Father Carl T. L. Jorgensen and son Carl Ray “Bud” Jorgensen are both inductees into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Carl T. L. Jorgensen was born in Pinedale, Wyoming, at the Jorgensen home place on October 12, 1902. He was the third son of Nels Jorgensen and Karen Lauritsen Jorgensen. He spent his whole life in the Pinedale area. His parents were immigrants from Denmark. Carl was employed in ranching all of his life near Pinedale and Big Piney, Wyoming. He also leased property and pastured cattle in several other parts of Wyoming (Riverton and Thermopolis). Growing up on the family ranch, Carl and his siblings helped more and more on the ranch. Carl would work with the livestock, irrigating and haying. At one point his dad had approximately 5,000 acres at the home ranch and around 3,500 acres of it was hay meadow. His dad was known for his draft horses and in the early days they would put up the hay with horse drawn equipment using Percheron and Belgian draft horses. Carl loved to drive the work horses and was a good teamster.
The Upper Green River Cattle Association was formed in 1916 and his dad was one of the charter members and organizers. Carl was riding for the Association soon after it formed and continued as a paid cowboy through 1931. In 1922, George and Carl Jorgensen scattered salt throughout the cattle range with horses from the Ehman place. Carl bought the Alva Thompson place on Boulder Creek in 1931 using his Hereford range cattle as collateral. He sold the Thompson place in 1944 and moved to a ranch on the New Fork River in 1941. He trailed his cattle from the Pinedale country to the railhead at Opal and Rock Springs well into the 1930s when trucking began to take over.
At one time Carl’s cattle operation, involving some 800 head of commercial cattle, was a family affair with his son and his family. They would run the cattle on the forest during the grazing season. Annually they would put up around 1,100 tons of hay. Carl also had property on the desert area (nicknamed “The Castle”) and property on the Big Piney Cutoff. Each spring the family would move the mother cows down to the property on the desert to calve out and then graze for a few months on BLM ground before they were moved up to the forest allotments. All of this area could be 100 miles long. Carl drove his cattle with horses everywhere. Even after trucks and trailers were available, he preferred to have the cattle strung out and move them horseback. Every fall the cattle would trail down from the forest – to “the drift fence” and all of the ranchers that ran their cattle on the drift would meet to work their cattle out of the herd and trail them home.
One neighbor described Carl’s cowboying as follows: “Carl was very quiet around cattle and with his horses. He was enjoyable to work with at the drift fence cutting cattle out to take home. He was slow and methodical. You knew what he was cutting out and the herd was never stirred up. His horse was always watching the cow and knew her next move. Carl had always been an excellent horseman and cowboy from the time he started riding Drift. He enjoyed driving his cows and putting a string on them as they moved from place to place. He could drive his cattle from the ranch on the Newfork to The Castle on the desert which was about 40-50 miles which would take about three days stopping at the Sommers Ranch, the farm at the forks of the river and then The Castle on the desert. The cows were always strung out and moving as they went. Carl loved working teams and fed his cattle with teams on wagons or sleds. He had a horse drawn grader he used with a large number of horses.”
Carl was a large man and enjoyed breaking horses and training them to be good rope horses and cutting horses. If a horse bucked with him, he would lean back in the saddle until they calmed down or he rode the “buck” out of them. Carl spent most of his life in the saddle working cattle and all other aspects of ranching. Kevin Campbell when talking about the old cowboys he remembered Carl Jorgensen was one of the really good cowboys.
Carol Jorgensen Kammeyer remembered “Once when riding with Dad (Bud) and Grandpa (Carl), Grandpa and I were riding the tail end of the herd on the desert in the South Desert Allotment. We did not ride there as often or have the cattle there as often because we usually had our permits in the Sand Draw Allotment. There was a large herd of wild horses in the South Desert Allotment. We had cattle strung out for at least a mile heading towards a water hole and it was where the wild horses usually watered. The herd of horses came running full speed through the center of our trail of cattle, so Grandpa made me get off my horse because I was on a young colt and he wanted to make sure it didn’t run off with me. The horses ran through our herd of cattle and circled around in about a half a mile and came back through them again. They were trying to keep the cattle away from their watering hole.
