Byron E. Wollen was born in 1898, in Ceresco Nebraska,the eldest of 6 children. He was raised on his parents farm. As a young man he worked on the family farm. They used a lot of work mules. He didn't like them very well, much preferring horses. That is where his love of...
Gary Walker was raised in a family of life long ranchers. His grandfather came west by covered wagon to homestead near the Badlands of South Dakota. They drought out and trailed their cows and large horse herd to Nebraska where they settled. Gary grew up on a small cattle...
Hugh and Mary Vass began their ranching life together on August 5, 1949. They lived at the mouth of Prospect on Cottonwood Creek until 1959 when they moved to their ranch on Owl Creek 34 miles west of Thermopolis where they raised three children. They lived there together...
Raymond Everett Smith was born November 18, 1932 in Newcastle, Weston County, Wyoming. His parents were Everett Minus George Smith and Ida Alice (Sedgwick) Smith. He went home to the place his parents had leased, south of the Cheyenne River, in northern Niobrara County....
William Elmer Sherman was born May 15,1894 in Alice, Texas to E. E. and Winifred Kate Sherman. Billie’s father died, and his mother with Billie and his sister, Hazel, moved to Ft. Washakie by 1898 where Winnie Sherman was the matron at the Indian school. Billie Sherman was...
Dick Shaw was born in O’Neill, Nebraska, Sunday February 9, 1936. He was the second son born to Harold and Helen Shaw. The full name given to him was Warren Richard, but his Aunt Florence nicknamed him “Dickey Bird” as a young child. It stuck with him and was eventually...
Tom Schutte’s journey to becoming a Wyoming ranch hand & cowboy began on April 3, 1942 in Dixon County, Nebraska. Tom was born to Gus & Rachel Schutte and had 3 older siblings. The Schutte family owned a farm on the eastern side of the Cornhusker state where they...
Norman Sanford moved to Thermopolis, Wyoming with his parents Tom and Kate Sanford when Norman was 4 years old. Norman lived and ranched in Thermopolis until his death in September 9, 2003. Norman worked for his father Tom on the ranch from the time he was 14 years old....
Dale Robbins has been a cowboy in Northern Albany County his entire life. He was born in 1938 to Jim and Yvonne Robbins. He was raised on the ranch with his younger brother, Dwight. He attended school at the ranch, in Rock River and Laramie. He was active in FFA and was...
James C. Ramsay was born February 10, 1894 in Rock Springs, the son of Robert Ramsay and Elizabeth “Bessie” Anthony Ramsay, and attended school in Rock Springs. Jim had the following siblings: John “Jack”, Elizabeth, Mary, Samuel, Alma, Robert Jr., Agnes, Anthony “Tony,”...
Georgia Romios Platt was a true Wyoming cowgirl. She could rope, ride, fix fence, hunt, operate haying equipment, and then still cook a hearty meal for the crew. She was born November 21,1928 to Frank and Alice Romios, on the ranch outside of Encampment, Wyoming. She grew...
Carleton Perry, Dec. 1, 1931 to March 6, 2017, parents Russell and Hester Perry, the oldest of 6 children, born in Ware, MA As a thirteen-year-old boy, Carleton left his home and family in MA and moved to Montana to pursue his dream of becoming a cowboy. He worked for a...
Eugene Paul Pearson Sr. "Gene" was born August 17, 1946 in Kemmerer, Wyoming to Tony and Kathryn Pearson. Gene has been a true cowboy from the day he was born. For the first six years of his life, he lived on the Phillip's place, also known as the Gransden place in Daniel,...
Paul Hamilton Miller (Blinky) was born in Sageeyah, Indian Territory, (now Claremore, OK) on July 14, 1897. He was the tenth of eleven children born to Massie and Mary Jane Orr Miller. Paul lost his mother in childbirth at the tender age of four. Paul's father, Massie,...
Gerald was born in Deadwood, S.D. He grew up on his parents’ ranch there, and still owns the home place. He attended school at the Buckhorn school , Dupree, S.D and St. Onge, S.D, He graduated from Spearfish High School. He married Jacquie Olsen in 1963 and they have five...
“Peter McCulloch, riding point on the herd of 2000 Oregon cattle, topped the cedar ridge and looked westward into the upper reaches of the Big Horn Basin. He had seen a lot of Wyoming Territory since leaving Fort Bridger but this was the most spectacular and beautiful of...
Earl James Marsh was born along with his twin Edith (Edith Cinderella Marsh Trotter) on September 27, 1901 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They were the youngest of the seven children born to pioneer Wyoming ranchers France and Amanda Yoder Marsh. They were the first born in a...
Jeffery Nathan Lupher (Nate) was born on July 4th, 1960 onto the Lupher Ranch, in Uinta County. Nate was born to James Wesley Lupher and Myrna (Behunin) Lupher. As a child Nate never wanted anything but to be a cowboy. He ate, slept, breathed, and dreamed of it. The drive...
Jerry Lanchbury was born in Park County at the Powell hospital in Wyoming November 9, 1930. He spent the first 5 years of his life out on the Eagles Nest Stage stop which his Grandparents Thomas and Emma Lanchbury had started in the later 1800s. There he was influenced by...
Bruce Laird's attitude toward a cowboy's life is simple. He wants to learn, “What makes this cow tick?” “What approach can I use so this horse knows we can do our job together and enjoy it?” Bruce always surveys the situation to determine cause and effect. He can see ahead...
