Found this worn Large Crown chip in one of Mike Spinetti's mystery boxes at the Show. About to toss it back but decided to keep it. Deer head with "---HORN" beneath. Came home and determined the word was BUCKHORN. But there's no Large Crown chip by that name shown in any guides. To Gene Trimble for help! And Gene asked Ed Hertel . . . who came up with an address of 4th & North Streets in Taft and an order of 3000 chips, dated 1945.

Now for some research - found that Lt-Col. Charles Hudson, most decorated bombardier in Taft, was gifted the Buckhorn Ranchhouse in 1945 by appreciative townsfolk. The venture had been started by an O. T. Buck much earlier, who had a chain of sorts of Buckhorns in the west Kern County area; the most well-known still exists at Cuyama, CA. Always pays to hunt down obituaries!

http://www.ericksonandbrown.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1242677&fh_id=12088

PDF]Raid on the Buckhorn Club, 1923, ver 2 - Gilbertgia.com
www.gilbertgia.com/hist.../buckhorn_raid_1923_cri_6-15-11m.pdf
www.gilbertgia.com 2. In 1945 the Buckhorn Club In Taft in was a card room at 4th ... told by Taft historian Pete Gianopulos: “When Charlie Hudson got out of the ...

And the Taft Union High School Alumni Newsletter (c'mon, doesn't anyone here subscribe to it?) Photo of Charles Hudson and mention that the Buckhorn also served as the local Elks Club.

http://taft.k12.ca.us/alumni/pete_newsletters/archives/2002/Sept%206,%202002.html

Elks + casino chips are a winning combo! So it looks like . . . the Buckhorn chips would have been used for private games and/or at lodge meetings. Has anyone ever seen another? Any in different colors? First "new" cardroom discovery I ever made, even if it is 70 years after the fact. Thanks Mike - Gene - and Ed!!!