Gene was born in Casper, April 8, 1949. His father had always been on horseback, and it was not long before Gene was put on a horse. His parents were living in Dubois, running an outfitting business. Gene started first grade in Dubois, but his parents separated, and before...
William Edwin Amspoker was born in a sod house near Cadiz, Ohio, and in 1885, when he was 21, he went to work for cattle baron Abel Pierce trailing cattle from Texas to Montana. He then trailed longhorn cattle from Texas to Montana for Dudley Snyder. In all, Ed made three...
Violet May Coy Sedgwick never worked for wages on a ranch but helped the cook at the 4W when her husband cowboyed there for them. She grew up on her family’s ranch in Montana, and when she was a child moved to the AU7 Ranch on the Cheyenne River in Nebraska and Wyoming and...
Straitor V. Clark was born at his paternal grandparents, Fred and Olive (Thompson) Clark’s house at the foot of Inyan Kara Mountain, near Sundance. Straitor was the oldest of nine children. Straitor was only able to obtain a 4th grade education, needing to work as a ranch...
Sherry McKay Reynolds, the daughter of Dean and Betty McKay of Gillette, started working on the family homesteads claimed by her grandparents as a girl. She has spent years ranching with her husband, Butch. Among the ranches where she worked are the Wagensen, Keeline,...
Russell Eugene “Bud” Hoffner grew up working the feedlot where his family lived in Ault, Colorado. Pasture was leased east of Ault for stocker cattle to graze. Bud would ride horses to check and doctor the cattle and to move them to corrals for shipping. When he was four...
Rod Schuppan was born to Ralph and Darlene Schuppan in Cheyenne. He began his cowboying at a young age which all started with his father at the Hunter Ranch, working there as a kid and until 1981. In high school while ranching and going to school, he rodeoed participating...
Robert John “Bob” Johnson was the oldest of four boys of Robert and Victoria Johnson. He spent his youth growing up and working on the family-owned A Bar One Ranch in the Pass Creek Basin near Elk Mountain. When he was a freshman, he was enrolled in school at Elk Mountain...
Robert Britain, known to most as Bobby J., was down in the family barns riding and working horses from the time he was young. He graduated from high school and went to work at the Lost Cabin Gas Plant to help with the ranch. Even when he was tired from a long day at work,...
From the young age of five, Bob Rabou started to learn all aspects of feeding, doctoring, and caring for cattle and horses. He made his living working the land, growing crops to feed the cattle they raised, and spent many hours in the saddle. From a very young age he...
Richard “Dick” Skeen was born February 15, 1928, to John R. and Inez Skeen of Hyattville. In his youth the family lived in camps while his dad worked construction building roads through Yellowstone National Park. At the age of 11 his dad died so he, his mother, and brother...
Alex 1873 - 1951 Clay 1908 - 1976 Doug 1909 - 1993 Alex Price and his two oldest sons, Clay, and Doug were very good cowboys and did a great deal of cowboying during their lifetimes. Alex was a charter member of the Upper Green River Cattle Association and ran his cattle...
Paul and his identical twin brother Pat had a very close bond. Their father died when the boys were 14, and Paul did all he could to be with horses and cowboys when he was young. Paul enlisted in the Marines when he was 18 and went to Vietnam. When his hitch in the Marines...
Marion Aimone, whose nickname was Black Hat, was granted 160 acres of land at Heart Mountain Relocation Center. Whether this land grant came under the Homestead Act, or as a special program for returning WWII veterans, is not known. He irrigated the land using a siphon...
Billy Francis was born in Idaho but moved to Wyoming with his family in June of 1913 when his father purchased a ranch near Kelly. The family later traded for a ranch up the Gros Ventre River. Billy was inducted into the Army in 1917 and went with the Jackson contingent to...
Lee started cowboying at the age of 14 when he stayed by himself all summer at cow camp on the Kirby Creek east of Thermopolis taking care of a small herd of cows. Growing up he worked at various ranches, the Arapahoe Ranch near Thermopolis, Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse,...
LeRoy Shumway is a third generation Wyoming rancher on his father’s side and fourth generation on his mother’s side. His love has always been horses. Often, he would ride to school or in parades on horses that he broke and trained himself. He was an expert roper and...
Gary “Sonny” Lee Pulver was born to James and Minnie Pulver of the Pulver ranch on Laramie Peak. Sonny served in the Army 1967-70 and was stationed in Germany for most of his service. After his tour, Sonny returned home to Wyoming and landed outside of Casper for a ranch...
Kenneth Norris Graves grew up on the Norris family homestead ranch, 25 miles from Kaycee. His grandfather, Frank Graves, purchased the homestead in 1908 and six generations of the Graves family have been living and ranching on it for 113 years. At age eight, Ken and his...
Tim spent most of his life on horseback working cattle. While attending high school and Casper College, he discovered a love of leather work, making belts and a saddle among other leather projects. When younger, Tim broke horses. Many winter seasons found Tim feeding his...
Jim Caines started life on a small ranch west of Hyattville in the mid-1930s. He got his start in the horse business when he and Tom Mercer (at 12 or 13 years of age) were out in the badlands horseback (bareback) when they ran across a bunch of wild horses. They chased...
James Lester Leath moved to Cheyenne from Pennsylvania in 1910 to work cattle for Senator F. E. Warren and Senator Joseph M. Carey before moving to Buffalo in 1912 where he was urged to attend school. After one day he thought that was sufficient and he would be better off...
