Simpson came out from Boston, and organized the Bay State Land & Cattle Company in 1882, and he was its president. He managed to get Evans interested, and Evans held the startegic real estate of the J. H. D. Simpson bought it and then he undertook to make terms with O. W. Mead, the senior and remaining principal stockholder of the old concern. Mead refused to capitulate. He moved the cattle farther up Horse creek, and put the Four K brand upon the range. In 1886 he sold this ranch and went to Nevada.

"Four-K Ed" was one of the employees of Mead that stayed with him, and finally went to the newer west with him. He was a wiry little Irishman, full of mother wit, and with a fondness for strong drink, which one can hardly believe of an Irishman.

Count John A. Creighton, John Snodgrass, and John A. McShane had in the meantime become the owners of the Circle Arrow at Kimball. The Bay State negotiated with them, and acquired this valuable ranch, along with other Creighton possessions. The sum paid was said to be around seven hundred thousand dollars. John Snodgrass was made general manager.

The Bay State Company bought the Circle Arrow in the Spring of 1883, and Creighton sold to the Company in the autumn of the same year his entire ranch possessions, including Pumpkin creek, Horse creek, and Laramie Plains ranches.

In 1883, the Bay State Company branded all their cattle with the "Circle Block," which correctly speaking is only a "quarter circleblock," and that remained their standard brand until they drove their herds into the northwest, four or five years later.