Last of the big-city stockyards for sale in Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma National Stock Yards Company was the state’s first major industry when it was built, with financial assistance from Oklahoma City (OKC) founders, alongside a packing plant on 120 acres two miles west of downtown in 1910. The stockyards are now for sale for $27 million, the last of the nation’s big-city stockyards.
The Edward Morris Company brought 2,400 new jobs to OKC, which had a population of 60,000 at the time. Like many stockyards companies, livestock sales were handled through a private agreement arranged by on-site commission companies. When live auctions were introduced in 1961, it created greater competition for livestock. From that point, the Oklahoma City market grew to become the world’s largest market of stocker and feeder calves.
According to Oklahoma National Stockyards, Stockyards City was founded Oct. 3, 1910, and was built to serve the nation as a primary source for meat processing and packing. By 1915, Morris, Wilson and Armour all established packing facilities to slaughter the cattle, hogs and sheep which were transported first by cattle drive and later by railroad and truck. The area’s nickname for a time was “Packingtown.”
In 1961, existing packers were faced with aging and outdated equipment and rather than invest in the facilities, the packing plants closed.
Jerry Reynolds, the stockyard president, told AP reporter Sean Murphy, he’s hopeful a buyer will continue to operate the auction but he understands the 100-acre site is ripe for developers. He said the same family has owned the stockyards since 1910 and the younger generations aren’t interested in continuing the 24-hour per day/seven days a week business.
Derrell Peel, professor at Oklahoma State University, said if the stockyards close, nearby Joplin, Mo., and El Reno, Okla., would likely absorb the business. The Joplin market would likely become the country’s largest.
There are nine commission firms buying and selling cattle at the stockyard each week during Monday and Tuesday sales: Central-Halliburton, Custer and Custer, Farmers, J&J, W.H. May, National, Producers, Stockman-Oklahoma and Western.
HISTORY
According to J’Nell L. Pate’s Livestock Hotels, Sidney Brock was the president of the OKC chamber of commerce in the years immediately following statehood. He piqued the interest of the Nelson Morris company in coming to OKC to open a packing plant. When Executive Vice President Thomas E. Wilson arrived, Brock commandeered the only automobile in OKC to drive him to tour the site.
Morris and Company agreed to build in OKC under the conditions that the company would receive a $300,000 bonus, be exempted from taxes for five years, the city would extend sewer and streetcar lines to the site, a railroad belt line would be built to connect the four trunk lines already in operation, and Wilson wanted a block of land southwest of downtown adjacent to the Canadian River. OKC officials agreed to the terms.
Months after Wilson’s visit, another major packer, Schwarzchild and Sulzberger, offered to build a plant with the same conditions the city had extended to Morris and Company. In addition to the conditions, the company wanted a fire station near the site and 350,000 gallons of free water daily for five years. City officials again agreed, excited at the prospect of becoming a major packing and marketing hub.
Morris organized the Oklahoma National Stock Yards Company adjacent to the packers and 17 commission firms hung their shingle to operate. Morris sold all meat packing interests to Armour. Morris’ former EVP, Wilson, went into the meat packing business himself, purchasing the older Schwarzchild and Sulzberger plant. OKC remained a hub, thanks in large part to its location at the crossroads of major interstates.
By 1960, Armour closed its plant. Wilson remained, replacing the aging facility with a new one in 1963. Wilson discontinued cattle slaughter in 1979 and ended hog slaughter in 1981.
The livestock market continued to flourish as auctions grew and producers took advantage of the centrally located market. Commercial feedyards also developed around the state, concreting the need for a market. The livestock exchange building built in 1910 was destroyed in a fire caused by an electric short in June 1980. The Spanish-colonial style building was destroyed, but the market thrived, becoming the largest stocker-feeder market in the nation with annual receipts averaging a million head.