“Grandpa was on a well broke horse and once the horses were gone, we got the herd of cattle back together and kept moving them for the day. Grandpa was a very calm rider along with being very good at sorting cattle when we worked them each fall. I remember getting home after dark a lot when I was riding with him for the day. When we back rode on the desert for any cattle that had been left behind, he always wanted to push them up to the forest regardless of how many there were and never wanted to truck them anywhere. I remember when we would wrangle the horses in the morning and they would be in the corral to catch, he would rope any that we were riding for the day and he had the strength to pull them towards him because he was such a strong/stout man.”
Robin Murdock said the main thing he remembered about Carl Jorgensen was he had really good livestock. Carl paid him to break one of his horses, Riley, and Robin said he was one of the best horses he ever rode. He remembered one time they were branding out at “the Lakes” on the desert and they could hear a major commotion and the old timers knew it was a hail storm. They turned all of their horses loose and then got into Carl’s VW Bus and stayed in it when the storm came through. He said there was a ton of hail on the ground and the roads were really bad and they had a hard time getting out of there. They were thankful they had that bus to get into to keep out of the storm.
Murdock said Carl ran a lot of cattle on the desert and more than they had permits for on the forest. They would work the cattle at the cattle bridge and keep the yearlings aside and then haul them to the property they were leasing in Thermopolis. He said they never worked or rode with dogs. He remembered one time riding with Carl on the Mesa and they were trying to get the cattle going and Carl kept hollering – “Hooey cows to get them going.”
Eddie Steele’s main comment about Carl was he was a quiet rider and didn’t need many riders to move a lot of cattle. He could get a lot done with very few people. Tom Murdock remembered going to Cottonwood and helping hay with horses. They had 25 to 35 guys on the hay crew to drive the teams. Carl liked using horses for haying.
Carl married Rachel McConaghy Buckles on July 2, 1930, in Green River, Wyoming, and together they raised their three children, Carl Ray (Bud) Jorgensen, Margie Thomas and Nancy Carter. Carl’s wife Rachel passed away January 5, 1982. After the loss of his wife, he slowed down on the ranch and was not able to ride the last couple of years of his life. Carl passed away at the Retirement Center in Pinedale February 20, 1988. Carl cowboyed for 70 some years in the Green River Valley.
Carl Ray (Bud) Jorgensen was born on May 14, 1931, in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He is the oldest child and only son of Carl T.L. Jorgensen and Rachel Buckles Jorgensen. He had two younger sisters, Margie Thomas and Nancy Carter. His parents were living at a ranch in Boulder when he was born.
Bud had polio when he was two and was in a body cast. When he was in the body cast, he got the virus of scoliosis, which caused a major curvature in his spine. His dad did not want him to be wheelchair bound his whole life because of the polio, so he put him on a horse and made him keep active. Bud Jorgensen was a rider for the Upper Green River Cattle Association in 1944, 1945, and 1947-1953 taking care of the cattle on The Drift. He was working for Rex Wardell for the Drift in the fall of 1946 at The Bend. Bud was the horse wrangler for the Association in 1949. In the fall at the Drift Fence, when Bud wasn’t in school, he would always ride to gather the cattle in the fall. Bud was also quiet in the herd and could bring out a pair or yearling without much effort.
Jorgensens moved to the family ranch on Ehman Lane in 1943. Bud went to school in Boulder, Cora, and graduated from Pinedale High School when he was 16. He and his sister Margie used to ride their horses to school in Cora. He went to the University of Wyoming at Laramie for two years. He then went back to Pinedale and lived at the family ranch and worked with his dad raising cattle. Bud Jorgensen started running cattle on “The Drift” in 1967 with 222 head.
In 1960, he married Mary Caroline Brookshire and together they raised five children; Julie, Nels, twins Carl and Carol, and Scott. Julie was born when they were in Pinedale and then they moved to Thermopolis, Wyoming where they leased a large ranch. Nels, Carl and Carol were all born in Thermopolis. They returned to the family ranch in Pinedale to help his dad run the ranch. Scott was born after they moved back to Pinedale. Bud spent many hours with his kids, breaking horses. He was always on his horse when helping the kids with a bronc.
Bud walked with a pronounced limp because of his polio, but you would have never known that once he was on a horse. Bud was a kind and considerate man and was always gentle with his horses. He always liked to have a horse that was very well broke for him to get on. Once he was on the horse, he enjoyed them having a lot of spirit. There were a few times that he was bucked off, but that never stopped him, he would get right back on. Bud was very good at working and sorting cattle and had a quiet demeanor when he was doing it. He would put his horse on the cow that he was cutting and then work it out of the herd quietly.
