Hooker’s Turkeys

There were a number of ways a young man could become a cattleman. He could hire out as a cowboy, gather and brand mavericks until he had enough to start his own spread. He could inherit a ranch or come from money himself. He could also marry the rancher’s daughter. Henry Clay Hooker got into the cattle business in a most unusual way. He bought a bunch of turkeys in California for a dollar and a half apiece with a plan to drive them over the Sierra Nevada and sell ‘em in the Comstock Lode