Black Gold

I noticed an interesting road at the Oklahoma State Fair Park called Black Gold Drive. I thought it was interesting how they’d intertwined their state history into the fairgrounds. Black Gold of course represents a natural resource found abundantly within the state. Other avenues there included Land Rush Street and the less-than-politically-correct Red Mans Path.

I was going target streets called Black Gold to see if I could correlate them with places important to the petroleum industry. Problem was, I kept finding ties to thoroughbred horse racing and famous equine champions instead. For example, I stumbled upon a themed neighborhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico.


The Trail Led to a Horse

I guess maybe if I’d been more interested in horses as a child I might have known about this. This included a 1957 Black Gold book by Marguerite Henry who also wrote “Misty of Chincoteague” (12MC visited Chincoteague). There was also a 1947 Black Gold movie starring Anthony Quinn. I’d heard of neither.

Black Gold at the Fair Grounds Race Course. Unknown author / in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Black Gold

So Black Gold was a horse. I ditched the oil angle. This Hall-of-Fame thoroughbred was much more interesting.

There were many great summaries of the Black Gold story including a nice one on the Colin’s Ghost site. I decided to focus on the beginning and the end. I’ll also mentioning a few sprinkles in the middle, like how Black Gold won the 50th Kentucky Derby in 1924. Other sites already describe those events in detail so I don’t really need to repeat them.


Osage in Kansas

Rosa Hoots owned Black Gold. She was born of mixed French and Osage ancestry in Osage Mission (now St. Paul), Kansas, a daughter of Peter Augustus Captain (his Osage name was “Ogeese” Captain) and America Jane Moore. Osage Mission was literally just that. It was a Jesuit mission established in 1847 to bring the Catholic religion, culture and education to native inhabitants of the plains. As described by the Osage Mission – Neosho County Museum:

“The Mission schools and the influence of Fr. Schoenmakers provided the Osage with the education and political savvy to deal with the white man. In 1869, after an intense political struggle with the L.L. & G. Railroad, the Osage ceded their Kansas lands to the government for $1.25/acre. They moved to their reservation in northern Oklahoma… with $8,536,000 (1869 $) [and] the U.S. Treasury paying interest to all members of the tribe.”


Osage in Oklahoma

The Captain family moved along with their Osage brethren to Oklahoma, to the current Osage County that is coterminous with the Osage Indian Reservation. The Osage Nation recorded Rosa in their rolls as Original Allottee #1356.

The Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture included an article on the Hoots Ranch. The property came from Rosa’s side of the family through their Osage allotments. This was where her father Augustus constructed a trading post “at Hominy Falls on Hominy Creek”. It’s also where he built “the first stone house on the Osage Reservation”. The original trading post was located where the Captain Cemetery now exists.

The Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma interviewed Rosa Hoots in 1937. The Indian Territory was still the “Old West” when she was a child.

“… there was located on the spot, where now is the cemetery, a thriving little store which was the trading post for the Osage Indians and some Quapaws, and early white settlers who lived in the vicinity… Often when the Osages came with their buffalo hides to trade with ‘Ogeese’ Captain, they made camp for several days, and often he allowed them to hold council in his home.”


Racing Horses

Rosa Captain married Al Hoots in 1886 and they began to breed racehorses on Hoots Ranch as the years passed. Eventually they raised the filly Useeit (aka “U-See-It”). She was a fast horse, only beaten consistently by her rival and nemesis, a Hall-of-Fame quality horse named Pan Zareta. Useeit bred to Black Toney, resulting in Black Gold in 1921. Race fans often called Black Gold the “Indian Horse” because of the Osage connection.

There were many more tragic twists and turns to the story already covered ad nauseam elsewhere. So feel free to consult the book or the movie or the dozens of accounts on the Intertubes if you’d like the details. Essentially: Al died before Useeit was bred and Black Gold born; Rosa managed the horse to phenomenal racing and financial success to fulfill Al’s dream including the Kentucky Derby victory; and Hoots Ranch became Black Gold Ranch and still exists (albeit now owned by a different family). And so on.


The Unfortunate Ending

Please realize I skipped past some of the best part of the story using very few words. I’m interested in the more obscure facets. Let’s fast-forward to the end.


Black Gold & Pan Zareta Monuments, New Orleans, Louisiana

Does the 12MC audience remember the horse Barbaro from a few years ago? Specifically the media frenzy when Barbaro was injured in the 2006 Preakness Stakes and then had to be euthanized in 2007? The death of Black Gold struck a similar cord with the public and also ignited a media firestorm. However, it happened about three-quarters of a century earlier.

Black Gold should have earned any easy, rewarding life as a stud after his Kentucky Derby victory. Except he was sterile. With stud fees impossible, Rosa decided to salvage whatever revenue she could by placing Black Gold back on the racing circuit. Unfortunately he was not nearly the same horse as he was before, and raced poorly. Rosa then entered Black Gold in the 1928 Salome Purse in New Orleans, Louisiana — now the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. Then he broke his leg during the race and they euthanized him on the track.

Pan Zareta. Photo posted by BANAMINE; Public Domain
Pan Zareta

Visitors to the Fair Grounds Race Course sometimes wonder about two white markers on the infield. Those are the graves of Black Gold, buried near where were he died, and ironically Pan Zareta, the horse that bested his mother.


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