Horace Greely "Buck" Adams, owner of the XI Ranch located near Plains, Kansas, is the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame's Rancher/Cattleman Inductee for 2004.
Born in Topeka in 1921, Buck lived on the XI Ranch as a child. During the 1890s, his grandfather, H.G. Adams, began ranching south of Plains. In 1903, he started purchasing the first sections that would soon form the XI Ranch. By 1923, he had amassed 75,000 acres.
Unfortunately the dust bowl forced Buck's immediate family to move away from the ranch in 1933 and back to their farm in eastern Kansas in order for his younger brother to recover from dust pneumonia.
Buck continued to grow up in eastern Kansas and later married Wynona Keller in 1943. Two years later, the couple moved back to the XI Ranch, where they raised their family. Growing up during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl Era, Buck learned at an early age how tough the ranching lifestyle could be. Later in his life, he recalled a time when his family ran 5,000 heifers on their 75,000 acres; yet by 1934, they sold almost all of them. After moving back to the XI Ranch, Buck devoted the rest of his life to ranching; however, he endured many of the same problems his grandfather had dealt with before him. In the 1950s, a drought caused Buck to run 150 cattle on 25,000 acres that normally held 1,000 head. Later, in the spring of 1957, blizzard broke the drought and killed sixty of their 150 head. Yet Buck persevered. Buck believed that a handshake sealed a deal. Buck's son, H.G. Adams IV, never recalled a time when his father had a contract to sell cattle. He had a known reputation for never backing out on a deal, even if the price of beef increased after the agreement was made.
A conservationist by nature, Buck and his family credit that particular attitude for keeping him in the agriculture business, even during the hardest of times. He preached his entire life about the need to take care of the land, mostly due to his experience during the 1930. Buck confessed he had always wanted to join the rodeo circuit during his youth. He felt his height of 6'1" and weight of 200 lbs. would have been an advantage in steer roping competitions. Buck would always look back with a twinge of regret that he never had the time or money to fulfill his rodeo dreams.
Horace Greely "Buck" Adams passed away in 1995, leaving the XI Ranch to his family and a lifetime of ranching knowledge to all he came in contact with.
