In 1942 Judge James C. Cheek, Jr. (known to the family as “Pop”) purchased the 160 acre quarter section NE of where Wilshire Blvd intersects Sara Road in Canadian County, Oklahoma. At that time, the almost 15 mile trek from the family’s home at 32nd and Shartel in the City was primarily made of rural, dirt roads; it surely would have taken the Judge an hour and a half trip, one way. That was the very beginning of what has become The Cheek Ranch today.
After Pop’s sons came back from the war, he and his two eldest bought a second quarter section to the west, directly across Sara Road from the first. Pop’s original quarter and the new Red House quarter together quickly became a family retreat for fowl hunting and horseback riding. The Judge enjoyed the rest of his life, working to start the cattle operations on the land.