Bud was like his dad when they were moving cattle to the desert or forest allotments and would string them out for a mile or more on the move. Together with his dad, they ran a lot of cattle and were always working and sorting them at the ranch a horseback. He also rode at the “Drift Fence” for years when the cattle would come down from their summer and fall grazing to the ranch for the winter. Bud was a social person and always enjoyed working with the other ranchers sorting the cattle and visiting with them. Each summer they would have brandings at the ranch where Bud would brand, earmark, and rope. As Bud got older and his children were able to help more at the brandings, he would rope. Bud would come flying in from the herd with a large calf on his rope for the ground crew to handle. When riding on the desert, it would get hot early in the day. Bud would have everyone get up early and be on their horses by 6 a.m. or first light. Bud always headed out to gather cattle at a fast trot or gallop to get where they were going and ride the horses down, especially if he was riding a young horse or his children were riding a colt.
His family spent many years together riding out from their property on the desert to gather their cattle and move them to their summer and fall pasture on the forest. Each day they would make sure to gather the cattle and mother up all pairs and then move them to the next watering hole for the night. When they were done riding for the day they would ride back to their property. If they got back early in the day, Bud and his children would spend time handling and breaking new colts. Bud loved spending 8-10 hours a day on horseback. Bud raised a lot of horses at the ranch and would have new colts each year to break.
Nels Jorgensen, Bud’s oldest son, said “Dad never worked cattle in the corral or on foot. We always worked cattle in the field and horseback. After we were done riding Drift, we would work cattle a lot at the ranch sorting pairs, and weaning calves and then shipping the cattle in November. In the winter we always fed the cattle with a team and sled. Dad enjoyed riding all of the time. He always talked about riding with Rex Wardell on the desert and in the upper green.” Daughter, Carol Jorgensen Kammeyer remembered “riding with Dad on the desert in the Sand Draw allotment where we had permits to run the cattle. Dad was snubbing me with a colt I was breaking, and we rode to the top of Stud Horse Butte. It was one of the highest points in that area. We were starting our annual trek and move to the forest, and we were able to see for miles where all of the cattle were spread out at. We would spread out as riders and sometimes you would not see another rider for a while because you were busy gathering your cattle and moving them into a big herd to trail them out for the day.”
Eddie Steele told Carol a story about him and Bud moving cattle from the Daniel area to the ranch on Cottonwood. He said it was just the two of them and they had quite a few head to move up there. Bud took off with a small herd to get them strung out so the rest of the herd would follow, and Eddie followed with the rest of them. Carl drove up at one point to check on them, and Bud was several miles ahead at that point with the lead bunch. He said it was snowing pretty hard, and they had to ride their horses in and leave them for the night and walk out to the clear road where the vehicle/trailer was. Eddie said Bud led them on foot to the vehicle and broke the trail and never complained about having to walk through the deep snow even though he knew it was difficult for him. He said the next day they had to walk in again and get the horses and start moving them to their destination. He said it was a total blizzard and you could not see in front of yourself. Eddie has no idea how Bud got them pointed in the right direction and kept them going the right way because of the blizzard. Bud was a quiet rider.”
Nels, Bud’s son, also commented, “I think we probably fed about eight ton of hay a day to the cattle during the winter, depending on how hard the winter was. We fed with a team and sled. Dad would harness the horses and drive the team, and then they would go to the stackyards and get the small square bales on the sled to feed the cattle. When we fed the small square bales, it would take several hours because they would have to fill up the sled twice to feed all of the hay. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Jorgensens finally switched to the big round bales which were less time consuming to spread out for the cattle/livestock.
“When there was a lot of snow, it would require four horses to pull the sled. We raised a lot of work horses over the years and there was always two teamed up together, so they would always be used together and worked well together. Dad loved working with the teams and breaking them into pulling the sled. It didn’t matter what the weather was or if it was a holiday the cows still had to be fed. Dad and Grandpa always talked about how they put up hay with horses in the early days and had about 25 teams of horses to put up all of the hay for the ranches that my Great Grandfather Nels owned, which was the Murdock Ranch (Stan and Mad); Briggs, Kanski and the ranch that we grew up on.
“Growing up we had approximately seven to eight brood mares and two studs on the ranch and would breed them every year. We would sell a few of the horses, but mainly kept them and broke the colts to use on the ranch. Each of us always had two or three in our (string) that we would use for the season. In the fall, we would always use a well broke horse for gathering cattle on the drift and working cattle, you always wanted a well broke cutting horse. When we pushed the cows on the desert and then to the forest, we would ride the colts because we would ride for at least 5 or 6 hours each day and you could ride them down. Dad really enjoyed working with horses. They never allowed four wheelers or motorcycles on the ranch as they did not want them around the livestock.
