Jesse York was a cowboy at heart. The morning he was born in Shawnee, Wyoming, his dad blew the whistle on the steam engine long and loud to alert family and friends that a son had arrived. Jesse’s older sister was already a homesteader. Brother Robert came along later to...
Chuck was born and raised in the ranching life. Ranches from north of Jay Em, to Horse Creek, to the Red Canyon at Lander, the Bell Ranch at Toltec and the Biggerstaff and Wagonhammer north of Rozet. The final ranch was the RC Johnson place northeast of Torrington, WY. All...
Wales Denton Wenburg was born April 14, 1915 to Otto and Anna Wenburg in the small town of Belgrade, Nebraska. As a young man he worked the family farm until the passing of his father and the drought forced the family to sell the farm. Wales moved west to Laramie in 1938...
Norman was born October 23, 1924 in Hot Springs County at a midwife home on Owl Creek to Jack and Viola Wallingford. At a young age he started cowboying for Bill and Sadie Nicholson on Copper Mountain. Attending school in Thermopolis, he was a charter member of the...
Elbert Walker and his wife, Hazel Carr Walker, both cowboyed for the Green River Cattle Association, Miller Land and Livestock and Jorgensen Ranch on the Green River Drift for nearly 30 years. They grew up in ranching families cowboying and then when they were married they...
Raymond John Waliser was born in Saratoga October 17, 1942 to Frank and Thelma (Swanson) Waliser. He was the fourth generation to be raised on the family ranch on South Spring Creek. Growing up Ray loved all aspects of ranching and especially being horseback where he and...
A cowgirl, role model, a mentor, and a genuine leader, Mary A. “Mickey” Thoman is a Wyoming cowgirl straight out of Western folklore. While life has not always been easy, agriculture and ranching are in her blood and she has faced tough elements produced by both Mother...
Ronald (Ron) H. Stoltenberg, the youngest of ten children, was born in 1937 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He spent his childhood in Swan Valley, Idaho, where he learned the ropes of his family’s agricultural lifestyle, which included raising shorthorn cattle. As a young man, Ron...
Harold E. “Smitty” Smith was born March 9, 1918 in Robinson, IL. As a young man, he found himself in Wyoming growing up in the oil patches around Lance Creek and later in the Bear Lodge Mountains. His career as a cowboy started at a young age, finding an education gained...
Sidney Ross Skiver, “Sid” as he was known to everyone, was born on October 23, 1906 at Elk Mountain, Wyoming to Eugene Skiver and Jennie Widowfield Skiver. Sid’s father had about 400 head of mother cows and around 400 head of draft horses which were used in a construction...
Stewart Sides, Jr., “Sturdy”, was born on a ranch near the community of Kirtley, Wyoming, on September 17, 1912 to Stewart and Ruby Sides. His father, Stewart Sides, Sr. owned many ranches in what now present-day Niobrara County is; he also utilized the open range with...
Frank Eugene Shepperson was born April 7, 1942 and spent his childhood and early years in the Midwest, Wyoming area. He grew up helping his folks, Frank and Billie Jean, run cattle on the open range. His summers consisted of living at cow camp; which meant they lived out...
Born in Gillman, Illinois in 1882, Charles Boaz (Charlie) Shaffer was the ninth of eleven children born to Samuel A. and Sarah Jane (Horn) Shaffer. When he was still a baby, the family moved to McCook, Nebraska where his father was a tin smith by trade. When Charlie was...
Bill was born May 20, 1934 to Harold Woods & Bertha Jane (Anderson) Scott. He spent his childhood on the historic Scott Ranch in Gillette, Wyoming. His father built a 30 x 90-foot barn by hand in the 1940’s and remains an icon of the working ranch in existence today,...
Donny was born into a ranching family on March 22, 1933 in the old Ivinson Hospital in Laramie, Wyoming. His parents Murl and Bess Robbins lived and worked on their isolated ranch in Marshall, WY located in Northern Albany County. Baby Donny was welcomed into this world...
Clark was born into a ranch family and raised in the Rocky Point area in northern Campbell County. He left school in 8th grade to start working for an area rancher lambing. On his 21st birthday he married Kathleen Ann Kane. He worked on area ranches in southern Campbell...
