The D Brand is what E.S. Dement used. His son, Sam, needed a high school project, so he built himself a D Dot branding iron. E.S. told Sam that he'd give him a few cows and he could brand them as his own. With the D Dot, it didn't take much to modify the D brand. So, the D Dot started as Sam's brand.

Later, as E.S. relates in his telling of the story of cattle rustling on the upper Sixes, he'd been using the D brand ever since he started, but the state had recently instituted a new registration scheme for brands. E.S. didn't get his application in soon enough, and somebody else got rights to D. He didn't fret too much about it, since the Dement Ranch was pretty much out of the way and he didn't expect any trouble.

When trouble did come in the person of Myrtle Garner, E.S. decided he better register, so he adopted the D Dot brand and got it registered up in Salem.

The Montana brand on some of the younger cattle was the reverse E lazy P. When E.S. bought those cows, they were pretty young and had been recently branded. There wasn't room, and it didn't seem worth the bother to rebrand them. Myrtle Garner's devious plan on those cows was to go to Salem and register the reverse B lazy P.


LEFT: This barbecue pit on the Dement ranch was made from a section of the Alasks pipeline. Adorned with the family brands, it was gift to Sam Dement on his 70th birthday.



VIEW THE PIT

E.S. ON THE D DOT