Any time someone talks about the Hoodoo Ranch in Cody, they say “George Brown” in the same sentence. George’s grandfather, George Merrill, came to Wyoming in the late 1800s and had a lasting imprint on the cattle industry in the Big Horn Basin. In 1908, when the Rocky Mountain Cattle Company, which George Merrill was general manager and part owner of, was disbanded he ended up with holdings on Owl Creek 25 miles west of Thermopolis. In 1914, Merrill’s oldest daughter, Margaret, married Matt Brown who had been an employee of Merrill. George Brown was their son. Though born in Oregon, by age eight George was living fulltime on his grandmother’s ranch in Wyoming and knew he wanted to be a cowboy. George and his cousin, Stan Pennoyer, attended a one room school near the ranch, and it was during these early school years that George decided he would become a rancher and own his own ranch. After high school he married and then bought a ranch from one of his aunts and lived on Owl Creek. George bought steers from Dale Petit who was managing the Hoodoo Ranch that was owned by H. L. Hunt from Dallas, Texas. When Petit got so ill he couldn’t manage the Hoodoo any longer, he talked Hunt into offering the job to George. In 1967, George assumed responsibility for the Hoodoo where he stayed for 43 years, raising Charolais cattle on the property that covered 265,000 acres. He rode horses into his mid-70s. He had at least 62 years in the saddle, usually in the alley pushing cattle into the chute or sorting. When cowboys complained about the horses, he had just purchased for them that they thought were too rank to ride, he would top off the horses himself, then hand the reins back. His management style was always by example.
George Brown