Louis Robert Rankine was born June 6, 1949 in Worland Wyoming to John and Elaine Rankine as the power was being turned on to the Ranch on Gooseberry Creek. He went to grade school and junior high in Grass Creek Wyoming. After graduation from Thermopolis High School and...
Harry Harriman (H.H.) Price, known throughout his life as “Jim” was born in Tie Siding, Wyoming, September 20, 1883. At the age of 10, Jim moved with his family to Casper to live on the family ranch where he attended Casper Schools. After graduation from Casper High School...
Born Aug. 15, 1918 on the family sheep ranch in Crowheart, Wyoming, he was the son of George and Maud Pennoyer. He attended schools in Crowheart and Lander. As a young man he worked on the family ranch and other dude ranches in the Dubois area. One of his greatest memories...
Francis Charles Orton or better known as, “Bud” was born on January 25th, 1924 to Charles and Nellie (Ellis) Orton in Laramie, Wyoming. Bud had a determined demeanor which was apparent from the start. He fought with sickness, as an infant, and spent a good portion of his...
Charles Powers Noble was born March 26, 1879 in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Robert Powers and Mary F. Long Powers. He was adopted by Zachariah Thomas Noble (1848-1921) and Sarah Ellen Webster Noble (1854-1918), with whom he came to Big Piney in 1887, residing here since...
Eldon C. “Pete” McKee was born to Clyde and Lottie Miller McKee on July 10, 1925 in Pottersville, Missouri. He was the second of what would become nine children. Missouri soon became crowded and Clyde and his family moved to the Grover, Colorado area in 1929. It was at...
Morris McCarty was born in June of 1920 in Terry, Montana. He attended school there until the 9th grade when he quit school to work. He worked breaking horses and building ditches with a Fresno and a team of four horses. During the war he was in the CCC’s and did a lot of...
Frank Lee Martinez was born in Ocate, New Mexico to Lee and Ester Martinez on October 15, 1935. Frank was the oldest of six children and his cowboy days started at a young age when he was 9 years old. He would saddle the horses and head out to the mountains to take care...
The dashingly handsome “Mexican” John Marroquin was born in Texas, just across the border from old Mexico. He’d come to Wyoming with a trail herd in 1877 and worked for future Wyoming governor John Kendrick on the famed OW (located north of Lusk at the time) before...
Lonnie M. Mantle was born in a homesteader cabin in Bear Valley about 20 miles west of Elk Springs, CO July 1, 1935 to Charley and Evelyn Mantle. While Lonnie has long considered himself a Wyomingite, his family ranched on the Yampa River in the remote Hell’s Canyon of...
Carl Johnson was born on a horse farm outside of Athens, Ohio August 29, 1884. While there he drove wagons, buggies, or whatever for A.L. Johnson Transfer and Storage. In 1900, at the age of 16 he came to Wyoming. The first few years in Wyoming he ranched north of the town...
Richard Duane Jarrard was raised in Kaycee, Wyoming at the family ranch. The 3rd oldest of 9 children, his early education was at Sussex, Kaycee and Midwest. He regularly walked or rode colts to and from school from an early age. Dick and his brothers started and trained...
Joe Hickey was born on a ranch in Lonetree Wyoming in 1905. He is the son of Eugene Hickey who came to Wyoming when he was 16 years old then ranched there the rest of his life. His mother, Betty Hereford Hickey, was born in Burnt Fork, Wyoming. She was the fourth of...
Mike Henry was the founder of the “88 Ranch” one of the most ambitious Wyoming ranching operations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mike was a soldier during the Civil War, a pioneer rancher, a bank president, and a promoter of oil and coal development. He was an...
Harold was born at his parents homestead south of Robertson. His mother passed away when he was 4 years old and while his dad wanted to keep his sons with him, he was frequently away from home to work. One day he saddled up his horse, stuck each boy in a pannier and headed...
Earl Hardeman was born January 4, 1925 to Gerrit and LaMar Crandall Hardeman in Kelly, Wyoming. Gerrit immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands in 1910 and homesteaded in Kelly, Wyoming in 1919. Earl Hardeman grew up on the ranch with his siblings Marie...