“We always moved our cattle to the desert in the spring before the cows would calve out. That was a three-day trek, we would move the cattle from the ranch to the Sommers ranch the first day which was approximately 10 to 12 miles. The second day was the longest, and we would move the cattle from the Sommers ranch to the property on the Mesa that we owned by the Big Piney Cutoff and cattle bridge. There we would let them rest for a couple of days (I believe that trek was around 15 miles) and then we would move them out to ‘The Castle’ where we had 640 acres the last day which was at least 15 miles or so. They were long days horseback and the cattle would be spread out for a mile or two and sometimes the snow on the mesa was really deep so they would have to break the trail a couple of days before with a tractor. After we got out of school in late May, we would go out to the property on the desert and camp out for a week or so and that is when we branded the cattle. Each day we would ride out to a different area and gather the cattle and then brand for several hours. Dad and Grandpa would rope, brand and earmark the cattle. As we kids got older and could take on more of the groundwork they mainly roped at the brandings.”
Carol remembered, “Dad loved to explore and show us different places on horseback. When we were done moving cattle for the day when we were riding in the upper Green River area, Dad would take us on a trail ride to show us different places. One time we were riding on Pinion Ridge. Dad took Nels, Carl, and I on a trail ride. He took off on a fast trot leading us through a forested area and then we came out into a large meadow and came across at least 300 head of elk. Dad took us trail riding a lot in the Gyp Creek, South Gyp, and Jim creek areas. Dad was a quiet rider and we never used dogs or made a lot of noise moving the cattle. He had a quiet demeanor about him while working with the animals. One year Dad decided to take all five of us kids on a pack trip. We went for five days and four nights. Scott was four and Julie had to lead his horse. We had two pack horses. We slept on the ground with a tarp over us. We heard elk bugling at night. We cooked our meals in a cast iron skillet over the camp fire and would hobble the horses at night. Dad was riding his black horse called Rabbit, and Rabbit jumped about a mile from camp one night with the hobbles on. Because of the polio he had when he was young, he felt most comfortable on horseback and enjoyed doing as much as possible riding horses.”
Carol also remembered, “As far as range management, I just remember riding with Dad on the desert and he would show us the feed and salt sage that the cattle liked and discuss about having to manage the feed and use different allotments every few years to rest the feed for a year. We mainly ran our cattle on the Sand Draw allotment, but every few years we would run them on the South Desert allotments to rest and allow a year of growth in the other areas.”
Susan Pape Riggs remembers the following about riding with Bud on the desert: “Bud was a polio victim. I honestly don’t remember him getting on horses and he rode tall ones. I think he kinda hid behind the horse trailer. Regardless, he was always horseback out cowboying. You never saw a dog there or heard much cowboy whooping. It was just plain old pushing the heavies. I do remember Bud as we got further south and were on a lunch break getting down literally on the ground to look at the vegetation. It was my first introduction to salt sage’s new growth and how the cows loved it! The trick was getting the cattle moving to get into their pasture. Bud was kind, a beautiful rider, and quiet.”
Rex Card rode with Jorgensens a couple of summers. He remembered “Bud was quiet and kind to horses. We would ride for miles on the desert and spread out to gather all of the cattle together.” Robin Murdock said he was amazed at what Bud could do. They would wrangle the horses. Bud would always walk in the corral, use a 40-foot rawhide rope, and rope his horse for the day. He was surprised at how well he did with everything because of the polio and being crippled. Robin and I talked about how riding on the desert there was a lot of country to ride on and you would ride up to the top of high points to see where the cattle were and then spread out to gather them up and move them together. Each rider had their own area to cover.”
Bud lived at the family ranch near Cora until 1992 when it was sold. He worked for the new owner for about a year helping them with their cattle operation until they were familiar with all of the grazing areas and allotments that went with the ranch. Bud moved to Arizona for five years and then to central Oregon to be near family in 1999. Bud cowboyed in Wyoming for nearly 55 years and rode a horse until around 2007 when the last horse from the ranch was sold. Bud has never met a stranger and will visit with anyone who will listen to him tell stories about his life growing up in Wyoming and running the ranch. Carl “Bud” Jorgensen passed away on December 23, 2019, in Prineville, Oregon.