of the early 20th century.

Details about his parents are sparse in public records. His father was Walter Pope and his mother was Josephine R. Plummer. The environment clearly forged a cattleman.

By his teens, Pope was already steeped in the cowboy life. He took part in steer roping, rodeo producing, and worked alongside figures like Senator H.D. Binns of Coalgate.

Pope’s education set him apart from many of his contemporaries. He attended Oklahoma Military Academy in Claremore. He then earned a degree in agriculture from Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater.

He majored in animal husbandry and genetics. This was cutting-edge training for the era. He was a member of both the American Royal and International Livestock judging teams. Those judging trips exposed him to elite bloodlines and breeding science that would later define his career.

He balanced academics with rodeo life. He stayed true to his cowboy roots even as he mastered the science of selective breeding.

In Tulsa on January 18, 1939, Pope married Edith Johnston. She was a fellow A&M graduate whose own story mirrored the Oklahoma migration.

Born in Alabama, she moved to Oklahoma at age two and grew up in Tulsa. College officials actually let the couple graduate a day early so Edith could join Raymond on his first big ranch job.

The newlyweds headed south to the Buttram and Browne plantation in Jeanerette, Louisiana, on the Gulf Coast. They lived there for five years. Edith became the heart of ranch life. She was famous for brewing strong French coffee and feeding crews of ten or more at every meal.

She did all this while raising their young son.

By the late 1940s the family had returned to Oklahoma. Their son, Walter Raymond Pope II, affectionately nicknamed Buckshot, was three years old when a 1949 profile described him as bright as a new dollar and already earmarked for ranch life.

The Popes even bought an extra 1,000-acre spread specifically for Buckshot’s future. Edith managed the household with the same efficiency she brought to college and early ranch days. She created a stable base while Raymond chased the next big idea in cattle breeding.

In the early 1940s, Pope partnered with Oklahoma City oilman Frank Buttram to manage the sprawling Clear Creek Ranch. It eventually reached 20,000 to 25,000 acres about nine miles west of Welch in Craig County. The ranch earned the nickname Home of Brangus Cattle.

Pope became obsessed with crossing heat-tolerant, parasite-resistant Brahman bulls with high-quality, polled, black-coated Aberdeen-Angus cows. The goal was a hardy, efficient beef animal that could thrive in the hot, humid South and Southwest where straight British breeds faltered

.Pope’s work was hands-on and data-driven. He kept meticulous records, progeny-tested bulls, and culled ruthlessly. Clear Creek became one of the earliest private operations running large-scale experimental Brangus programs alongside USDA efforts in Louisiana and a handful of other pioneering ranches.

On July 29, 1949, in Vinita,54 breeders from 16 states and Canada formed the American Brangus Breeders Association, later the International Brangus Breeders Association. Pope was elected its first president. He was the natural choice as the face of commercial Brangus in Oklahoma.

The breed was officially recognized by the USDA that same year. Pope’s influence spread quickly. One of his standout bulls, Clear View King Tut from the ranch he later operated independently, even earned a role in the 1956 Hollywood epic Giant.

Ater a business dispute with Buttram’s son Dorsey in the 1950s, Pope resigned from Clear Creek. He consolidated his own operation on the nearby Clear View Ranch near Vinita. He continued promoting Brangus through sales, shows, and leadership in breed associations.

He helped cement the five-eighths Angus and three-eighths Brahman formula as a staple for warmer climates.

Pope lived out his final decades in the Vinita area. He remained tied to the land and the breed he helped popularize. He died on May 12, 1994, in Vinita, Craig County, at age 76. Pope lived out his final decades in the Vinita area. He remained tied to the land and the breed he helped popularize.

He died on May 12, 1994, in Vinita, Craig County, at age 76. There are no public records of where he was buried.

Raymond Pope’s life bridged the old cowboy West and the modern science of livestock genetics. From a Coalgate boyhood to the presidency of a national breed association, he did not just raise cattle. He engineered a new kind of bull that could stand the heat, resist the bugs, and still deliver the marbling and mothering ability cattlemen demanded.

Oklahoma’s ranching history is richer for it. Brangus breeders from the Gulf Coast to the High Plains still ride on the foundation he laid at Clear Creek.