John C. Budd was born in 1878 to a pioneer family which was beginning a new life on the banks of North Piney Creek, near Big Piney. His father, Daniel B. Budd had trailed a herd of cattle from Nevada to Point of Rocks, but he stopped for the winter in the area that became Big Piney and settled there permanently. John and his five siblings grew up as many pioneer children did: doing whatever possible to help the family survive. He later recalled, “I started riding horses as soon as I was weaned and by the time I was ten years old I was a real cowboy and one of the gang; at least I thought so.” During the 1880s and 1890s, the Piney country and Upper Green River Valley was just the place for a young cowboy to learn the ropes. In the winter, most of the cattle were east of the Green River and then grazed west of the river the rest of the year. In the spring, cattle had to be dispersed into different drainages. As John recalled, “Packing to go on roundup in those days didn’t take much time. We took an extra change of clothes, a few extra socks, and rolled them up in the bedroll. A cowboy had to have a pair of boots, a J.B. Stetson hat, and a pair of chaps; most of them carried a slicker rolled up back of the saddle. The bedroll consisted of wool blankets, and a heavy homemade wool quilt which was wrapped in a piece of canvas or ‘bed tarp’…” John remembers, “We would work out the beef, then move the rest of the cattle back into the mountains. Here began the serous business of night herding. Each rider would take a two or three-hour shift as night herder to keep them from straying back with the other cattle. At sunup we’d move south, part of us driving the beef herd and part of us gathering more cattle to be added to the herd.” When John was still in his 20s, he began to participate in the formation of the Big Piney Roundup Association.
John C. Budd
