National Register of Historic Places

Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site

Indianola, Warren County, Iowa
Listed
June 23, 1983
Type
Site
Period
Listed
Ref No.
83000408

About this property

The Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site is a historic site located southwest of Indianola, Iowa, United States. The American owners of Hereford cattle in the 19th century knew that the breed occasionally produced calves that did not develop horns. They are known as polled, which means "naturally hornless." As early as 1893 attempts were made in Kansas and Ontario in Canada to produce the hornless variant. Warren Gammon, a Des Moines lawyer, developed his plan after seeing polled Herefords at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1893. With his son Bert, he leased 5 acres (2.0 ha) of a farm that was owned by the Angus Coal Mining Company. He acquired four bulls and ten cows of purebred Herefords that had failed to develop horns. Two cows were infertile and one bull had to be eliminated. Beside the windmill where the bull "Giant" was tied up the first planned mating with a Polled Hereford cow took place on February 21, 1902. By 1976, the Polled Hereford breed was numerically greater than the horned variety in the United States, and was about three-fourths of Iowa's Hereford stock. The Iowa Polled Hereford Association erected a historical marker at the site. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and was delisted in 2025.

Location

Indianola, Warren County, Iowa
41.25881, -93.68181

Categories

AGRICULTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site listed on the National Register?

Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1983.

What type of historic resource is Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site?

Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site?

The period of significance for Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site is recorded as the listed era.

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