Jim Zimmerschied was the eldest of two sons born to Wilber and Edna Zimmerschied, a pioneering family in Crook County. The family was known for their raunchy horses and this is where Jim learned to cowboy. After Jim graduated from Moorcroft High School, he worked for...
Jake Johnson began ranching in Wyoming after he purchased part of the Fiddleback Ranch north of Douglas, in 1944. He had ranched in the Nebraska Sandhills for many years prior to moving to Wyoming. His love for horses began at an early age when he saw the soldiers ride by...
When Henry Huff Williams was still in his teens, he was the mail carrier between South Pass and Big Sandy. One day a blizzard swept into the area and Henry and his horse sought shelter in the Dry Sandy Stage Stop. The shelter consisted of a shed for the horse and a cabin,...
Henry Hittle was born in Prairie City, Illinois, May 25, 1898, to George A. Hittle and Amanda E. Mitchell Hittle. The next year the family moved to Wyoming to run and partner in a ranching operation on the East Fork of the Green River with George’s Uncle John Hittle. The...
Glenn Taylor was born July 28, 1934, to Verland and Joella Taylor. Shortly after his birth in Blackfoot, Idaho, his family, returned to Jackson Hole. During his childhood the family moved around so his father could find work. They spent summers at Grassy Lake near...
Born in 1942 at Kinnear, Gerald grew up on the family homestead in Fremont County. The family raised sheep, cattle, and horses. He got his first paying job at the age of 12 as the horse wrangler for Diamond G Ranch west of Dubois. He stacked thousands of bales of hay,...
Andy Van Patten was raised at the Springsteen Ranch west of Hell’s 1/2 Acre where his grandfather homesteaded in 1917. Andy learned all phases of ranching at a young age. He worked for the Brewer Ranch, Buffalo Creek Ranch, and Bill Clark on the Pine Mountain Ranch as a...
Gary was born in Gillette to Vince and Leola Thar. As soon as he could be alone on a horse, he was trailing cattle and lending a hand on the ranch. By age eight, Gary was a full-time hand on his father’s custom haying crew every summer until he went to college. After...
Frank Svalina was born on January 9, 1934, to Pete and Margaret Svalina in Moorcroft. His grandfather had homesteaded in 1912, eight miles west of Oshoto. Growing up on the ranch Frank helped his dad trail cattle 30 miles into Moorcroft to be shipped by rail to Omaha,...
Francy has spent most of her life on a ranch. She owns a small ranch near Casper. She competed in high school rodeo, winning barrels, poles, and All-Around Cowgirl honors at Wyoming’s State High School Rodeo Finals. She competed in three National High School Finals Rodeos...
Eugene Olson Bischoff was the 12th child of Annie Sophia Olson and Nephi Daniel Bischoff of Lovell. Eugene’s father passed away suddenly from a farming accident when Eugene was only 17 years old. Eugene and his four brothers took over the responsibilities of running the...
Don was born in Wheatland, to Ralph and Mae Rogers, who had a small ranch at Chugwater. He left school at the age of 15 and went to work for the Miller Ranch where he was part of the cowboy crew, working with cows in different areas. He liked to ride saddle broncs at the...
Don Robert Hamm was born to Hugh “Bob” and Evelyn Hamm on July 17, 1948, in Gillette. In 1940, Adolph Hamm, Don’s grandfather, bought the Adon Ranch that Don now owns. Adolph was a big influence in Don’s life. He served as the Wyoming Commissioner of Ag after he retired...
Crystal was born in Lyman where he became a star basketball player and known for his musical talent. One of Crystal’s first big jobs was driving a team of horses and hauling lumber from Carter where it came in by freight train in big carloads and going to the sawmills in...
Clure Smith was born on March 19, 1897, in LaBarge, the son of Frank and Minnie Smith. Clure was the third child and he grew up helping on the family homestead. At an early age he started riding for the Mumblie Peg Association on Beaver Creek and Horse Creek. Clure married...
Clarke Jackman was born September 10, 1936, in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1954 Clarke enrolled in Colorado State University where he studied animal science and was on the rodeo team. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry, Clarke moved his young...
Chris Russell (Russ) Christensen was born on the homestead his father claimed on the Cheyenne River in Niobrara County. Russ rode his horse to a country school until he attended Newcastle High School. After graduation, he served in the Army as a medic during the Korean...
Albert Pomeroy “Bud” Sommers was the third of four children born to Albert Pomeroy (Prof) Sommers and May McAlister Sommers. Bud’s true interest in life was ranching. At the age of eight, he was driving four head of horses abreast in front of a fresno, building ditches. At...
William Henry Budd was born in Salt Lake City on May 27, 1908, to Henry and Leata Budd who were both from early Big Piney pioneer families. Bill rode as a child for the Big Piney Roundup Association when it was under the direction of George Hereford. He was so little they...
Bailey Day Atkinson was born on September 5, 1900, in the log house on the Sheep Creek Ranch to Felix and Lizzie Atkinson. He was the middle of five boys. Felix built an empire in the sheep business and all the boys grew up tending sheep camps and working with the herds....
Andrew William Gifford, known to everyone as “Andy,” was born into the lifestyle of being a cowboy. When he was four, his parents bought their ranch on Crystal Creek, southeast of Lovell. Andy attended country school until the 8th grade, at which time he left home to work...