The 101 Ranch, which operated from 1893 to 1936 with headquarters at this location, owed much of its success to the involvement and cooperation of local and national Indian tribes. The Miller family had known the Ponca before the tribe's relocation to present-day Kay County and developed a long-standing relationship with its leaders, notably Chief White Eagle and former war chief Little Standing Buffalo. Colonel George W. Miller and his son Joe Miller were instrumental in the Ponca tribe's move in 1879 from temporary quarters near Baxter Springs, Kansas, to land near the convergence of the Salt Fork and Arkansas Rivers, where the tribe remains. Through lease agreements with the Ponca and Otoe tribes, the 101 Ranch expanded to more than 100,000 acres of agricultural and grazing land, and in 1903 the Miller family paid the Poncans and Otoes $32,500 in annual rental fees for much of the 50,000 acres then comprising the ranch. Its success was tied directly to good relationships with five area tribes: the Ponca, Tonkawa, Otoe, Osage, and Kaw, and without Native American cooperation it likely would not have reached international standing as America's largest diversified farm and ranch at its height. Native Americans also played a significant role in the ranch's entertainment ventures. When the Miller Brothers launched their touring 101 Ranch Wild West in 1907, Native Americans were featured members of the cast, and from 1907 until the show closed in Washington, D.C., in August 1931, it traveled widely across the United States, Mexico, South America, and Europe. Performers included Ponca, Otoe, Osage, Kaw, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Winnebago, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Tomkawa, Apache, and Sioux. Among notable individuals associated with the 101 Ranch were Geronimo, who appeared in 1905 in the company of Edward Le Clair Sr. and others; Lone Bear, a former high chief of the Sioux who had been present at General George Custer's Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and later took part in early moviemaking by the 101 Ranch Bison Films Company; Luther Standing Bear, a Dakota Sioux who worked in film production and became known nationally as an expert archery marksman; Iron Tail of the Ogallala Sioux, who toured with the 101 Ranch Wild West Shows and whose profile the Millers helped place on the U.S. 1913 Indian Head Buffalo nickle; and Ponca Chief Good Boy, who played an important part in the 1927 tribal wedding of Joe Miller and Mary Verlin.