Artist: Othmar J. Hoffler (1893–1954)
Albert Knell Mitchell
MITCHELL, ALBERT KNELL (1894–1980), inducted 1949
Born in Clayton, New Mexico, and educated at Cornell University, Albert K. Mitchell formed T. E. Mitchell and Son with his father upon graduation in 1917. Their 200,000-acre Tequesquite cattle and sheep ranch was among the first in New Mexico to run registered Herefords. In the 1920s, Mitchell was elected to the state House of Representatives. In 1933, he took over the management of the historic Bell Ranch near Tucumcari. Mitchell served as president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and the American National Cattlemen’s Association and chairman of the American Hereford Association and the National Livestock and Meat Board. He was credited with helping to save the American Quarter Horse Association in 1946, served as its president for several years, and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 1984. From 1955–1957, he was President of the ILSE. Albert K. Mitchell was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1977 and became the first recipient of the National Golden Spur Award, acknowledging the nation’s top rancher, in 1978.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 141