Eudjere Hickey was born December 17, 1892, in Lonetree, and lived the life of a true working cowboy from boyhood through his later years. He grew up on the ranch at Lonetree on Henry’s Fork during the open-range era, when a good hand depended on a good horse, a steady seat, and long days in the saddle.
As a young man—well before adulthood—he began riding and breaking horses and was trusted in his teenage years to herd cattle both day and night for weeks at a time. In those years, cattle were held and guarded on the range until they were brought in for winter, and Eudjere learned early what it meant to be responsible for livestock, weather, distance, and time—often alone, horseback, and far from town. Those early experiences formed the foundation of a lifetime spent doing cowboy work the way it was meant to be done in the open, in every season, and with horses as the center of the job.
In 1914, Eudjere married Elizabeth “Betty” Hereford Hickey and moved to Sublette County, working around Big Piney, on the Jensen and Mickelson ranches. He earned a reputation as an exceptionally hard worker and a horseback man—so much so that those who knew him said that wherever he went, he kept his horse (or even a team) on a trot. He worked from daylight in the morning until dark at night, and he carried himself with the quiet discipline of someone who measured a day by miles traveled and work finished.
He liked a big horse with a little “onery” in him, and he had a plainspoken way of explaining why: “If you can ride them, you won’t have to walk home.” His cowboying was not rodeo or show; it was the daily, real work of ranching—handling cattle, covering country, and doing the kind of jobs that required horsemanship, judgment, and endurance day after day.
Eudjere’s cowboy education was rooted in the “wide open” range culture of southwestern Wyoming, shaped by the example of well-known local hands who set the standard for horsemanship and stock work. He grew up around and learned from respected cowboys such as George Hereford, Eugene Hickey, Jim Valdez, and Louis Wheeler—men remembered for their skill and toughness as top hands for the Carter Cattle Company when the range was still largely open. That legacy of practical know-how—good horses, long days, and doing the job right—carried straight into Eudjere’s own lifelong work as a Wyoming cowman. He learned not only how to ride and handle stock, but how to read country, manage cattle through changing seasons, and keep his word in a way that mattered to neighbors and fellow ranchers.
In 1930, Eudjere returned to Lonetree and established his own ranch, where he worked the rest of his life. His ranching remained old-school and horse-powered from start to finish. There was never a tractor on the place—putting up hay, irrigating, taking care of the meadows, and managing the operation were all done with horses and horsepower. He ran cattle in the summertime out on the desert and also in the Uinta Mountains on the national forest, riding and managing his stock across the country the way Wyoming ranchers did for generations.
Eudjere shod his own horses, did his own horse breaking, and raised the horses he needed for the work. He didn’t raise a lot of horses for show or for sale—he raised what he needed, trusted what he rode, and relied on his own hands and his own judgment. He never rodeoed and didn’t chase attention or titles; he worked cattle his whole life, and that work was his identity.
Beyond his horsemanship, Eudjere was respected for practical cattle sense—recognizing cattle at a distance, knowing what belonged where, and understanding what animals needed. He was skilled at doctoring and caring for livestock, handling the hard and necessary jobs that keep a ranch running and animals healthy. He was known not only for what he could do with horses, but for being a capable, steady ranchman who could be counted on when work needed doing and when problems needed solving.
He also had a keen sense of ranching history in southwestern Wyoming, remembering the stories of earlier days and the characters who shaped the country before him. Yet he was always known as an honest man who knew his neighbors and looked after people who needed help through hard times—living a cowboy’s code of responsibility, fairness, and plain integrity.
If asked to estimate the time Eudjere made his livelihood horseback as a working cowboy in Wyoming, it totals over 60 years, beginning in his youth on the open range and continuing through decades of ranch work until he retired in his 70s. His life’s work was Wyoming cowboy work—primarily cattle—and it was done the way working cowboys did it: day after day, horseback, covering miles, handling stock, and putting in long hours without needing recognition. He represents the kind of Wyoming cowboy whose legacy is written in work accomplished, country covered, horses ridden, and the respect earned from those who knew what it meant to make a living in the saddle.
Eudjere’s brand was the 2M, and he took great pride in it. The brand remains in the Hickey family.