Rancher loved throwing a loop in Pecos

George Walton Poage

SAN ANGELO, Texas - George Walton Poage earned his spurs early by competing in goat-roping contests before taking on his first calf-roping contest a few years later. Born on the Poage ranch west of Mertzon in Irion County Aug. 12, 1908, Walton started riding and roping when he was old enough to sit a saddle. He first twirled his loop in goat-roping contests at picnics held at Mertzon, Stiles and Sherwood. At his first calf-roping contest at Big Lake in 1934, he won day money in calf roping and emerged as the champion goat roper of the show. Poage won the championship at the Pecos Rodeo, the world’s oldest rodeo, in 1945, 1946 and 1947. He also won the championship trophy at the 1945 Frontier Roundup in Cheyenne, Wyo. Other major victories during those years included: Tucson, first in 1946; Madison Square Garden in New York City, day money and third in average; Marfa, first in 1944, 1946 and 1947; and Del Rio, first in 1947, second in 1948. A story in the July 2, 1946, Standard-Times described Poage: “as light on his feet as an adagio dancer, notwithstanding his tremendous bulk — he is six-feet, six inches tall and weighs in the neighborhood of 240 pounds — is proud of his competitive record at Pecos. “I guess I’d rather win at Pecos than anywhere else,” he said. A big, bay thoroughbred horse named Dan carried his dad through a string of wins during the peak years of his roping career in the late 1940s and early 1950s, his son, Bud Poage, said. Walton Poage was the third of five children born to Richard “Dick” and Meda Lindley Poage. In 1925 the family moved to Reagan County from Irion County. They settled on the Duwain Hughes ranch, 5 miles east of Stiles where Richard was ranch foreman. Richard Poage was born in 1868 near Waco in McLennan County. He was still a youngster when he made his first trail drive with his older brother, W.A. Poage, driving a herd of cattle to Dodge City, Kan., in 1879. In 1884, he took a herd to Fort Sumner, N.M. The biggest herd Richard helped up the trail contained 3,600 head of cattle and a remuda of 76 horses, according to history accounts...more