Curtis Raymond “Ray” Hammond was born to Curtis and Pauline (Dockery) Hammond on July 23, 1942 in Thermopolis. Brought up in the saddle, he is a true cowboy and ranch hand deeply rooted to Wyoming. He grew up on various ranches, learning the skills of the trade that made...
Gene was born in Spearfish, S.D. January 19, 1942. He is the oldest son of Don and Gladys (Storm) Griffis and was raised on his parents ranch in the Bearlodge Mountains in Northeast Crook County, Wyoming. Gene was put on a horse when he was 5 years old. He started school...
Raised on the Reverse G Cross Ranch 7 miles east of LaGrange, Wyoming, Afton Delano Green, Jr. (most know him as “Babe”) was a true Wyoming cowboy indeed. In the spring of 1883, Babe’s grandparents, Milton & Louisa loaded their covered wagon and started west. They...
John “Jack/Jackie” Fitzhugh Jr. was born June 19, 1920 at Douglas, WY, to John and Bessie (Scott) Fitzhugh Sr. Jack is a great grandson of John and Mary Fitzhugh, one of Douglas’s earliest pioneer families, who first went through WY with the gold rush of 1849. Jack went to...
Stub Farlow’s life story is best told by him, his widow Netta, and by the people in Lander who knew him well. Remember, these were times before modern transportation or communication. Stub was well known in Wyoming and some surrounding rodeo grounds in Montana, Idaho, and...
Oley Darlington was born July 17, 1897 the oldest child to David & Sarah Edna Darlington, in Cedar County Missouri. Seven siblings to follow; Mamie, Walter, Mina, Georgia, Gordon (Bill), Russell and Drusilla (Sid). The family possessions of horses, cattle, chickens,...
Charlie Cook was born in 1932 in an old farmhouse west of Sheridan, Wyoming to parents William Albert Cook and Ima Irene Frink. He got his education in Sheridan except for a couple of years at the Wolf Creek School and ultimately graduated from Sheridan High School....
Joseph Black Chrisman was born September 14, 1916, on the Chrisman place up North Piney Creek in a two-story house to Chester Fredrick “Chet” Chrisman (1882-1957) and Edna Black Chrisman (1892-1939). He had the following siblings: Bill Chrisman, Barbara McMyer, Edna Mae...
Jack Brodie was born in Lander August 29, 1925 and spent his entire life in Lander. He was the son of John and Annie Jane (Jean) Brodie, Scottish immigrants who came through Ellis Island to Lander in 1921 to raise Suffolk sheep. When Jack was a young boy, his parents...
John C. “Charley” Borgialli was born to Charley and Rena Ann (Micheal) Borgialli on their homestead in Weston County Wyoming, on July 15, 1910. Having already traveled from his native Italy to America, Charley and his bride Rena arrived in Wyoming in 1908 in a railroad...
Bernard Betz was born the oldest of 7 children to Alvin and Mary (Vannoy) Betz on July 22, 1939 in Buffalo, Wyoming. He grew up for 15 years on their ranch 11 miles south of Clearmont, Wyoming on what is now known as Thompson Creek Road. Ranching was not an easy life, nor...
Kenny Ballard is considered a Cowboy on the ranch or in the rodeo arena. He grew up on a ranch on Snyder Creek, north of Lance Creek in Converse and Niobrara counties. He went to work breaking horses for Smidt Brothers when he was 15 and worked for the Joss Ranch, Joe...
*Mary Naomi (Willard) Brooks Relationship: BB Brooks Wife Nickname: N/A Date of Birth: 6-10-1864 Date of Death: 2-6-1948 Hometown: Casper, WY County: Natrona Years of Cowboy Experience: 62 years Parents: Judge Lockhart Dickman & Olive Hester (Clark) Willard Ranch Name:...
John Lawrence Atkinson was born on February 9, 1935, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Day and Connie Atkinson. Connie had traveled to Cheyenne to stay with her father, John Ulrich, until Lawrence was born. After his birth they returned to the small cabin at Day’s 640-acre...
Buck Alameda was born March 7, 1918 and died January 3, 2003. His parents bought Pass Creek Ranch in 1922 and lived there until 1948. It was a primitive and harsh life, and everyone had to work to make a living. Buck rode a horse to the Campbell School where he completed...