Alonzo Raymond “Lunk” Jarvie was born in Rock Springs, to Thomas B. and Alice Finch Jarvie on July 14, 1931. He was the youngest of six children and the only child born in the hospital. He was named after an Uncle, Alonzo “Lonnie” Finch, who was killed in France in World War I, and another uncle, probably Edgar Finch, tagged him with the nickname “Lunk.” Lunk was raised on the banks of the Henry’s Fork in a wooden framed, two-story home that had originally been built by George Solomon to be used as a hotel on a ranch near Washam, Wyoming.
He grew up chasing cattle and wild horses from the Green River, over Goslin Mountain, down Red Creek into Brown’s Park, and back home again. He once said if he couldn’t travel by horseback, he didn’t need to be there. Although the Herefords and Finches were known for their horsemanship skills, Lunk’s passion for chasing wild horses was inherited from his dad, Tom Jarvie. His favorite horse growing up was a grey mare called Pearl. “She could fly,” Lunk said. “I could swat the back of an antelope while racing on her. But we did have some terrible wrecks.”
When Lunk was a boy he had a buckskin horse, a wild horse. The horse had been in terrible mishap as a colt because it had a hole in its ribs and its hips were dislocated, but it was the toughest horse he ever owned. Lunk could travel on a lope all day long, seven days a week on that horse. Then there was Toy, no matter how many miles you put on him in a day, when you got almost to the corral he would do his best to buck you off. And there was a sorrel mare named Lady. She wasn’t very big but she was quick and would slide to a stop like no other horse on the ranch. Lunk said, “I was on that Lady mare and we were flying when I roped the Jersey milk cow, around the neck with a grass rope. About the time Lady put on the brakes and that cow reached the end of the rope, it broke, flipped back, and knocked me off my horse. That cow went sailing in the air and flipped over backwards.”
Lunk attended school at Washam, Wyoming, through the fifth grade. After that the Green River District closed the Washam School and the Wyoming children attended school in Manila, Utah. Growing up Lunk always started school late in the fall and left early in the spring for gathering and working cattle. He grew up gathering cattle along the Green River, up over Goslin Mountain and down into Browns’ Park. After the third day of the ride, he was so stiff and sore the hired men would have to lift him into the saddle. He would be crying but had no choice but to ride all day with the men. It was such days as those he earned nick name, “Bawl and Squall.” Lunk graduated in 1949 from high school.
Alonzo “Lunk” Jarvie married Betty Lorraine Olsen on November 5, 1950, in Green River. Their children were Carol Lynn Gardiner and Raymond Craig Jarvie. Alonzo worked for Tom Jarvie on the family ranch until July 1952. Alonzo was a United States Army veteran having served from October 28, 1952, until October 2, 1954 ,when he received his honorable discharge. When “Lunk” returned home from the service in December 1954, he went to work for his in-laws, Birnell and Nora Olsen, on their ranch near McKinnon, until 1957 when the ranch was sold. In 1960, Lunk and Lorraine purchased a small ranch, the Stewart Place in McKinnon. They began their ranching career with 14 horses and 12 cows. They had no bull. For several years Lunk put his hay up with a horse drawn mover, dump ranch, and hay stacker.
In 1970, Alonzo obtained the Oscar Swett cattle and grazing permit along with a small permit of Sven Mogason on the Ashley Nation Forest in Greendale, Utah. The permit is still in operation by family members.
Alonzo Raymond “Lunk” Jarvie, 85, of McKinnon, Wyoming died following a sudden illness on Sunday, January 22, 2017, at the Ashley Regional Medical Center in Vernal, Utah.