Dan Kirkbride was born November 11, 1898 at Cattail Ranch which was part of the Indian Hill community in north central Laramie County, Wyoming to Alex and Mary Kirkbride. He was the youngest of seven children. In March of 1919, he married 16 year old Peggy Harding who he...
Archie Johnson was born in 1944 to Frank and Elizabeth Johnson. He was the only boy born in his generation on the Broken Box Ranch. He has spent his entire life on the family ranch outside of LaGrange Wyoming in Goshen county, as his father did before him. Archie is a...
Lora Mae Reynolds Johnson was born in Gillette, Wyoming August 8, 1951, the youngest of 5 children born to Ellis and Jean Reynolds. She started riding at a very young age-as some of the elders say "she could ride before she could walk." She was always a horseback even if...
Roy Jarrard will be the first to tell you that he never wanted to ever do anything other than be a cowboy. He was devoted his entire life to his ranch and his life stock with his family He does not have any shortage of stories from the countless years and miles he has...
Rulan Oliver Jacobson was born November 27, 1918 to Oliver and Lydia Jacobson. Rulan was one of the eight children born at home on the Jacobson ranch that sat on Elk Creek in Idaho (no under Palisades Reservoir. In his young years his father taught him how to ride, rope,...
ALL IN A DAYS WORK This is the sentence that Bud Huseman used at the end of a telling of an adventure or misadventure. Albert William Huseman was his given name, but little Buddy soon was shortened to Bud. Born in Ogden Utah in 1908 to the parents of german/dutch...
Glenn E. Hanson was born in Newcastle, Wyoming on July 30, 1917, the youngest of three children born to Henrick and Roxie (Freel) Hanson. He was born in the “preacher’s house” near his grandparents’ home on the eastern edge of town. He spent the rest of his life on the...
William “Bill” Samuel Hancock was born on January 14, 1929. He was the son of Samuel and Irma Hancock. He lived in the Red Canyon area of Fremont County where he started working on surrounding ranches when he was ten. He was well known to be a good hand with a horse and...
Joseph Brutus Graham was born July 24, 1924 to George and Iola (Sloan) Graham in Custer, Montana. Joe was the middle child in their family of seven kids. In 1940, at the age of 16, his journey began from Parkman, Wyoming to Crook County, Wyoming with his family looking to...
With courage and determination Bill Frank, Sr. moved his family to Fremont County in January of 1948, a move that would mark a milestone in Bill’s lifelong goal of owning a ranch in the shadow of the Wind River Mountains. That first morning in their new surroundings on...
Jack Finnerty was born in Cheyenne in 1939. His father bought the M Bar Ranch in 1945 and Jack at the age of six became a main cowhand. He says he became a cowboy because he was too young to build fence. Jack attended high school at Saint Mary's in Cheyenne and attended...
A.W. Dickinson III, known as Wright or Dick, was born April 30, 1931, in Rock Springs, Wyoming to A.W. Dickinson Jr. and Margaret Sparks Dickinson. He went home to the ranch south of Rock Springs that had been established by his maternal grandfather, Charles L. Sparks, in...
Dick Curtis was born in Meeteetse Wyoming on July 21, 1929 to C.W. (Chuck) and Edith Curtis. Dick was a third generation Wyoming rancher, his grandfather Alfred came to Wyoming in the 1880’s and settled into ranching in Big Horn County, with the exception of six years...
Joe Coykendall was born in Rand, Colorado on November 12, 1917. He grew up on a small ranch owned by his parents, Frank and Edna Coykendall. The family lost the ranch in the Great Depression. Eventually, around 1935, Frank Coykendall became ranch manager of the Joe Miller...
William E. Carr was born September 5, 1895 in South Pass, Wyoming to William Joseph Carr and Ella Potter Carr. His siblings were Frank (1894-1963), Fred (1896-1964), Guy (1898-1992), Eugene Charles (1900-1947), Ella "Mickey" Moore (1901-1979), Lillian Brown (1903- ), Lida...
Thomas John Borgialli was the first of six children born to Charley and Ruth (Van Sickle) Borgialli. He came into this world November 18, 1931 in the Orville Stevens house in Newcastle, Wyoming. The “Cowboy” way was installed early in Tom’s life, as he worked alongside his...
Harry Aaron Borgialli was born January 8, 1937 in Newcastle, Wyoming to John C. “Charley” and Naomi “Ruth” (Van Sickel) Borgialli. He grew up on the family ranch with his three brothers and two sisters. Harry lived on the family ranch 15 miles southwest of Newcastle his...
Wells was raised on his parents ranch/farm in Rigby, Idaho. At a young age, he was very good at handling cattle and horses. One way his family made a living was freighting grain with teams and wagons from the dry farms located on Idaho’s Antelope Flats to market. Wells at...
Robert "Bob" Beard was born March 29, 1939 in Wichita, Kansas to Earl and Maysel Thompson Beard. He had three brothers. Because it was the end of the Depression, Bob's family moved all over the west, so his father could find work. They lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, California...
The final chapter in the life of one of Carbon County's old-time residents closed Oct 31,1949, with the death of Jesse William Barkhurst. He was born December 21,1877, in Mt. Ayer, Iowa, the eldest child of Mr. and Mrs G.H. Barkhurst. In 1880, the family moved west to...
Arthur F. “Art” Bales was many things in his life of 88 years; however, being a rancher was among his favorite things. Arthur loved his wife, his children, and his many grandchildren, but among those favorite things was his love for ranching and for his animals. Art was...