John E. Sloat’s ‘Dirt Man’ Tokens
Editor’s Note: For nearly 70 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine, Numismatic News’ venerable sister publication, have tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.
Transportation tokens are an area of exonumia that often requires the collector to engage in additional, enjoyable research. For his September 1963 “The Bus Stop” column in Coins magazine, John M. Coffee, Jr. (co-author of The Atwood-Coffee Catalogue of United States and Canadian Transportation Tokens) highlighted the necessity to do some digging to learn the true purpose of a given token and where it fits in your collection.
“One of the most interesting transportation tokens listed in the Atwood Catalogue was a large dollar-sized aluminum piece inscribed ‘John E. Sloat the Dirt Man— Real Estate on Easy Terms, Gettysburg, So. Dak.’ on the obverse,” Coffee wrote in “Railroad Tokens for Real Estate Promotion,” and “‘ Good for Railroad Fare in Payment of Land Bought of John E. Sloat Gettysburg, So. Dak.’ on the reverse.
“For many years we did not understand the exact nature of this token, but because it said ‘good for railroad fare’ it was assumed that the token was as good as its word, and hence a transportation token.
“The token first came to the attention of collectors about twenty years ago when Roland C. Atwood, the originator of the Atwood Catalogue, was travelling in South Dakota. He was always on the watch for transportation tokens, and one day in a small town he happened upon a group of men who were playing poker, using some rather unusual poker chips. The chips turned out to be the John E. Sloat tokens. Atwood secured them all for collectors, but never did learn exactly to what use they had originally been put.
“So the token had an honored place in our catalogue, being listed as S.D. 380 A. Then, some two years ago, I located another variety of the Sloat token, similar to S.D. 380 A but without the words “THE DIRT MAN” on the obverse, and along with the token I obtained some correspondence of Mr. Sloat, written in 1910.
“Over a letterhead proclaiming that John E. Sloat specialized in ‘Blue Blanket Valley and Gas Belt Lands,’ with ‘Excursions Every First and Third Tuesday,’ Mr. Sloat wrote a prospective agent in Iowa: ‘Prospects never looked better for a good and successful season than they are now…. I have the land and you have the buyers; that is all that is necessary to do a good business in this line.’
“From the information in this letter and other data I have obtained it now appears certain that these tokens have only a tenuous connection with transportation. They were simply advertising gimmicks, come-ons, to lure prospective purchasers of lands to visit the place. The ‘Good For Railroad Fare in Payment of Land’ simply meant that, if you made the trip to South Dakota from say, Iowa, your train fare would be … refunded if you bought some land. If you didn’t, then the token or no token, there was no refund of railroad fare.”
It turns out, as Coffee notes later in his column for Coins, Sloat wasn’t the only “dirt man” to employ this gimmick. Sloat does appear to be one of the more energetic dealers in land, cattle and even bison during his day. In the 1900 U.S. census, he is listed as a “farmer.” By 1910 he was recorded there as a “real estate agent,” and in the 1915 South Dakota census, he
is noted as a “cattle buyer.”
In 1902 Sloat was listed in the July 17 issue of the Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa, as a regular shipper of cattle. In the March 16, 1909, issue of The Chicago Live Stock World appears: “Large cattle ranches are becoming scarce in the West, and John E. Sloat, of Gettysburg, S.D., offers an opportunity in this line that should be investigated by every man who has a desire to own a big productive ranch property.”
This was likely referring to the contents of Sloat’s March 22, 1909, advertisement in the same publication. Sloat advertised:
“The Last Opportunity to Obtain a Large Cattle Ranch East of the Missouri River. 10,000 ACRES of deeded land; 12,000 ACRES of leased land; 6 miles of Missouri river front; 600 acres of timber land; 35 miles of fence; 2 sets of good ranch buildings; improvements of over $20,000; located in Potter county; it is well watered and has a creek running through the center of it; over 6,000 acres of this ranch is of the very finest of farm land; 300 acres under cultivation; 700 head of CATTLE and 110 head of HORSES on the ranch at present and all necessary machinery for running the ranch. Possession can be given at once. For further information and prices address JOHN E. SLOAT, GETTYSBURG, SOUTH DAKOTA.”
In 1914, Sloat could have added to his census listing, “moving pictures bison purveyor.”
That year, newspapers across the country reported on his latest scheme – to hold an old-fashioned and gruesomely realistic bison hunt. Datelined April 22, 1914, to Pierre, S.D., The Daily Gate City, Keokuk, Iowa, reported under: “‘Last Buffalo Hunt’ Planned”:
“Arrangements are being made here today for staging the last great buffalo hunt of the west and in order that posterity may not forget how the original American chased big game, moving pictures will be taken of the hunt. John E. Sloat, Gettysburg, S.D., who has an option on the famous Scotty Phillips herd of 467 buffalo, is negotiating with a moving picture company to turn over part of the herd and with the aid of 200 Sioux Indians stage a great buffalo hunt, authentic in every detail. It is probable that the event will be produced on the ranges west of here.”
In cataloging Sloat’s tokens, Coffee decided that they were a very interesting group and because of their mention of “Good For Railroad Fare,” they deserved mention as second cousins of transportation tokens. “For this reason, they will continue to be listed in the forthcoming revised edition of Atwood’s Catalogue, but under a new heading as ‘Miscellaneous Tokens.’
“There still remains some mystery about them. Why are most of them 38mm aluminum (dollar-sized) tokens? And why were they issued all about the same time, roughly 1907 and 1914? Perhaps some good salesman for a token manufacturer sold the idea to real estate dealers, and the coming of World War I took the attention of people away from this gimmick and it never caught on again.
“In any event, several more tokens in this category have come to light in the past year. One from Roscoe, S.D.: ‘Lightner-McCafferty Land Co. Real Estate on Easy Terms Roscoe, S.D.’ on obverse, and ‘Good for Railroad Fare in Payment of Land Bought of Lightner McCafferty Land Co. Roscoe, S.D.’ on reverse.
“One from: De Smet, S.D.: ‘P.J. Mausbach, the German Land Man De Smet (Kingsbury), S.D. Corn is King Here’ on obverse, and ‘Good for Railroad Fare in Payment of Land, if Bought of P.J. Mausbach De Smet, S.D.’ on reverse.
“One from Fargo, N.D.: ‘North Dakota & Minnesota Farmlands and Fargo Property J.B. Folsom 30 Years at the Old Stand 1882’ on obverse, and ‘Good for $25 Dollars or Railroad Fare if You Buy Land of J.B. Folsom 618 Front St. Fargo, N.D., Box 13 1912’ on reverse.”
Following his listing of other tokens of this ilk, Coffee concluded: “Artifacts of another age, when things were different, these interesting tokens bespeak the old American belief that ownership of land is the most basic wealth and security.”
Throw in a “moving pictures” bison hunt that as far as I could tell never took place, and you have additional depth to the story of South Dakota’s cattle-buying, land-hawking and aluminum token-issuing “Dirt Man.”